By special guest writer: Laila Jansen
Last March we went to Jelenia Gora in Poland. I was asked to write some things about day 2 and an interview I had. So here it goes. On Wednesday we had the assignment on social photography to be done in subgroups. Each subgroup included two or more Polish students and two Dutch students. All subgroups were assigned a different town, so that the output would be a diverse set of pictures. The pictures that were made ranged from just pictures of people to a more focussed approach on social elements. Through this project I learned a lot about the Polish culture and people.
I could also make some comparisons, because we had also done social photography as an assignment in Holland. We had all day to take pictures and wander around in the town, so we also did things students normally did. And that was drinking, drinking, and drinking. You’d really be surprised about how much they drink. Though it was funny to see.
In the evening we all stayed at the campus where we would spend our last night in Jelenia Gora. A drink here, some music there, it was the best night in Poland. At the end of the week I was interviewed by a Polish journalist. She wanted to know, what kind of differences and similarities I saw between Poland and Holland. Well, there were more differences than similarities. But the most important thing is the fact that the Netherlands are a multicultural society and Poland isn’t. It was like they had never seen a coloured girl before!
I’m also coloured, so I really felt them staring at me. But for the rest, it was interesting to really see and experience the differences and similarities in the Poland's daily life.
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