23 August 2022
I did my exchange at the Warsaw School of Economics (SGH) in Warsaw, Poland. Pre-exchange, my seniors and peers would often tell me how exchange was a great experience and definitely the best part of their university lives. On the other hand, I was struggling with some of my (pre-conceived) worries and questions – would I be able to fit in there? Can I manage my money? Is Poland even safe?!
These fears were completely unfounded as firstly, Warsaw is a really safe city. I had no troubles walking home, around the city centre or taking the metro late at night. Transport is also convenient, and like much of Europe, Poland employs the use of trams that run along tracks on street level. Cost-wise, relative to Singapore, Poland is really cheap and a great place to live if you are a student. Case in point, there was a café that ran a $0.30SGD breakfast promotion on weekday mornings; you could get a whole pizza for that price! Safe to say, my friends and I frequented that place (and many others) as often as we could. The city itself is beautiful and is home to iconic architecture such as the Palace of Culture and Science, as well as natural scenery in the sprawling Lazienki Park. I think my only real struggle was that many of the Polish people have limited knowledge of English and at times it was difficult to communicate what you wanted. However, most of the younger people know English to a certain extent and often were friendly and willing to help if you asked.
Studying at SGH was markedly different experience from NUS. The classes I was enrolled into were much smaller and allowed for more interaction between professors and other classmates. Grades were also not run on a bell-curve system like back home but on absolute score, and this considerably relieved the stress of having to outperform peers in order to do well. I was most thankful to the school for running a fun-filled Orientation Week with activities like traditional Polish dumpling tasting and pub-crawls at night as it gave me the opportunity to experience Polish culture and make many new international friends.
What I enjoyed most about exchange was the chance to travel and see Europe, and take part in bucket list experiences like skydiving in Prague, and driving 10 days through beautiful Iceland. After staying in Poland for 4 months, I have grown to love the place, its people and the way of life, and was definitely reluctant to leave. Exchange has truly been the best time and biggest adventure of my life so far and one I would recommend to anyone on the fence about going!
Joshua Wong, from National University Singapore, previously on exchange at Warsaw School of Economics (Poland)
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