Internationale

Tonight I took a break from my studying to check out a pub night for meeting Erasmus students (students studying abroad from other European universities) that I’d heard about from some friends at the Jagiellonian. It was low-key and fun, they had tables set up with signs designating what language was being spoken- I sat at the English table, where I met a girl from the Czech Republic who was studying film and Polish language at the Jagiellonain, and two guys and a girl from Poland who just wanted to practice their English. One of the guys asked me if college in the U.S. was “like it was in the films.” I wasn’t sure exactly what he meant- I had a feeling he was thinking of Animal House and Van Wilder style parties. I laughed and told him my school had a beautiful campus, with quirky, fascinating people and challenging but phenomenal professors...and the parties weren’t bad either (I never thought I’d say this, but sometimes I do sometimes miss the cheesy eighties music and cheap beer). The Polish girl told me that most people in Poland have an image of the U.S. as “a kind of paradise where dreams come true” (I promise I’m not exaggerating). I told her I felt extremely lucky and privileged, but that the U.S. has it’s share of problems as well- isolation and ignorance about the rest of the world being one of the most pressing, in my opinion. Definitely a question that made me conscious of toeing the line between ungratefulness and boasting, but I like discussions like this because they really force me to analyze what I really think about being an American and my place in the world.