Nightlife in Katowice

Last night we went out properly for the first time with the 3 other Erasmus students studying at ASP Katowice. We met the two girls, Miriam and Adriana at Rynek (market square) and were later joined by Miro. We found out that Miro is actually staying in the same dorm as us and he is only a few doors down! We were surprised we hadn't bumped into him yet.

We started by looking around the little market that has a christmassy feel to it even though Christmas was nearly 2 months ago. There was a decorative lit-up stall selling mulled wine and hot chocolate, a live band in a stand and an ice-rink. We each bought a hot chocolate and it was amazing. Served in a small plastic cup, it was real chocolate and deliciously warm. It had been snowing during the day so the temperature was around -1 degrees, we decided to go and look for somewhere to eat so we could get warm. We chose a sandwich bar that offered traditional Polish sandwiches called 'Zapiekana' (open-faced sandwich). These were huge in size, even for a small but very tasty. I chose one that had chicken, cheese and some veg topped with a garlic sauce. Myself and Christina were very grateful that our new friends could translate the Polish menu for us, they are from Slovakia but their language is quite similar to Polish so they are able to understand some of the words. Just before ordering, we were given an English menu that helped to confirm what each of the toppings were.

Zapiekana (open-faced sandwich)

After dinner, we walked around the city looking for a bar so that we could try a Polish drink called 'Soplica'. This traditional Polish drink is one of the older brands of pure and flavoured vodka. The girls said we must try it because it is so sweet. Many of the bars were very busy with little spare seating as it was Friday night but it was only about 8pm so perhaps they start drinking earlier here. We eventually found a nearly empty nightclub called Club Capitol. They sold Soplica and the girls bought each of us a shot. They told us to drink it slowly, this was good advice because it was very strong.

Soplica shots

We felt like it was a bit early to be in a club so we went after our drink to try to find another bar. It did take us a while and at one point we went into a Theatre because Adriana was interested in a jazz club she had read about. We nearly interrupted a performance, it sounded very professional. We eventually found a traditional pub and went in for beer. We noticed pants pegged onto a line hung up on one wall in the corner, this was quite amusing. When we had been looking for somewhere, we went into a Cuban bar and there was bras hanging up in a doorway. I would like to find out more about this odd tradition! A small beer cost 12 zloty (£2.56) which I suppose is similar to buying a beer in a Wetherspoon's in the UK but this was a traditional pub so it was probably cheaper. We walked back to the dorm with Miro, it started snowing on the way back. When we got there, the normal gate we use to walk around to the entrance was locked and padlocked! We panicked a little but thankfully there was another way in and we managed to get back into the dorm. 

A neon sign in the Theatre

Traditional Polish pub interior

The nightlife is pretty vibrant here, much more so than Farnham which I expected because Katowice is a city and Farnham is a small town. I'm looking forward to exploring the area more widely as there is still so much to see and explore.

Art Education Abroad

The first thing I noticed about ASP Katowice is how artistic the main building, Raciborska 50 is. The architecture is modern and geometrical in style with pristine glass windows and lots of open space around the exterior. There are two other separate buildings that make up the University as well, Raciborska 37 which is an older building with more traditional looking architecture and Koszarowa 19 which is pretty modern from the outside but not as bold as the main building. 

Raciborska 50

Christina outside Raciborska 50

Raciborska 37

I have a keen interest in Architecture, my final piece for the Self Promotion aspect of the last unit was based around the theme of 'Inspirational Architecture'. I hope to make observational drawings of the buildings I am particularly drawn to, perhaps noting down little architectural details and how they make me feel. UCA Farnham is fairly modern but I don't think the architecture is as crisp and clean as it is here. ASP Katowice is situated on a fairly quite street whereas UCA Farnham is closer to the centre of town so the area is quieter.

Considering the classes we have attended so far to gain a taster of what they offer, I have noticed that the learning environment appears to be alot more relaxed than it is at home. Admittedly, the Editorial Graphics class seemed fairly formal in some ways because the tutors appeared to be speaking quite seriously and they were stressing the importance of needing to be proficient in using InDesign as well as having good time management to complete the large projects of the second semester within the 4 month timescale. However, the class also felt relaxed because it started late, this may have been because it was the first class back of summer semester but this wouldn't happen in the UK. Also, one of the tutors actually answered his phone in the middle of a discussion between tutors and students. I thought this was quite rude but nobody else seemed surprised in the slightest.

The drawing studio we visited next was probably the most relaxed class we have been to so far. The tutors were sat in a corner having a chat and they welcomed us in with open arms. They explained the studio in an animated way and said that they believed the most important part of the class was to have fun. This put our minds at ease as we had found the Editorial Graphics class a bit full on and stressful. The tutors told us that we were welcome to work in the studio, somewhere else in the University or at home - wherever we felt most comfortable.

Like the majority of the classes offered by ASP Katowice, students only really need to come in to have consultations with tutors. These happen every week. They may be allocated a time to sit down and talk through their work and then they are allowed to stay and continue working in the studio or go. This is alot more relaxed than UCA, when we have studio days we are expected to attend for the whole day. We also don't tend to chat to tutors about our work every week so our assessment process is different.

I have also noticed how beautiful the University walls are, they are full of very skilful work by students. Alot of the work is framed which helps to make it look even more professional. We do of course have exhibitions and work exhibited on the walls at UCA Farnham but I don't always think they look as professional as they could and often there are empty spaces, especially in the studio we use for Illustration. The University as a whole is very clean considering it's a specialist arts academy.

Wall Art - they encourage students to draw and paint large scale on the concrete walls

I'm not sure if I think that this way of learning is better or not. Of course as a second-year student going into third-year in September, I know that independent work is becoming all the more important. But there is still many skills and techniques I can learn. I think that the print-making studio called 'Graphic Art Basics' and 'Graphic Art - Literature Interpretation' may be more suited for the way of learning we are used to. Tutorials tend to be given before you can use printing equipment and working from text could need more explanation and tutoring. There isn't a specific Illustration course here for second-year students so we have had to adapt and are able to choose some art and some design units. I think this will be very useful because we will be able to experience new ways of working and gain a full sense of how art is taught differently abroad.

Shopping in Poland

The shopping experience in Poland is pretty similar to shopping in the UK but it is alot cheaper. Polish Zloty, the national currency converts to 1 polish zloty = 0.21 pence (British pound). Therefore, we have been able to get alot more for our money when we have been out shopping.

The first shop we did was at a local corner shop on the first day when we arrived. We went to get the essentials such as milk and sugar for tea, pasta, water and toilet rolls as well as tomato sauce and gouda cheese for dinner, chocolate filled croissants for breakfast and some cheese & onion crisps for a snack. This cost around 16 zloty in total which is just over £3. The corner shop was very full up and the aisles were quite narrow, this did make it difficult to stay in there for too long looking and reading labels because other people wanted to navigate their way around the store as well. This is in contrast to shop layouts in the UK, they tend to be more spread out and perhaps more minimalist. There were some recogniseable brands such as Lays (Walkers crisps), Nestle, Lipton Tea and Mars to name a few but we tended to buy the cheapest brands we could find, we are students after all!

Corner shop haul

During our first visit to the large shopping mall, I bought some useful items in Tiger including a canvas bag to take my art equipment into uni, a travel mug, a pad of brown cartridge paper, some blue toned marker pens, a glue stick and a few other goodies. It was interesting to see items that aren't available in the UK Tiger stores and I think we may go back to get more art supplies and homeware. Tiger is cheap enough in the UK but it is even cheaper in Poland and I was even given a free heart shaped dish because it was Valentine's Day. 

Tiger and a Chemist shop haul

We have both noticed that shop assistants tend to speak to us in Polish first when we go to pay because they can't distinguish us from the locals. I would like to learn some basic phrases so that I am able to converse with them because some of the older Polish people can't speak English and I also don't want people to think I am being ignorant because I haven't attempted to learn the language. The customer service is good and all of the assistants have seemed friendly.

Today, we managed to find a larger supermarket. This not only gave us more of a variety of food and drink to buy, but more space to spend time looking around. We bought ingredients to make pancakes and supplies to make a few dinners and also packed lunches to take to uni. We both plan to sit down at the weekend and budget in English, then convert it to Polish Zloty to ensure we don't overspend. We will try to cook when we can but would also like to be able to eat out and try the traditional food so we are going to make sure we don't spend money unnecessarily so we have some savings for eating out and buying souvenirs. 

Supermarket haul

Food Culture

I always like to try the traditional food of a country when I am abroad and studying in one country for 4 months will allow me to try a wide variety.

My first meal in Poland was a simple pasta dish that we prepared ourselves in the dorm kitchen. We bought basic food supplies and essentials from a local corner shop. We made pasta with tomato sauce and gouda cheese. Neither of us had tried gouda cheese before and we both thought it tasted like plastic! But it was wrapped in individual slices so I wasn't too surprised by the taste. By this time, we were pretty tired so a simple hot meal was comforting. We also made tea, Christina was wise enough to bring her own travel mug but I didn't think of this so I used one of the tin mugs in the dorm kitchen. I think my meal looks almost 'wartime' themed in this photo, the chipped bowl and tin mug look outdated and slightly destructed.

Gouda cheese originates in the Netherlands and is described as a 'mild, yellow cheese made from cow's milk'.

The following day we tried traditional Polish food for the first time, cheese wheat rolls and sweet decorated doughnuts at a bakery in the city. They were both delicious and I'm sure we will visit the bakery again! I plan to do an illustration of the doughnuts in my travel sketchbook. 

There are many bakeries in Poland and every supermarket we have been to so far has had a fresh bakery section selling bread and elaborate cakes. The cheese wheat roll was more like a croissant/pastry than a sandwich, it was still warm and sort of melted in my mouth as I ate it. The doughnuts were beautifully decorated, one with chocolate icing and chocolate swirls and the other with pink icing and sugared mini marshmallows. I will research Polish food in more detail, so far I have noticed that they do like to add sugar to many of their foods because everyday items such as milk tastes sweeter.

One fact I did notice when looking through the Erasmus diary we were given at the briefing, is that there is a 'Fat Thursday' which was on 8th February. This is a day of eating traditional Polish doughnuts called paczki and Angel Wings, faworki which are special sugared crispy pastry. This is a celebration that takes place on the last Thursday before Lent. 

The next meal we had was at McDonald's, how generically British of us. This was after the first day of uni so were feeling a little worn out and both wanted to see how McDonald's in Poland differs to McDonald's back home in the UK. They had self-service screens like they do in Britain, thankfully we could change the language to English so we would know what we were actually ordering.

I chose a chicken and bacon wrap with fries and a tea, perhaps unusual to have a hot drink with fast food but I was feeling cold. The only thing is that they don't provide milk in Poland but this is fine for me because I quite like black tea anyway. It cost around £3.80 in total so is definitely cheaper than the UK which I expected anyway. The menu is also slightly different, there are more burger options and less chicken options. There is also an option for curly fries as well as the normal straight fries. There is also a McCafe for drinks and cakes. The restaurant was very clean which is typical of Polish stores.

After our first morning of classes, we decided to use our free afternoon to explore the city of Katowice in more detail. We both took our cameras, capturing sites that inspired us. To get warm, we went into a large shopping mall called Galeria Katowicka. The mall has 6 floors and a selection of shops and restaurants. We noticed some recogniseable stores including Starbuck's, Zara, H&M, Tiger (where we bought a few things) and Footlocker. 

We also had food in the mall, on the top floor was a food hall with a variety of food places including a salad bar, pizza restaurant, Chinese buffet and fast food places. We chose the Chinese buffet place called Sevi Oriental. It had a self-service design with a range of dishes such as noodles, chicken, sauce, spring rolls and vegetables. The food was quite nice and great value for money because we got a 50% student discount when we showed our university student ID. 

During our second day of classes, we decided to try the food in the university restaurant. The menu was in Polish but the lady behind the counter explained to us the different options and we both decided to go for what she called 'the chicken thing' (she was unsure of the English translation). It turned out to be chicken, bacon and veg skewers with vegetable and potato rice. This dish felt traditional Polish because of the addition of potatoes within the rice and the rice was more like couscous in taste but not in shape. It was very tasty and of a very decent price. 

Tonight, we decided to have a late pancake day. We may be away from home but we still want to follow English traditions. We got the ingredients from a larger supermarket amongst over items (I will share the Polish shopping experience in another post). Eggs and butter were easy enough to find and we already had milk. Christina used the Google translator app on her phone to take a photo of the different flour labels to try to translate them into English so we picked up what we thought was plain flour. However, when we were making the pancakes we were unsure of what we had bought, slightly convinced we may have bought self-raising flour instead. The pancakes took a long time to cook and some were cooked around the edge but still a little soft in the middle. We made a couple of pretty good pancakes in a smaller pan, we will definitely make them smaller next time because this cooked them more evenly. We also struggled with the hob because it is more like the sort you use when camping... thinking back to the tin mug you could say the kitchen equipment is a little basic! But we are getting by and it is all part of the experience after all.

Over the following weeks, I hope to try more traditional Polish food and will draw it as much as I can rather than just take photographs so that I can give more of a personal impression of the food I try.