If you are about to go to the cinema, I suggest you chose the polish masterpiece that makes history.

Loving Vincent is the first fully painted film created by Dorota Kobiela (Polish painter) and her husband Hugh Welchman (the Oscar-winning British animator), produced by polish BreakThru Films and english Trademark Films.

It was Dorota who first came with the idea for the movie. As an art student, she was strong interest in Van Gogh. What’s more, she battled with depression all life and she was inspired by Vincent and his ability to pick himself up from similar problems. Originally, she wanted to paint the whole movie herself but after transforming it from a short into a full-featured film, it would take her more than 80 years to do so.  

It seems that foreign students like to study in Poland. For the time being, there are more than 57 thousand students from 157 countries which amount to 4,1% of all students. What’s more, 83% of foreigners come from Europe (mostly Ukraine, Belarus, Norway, Spain, and Sweden).

Alexi Lubomirski, one of the most talented and popular fashion photographers who worked with (just to name a few) Miranda Kerr, Lupita Nyongo, Anne Hathaway, Beyonce, Cate Blanchett, Demi Moore, Scarlett Johansson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Catherine Zeta-Jones, for the high-gloss magazines like Allure, GQ, Harper’s Bazaar and numerous others is a Prince. What is more, a Polish Prince. His Serene Highness Prince Alexi Lubomirski of the Polish house of Lubomirski. Like how often can you meet a prince in the real life?

1. The weather

Not so sure whether it’s a plus or a minus but let’s explain one thing. There are four seasons in Poland and yes, winter can be extremely cold, but it’s not like we’re close to the Arctic Circle and it’s freezing all year. And just because I’m from Poland, it doesn’t mean that I’m used to low temperatures. Many times when I was in Milano and it was very cold outside, Italians were so surprised: But you’re from Poland, you should be used to cold. Well, I’m not. Actually, I had an impression that they cope with 0 degrees better than me even though they were from south of Italy. In Poland, there can be -30 in the winter and +35 in the summer. So we definitely have all kinds of weather at different times of the year.

1.      Poland has 120,562 square miles (312,255 km2) of the area. That’s a bit more than the territory of Italy and a bit less than Norway or Germany, which makes the country 69^th in the world and 11^th in Europe by area.

2.      The population of Poland is estimated to be 38 438 854 people, that’s a bit more that in Canada and a bit less than in Argentina (35^th place worldwide, 9^th in the Europe). However, it is estimated that up to 21m Poles live abroad (around 1m in the UK, France, and Canada, 2m in Germany and Brasil, 10m in the US). The city with the higher percentage of Poles worldwide is Chicago (up to 2m). My German teacher from Frankfurt was always joking that The Polish language was used only in Poland and Chicago. Obviously, he was right.

Whether you’re interested in Poland or not, I believe that everyone should have some basic knowledge about one of the most important countries in Europe like e.g. the fact that it’s a member of the UE. To make it easier for you to follow my blog, I’ll start with some general information about Poland.

1.      The official name of Poland is the Republic of Poland (Rzeczpospolita Polska).

2.      The name ‘Poland’ derives from the name of the tribe Polans (Polanie, pole - field) that inhabited the western part of Poland in X or XI century. The name actually means ‘people living in open fields’ and thus Poland means simply ‘land of fields’.

3.      The first official ruler was Mieszko I (House of Piast), the first official king was elected after his death, in 992 – Bolesław I the Brave (Bolesław I Chrobry). Mieszko I is the one who adopted Christianity in 966, but the Kingdom of Poland was founded shortly after in 1025. In 1922, Gabriel Narutowicz became Poland’s first democratically elected president and in 1989 Nobel Peace Prize-winner Lech Wałęsa that was the leader of the Solidarity movement, became the first noncommunist president of Poland. 

Hello!

I’m Katarzyna and I come from Poland.

A couple of months ago I did my exchange semester in Milano and very often when I introduced myself, especially to non-European students, it looked more or less like that:

- So where do you come from?

- I’m from Poland.

- Oh, Holland? Nice, been there.

- No, it’s actually POLAND.

- Oh, right …

And I remember that funny look on their faces when they were wondering what did they know about Poland, if anything, and where exactly it is.

On the other hand, I also experienced a completely different approach. I really cannot explain how it occurred but it happened twice (my friends are eye-witnesses!). I was recognized by Italians as a Polish girl. Really! Once I was just passing in Brera district with my friend and one man shouted Cześć! (polish word for hello) to me and then, when I looked at him totally surprised, he went on to Milik! (polish football player that plays in Napoli) Polska! Pierogi! Kocham Polska! and so on. It was extremely nice but also unexpected because I didn’t even talk to him or anything. So when it happened to me for the second time in Bologna, when I was talking to a stranger asking for direction and I just asked How on earth did you know? and he replied I just looked at you and I knew. Thank you, my beloved Italians!

As a student I have many friends from different countries and no matter if they come from Germany, France, USA, Taiwan or Australia, they associate Poland with vodka, maybe also with the Pope. But there’s so much more to discover!

So, for all of those with the incredible curiosity of the world, for those who know everything about Poland and for those who don’t even know it exists, for all of you out there, here it is – the blog about my life in Poland. Enjoy!

Love,
Katarzyna