Dorota Stańczyk

My fascination with Chile began when I met via Internet Miguel, a Chilean living in the south of this amazing country. I could sit for hours at the computer and look for information about the beautiful Chilean corners. Also my bookshelf was enriched with some new positions. In the beginning this country seemed to me so exotic that it was difficult for me to imagine myself in such a remote location. Everything changed when, after two years of virtual conversations and hundreds of letters sent personally, I met Miguel. Everything began to seem easier and feasible. After some time, quite unexpectedly there appeared a pretext to leave. I got a job offer in Chile for a year. Although even this annual period was not quite sure I took it as an opportunity to learn something new. I took a chance.

At the other end of the world

I made the first steps on the Chilean soil on January 19, 2012. It was then when I was seized with fear of what would await me there. Suddenly I realized that I was thousands of kilometers away from my family home, where I had been feeling safe. New faces, new places … Another reality. Before leaving for Chile I hadn’t allowed myself to think that it could be difficult to find myself in a new country. I was too much excited about my great expedition to South America. Anyway, at the time when I was leaving I didn’t know exactly if I would stay there for good. I also bought the return ticket – I gave myself three months to see whether I could live there. This was the beginning of my emigrant adventure, which might seem short, but for me it’s a whole bunch of new experiences and challenges.

The first days in Chile were the biggest challenge that I have ever had to cope with in my entire life. It all around was different when looked at with my own eyes. Buildings, shops, people. I didn’t know what to say, how to behave, where to go. One big culture shock. What’s more, the fear magnified everything. A major issue was the communication. Previously, I hadn’t had too much contact with the Spanish language, apart from a few lessons and intensive learning at home (unfortunately English is not as popular here as in Europe). However, all the encountered obstacles motivated me to intensive work even more. My husband’s support helped and still helps me. But for it, it would have been difficult to find myself at the other end of the world. It was he who organized everything, taught me, explained. He did everything to make me feel in Chile at home. His family and friends also played a huge role. Always eager to help, smiling and understanding. It is thanks to them that I felt I belonged there. Although living in the south of the country I do not have much contact with Poles living in Chile, conversations with them via the Internet made me feel not alone. Suddenly, it turned out that I’m not the only person to have a problem to understand, find or cope with something. This is the way how I remember my first Chilean moments.

Being in Chile I try to memorize every, even the tiniest experience. Each of them is important in its own way. Any, sooner or later, will help me make the next decisions. However, there are three such events that influenced my stay in Chile the most. The first is my Chilean wedding, which is another important step in my life. The second is obtaining the resident status – a long time I could not believe it was really happening. The last event was my husband’s stay at hospital, which somehow made me more independent and taught to cope with difficult situations in a foreign country.

I keep in touch with family and Polish friends mainly via the Internet. Calls, texts, e-mails and letters. Any form of contact is great and makes me forget that I’m so many kilometers away from home. In addition, because I make a website about Chile, I have constant contact with great people not only from Poland, but also from other parts of the world. I am pleased with every e-mail from travelers and lovers of Chile. I’m happy to share my experiences and try to help, as far as I can. All this makes the contact with Poland even greater, and I even dare to say that this contact is greater than it was before.

Chilean experiences

My greatest success in Chile? Getting used to the new reality. Each activity that I had to do here on my own for the first time (to go to the store, to the doctor, to the post office), this is for me personal little success. It is the small challenges that make me proud of myself. They also convince me that my decision to leave was the right one.

Poland is and has always been my home. I have always had and will have good things to say about Poland. I did not leave because life there was difficult for me. I left because of myself and that was what I needed. The departure from Poland made me appreciate more every moment that I spent there. Even small things associated with Poland make me smile. Suddenly worse moments are forgotten. Emigration has taught me to face my greatest nightmares that had previously seemed to me insurmountable. Every day I learn something new, not only about my new world, but first and foremost about myself. And besides … I miss.

Marcin Romanek

The reason for my trip to the UK was very prosaic. Like most young people I went there to earn a living. I come from the Lubelskie region, where unemployment is quite high. Studies that I finished (environment development engineering) also did not provide me with a job. Besides, my brother lived abroad and he praised life there. So I thought: Why not to try? And I left. And all in all I spent there, with short breaks, three years.

Quick change of surroundings

During the trip I felt a certain degree of excitement. Although I had lived on my own, going abroad was something more. At the same time, however, I was sure that somehow I could get along. I acclimated very quickly. Not for nothing is London called a cultural melting pot. There are so many people of different nationalities. And to some extent it helps to get rid of the feeling of alienation. Besides, of course, there are plenty of Poles who are very helpful, at least those that I met. Besides, when I first came to London my brother lived there, so I had a place where I could stay. Pretty soon, through my brother and his friends and websites, I found a room in an apartment (which had already been occupied by a group of Poles) and a job in a cafe. And then I quickly got used to London life, the urban rush and various customs, slightly different from ours. A very prosaic example, but in the beginning surprising – when there are no vehicles, you are allowed to pass the street at a red light. There were much more similar situations every day. The man, however, can quickly get used.

Eternal longing

I always knew I was leaving for some time, although in the beginning it was difficult to determine whether it would be two, three or maybe ten years. Although I realize that the longer the life abroad, the harder it is to come back. But this is probably a rule concerning all trips. It is enough to live several years in another city, not necessarily abroad, to build your own world, get to know the place, make friends. Of course, one longs for what was left, but the more time passes, the more is attached to the present life. When I was in London, I missed Poland. Now when it’s been a year since I moved back to the country, I long for London a bit, for the places, the friends I made, but also for some amenities. I wouldn’t like to compare, but each country has its advantages and disadvantages when it comes to everyday life, infrastructure, communication, availability of certain products. But still I am sure that my place is in Poland. I do not know if it stems from patriotic feelings, but always, as I said, I knew I wanted to live in Poland.

Contact with the Polish reality

Today, contact between different countries is generally not any problem. We have cell phones, connections are becoming more and more affordable. There is also Skype, which allows you to talk without any limits, and additionally a small computer camera allows you to see the interlocutor. That’s right, nothing can replace the real contact, but the truth is that thanks to the inventions of our times we can go far and still be in close contact with people who are thousands of kilometers away from us. There are social networking sites and even though I’m not their very active user, thanks to them we keep up with what is happening with our friends.

However, when it comes to political and economic events I have to admit that I wasn’t up to date with them. The important events obviously echoed among Poles living in London, but everyday life in that reality slightly distances from what is happening in the country.

The emigration kaleidoscope

I think the biggest success in my life of an emigrant was how quickly I got settled in and overcame the language barrier. It certainly had an impact on my further life in London – on the work that I liked and the promotion which I earned. What was the failure? I don’t know … Maybe even the departure itself, though it sounds quite paradoxical, but if the situation in our country was different I wouldn’t have decided, just like many other people, to pursue happiness so far away from the family home.

Unfortunately, it’s often hard to find the reasons for which people decide today to live abroad positive. They are going just to earn a living. Even though probably I slightly generalize, because certainly it doesn’t concern everybody. Those, however, who went to London and who I met there, came with the hope for a better life, a better job, or at least a better paid one. I must admit that often it was what they got. And life abroad itself has a positive effect on people. First of all, it makes people open on the others, self-assured, which is what Poles unfortunately often lack. It also makes us more confident when it comes to speaking a foreign language and lets get to know other cultures and customs – some of them accepted enthusiastically, and other found annoying. But it’s probably natural.

In fact, I packed myself quite practically, though there was also a place for pictures of the loved ones. Figuratively…. Well, what I achieved in London was that my work was always appreciated, that I made different friends – all this is just a result of how I was raised, how my life in Poland shaped me. The trip strengthened my conviction that I am able to achieve a lot, that I can get along. Surely, it also made me more open to people, to different cultures. Living in the UK and speaking English every day for three years raised my confidence when it comes to communication in foreign languages. This, in turn, bearing in mind the practical aspect, raised my value on the labor market after returning to Poland.

Today, if you choose to live in London or any other city where many Poles emigrated, you don’t need to distance yourself from our culture and customs. Living every day with Poles I spoke Polish, Polish food was in almost any grocery store. As for customs, it is true that you need to get used to some things, but still it isn’t a country so distant to us culturally to make it impossible to adjust to certain behaviors.

Unfortunately, I have to admit that life in the UK is much easier. First of all for economic reasons. An ordinary person can afford much more things. I’m not talking about luxury cars and apartments, but about ordinary life – renting a flat, public transport, sports and cultural events, holidays. There, for similar work as the one I have in Poland, I could afford to live on a higher level. In Poland, unfortunately, it is not so easy, and because of that it is more difficult for young people to become self-reliant.

I feel I’m a Pole. Although I feel I’m a European, too, after all, Poland is also in Europe! One does not exclude the other.

assimilation Chile clash of the cultures homeland connections love progress

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