Last Friday, 14 October 2022, the Polish students of the College of Europe in Natolin organized the Polish National Day. The student initiative was oriented to transmit information about the hosting country's culture, society, and politics from the students to their colleagues.
The activities started early on Thursday, 13 October, with a projection of the Polish movie "Talking Heads", one of the internationally most famous Polish short documentaries, by Krzysztof KIEŚLOWSKI.
During the day, the students enjoy a typical Polish dinner in the Natolin restaurant, decorated as a traditional Polish salon. The students enjoyed the traditional pierogi, Polish cheese, rosół soup, kiełbasa, śledź w śmietanie, bigos staropolski, and placki ziemniaczane. During the reception, some of the Polish students received their colleagues in traditional costumes, offering them salt bread, an old Slavic tradition.
After dinner, Ms Aleksandra WIŚNIEWSKA, Head of Mission for Ukraine at the Humanitarian Organization INTERSOS, addressed the students from Odesa (Ukraine). Ms WIŚNIEWKSA has been in charge of managing and coordinating the country's crisis response strategy and operations. During her speech, the student received first-hand information on the situation in Ukraine. This was an opportunity to meet Poland not from a political or cultural side but from the humanitarian perspective, discovering the spirit of solidarity through actual testimony.
Later on, the students enjoyed the performance of Ms Karolina SKRZYŃSKA, who played several songs based on indigenous Polish sounds. Every sound was an essence of the Slavic spirit: composed of creative sounds of musicians and singers singing in white voices (singing-shout). However, this was not typical Polish folk, but rather balancing on the border between what is indigenous and the contemporary.
Finally, the students had the opportunity to share a social gathering and listen to a selection of famous Polish music.
