One neat thing about Google is the people are friendly and social. At many jobs, people put in their time and work and then just go home. At past jobs, I’ve found it hard, to put it mildly, to get people to go out after work. The Poles at the Google office in Krakow are different though, and most are ready to go out at a moment’s notice – if not for dinner, then certainly for beers. People stop work to play a round of Rock Band or Wii Tennis or to show me a new pub after work.
Not only is everyone at work friendly, but they are extremely international. There are several guys from the Czech Republic, where there isn’t an engineering office. Another engineer is from Bratislava, Slovakia. He commuted every day in college from Bratislava to Vienna, Austria. My roommate is Brazilian but currently finishing her doctorate in natural language processing in Cambridge, England. An Argentine engineer working in Krakow has been traveling for years and has a particular interest in languages. He wanted to learn a Slavic language, so he came to Poland to learn the language, traveled for nine months and then began working for Google. Another intern is from France and has been at Google for six months – and is now going to Singapore.
With all of this diversity, going out for dinner and drinks is often a lot of fun. Since we have little in common and many differences, we compare our childhoods and the different traditions in our home countries. I’ve found this is the best way to actually get a good feel for the modern culture instead of just the culture from 300 years ago, preserved mostly for tourists. To that end, I’ve learned a lot of random tidbits about life in Poland.
The hardest part of moving to a foreign city is learning the customs so as not to offend anyone. Luckily, I have an office full of people to ask before I make a fool of myself. Tipping is less than I’m used to – 10 percent tops and only in restaurants, not for taxis or massages. As for going out, birthdays are a lot of fun, especially for the guests. It’s typically the responsibility of the birthday person to buy everyone else drinks. On other occasions, it is the invitee who pays.
Krakovian food and drinks are some of the city’s biggest attractions. Krakovians love their beer, and they also love their vodka. They could easily out-drink any college student any day from what I’ve seen so far. However, when out at a restaurant, they will almost always order a beer, since vodka is drank in the home. I tried to buy my first bottle of vodka in a store and almost ended up with beer. The American way of pronouncing “vodka” sounds more like “vadka,” which happens to be a beer here. I stepped back, took a deep breath and tried my hand at a Russian accent. Worked like a charm!
The Poles are famous for a lot of dishes, usually involving pierogies, sauerkraut and kielbasa (keel-BA-sa). Pierogies, Polish dumplings, come with a variety of fillings: meat, mushrooms, cabbage, strawberries, cherries and spinach. One of my favorites is Pierogi Ruskie, though they are not Russian at all. They are just normal pierogies filled with cheese. Yum! Once, after go-karting, the Krakow recruiter took the interns out to lunch at a Polish peasant restaurant. I asked for a recommendation on a good Polish dish to try. They replied there are lots of regional dishes but only one truly Polish dish – bigos. My roommate and I gave it a try and found it good. The only problem was the meat. There were definitely some weird pieces, and even some veins in hers. Even in Europe you can try some … “exotic” foods.
I was surprised to learn different countries use wedding rings differently. The Poles wear their wedding rings on the ring finger of the left hand. Engagement rings go on the middle finger of the left hand. Seems like it could make an easy gesture to get guys to go away!
Every corner of Krakow has at least one bakery and a flower stall, if not several. Sunflowers are very popular in Krakow, as are flowers in general. I once asked why everyone exchanged sunflowers and was told sunflowers are nice because they are a non-romantic flower. While the same stereotypes still exist, sunflowers are even a good gift for a guy’s birthday.
It’s certainly different working in Krakow for a long time instead of merely being a tourist. The difference is really the cultural nuances it’s hard to pick up on in the short term.
Sonny Franckel is a senior computer science major and is writing summer columns on her experience interning with Google in Krakow. She can be reached at sfrancke@umd.edu.
