CHI was lucky enough to have Work and Travel participant Janusz Urbanski, from Poland, work in the main office last summer. Janusz helped incoming students, processed SEVIS validations and was an overall great addition to the W&T department.
Janusz has now returned home, but recently wrote to CHI and included a lovely Polish flag for the office.
Dear CHI,
It has been exactly a year since I arrived to the United States for the first time in my life! June 18th … I still can remember almost every detail about that day, like it was just a couple weeks ago! My plane had a delay, I was totally exhausted, but when the plane was about to land, I was the lucky guy, sitting next to the window. I looked through it and I saw the most amazing and unforgettable view ever. San Francisco by night drowning in many city lights! I checked this place hundreds of times before, via Google Earth, so I was sure that’s it. Of course after I saw all of this, I could not complain about the delay in Delta Airlines anymore!
Then [CHI staff member] Milena picked me up from the Airport! I was so glad, because my recent thoughts were “Oh my God … the last bus left 5 minutes ago”. But I realized I made it! I did something huge. It is not so common to travel half of the globe in 24 hours alone! It was a great feeling to make my first step on American soil! Nothing was the same any more, since we left the airport …
3-levels intersections, 5-lane highways, huge trucks and the city in the distance. No matter it was night and I was tired, my sight sense was sharp and focus! I was lucky because Milena and Vlado drove me through Van Ness so I could look closer at everything. Next was the Golden Gate Bridge. One word: breath taking! That is two words actually. It proves you can’t describe it using only one! It was nothing like I could even imagine and I claim that anyone who has never seen it can’t imagine it! Huge and beautiful. In Europe we say that small is more beauty, but we can be wrong sometimes!
That is how my California Dreamin’ began…
The rest you probably know! Great people, my great roommates, great CHI organization, shorts, sunglasses, “havin’ a Bud”, trips, barbecue at [CHI Founder] Tom’s house, the city, mountain bike riding, even work was a pleasure, … , so many comas in this sentence! And of course my list is much longer! Such a great and valuable experience. I miss it very much!
I truly hope that CHI is doing fine and dealing successfully with economic crisis. I know that US has so much to offer, that it is still one of the biggest dreams of lots of young people from all over the world to go there and see it. And feel it! Like I saw and felt a year ago. I believe you are going to have plenty of work for a long time! I wish you this! I hope of course that maybe we can share this work again!
However I am doing fine! I am about to start my exam term at the University. Meanwhile I dealt with all my projects and exams from a previous semester. So I should be of good cheer! It was busy time for me though. I was also involved in additional training at the High School of Security Systems and I have achieved the most important and the highest authorizations. It is necessary for me to start work. My father runs this kind of company so I am trying to help as much as I can, because in the future I will probably take it over. After I am done with my studies I am going to spend as much time with my Love – Agnieszka, as possible this summer. We both deserved it, because we study in two different cities, so we can see each other only for weekends! I will keep you posted how is everything going!
-Janusz
PS Oh, wait a minute…there is also a flag in this envelope. It is just a simple gift. I noticed that in the Work and Travel office there are so many different flags but none Polish. So maybe it can be useful. And of course maybe it can remind you about me sometimes!
