Remember my excitement about my return to school? Well, after all, it’s not going to happen. And so right were those of you who said that I should have picked a school in the UK, or elsewhere. Ah… But I guess I needed to learn it the hard way all by myself.

So what happened? Well, turned out that I couldn’t study the one field that interested me (and which was the reason why I chose that particular school in the first place – WSSM in Łódź) on-line. Why? Apparently that particular course is financed by the EU and the EU regulations require for students to be physically present in the classroom and to sign the attendance roster personally. Which, if you want to know my opinion, smacks of discrimination against people with physical disabilities and limited mobility, but that’s a whole another story.

The problem is that nobody bothered to inform me about this requirement during my initial meeting with the school’s president (rektor) and two of their academic staff. I made it very clear that I was interested in studying intercultural communication (which happens to be that EU financed course) on-line and I was told that, “no problem, we can arrange that.” But, no, they can’t.

Why nobody at WSSM thought to read the fine print on their EU agreement regarding this course BEFORE I submitted my application and paid the admission fee (wpisowe), I really don’t know.

Needless to say, I am very unhappy right now. Nah, that’s an understatement. I’m more than unhappy, but since this is a PG blog, I will try to control myself.

What the school offers me now is to study anglistyka (English philology – because intercultural communication is one of the minors offered in that department) virtually (on-line), but that’s not an acceptable solution for me.

If I wanted to study straight English, I could have applied to any other school. There are more private schools in Poland now than you can shake a stick at.

Now, of course, one of the academic staff fuming with righteous anger tells me that there is an inaccuracy in how I describe this whole situation. Frankly, from where I’m at, I don’t see any inaccuracies. I am not interested in where the school’s limitations come from, that’s none of my business. I’m only interested in the fact that I wasn’t informed about them when I was handing over the money. And that’s definitely my business. Or was the school that desperate for my wpisowe money (admission fee)? And yes, I will try to get that refunded anyway.

I’m really sad and sorry that it turned out that way. I’m still determined to go back to school and study intercultural communication/relations. But it won’t be at a school in Poland. Unfortunately.

Anyhow, how’s that Polish złota jesień (golden autumn) coming along?