On the evening of the 30th of September the Polish Country Information Day took place in Mercator Common Room. It was the first one in the winter semester of 2004 as part of the Mercator Country Information Day Series.

The preparations of the event started three weeks prior to the actual evening and included many long rehearsals of the dances and songs as well as long discussions on the details for the program of the CID. A day before the event Polish students in cooperation with the Magic Movie Club screened the movie “The Pianist” by Roman Polanski.

The event started with a traditional polish national dance called “Polonez”, danced by six couples dressed in national costumes. After the dance was over, the mysterious disappearance of the College Master's car was revealed in the home-made movie “Dude, where's my car?”. This was followed by a short introduction given by Klaus Boehnke and a presentation on the history of Poland. As an interlude to the presentation two short scenes were shown; the first one portrayed the behaviour and customs of polish aristocracy in the 18th century, while the second one showed the socialist reality of the 1950s through a recreation of a typical factory workers' assembly. During the history part all of the Polish students sang the national anthem. Afterwards, the audience got a chance to take an active part in the event during the “Polish Language Crash Course”. A slide show combined with a map presentation followed in order to give the audience an impression of the geography and the landscapes of Poland .

The event was concluded by a second, less formal national dance called “Krakowiak” which is typical for the southern regions of Poland . Once the show was over, everybody was invited to enjoy a variety of polish specialities prepared by the students themselves. As usual, the after-party took place in the Student Bar.

More images here.