The Journal

Issue date: 4/7/05 Section: Culture

OPALINSKI

Media Credit: PHOTO COURTESY WLAD OPALINSKI Freshman Wlad Opalinski spends time in Margalla Hills, just five minutes from his home in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Freshman Wlad Opalinski, an international relations major, has lived in six countries in his 19 years: Poland, Norway, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and most recently the United States.

"It's just pretty hard to shock me culturally now," Opalinski said of his move to the United States. "It was a pretty smooth transition."

Opalinski's parents work as diplomats for the Polish government, helping take care of Polish citizens in various countries.

His family would live in one country for about four years at a time and then move on to the next, he said.

"We would stay long enough that I would grow really attached to the place and the people there," Opalinski said. "And then we would move."

Warsaw, Poland, is his true home.

Opalinski said he never had much independence growing up.

"I was always protected," Opalinski said. "I was always in this bubble. I didn't have a lot of freedom."

He attended international schools with English as his primary language. His high school, The International School of Islamabad in Pakistan, was surrounded by barbed wire. Students had to have an ID at all times and go through a metal detector to get into school. A tower housed an armed guard and soldiers stationed off campus at various corners watching outward, he said.

"I wouldn't be able to go out on my own," Opalinski said. "We'd have fire drills and bomb threats and terrorist attack drills. It's not the safest country in the world."

To leave school at the end of the day, students had to be picked up by their driver, who carried an ID with the student's picture. The guards would then take the ID inside the school, where the student had to pick it up in order to leave school.

"You can only get out of school if your driver comes to pick you up," said Opalinski, whose father usually picked him up from school.

Opalinski, who was living in Pakistan at the time of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said the events in America affected countries halfway around the world. Classes were cancelled, and the school closed for a week. The majority of Opalinski's teachers in Pakistan were American. Opalinski was a sophomore.

The ambassador made his family, and many others, evacuate Pakistan. His father stayed behind, he said.

"I was really opposed to the idea of an evacuation," Opalinski said. "Although there was some level of danger, nothing would actually happen to us. I felt pretty safe on the grounds of the embassy."

Opalinski and his family went to New Delhi, India, for about five to six weeks. Opalinski said it was like a holiday, even though he completed homework assignments long distance.

"There was a lot of stuff that I missed out on during that month and I had to catch up," Opalinski said, adding he missed out on a lot of math homework.

Although he went back to Pakistan, Opalinski said a lot of students and teachers didn't.

"There weren't any American students after Sept. 11," Opalinski said. "Most of my friends were evacuated and didn't come back."

In fact, there were only two white students at the school, with him being one of them. Being in a small minority of only two bonded the two guys, he said.

"It brought us closer together because now we had a lot in common all of a sudden," Opalinski said.

Two years later, Opalinski was faced with the decision of where to go to college. He originally looked into Webster's Leiden campus because it would be closer to home. He decided to pursue secondary education in the United States since he was offered a scholarship to attend Webster's home campus.

He brought three suitcases filled with belongings from his home in Pakistan.

His parents flew with him to the United States to help him settle in.

Opalinski said he now feels a greater sense of independence and
likes being grounded at the moment.

"It felt good to have that kind of independence and freedom," Opalinski said. "I'd like to just settle down. It's what I really want right now."

Opalinski said while he wasn't culture shocked after leaving Pakistan, he did notice key differences between the two countries.

Discussion of sexual orientation is not discussed in Pakistan as compared to how open it is in the United States. Also, Opalinski said 18 is the legal driving age in Pakistan and there really is no legal age requirement to drink. He also said people in the United States go clubbing, while house parties were popular in Pakistan.

Opalinski is taking 12 credit hours, plays on the tennis team and works 12 hours a week at his work-study job in Residential Life. He tested out of Polish levels I and II. He also has a passion for politics and hopes to someday work for the European Union.

"I like politics in general," Opalinski said. "Ideally, I'd like to get a job for some international organization. My father is a diplomat, I'm sort of falling in his footsteps for the moment."

Although Opalinski currently lives in the United States, he hasn't stopped traveling. He went to Canada during fall break and then Pakistan, London and Illinois to visit a friend at college for winter break. During spring break, he went to South Carolina with the tennis team. He plans on visiting friends in Las Vegas and Pakistan this summer.

"I guess once you've been moving around all your life, it's kind of hard to escape it," Opalinski said. "It's probably in my blood now."

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