Women in politics- Bona Sforza

After some time of hesitation, I finally decided to choose Bona Sforza as an important woman in politics. My purpose was to appreciate a woman from the distant past, because as we all know it was not such a piece of cake for a woman to become active in political life at that times...


Bona Sforza (1494 – 1557)


The Italian Princess Bona, of the Sforza family, became Queen of Poland in 1518 as the second wife of Sigmunt I. I. At that time no one anticipated how significant a role she would play in European history. She was twenty-seven years younger than her husband, and had been raised at her parents' Italian court in Bari, where she learned the diplomatic skills. She received instruction in history, law, administration and theology. She was thrifty, economical, and she also had the ability to influence people. She demonstrated this skill in all her activities.

Almost from the beginning of her life in Poland, Queen Bona tried to gain a strong political position.She was intelligent, well educated and her aspirations went beyond the traditional role of royal wife and mother.She began to form her own cabal and also benefited from the support of the king. She was also supported by Piotr Kmita, Andrzej Krzycki and Piotr Gamrat.

Shortly after settling in Poland, the second wife of Sigmund I took the initiative in buying off those royal domains that aristocratic creditors put up for auction. By doing so, Bona pursued her own interests and enforced the authority of her husband. In a very short time, 16 Polish cities and 191 villages were in Bona's possession. In the 1520s, her properties acquired in Poland were bringing in an income of 50 thousand zloty per year. Bona's profits increased after she got her estates in Naples under control and started investing.

Bona's objective was to ensure her own interests and to build a solid financial basis for the future of the Jagiellonian dynasty. She understood that the political power of the throne's successors needed to be secured with money. Bona spent a lot of time and energy on recovering royal properties that had been in the hands of creditors who charged the state budget mercilessly. In this area Bona's activities were met with the support of her husband.

The objective of Bona's international politics was to establish an alliance with France. The Queen also cared about having good relations with Turkey, and cooperated with Hungarian and Czech provinces. All of her political energies were aimed against the Habsburgs and Hohenzollerns. She perceived those powerful dynasties as the main threat to the statehood of Poland.

Bona Sforza came to a country where dark clouds stubbornly covered and introduced a totally new model of female behavior, unknown in the northern part of Europe. Her involvement in politics and economic affairs set a precedent in the Polish political arena. Before Bona, Italian humanism was known in Poland, but was often losing to Russian and Byzantine influences. Bona changed that and ensured the dominance of Latin culture in Poland.

Although Polish historians have treated Bona rather roughly, one must not be forgotten -Poland owes a rich period of cultural developments specifically to her. Thanks to her and Sigmund I, the Polish Renaissance reached its apogee, with a host of Italian influences in all aspects of life not only the cuisine:)

My teaching practice in Turkey

My first experiences with teaching began in Tukrey where I spent 6 months as an Erasmus student. In fact, that was my first, let's say, formal' teaching, because previously I was only giving some additional lessons to my frinds who needed some help in English. 
The first day of my practice in Tarsus (a town in Turkey) was just an observation. I was very surprised by the way the headmaster and the teaching staff welcomed me at the school. Every teacher was interested in where I come from, what I am doing in Turkey, why I chose Turkey and so on and so forth.
The English teacher I was observing was a very nice woman in her fifties. She has been teaching English for almost 30 years, so she was a very experienced teacher.
The moment I got into the classroom with my teacher, the students were very surprised and looked at me in a suspicious way. After the teacher introduced me to the learners, they were all looking at me for the whole lesson. I said a few words about myself and they seemed extremly interested in my person. I have to say that at the beginning I felt really uncomfortable, because everybody was looking at me and talking to me in Turkish, but I could understand only single words, which made me too confused and embarrassed. The first day of my observation finished with a lunch, which I was invited for by my teacher and the headmaster of the school.
For the next few days I was still observing my teacher and the learners, in order to get aquaintant with them and prepare myself for my own teaching that was approaching rapidly!!!!
When the great day of my first 'formal' lesson came, I was so stressed that I couldn't even eat anything in the morning. The thing that worried me the most was my communication with the students who have just started learning English. I was afraid that I will get stuck at a certain moment, and I will not be able to go further and to communicate with my students. But fortunately, before I started my school experience in the junior high school, I was attending a Turkish langauage course at my university and that made me more confident.
When the first lesson went on I felt less and less stressed, because fortunately everything went according to my plan and the learners did their best in order to cooperate with me. Only at the beggining they seemed to be quite shy and hesitant, but then they go used to the new situation and surprised me in a very possitive way. 
My next lessons were becoming less and less stresfull for me and better and better in terms of my communication with my learners. The lesson I liked the most was the one I conducted in a school canteen teaching children how to buy a meal in English and how to call certain products. I think they liked the lesson too:)
The day I had to say goodbye to my students was very sad and moving, beacasue they told me they would always remember our lessons and would miss me...:(
My teaching practice in Turkey was an interesting experience, which made me much more confident as a teacher. I had a chance to observe how English teaching looks like in another country, which has increased my knowledge and expanded my methodological qualifications:)

My childhood friend:)

My school-time friend's name is Ola. Although she was a year older than me, we were attending the same school. Since I can only remember we were running together around our housing estate playing games from mornings till nights. Our favourite games were hide-and-seek, hare and hounds, playing with dolls and plays in a sandbox. Our best time were always our summer holidays, because we could play all the days then. During our winter holidays we were making snowmen and sliding over snow on toboggan. Our shared moments that I remember the most were our birthday parties on which we invited many friends from our block of flats. First, there was always a big chocolate cake with candels, wishes, and birthday presents. Then sandwiches, chips, sweets, and, of course, liters of red, fizzy orangeade!!!!
Unfortunately, there are no more birthday parties with my friend Ola...Our childhood finished some time ago and now we meet only occasionaly when she comes back home from Denmark where she curretly stays with her fiance. I met with her a few weeks ago and we were recollecting our school years and light-hearted moments of our beautiful childhood...
(The pictures above presents me...:))