Bea

A few hours before getting on the plane, goodbye, rush, curiosity and exciting nerves are your traveling companions. You're going to catch a plane bound for a lifestyle completely different from the one you've had until now. You didn’t have time yet to realize the 360º change that your routine has given you when you see yourself immersed in an intercultural adventure. You no longer live with your family or your friends, you live with strangers each from a different country, you do not hear the alarm saying it's time to go to your usual job or your university with little desire, you wake up in the morning without knowing exactly where you are going, but being sure that it will be a great day.

First beers of presentations, What's your name? where are you from? What were you doing before coming? why are you here? At first you feel a little confused with all those strange accents trying to communicate in English, you are very concentrated and you think ‘how can I survive nine months if of every 5 words I understand only two?!!! ‘

But then the months go and those anxieties and nerves disappear, you are more relaxed with people, and between laughter and jokes you realize that those who you thought were strangers have become your friends, your true host family in this experience.

I have also had the great fortune of working in a school whose name refers to a rainbow. So successful is the name that those little people have painted my  months multicoloredand full of life. They are the first to accept you and show you a sincere smile. With all the energy that fits in a child, they run to you, shouting your name and hugging you, proposing a thousand games and telling you hundreds of stories in a language mixed between words in English, in their language and sign language. How fast you start to love them !!

Now it's time to say goodbye. After 9 months your large and millimeter luggage has become an old, comfortable and thousand-use backpack, and within it you have saved experiences, culture, growth, laughter, spontaneity, empathy, adventure and friendship.

See you soon Romania, OTI, Curcubeu and all my friends volunteers. It has been a pleasure to share this experience with all of you.