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.
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