One month in Wonderland

I just celebrated one month in the Dominican Republic.

The strangest thing is that I'm not shocked and I don't feel like I don't belong here or I miss home. I don't miss home, I don't wait to go home, I'm just doing my work. Every day I wake up, going downstairs in the office and start working. Sometimes I go to the LC office and help them with some events or work in their office. Everything seems so normal for me. I was afraid that I might be tired without any holiday after the MC term in Romania. But actually I feel that I didn't finish it and it's just continuous work. I'm working during week-end, during the nights sometimes, on last-minute things, but this is normal for me. I did that for 3 years already. I cannot stop or I cannot wish for something else for me. It's so normal...

During this month, I learned more about the culture, about the people here, about me, and also about more cultures. During our informal meetings, with the members, EPs, trainees etc, we realized that we are one of the most international team possible. When we watched the final football match from the World Championship, we were in the same room almost 15 different countries: Romania, Russia, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, France, Marocco, Peru, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Canada, USA, Portugal, Columbia, Costa Rica. Which is so cool, because you can discover so many things about so many countries, in the same place: Dominican Republic. But in the same time, it's not so good. This country needs to get on its feet and to start working by itselves. It's not cool to have so many cultures if they are represented by trainees and by MC members or CEEDers.

Why we call it Wonderland? Because you never know what is going to happen:

* the electricity might went off
* something might blow on the street
* a bar might ask you your ID card (even if you are 23 years old)
* everything closes at 22:00 (including Gas stations)
* bars in week-ends close at 1:30 a.m.
* the code phone is 001 like in the USA
* the lights of the street are powered by the supermarket on the street (so everytime the supermarket closes, the street lights went off)
* a weird guy passes on the street at the same hour with a horse ride
* people twitter while jogg
* when the electricity wents off so does the water and the internet
* you have AC everywhere except houses where people live (usually, in a bus, you open the window to get some fresh air; here you open it to get heat inside the bus)
* Sunday everybody stays inside the house (not even supermarkets are opened on Sundays)
* even though Dominican Republic is an island, people here don't know how to swim,
* if you want to listen international music good luck finding a place where you can do that
* if you want to find out where Irish Pub is good luck with that one also
* and so many more we cannot remember now

So far, my entire experience was very interesting for me. I discovered how to be very pacience and how to open my mind very much in order to understand so many cultures and the country. I will try in the future to write more often about my experience here... maybe I will have time :)

PS: we just started the recruitment and I need to tell you that is very interesting to be MC VP Communication that does the work of OC Promotion of a recruitment :)