I took me a while to listen to some of my friends and keep writing on my blog, even if I'm home. I decided I should continue writing because I want to share the cultural shocks you have when you come home, because the journey does not end when you finish the experience, but it continues with all the consequences of your journey.
I came home almost 2 months ago and I have to admit I wanted to come home. I missed my country, my parents, my friends, my food, places etc. But when you come home and you stay (meaning you don't come just for 2 weeks, on a holiday), the situation is different.
I was talking the other day with some friends (which I have to admit I did not know they liked me that much) about how I truly feel since I came back. And I think the situation might be a little different because I was so far away from home and staying in touch with friends, family etc was more difficult (7 hours difference, jobs, responsibilities etc). I do not think it's the same for everybody, but I have to say I found more people in the same situation as mine.
I doesn't matter the country or the experience - you feel the change in you, you realize you changed some characteristics in you, you know you are more patient, energetic or whatever. But you have to catch up with the life you left behind. Everything is changed after one year, people have jobs, changed jobs, have boyfriends/girlfriends, someone hates someone etc, and you don't understand anything. You might say the wrong thing/joke, you might not understand a joke or you might feel left out because you don't understand the meaning of the discussions around you. And you ask for explanations, support or information.
Some of the people around you might understand and accept the fact that you are changed and they are changed; they might understand that people evolved during the past year and you (both parties involved in that "relationship") cannot take it from where you left it, but you have to make some adjustments. Some people will accept everything and start working with the new situation. Other people might not understand the changes, might not understand your frustrations and they might not want to see you anymore, ever again. And this is the painful part - accepting that life moves on and friends you thought you have are not there anymore.
I was surprised from both sides - discovering friends I never knew I have and discovering I lost others. And this truly is a painful moment - this situation can put you down and you might feel disoriented and left out (I have met people that found themselves in this situation as well, even after one year since their return).
It is a true joy and pleasure finding the country and it's characteristics. My luck was that I was for 1 year living in a country with a little worse situation than Romania - so I can say that I feel Romania has improved and it is a lot better than some places in the world. I rediscovered the food, the movies, the buses, the metro, the bars, the coffee, the smoking people (we are a smoking country) etc. And I find it all superb, because I truly feel I'm home.
This is a hard moment for everybody (when they come home, after a long period) and I know persons that even after one year still feel they don't fit anymore. This is the moment when some of us are pushed to leave again, thinking they are going back to what they had before or to a new place. Or this is the moment when some of us manage to get back in their "circles" and they will feel they can actually make the change they wanted to make, in Romania, with the help of their foreign "knowledge" and experience. Personally, I think that if Romanians would put a little more effort in the reintegration activities for Romanians that come home, our country's situation would be a little bit better.
Coming back to the original thought - to go back, I might not find what I left, because things changed there already also; to stay here, I still don't feel reintegrated enough. So I think my future is officially undecided; how I once wrote in AIESEC Bucharest: my future is a open sea of opportunities.
Showing posts with label cultural shocks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cultural shocks. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Friday, April 1, 2011
The secret... you...
When you go away for a long period of time, one of the most wonderful processes is taking place. Some secret ingredients are: to be far away from home, almost no option of going home, talking even with very close friends only once per month.
When everything I mentioned and a lot more happens, you discover yourself, your true self. But a small details: most probably, all the people around you will not discover that (depends on each person, but you got the idea). When you go far away from home, for at least one year, you will automatically put yourself in a bubble, trying to protect yourself or to enjoy as much as possible without judging anything and anybody. From my point of view, that is the moment when you are making it very difficult, for people around you, to get to the core you and discover your true self - they need to break that bubble in order to find you.
I thought about this in the last week, mostly because of a lot of things that are happening in my personal life, things that forced me to think about what I want to do, who I am and why I want to do all the things I wanna do. Meanwhile I was talking with very close friends from home about our plans for the future year and I realized that I really need to start thinking a little bit more about what I want to do. And while talking with my friends I discovered that you might present a person to the people around you, but the circumstances of being so far away from home, from your friends, from everything that defined you for more than 20 years, are presenting you as a different person. Even if you don't want to do it, the circumstances are not helping you to do it differently: you many things that define you might not be close to you.
You might lack the support, your friends, the money, the power, the knowledge, the familiarity, the places, the music, the food, the coffee, the cars... or you might just lack the moments that are bringing the true you to the surface. And then I had another AHA moment. This is the perfect situation to meet people exactly the same as you...that are acting the same as you are acting home.
No, I did not meet anybody like me here yet. I had the opportunity to meet that person at home, in my safe environment; here I had the opportunity to meet people that have the same behavior that I have at home, when people do not know me. That's the difference: at home when I met that person I managed (I hope) to spend enough time in order to "break" that person and manage to see the true self; here I see the behavior of a person acting when the other person does not know the core self and when they think they can act however, because the other person cannot read them completely.
Back home the circumstances are helping me to be myself, are helping me to not not to fake, but to do/be/act exactly how I am. I used to talk with my girls about guys coming with different cars to pick us up from home, just trying to impress us; but we were doing the same: going to clubs with different cars, just to show off. That's childish, but it happens. Or how some of us are attracted by foreigners, just to talk a little bit more English or to see how a different culture thinks. But being home, in your self environment, with all the right circumstances, make you act in specific ways, ways that you would not choose as a way to express yourself when you are away from home. Because you don't have everything you have home to rely on; sometimes you know so clear that home you would react differently, but away from home you simply... cannot...
That brings me in front of a very important question for me: if you need all of those things to be able to express your true self, then how do you know everybody is true? How do you know you do not take a wrong/good decision based on circumstances which would forces you, that in a safe and know environment, to act different? I'm not lying, but I know that in some situations I might have acted differently if I would have been at home... so, am I true or am I lying, just because I don't have the right circumstances? Personally I think it's ME all the time, but sometimes I wish some people could see me at home...
PS: this is for a crazy girl willing to pursue a crazy dream with me, which is reality for us already... this is for discovering a new country, a new culture, a new experience, this is for discovering the true us!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwsSNrSEONc
When everything I mentioned and a lot more happens, you discover yourself, your true self. But a small details: most probably, all the people around you will not discover that (depends on each person, but you got the idea). When you go far away from home, for at least one year, you will automatically put yourself in a bubble, trying to protect yourself or to enjoy as much as possible without judging anything and anybody. From my point of view, that is the moment when you are making it very difficult, for people around you, to get to the core you and discover your true self - they need to break that bubble in order to find you.
I thought about this in the last week, mostly because of a lot of things that are happening in my personal life, things that forced me to think about what I want to do, who I am and why I want to do all the things I wanna do. Meanwhile I was talking with very close friends from home about our plans for the future year and I realized that I really need to start thinking a little bit more about what I want to do. And while talking with my friends I discovered that you might present a person to the people around you, but the circumstances of being so far away from home, from your friends, from everything that defined you for more than 20 years, are presenting you as a different person. Even if you don't want to do it, the circumstances are not helping you to do it differently: you many things that define you might not be close to you.
You might lack the support, your friends, the money, the power, the knowledge, the familiarity, the places, the music, the food, the coffee, the cars... or you might just lack the moments that are bringing the true you to the surface. And then I had another AHA moment. This is the perfect situation to meet people exactly the same as you...that are acting the same as you are acting home.
No, I did not meet anybody like me here yet. I had the opportunity to meet that person at home, in my safe environment; here I had the opportunity to meet people that have the same behavior that I have at home, when people do not know me. That's the difference: at home when I met that person I managed (I hope) to spend enough time in order to "break" that person and manage to see the true self; here I see the behavior of a person acting when the other person does not know the core self and when they think they can act however, because the other person cannot read them completely.
Back home the circumstances are helping me to be myself, are helping me to not not to fake, but to do/be/act exactly how I am. I used to talk with my girls about guys coming with different cars to pick us up from home, just trying to impress us; but we were doing the same: going to clubs with different cars, just to show off. That's childish, but it happens. Or how some of us are attracted by foreigners, just to talk a little bit more English or to see how a different culture thinks. But being home, in your self environment, with all the right circumstances, make you act in specific ways, ways that you would not choose as a way to express yourself when you are away from home. Because you don't have everything you have home to rely on; sometimes you know so clear that home you would react differently, but away from home you simply... cannot...
That brings me in front of a very important question for me: if you need all of those things to be able to express your true self, then how do you know everybody is true? How do you know you do not take a wrong/good decision based on circumstances which would forces you, that in a safe and know environment, to act different? I'm not lying, but I know that in some situations I might have acted differently if I would have been at home... so, am I true or am I lying, just because I don't have the right circumstances? Personally I think it's ME all the time, but sometimes I wish some people could see me at home...
PS: this is for a crazy girl willing to pursue a crazy dream with me, which is reality for us already... this is for discovering a new country, a new culture, a new experience, this is for discovering the true us!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwsSNrSEONc
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Finding the new you
After almost 4 months I started even more to change. And I can realize a lot more easier the changes I'm going through. And I appreciate in a strange way all the cultural shocks.
I appreciate the lack of electricity. After you finish all your work on a paper and you even reply in writing to your urgent e-mails, you can rest. You are actually obliged to rest, because there's nothing else you can do. And it's not that bad :)
I plan the meetings with a buffer time of one hour at least, because I don't know what might happen, so sometimes I finish work earlier because everything happened in time (my time :) ), sometimes I finish just in time because everything happened in the buffer time :)
We know we cannot find anything opened after 10 p.m., so before that we know we need to make sure that we have everything we need for that night - cigarettes, alcohol, water etc. So that way, rarely we are missing something at night :)
I also started to change for a personal point of view; even my parents realize the changes I'm going through. I'm cleaning very often my locker, I'm taking more care of my things, I'm more reserved in buying food (because I don't have enough money and because I don't need everything), I'm buying only important and useful things, I'm washing my own clothes, I'm cooking a lot more than at home. Also, I know that now I cannot work in dirty rooms, I like clean things and organized, I still don't eat the cookies I'm baking... and so many things. I also know that you never know what the future will be in the moment you decide anything, so specially in the case when you are leaving from your loved ones, make sure you will not regret anything that might happen. And I've become even more patient and diplomatic - I never knew I can I do it even more :)
And then is the other thing we realized we are going through... we are always trying new things (specially from the food point of view), mostly because we are trying to find the things we like at home. Peru is still searching for "that" bread, I'm still looking for that "cheese" and Sasha is still searching for "that" chocolate. And it's funny... because this little things, when you actually discover them, they are making you so so happy... so now we are even more aware of how little things can make your day :)
And I never actually miss home. I don't actually miss the persons in my life, I'm still talking with them so everything is pretty normal. I'm missing the things I'm used to... my car, the buses, a coffee in Saturday morning in a bakery, shopping with my parents every weekend, a club with my girls. I'm missing habits...
But now I'm starting to be more happy. I'm starting to assimilate everything that happened to me from the moment I came here, I'm even more aware of the reasons I decided to come, I'm starting to communicate with people around me in a more profound way (persons from home, but also persons from DR), I discovered which persons are really important to me and I want to keep as friends, and most important... I have my tickets for the Christmas holiday in Romania. So now, I know I will spend 3 weeks in my home :) for sure :) And on my way to Romania I will have the change to visit a little bit Madrid and Rome :) Maybe someone wants to join me? (please reply to my e-mail :P )
PS: yesterday when I was preparing myself to go and buy the ticket, at 7 in the morning, I felt on the stairs and I hurt my hand pretty bad; and it's the right hand, which already had problems. But I was thinking that was a small price I had to pay for my trip to Romania. And I knew all along I'm going home for Christmas; I had a Polo red Volkswagen that drove in from of me the entire road... so I knew I had a small help from my good friend and that he wants me to get home :)
I appreciate the lack of electricity. After you finish all your work on a paper and you even reply in writing to your urgent e-mails, you can rest. You are actually obliged to rest, because there's nothing else you can do. And it's not that bad :)
I plan the meetings with a buffer time of one hour at least, because I don't know what might happen, so sometimes I finish work earlier because everything happened in time (my time :) ), sometimes I finish just in time because everything happened in the buffer time :)
We know we cannot find anything opened after 10 p.m., so before that we know we need to make sure that we have everything we need for that night - cigarettes, alcohol, water etc. So that way, rarely we are missing something at night :)
I also started to change for a personal point of view; even my parents realize the changes I'm going through. I'm cleaning very often my locker, I'm taking more care of my things, I'm more reserved in buying food (because I don't have enough money and because I don't need everything), I'm buying only important and useful things, I'm washing my own clothes, I'm cooking a lot more than at home. Also, I know that now I cannot work in dirty rooms, I like clean things and organized, I still don't eat the cookies I'm baking... and so many things. I also know that you never know what the future will be in the moment you decide anything, so specially in the case when you are leaving from your loved ones, make sure you will not regret anything that might happen. And I've become even more patient and diplomatic - I never knew I can I do it even more :)
And then is the other thing we realized we are going through... we are always trying new things (specially from the food point of view), mostly because we are trying to find the things we like at home. Peru is still searching for "that" bread, I'm still looking for that "cheese" and Sasha is still searching for "that" chocolate. And it's funny... because this little things, when you actually discover them, they are making you so so happy... so now we are even more aware of how little things can make your day :)
And I never actually miss home. I don't actually miss the persons in my life, I'm still talking with them so everything is pretty normal. I'm missing the things I'm used to... my car, the buses, a coffee in Saturday morning in a bakery, shopping with my parents every weekend, a club with my girls. I'm missing habits...
But now I'm starting to be more happy. I'm starting to assimilate everything that happened to me from the moment I came here, I'm even more aware of the reasons I decided to come, I'm starting to communicate with people around me in a more profound way (persons from home, but also persons from DR), I discovered which persons are really important to me and I want to keep as friends, and most important... I have my tickets for the Christmas holiday in Romania. So now, I know I will spend 3 weeks in my home :) for sure :) And on my way to Romania I will have the change to visit a little bit Madrid and Rome :) Maybe someone wants to join me? (please reply to my e-mail :P )
PS: yesterday when I was preparing myself to go and buy the ticket, at 7 in the morning, I felt on the stairs and I hurt my hand pretty bad; and it's the right hand, which already had problems. But I was thinking that was a small price I had to pay for my trip to Romania. And I knew all along I'm going home for Christmas; I had a Polo red Volkswagen that drove in from of me the entire road... so I knew I had a small help from my good friend and that he wants me to get home :)
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Unaware
Maybe it is my fault also... maybe I've been looking for it. But what I can honestly admit, I don't know what I feel anymore.
Yesterday it was the first day when we decided we want to start visit the city. I was so so happy that finally we were starting to move and stop working :) We went to visit the aquarium, which is very nice. Nothing like Romania, very cute organized and it looked really nice. They had so many types of fishes and turtles... and then you could see the sea, which was so interesting... We don't have that in Romania and the feeling to have the water in front of you, that big water... with the rocks and stuff... Part of me was feeling like I was in Greece, but the temperature reminded me that I was in the Carribean.
After we visited the aquarium, we wanted to visit something more. We had all our cameras, I had my video camera, so... why not try more? So we went to see Faro a Colon (Columb's lighthouse). Very weird building, in a cross shape, but horizontally, because it has some lights on it and if they are powered on, they project on the skype the shape of a cross. The building is not spectacular in beauty, but just by being weird and because of the idea it had in the back, it's interesting.
This is where the fun begins. You know... if you see a spider-web... some of them have something already caught in the web, in order to attrack other victims. Thinking at what happened yesterday, I feel the same. Somewhere, in the park next to the lighthouse, there was a ball. Yes, a steel ball. So we were curious to find out what it was, so we walked to check it out. I don't think it took more that 3 minutes and 2 guys showed up, took their guns out and they asked for everything. We just froze and we gave everything. They took my bag, which had the video camera, the cell-phone and the wallet, which had all all ID cards from Romania, money and MasterCard/Visa cards. Everything happened in less than 30 seconds. We were lucky because they didn't spend too much time so they missed a phone (so we could call immediately to block our cards) and the car keys. Also, we got lucky because apparently, there was a chance of not getting alive from there. Learning point: never look in their eyes/faces; look down - otherwise you might not get out alive. But, no one told anything before about this so, we looked at them... that was one little mistake we did :)
For me this entire experience is completely weird. First it is my fifth time in one year an half when I'm very close to dying. Second, because my good friend passed away one month ago shot by a gun. Third, because when the plane took off I was so calm...I said to my self, if the plane crashes, I'm totally satisfied with everything. I don't regret anything. But yesterday, I didn't want to die like that. And when I saw the guns, my mind was totally occupied with my friend. He died like that. Will it happen to me also?
I don't know what to say. I don't know what I feel. All the details are written here. Everybody is ok, we didn't get hurt, we are all alive. I don't want to come back home, I'm not scared about that... but I don't know what I feel anymore. And I cannot understand why is this happening to me so often?! All I know right now is that I'm really confused...
Yesterday it was the first day when we decided we want to start visit the city. I was so so happy that finally we were starting to move and stop working :) We went to visit the aquarium, which is very nice. Nothing like Romania, very cute organized and it looked really nice. They had so many types of fishes and turtles... and then you could see the sea, which was so interesting... We don't have that in Romania and the feeling to have the water in front of you, that big water... with the rocks and stuff... Part of me was feeling like I was in Greece, but the temperature reminded me that I was in the Carribean.
After we visited the aquarium, we wanted to visit something more. We had all our cameras, I had my video camera, so... why not try more? So we went to see Faro a Colon (Columb's lighthouse). Very weird building, in a cross shape, but horizontally, because it has some lights on it and if they are powered on, they project on the skype the shape of a cross. The building is not spectacular in beauty, but just by being weird and because of the idea it had in the back, it's interesting.
This is where the fun begins. You know... if you see a spider-web... some of them have something already caught in the web, in order to attrack other victims. Thinking at what happened yesterday, I feel the same. Somewhere, in the park next to the lighthouse, there was a ball. Yes, a steel ball. So we were curious to find out what it was, so we walked to check it out. I don't think it took more that 3 minutes and 2 guys showed up, took their guns out and they asked for everything. We just froze and we gave everything. They took my bag, which had the video camera, the cell-phone and the wallet, which had all all ID cards from Romania, money and MasterCard/Visa cards. Everything happened in less than 30 seconds. We were lucky because they didn't spend too much time so they missed a phone (so we could call immediately to block our cards) and the car keys. Also, we got lucky because apparently, there was a chance of not getting alive from there. Learning point: never look in their eyes/faces; look down - otherwise you might not get out alive. But, no one told anything before about this so, we looked at them... that was one little mistake we did :)
For me this entire experience is completely weird. First it is my fifth time in one year an half when I'm very close to dying. Second, because my good friend passed away one month ago shot by a gun. Third, because when the plane took off I was so calm...I said to my self, if the plane crashes, I'm totally satisfied with everything. I don't regret anything. But yesterday, I didn't want to die like that. And when I saw the guns, my mind was totally occupied with my friend. He died like that. Will it happen to me also?
I don't know what to say. I don't know what I feel. All the details are written here. Everybody is ok, we didn't get hurt, we are all alive. I don't want to come back home, I'm not scared about that... but I don't know what I feel anymore. And I cannot understand why is this happening to me so often?! All I know right now is that I'm really confused...
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
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 :)
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 :)
Monday, June 21, 2010
First feelings
I slept for 15 hours. I hope I will catch the time zone and I will not suffer so much. I woke up alone in the room, a totally new room for me. I didn't have problems with recognizing the place, like other members from the team did, but it was so weird, because I had no idea what I was suppose to do. And I was still sleepy, but I had to get out of bed.
It is raining like crazy, because apparently it is the hurricane season now. But it's cool that it is raining, because it makes it more bearable. Except the humidity which makes it very difficult to breath, the temperature is ok - 26 degrees. I got out of my room, went downstaris in the office and again I was alone. I managed to find a laptop and connect to the internet, because I wanted so hard to write on the blog about the trip I did.
Later that day, Zakaria, the MCP (Member Committee President), met with a member in the office. The strange thing: after their discussion, Zakaria went to sleep and the girl stayed with me in the office. She said is had homework to do, but later that day; until then, she will sleep a little bit. So she got out of her bag a jacket, put it on the floor (which is made out of sandstone entirely) and she slept right next to my feet, on the floor. She said that's normal for her, that's the way she's sleeping at home, as well. So, if that's normal for her, ok...
We went to eat at a sandwich place, called Emparedado, which was not so cheap, but I was so hungry I didn't care anymore. What I can tell you, from the food perspective, I love their food :) And after we ate, we went to a supermarket, where I had again so many cultural shocks... First of all, imagine the hypermarkets in Romania. Then imagine that the ones here are the same, but they have 2 floors (so they are double, actually). Second, they have so many new brands for me; but, at the crackers section, almost nothing. They had Pringles, some peanuts, popcorn and kinda that's all. I was shocked; the only conclusion I could drew was that Romanians love crackers, while the Dominicans not so much. Oh...and while another shock came, I learned some new words in Spanish, because, again, no traffic rules are respected in the supermarket as well. I learned perdon and permisa, because I had to move quicker in the supermarket than others :)
Other things I learned in my first day: never trust the cars - if you think they will give you priority to cross the street, you might be wrong. You have to put your feet on the ground of the street and wait for the cars to stop and to make you a specific sign, which means that he will let you cross the street. Also, we should never drink water from the sink - some trainees tried it and end up in the hospital with terrible health problems. Also, people here are addicted to ice; if you go into any place with food and you order something to eat, they will give you also drinks, with glasses filled with ice. Tons of ice. Also, in our house, we have a huge can, where we put the ice that we buy for ourselves from the supermarket (huge can that keeps the ice from melting). Oh... and in my first day, I drank my first rum. Local, first class, rum. We drank Cuba Libre, home made, even though we are in the Dominican Republic :)
Right now I'm starting my official work here. Apparently, I'm again in the same situation I was one year ago, in Romania. Nothing was done, I have to create lots of materials and design the entire strategy for external relations, communication and Alumni management. Which is cool and challenging, but I love it already.
It is raining like crazy, because apparently it is the hurricane season now. But it's cool that it is raining, because it makes it more bearable. Except the humidity which makes it very difficult to breath, the temperature is ok - 26 degrees. I got out of my room, went downstaris in the office and again I was alone. I managed to find a laptop and connect to the internet, because I wanted so hard to write on the blog about the trip I did.
Later that day, Zakaria, the MCP (Member Committee President), met with a member in the office. The strange thing: after their discussion, Zakaria went to sleep and the girl stayed with me in the office. She said is had homework to do, but later that day; until then, she will sleep a little bit. So she got out of her bag a jacket, put it on the floor (which is made out of sandstone entirely) and she slept right next to my feet, on the floor. She said that's normal for her, that's the way she's sleeping at home, as well. So, if that's normal for her, ok...
We went to eat at a sandwich place, called Emparedado, which was not so cheap, but I was so hungry I didn't care anymore. What I can tell you, from the food perspective, I love their food :) And after we ate, we went to a supermarket, where I had again so many cultural shocks... First of all, imagine the hypermarkets in Romania. Then imagine that the ones here are the same, but they have 2 floors (so they are double, actually). Second, they have so many new brands for me; but, at the crackers section, almost nothing. They had Pringles, some peanuts, popcorn and kinda that's all. I was shocked; the only conclusion I could drew was that Romanians love crackers, while the Dominicans not so much. Oh...and while another shock came, I learned some new words in Spanish, because, again, no traffic rules are respected in the supermarket as well. I learned perdon and permisa, because I had to move quicker in the supermarket than others :)
Other things I learned in my first day: never trust the cars - if you think they will give you priority to cross the street, you might be wrong. You have to put your feet on the ground of the street and wait for the cars to stop and to make you a specific sign, which means that he will let you cross the street. Also, we should never drink water from the sink - some trainees tried it and end up in the hospital with terrible health problems. Also, people here are addicted to ice; if you go into any place with food and you order something to eat, they will give you also drinks, with glasses filled with ice. Tons of ice. Also, in our house, we have a huge can, where we put the ice that we buy for ourselves from the supermarket (huge can that keeps the ice from melting). Oh... and in my first day, I drank my first rum. Local, first class, rum. We drank Cuba Libre, home made, even though we are in the Dominican Republic :)
Right now I'm starting my official work here. Apparently, I'm again in the same situation I was one year ago, in Romania. Nothing was done, I have to create lots of materials and design the entire strategy for external relations, communication and Alumni management. Which is cool and challenging, but I love it already.
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