“Man, I am so lost!”

I was in Cluj-Napoca, tired because all the travelling hours, looking for the bus that should carry me to Baia Mare, my final destination.

“What the hell, I cannot understand nothing!”

Me, being insecure as allways. I mean, it’s a new language, it’s pretty normal not to understand anything, I just learnt some romanian words in Duolingo app, but not enough. I always want the things right now.

So I was following the instructions to find the bus that Alina (our supervisor) sent me before by e-mail, feeling like the foreigner I was.

“Where the hell is the bus?! There are no buses :(“

Then I notice people standing in a specific place near some big cars. Then the revelation came, the big cars are the “buses”. All the people there already knew, pretty normal for them, but I felt that as blowmind. That first day I learnt something: You cannot find what you are looking for if you are not open minded. So the first romanian lesson slapped me in the face . I just put one foot on a foreign country and I was already learning. And it was just the beginning. Maybe I like extract some knowledge from random and ordinary facts. But that means I am in the right way, really good mood to learn all I can from this experience. And I learnt in my past a lot of valuable lessons in that strange way. The fact that I was doubting if I had chosen the right bus-car till I met Alina in Baia Mare it’s just me being insecure again (as always).

Then all the events came fast (and slowly at the same time, I know, a little bit of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuffs). I am going to tell you some of the things that happened till today.

I went to the apartment and met my three partners. They are not only my flatmates, they are my co-workers too, so we are going to share a lot of time in the next eleven months together (something scary but exciting at the same time, I know, contradictory, nobody asured you I am not going to be that way).

Surprisingly we fitted very well since the beginnig, like pieces of a puzzle, put in the same place by a superior god (Alina, I am not looking at you). Maybe, it’s early to say that, we are together for two weeks now , but something is telling me we are in the right way, and I am happy forthat.

The first week here in Baia Mare was marked by the ” Youth Parliament” event, an interesting workshop about how the teenagers and us apport and participate in a community in diferent levels (locally and the european parliament) and about we all live in an interconnected human web. We participated as volunteers and we did our best (mostly moving chairs and being handy when it was needed). But we learnt some interesting things. We can understand more romanian words that we thought (thank you, latin roots). The teenagers here smoke a lot (I mean, A LOT), but they are really interesting people with a lot of things to say, we just have to give them the right context to overcome the shyness and express themselves. And surprisingly they are really similar to the spaninsh teenagers that I know. I wish I was that strong and motivated as them when I was the same age. So, bravo, for the romanian teenagers. We should listen the youth not beacause they are the future, but because they are the present.

After the exciting but tiring event we had the “Castane” fair, a local holiday here in Baia Mare. We ate some typical romanian and hungarian food (we are really close to the hungarian border, so here we have mixed cultures): Langosh, Kürtos Kalacs, hot wine, sausages, beer and of course roasted chesnuts too, the main dish in the fair (OMG, so delicious). We went to some concerts with gipsy fussion music (Gipsy Casual) and balcanic folk music (Goran Bregovic) and we had a lot of fun. Even Olatz (my basque country mate) danced, she is experimenting with her personality as we all are trying to. It’s nice to be in a place where nobody knows you, then they don’t have fixed ideas about you, so you are able to be whatever you want to be. That freedom is sometimes overwhelming but it is a fresh breath of air (all magic comes with a price). The importan thing is that we, the volunteers, are working to build a nice context to try new things and discover ourselves.

After the fair we had our first training/induction week. We did some team building activities, interesting beacause it’s importan to know each other in a work context. And we found out that we fit really well (magic, the destiny, the universe or just maybe the almighty Alina), and we are very able to listen, understand each other and everybody have things to apport to the team. We all are different, and we work in very different ways but we can adapt each other and make a bigger thing (synergy). We found out some really creative ways to work (nobody could imagine to make a pyramid in the floor). We even decided our “roles” in the team (of course, not fixed, just matherial for jokes): Catarina is the “Worker”, Olatz is the “Decider”, Cindy is the “Thinker” and I am the “Dreamer” (I know, so poetic). We have one of every kind so we are a balanced team (and my little OCD is glad about that).

I also learnt a lot about how I work, how I think and how my mind manage to achieve a goal. I am going to tell you (it is abstract but I think you can understand). At the beginning, I use to start collecting concepts, ideas or elements, having in mind at least an idea of what I don’t want at the end. Then I start to try to connect elements in a way that is OK for me. In this step, I get anxious (what a news) beacause I am lost, I just have a bunch of ideas and usually we have a fixed time to achieve the goal, so the time is pressuring me. And of course the idea of making a PERFECT work is always stressing me. But then, is when the magic happens. I start to see clearly the connections in my mind make decissions, and I see the way. Maybe it is not perfect but it is MY WAY . So at the end, no matter what, I am very proud of what I achieved . Maybe it is different of what I thought at the beginning , maybe it could be better, maybe it has some imperfections but the important thing is that I materialized my idea in a final creation. THAT is the point. Maybe for you it’s not a big deal but for me it was a kind of a revelation. Usually, I am so obsessed about make something PERFECT that I even don’t try to do. That is why it is so important for me to realize that I can be proud of what I achieve at the end, even if it is not that perfect. That brings me relieve and encourage me to do new things and materialize ideas. The fear of not achieving the perfection will not stop me never again (big words but I will try my best).

And I had my personal revelation making this outstanding master piece:

I cannot put my creativity (a really importan thing in my life) in a jail just beacause I am scared of not achieving the perfection. Even my imperfections are part of my art, work or whatever so I should prize it. Not only at the end but at the very beginning of the process, so I would be able to do a lot of new things.

And beacuse of that reason, I want to share something with you. Maybe it is not interesting for you but what the hell, it is my personal blog. My team (Stuardos since now, maybe I will explain you why in the future) did an activity called exquisit corpse (a really interesting and collavorative way of produce art) by drawning. We drew imaginative characters but every person drew a part of the body (head, torso, legs and feet) without knowing the  parts drawn by the other Stuardos. So the result is oniric, surreal and each drawning has a part of one of us. And we got four interesting characters. They really estimulated my imagiantion (as I said, very important thing in my life).

So we (mostly me, I’m not gonna lie) decided that these four chraracters will be our home’s divinities (we are creating folklore, awesome <3). I will introduce you. They still have no name (it will come with some divine inspiration, let it flow). Here you have:

This is the empathy/teamwork God. He has human face, YMCA volunteer torso, deer legs and mocasins as feet. For me he represent the hard work, the ability of wear others mocasins (wink) and do it with joy. And he looks a little bit like me.

This is the guardian goddess of our home. She has a creepy normal face, a dragon/alien/devil torso, mermaid tail and heel shoes (you don’t want to know what kind of feet are hidden by these shoes). She protects our house, she can be nice but she can be powerful, dangerous and scary too. Better be aware >:(

This the tecnologic/domestic goddess. She has a Medusa head, a TV as a body, colorfurl pants as legs (maybe springs? we will figure it out) and big clown shoes as feet. She is always fixing the router, do some cleaning and organizing things.

This is the stilism/fashion/sociability/selfsteem god, but has no gender. It has a pink panther head, nice shirt and trousers and platform shous. It is a diva, but it doesn’t speak a lot, allways cool and funny.

So these three divinities are our new religion. We will develop the theories and myths about them. Be prepare.

And that’s all, folks!

From now, because a lot of things happened and will happen and I will write about them.

Maybe not a perfect blog, but I don’t care anymore, I am proud 😀

PD: Now I am going to do the romanian homework! Wish me luck!