Summer 2011 was definitely the best summer I’ve ever had in my life so far. After more than a month looking for an internship, I finally got matched. At first, I was desperate because I didn’t get any replies from Portugal and Spain (my top preferences). I limited the options to those countries. After a while, I was overwhelm and I decided to apply… everywhere! Thailand, India, Poland, Norway, Russia, Brazil… Just random places I found in the database. I really wanted to go immediately but I needed to finish my re-sits. One day, I was fooling around in my gmail and waiting for a reply from one LC. Suddenly, I had a chat message from a guy in Hungary and he said “Hey, do you wanna go for an internship in Hungary?” and I said.. “yes?!” he replied, “can you come here tomorrow?” and I was like- “are you insane????”. After we talked about everything I said to myself to take this chance because we never know what randomness in life might bring us to. So I sent the AN the next day and booked a ticket at the same day and left to Budapest 5 days after that. I had the lowest expectations ever since I had no idea about either the country or the internship itself. All I know about was the location and job description, outside Budapest and teaching English in a summer camp. When I got there, the camp I got a warm welcome from two very well known Hungarian English teachers. I got there at 11 p.m and everyone was still working on a lesson planning. “Is lesson planning really that hard so that you had to work until 11 p.m?” and you know what? I had to teach English at 8 till noon. So far, everything was beyond my expectations!! Talking to a 9 year old kid who didn’t speak any word of English and to a 14 year old girl who talked about ‘mature’ stuff in English a lot.. I didn’t see it coming.
The job wasn’t that easy and I underestimated it, and the accommodation and all the people were awesome. I worked with 8 other trainees from Serbia, Romania, America, China, Taiwan and Ukraine. I learnt a lot during my internships because the environment was really international. I kept saying to myself “if anyone told me that I would spend more than 30 minutes in a meat section in supermarket in Hungary with a Serbian guy 3 months ago, I wouldn’t believe it”. The LC in Hungary was really amazing and I rate their hospitality a big 9! A part of me is still there and I’m still managing a good relationship with the other trainees and even my kids! AIESEC changed my point of view towards the world. I didn’t let anything to ruin my stay there, whenever there was a single tiny problem occurred, I just forgot it right away. I’m not saying that it was really perfect; shit happened.. I lost half of my baggage and got kicked out from an apartment when I stayed in Budapest. Those things didn’t bother me at all because I knew that in 2 weeks I would be laughing about those tragedies, and yes.. even now I’m laughing. I just want everybody who is willing to go for an internship to set his or her lowest expectation and don’t think too much. I mean, if we’re thinking about the great history of AIESEC, how people sent people to other countries with limited technology, it must had been really frustrating to wait for an AN by mail, but they still went to another country and enjoy the time of their life. The most important thing is to be open to another culture. Don’t talk about your culture too much because everyone who goes for an internship is trying to learn the culture of the country they are going to. Now I’m looking back to the old me after reading my “letter to myself” and I’m thinking how young and foolish I was at that time. When I came back to Tilburg I felt really different, I felt kind of depressed because I thought that I changed a lot and society didn’t. It happens but it will over soon, I believe that, just take the good things of yourself after you changed. kept thinking that I wasn’t the only one who experienced it. Maybe now it sounds too fluffy for everyone to hear this.. AIESEC life changing experience is not a promotional thing, it’s not a myth.. it’s not a fairytale.. it happened to me and to million people out there.
P.S. This picture is a homemade Palinka, Hungarian traditional drink. If you’re going to Hungary, put it on your list that you have to try a sip of this ;)
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