About my travel and first week in Romania.
If people asked me for how long I have wanted this, I would say that I don’t know. Forever, probably.
I think I have always wanted to travel abroad. Even if the plan wasn’t clear for a long time, even if as a child I didn’t know anything about volunteering or long-term services in foreign countries, there was always the notion, the knowledge that one day I would leave for an adventure somewhere around the world. Now that the moment has come, I don’t realise quite well what is going on. But that is for later.
Like every one of us on this planet, Covid and 2020 have thrown all our plans away. Luckily for me, I didn’t really have one, except going somewhere. I had to volunteer in France for a year instead, which was really nice too, but as soon as things calmed down a bit, I saw the opportunity and took it.
Prior to covid, I was able to travel to Moldova for 3 months, and that allowed me to realise 2 things :
- One: I would totally be able to do this on a larger scale. Like a full-year stay.
- Two: This part of the world seemed interesting; why not explore it more?
And so, I found this opportunity for volunteering abroad in Romania for a whole year. Without really believing in anything, I applied. Three weeks later, I was departing to Timișoara without realising what was happening.
Since I never seem to do things the usual way, I took the bus instead of the plane. It was great because it really seemed that I was travelling. I felt the distance, I saw the gradual change of my reality until I lost all my marks and was really in a foreign environment. It was also very stressful and complicated, but that was part of the adventure. In retrospect, I’m glad I did it this way.
But the only real emotion I felt when I finally arrived and met everyone was relief. I was exhausted after all this stress and two days of non-stop travel. My following first week was healing. I arrived at a time where lots of people were on vacation. It allowed me to ease gradually into the environment, get used to things at my pace, learn about this new place, take care of all the administrative paperwork…
I came at the perfect time, both in this project and in my life.
Time to see what the future hold for me. Now, I will just let myself be carried by this project, this place, these people, like I always do.
But this time, I know for sure: I’m in the right place.