My AIESEC experience started when I was invited by Denitsa to do an internship in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria, after being matched and after a long VISA process I finally got my Visa on September 18th and decided to start my journey on Sept 21st.
When I was waiting for my flight, at the gate I knew that I was leaving so many things behind in Mexico like my family, friendsand I was going to start a completely new experience.
Finally I arrived at Sofia after running and running from one gate to another to catch my next flight. I was expecting sb from AIESEC to be there but no AIESECers instead I found an old man with my name on a paper. Somehow I told him that I was Tania and I realized that he didn’t speak English at all. Finally I arrived at VT and Deni and Toshko were here to welcome me. They made me feel at home with the Mexican decorations in the flat.
I arrived on a very special day, it was the Bulgarian Independence Day, this was my first cultural shock since I had celebrated the Mexican Independence just one week before.
I went with Toshko and Deni to Tsaravets, on the way we met lots of AIESECers, this was so weird, how can you meet all your friends on the streets. Finally we arrived at Tsaravets, with the light and sound show it was very beautiful indeed, although I most confess that it is completely different to the way we celebrate in Mexico, in Mexico there is always some music, people dancing, dressed in our national colours, some with big “sombreros” lots of fireworks, and people are partying everywhere and over here it was just the light and sound show and after that people went to a restaurant or home.
The first days I must confess were very tough for me, this is the first time I go abroad all alone, the first time I live away from my family. People who know me know that I am too expressive, emotional and sensitive, although I reckon I used to be more before coming to Bulgaria.
Fortunately I got used to almost everything through time, I knew that I was the “stranger” in this society so it was me the one who had to adapt and not viceversa. I know that comparing is something normal for the human being so when I made the comparison between VT and Mexico I came across with tons of different things.
My first week in VT was so exciting, we had a global village, I remember everybody was so busy with this, and I could hardly understand what was going on, anyway I liked it very much, meeting a lot of people and all with the same purpose. I am glad I could experience several AIESEC conferences and seminars where I met a lot of people from different countries.
Travelling in Bulgaria is great, especially if you do it in the student´s way which is hitchhiking. At the beginning I was kind of afraid of it due to the fact that it is very dangerous to do it in Mexico, well nobody does it indeed. My first hitchhike was with Denitsa and Toshko, it was so cool, we were trying to go to Varna. Toshko´s parents took us to the highway and there we waited for 2 hours until finally a truckp picked us.
It was a Turkish driver who didn’t really take us to Varna but to the International Crossroad, that time we couldn´t make it to Varna but to Bourgas with Bobby. He really made our day that night, his family was so nice, they prepared some especial bread and we drank delicious Rakia and the next day they took us to Sozopol which was awesome, with so beautiful landscapes with old traditional Bulgarian houses.
My second hitchhike was with Nasko, once again we wanted to go to Varna, hopefully this time we made it even though it was very late that day. There was an AIESEC conference and I met the newees who made me a lot of questions related to the internships, I liked very much to share my experience over there, after that we partied a lot and had a blast.
I also enjoyed very much the Congress in Sofia for the new members in Bulgaria, I had so much fun over there and it was nice to dance all those AIESEC dances and to meet Rafa who is another trainee from Brazil.Rafa came to VT some weeks later and we organized a Latin party, which was so great, I felt almost at home, and we tried to teach the Bulgarians some latin dances I had a lot of fun and he got a very good image from LC VT :D .
Going to Svishtov was also another very good experience, I had the opportunity to know that windy city and spend some time with AIESECers from there and also with some other not AIESECers.
Unfortunately not everything was been that easy and exciting. I faced a very difficult time at work, where I had no project assigned, no computer provided, no space, I was wondering why they raised my TN if they had nothing for me, I even tried to get myself some work to do by helping the brokers or Mark the manager for the International Office. I got kind of disappointed of the way people worked in the office. I dare to say that I was even planning to go back straight to Mexico because I thought there was no point of me being here.
Well December was full of parties, we had a great party at the AIESEC flat called Queen and Kings party, we had lots of fun that day, we were actually celebrating Student´s Day, and kind of welcome party for our Kyrgyztanian trainees who arrived the next day. Finally our girls arrived, for me it was very good because having another intern at home makes things easier, since we as foreigners have a different perspective of the country and way of living, I like it because it also allows me to know more cultures and at certain point you don´t feel that alone. At work things seemed to get better, we went to Sofia for the REMAX Christmas Party.
Spending Christmas far away from home is not very easy, because I usually spend this day with my family and we have turkey for dinner. I liked the Bulgarian Christmas as well. A typical Bulgarian Christma´s dinner consists of 7 different dishes without meat, and then the 25th they eat meat. Denny´s family is so funny and I enjoyed spending Xmas with them although I could not stop thinking of my family and my adorable dogs haha.
January arrived and the thing I tried to avoid for several months finally arrived. RE/MAX told us that we had to go to Bankso, this time I was not so sad with the idea of going to Bansko because this time I wasn´t going alone. Our life in Bansko was not very exciting, we used to work even at weekends, and we only had 3 days off every two weeks, we never skied and we only went out twice during our stay in Bankso. But I enjoyed this time becaust it allowed me to get to know Nelly and Uliana better, they are the best friends ever, we spent a lot of time together we were like sisters, the three of us were very different.
Unfortunately, things didn´t work out and they decided to close the office. At this time I had a lot of mixed feelings, on the one hand I was happy because we were going back to VT, on the other hand when they told us that our internship was over I knew that I had to move on and I was going to Mexico sooner than I expected.
Now that we have a new trainee from Canada I feel sometimes like the big sister, since I´ve been here longer and know how things work over here. I also try to make them feel at home and help them a little bit with the cultural shock.
Finally the end arrived and Nelly and I had our last GM with almost all the LC which was very cool, over there we could say goodbye to all our LC. It was so sad but at the same time so good to be with all of them. Finally one day before I left Bulgaria, Boyko prepared some delicious Spaghetti for me, and I met some friends like, Deni, Toshko, Boyko and Rali who helped me a lot in the beginning of my internship. There are so many people I would like to thank like Ani, Bobby, Nasko, Bo ( thanks for the help in Plovdiv), The Macedonian guys, Pavkata,Tisho, Rado well all the LC, thanks for this wonderful experience!!!!!!!!!
