My first three days. (Part I)

04 Lis My first three days. (Part I)

I arrived on Sunday 22nd of September. For me it was a hard day because the week before it was kind of stressing too. I only had seven days to arrange everything before arriving to Slaný. Burocrazy things, luggage (this is really funny when you are spending one year of your life abroad and the airplane company only let you bring 23 kg in your baggage. You have to choose wisely. You have to fight with the zip. A lot. But thanks to “Tetris” I can say it was “mission acomplished”), also I had to say goodbye to so many people, and the night before at Copenaghen airport I thought the company had lost my luggage somewhere, so I couldn’t sleep. As I said, it was a hard week.

When I arrived to Czech Republic, Zuzana and Tereza (two ICM volunteers) were waiting for me to bring me to Slaný. It was refreshing, I should say, and they helped me a lot. But after few hours together, I had to go to my new flat alone.

My first night was uneasy for me. I missed some things in the house due to some contingencies and also I was alone because Levon, the other volunteer, didn’t arrive till few weeks after me. So I was alone in a new flat, with no one, in a foreign country and without being able to comunicate with my friends and family. I’ve been living away from my hometown six years till now already, so I couldn’t understand why I had those hard hours. Maybe it was related with my expectations, with the previous week and the day before and everything exploded in my head.

Fortunately, after few hours, my mentor Zuzana came to my flat to visit me. She brought a couple of beers (I don’t know if it’s supposed I can say this) and a lot of positive energy. We were talking for a long time even though she just arrived from a long trip, and I really appreciated that. After she left, my mood changed completely and I started to understand the role of a mentor. I slept like a log.

The next day, I met Iveta, my coordinator. She helped me with all the practical things I needed to know/do/etc, like the way to work, which I think it wasn’t  necessary ‘cause I came here to party, of course. But the thing is, she helped me with all the necessary stuff and made things easier for me, even though the unexpected issues like no-fridge (but I could handle to go to restaurants in Slaný and to taste different plates. Hard work. No doubt). Although of my fast-empty-pocket, this sort of situations makes you appreciate more little things. You may think it’s a cliché (and it’s true even this kind of important and deep thoughts are forgotten very fast unfortunately), but I’m not a queen and I don’t need a castle with servants (I didn’t expect that so, either), and when we aren’t at home, we forget easily that most of the things we have are not basic things but luxury ones. That makes you humble, or sort of.

After the whole morning arranging things for the flat and for my EVS service, I met Míša, the other co-worker. She just came from the United States and brought with her a box with fortune cookies. She gave me one and the message inside was this: “A CHANCE MEETING WITH A STRANGER MAY SOON CHANGE YOUR LIFE”.