Intercultural dialogue

An Unforgettable Month

The project took place in:

Belgium

Other SCI experience

Written by Angela Aleksandrovska from North Macedonia

February 2015

They asked me “How do you feel now after one month on the internship?” and I didn’t know what to answer…
So many feelings collected in one place I just need so much time to describe them. It’s something impossible to forget, something impossible to believe in, extraordinary, something you will never experience again. This internship is part of a self-discovery, an incredible experience where you can discover your other side, where you can fulfil your dreams, dreams that you’ve thought that will never come true. I definitely fulfilled one of my dreams – my dream to visit one of the most beautiful countries in Europe – Belgium.

It’s perfect! A new country, a new culture, tradition, people.. I couldn’t imagine myself alone in a position like this, working, having fun with strangers that I just meet.. amazing. I’m in Antwerp, old and peaceful, tiny and charming, a town full with a feeling of great pleasure and happiness. No words can describe such an amazing city, with generous, funny, friendly and amazing people as Antwerp. I wasn’t sure that I can be brave enough for a trip and life like this one – living alone, cooking alone, working, partying and learning a lot of new and different things. I learned how to cook couscous, Spanish gazpacho, tortilla… I learned how to edit something on Wikipedia and insert it, to make posters for the workcamps and workshops, I learned new things about organizations that I didn’t even know existed. I made a lot of presentations, helped with the finances (I had no idea that you could do stuff like that in the organization) and of course tried a lot of beers! I think Antwerp is the city with the best beer in the world. One of my biggest challenges was to make a survey for the Alumni Initiative, that was definitely something new for me and I didn’t know that I could make something like that. I also wanted to learn Dutch during my internship, but it’s very very hard, I don’t know if I can still manage to learn it in this short period.

I can say that I am very happy and lucky to be here, I don’t have anymore words to describe this, definitely love it, it’s the best thing in my life.
An unforgettable month!

Angela Aleksandrovska, from Macedonia, Internship at the International Secretariat of SCI as part of the project “First Work Experience for Lifelong Success“, funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission (2015). 

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