Giuliana és a magyarok

Giuliana bejegyzéséből kiderül, hogy miért szimpatikusak a magyarok a számára és mi közünk a kókuszdióhoz. Decemberi első havazás és hóember építés, januári filozofálás, angolul, dióhéjban Erasmus+ önkéntesünk második bejegyzése.

December

I don't know if Santa is real,  but if he is I know where  all the old present are brought, to Filantropia Charity Shop, and who has to find them a place? This girl over here, sometimes I just feel like an elf.

Nevertheless, It was a nice month, the city was full of “bipolar snow”  because you can see every three hours how it gets melt again. Even though I made my first snowman named Manolo, sadly he was murdered by a random human. 

I received from my boss my first Santa's chocolate for the Szent Mikulás  day, I felt like a kid again, also  Ági the sweetest girl that help us in the shop bringing us chocolates and Christmas cards, I've  realized that Hungarians like to give chocolates for any reason, I like to believe even during funerals.

Other of the things I really like about this association are the events, every month we find a reason to celebrate  something and  every two weeks I find an excuse to bake a cake, for example this month we have  the Christmas party.

January

Why Hungarians are szimpatikus:

The first person that thinks the Hungarian population is not nice are Hungarians. Every time I said that people in  this county has treating me really well I receive a lot of bad faces and sometimes they offered me psychological help.

I know what you are  thinking  but I'm not crazy, not that much. Yes, they are serious, bad dancers, silent, quiet,  and sometimes  unfriendly, but must at all when you said “I don't speak Hungarian” yes I've been received compliments like “get out from my country” “why you don't speak Hungarian” “kurva” and more romantic things but that is just a little tiny percent of the population.

Instead I've met with really nice people, like our neighbors, persons in supermarket lines, lovely woman who bring us cookies to the shop, all of them answered me with a smile when I told them that I don't speak Hungarian, Tami who brings sweetness to our lives, Ádám the guy from the books, Julia who  laughs  and just makes our day, Orsi who always has a vegan story to tell, Gyöngyi my mentor who wants me to save the world and use washable straws or my boss who teaches me that doesn't matter how crazy a person is you have to give it a chance. 

I got to this conclusion during a dinner with my not Hungarian friends, we realized that one big part of the population is like a peach, soft, nice and sweet, easy to eat until you get to the seed, and face a personality change, Hungarians work differently: they are like coconuts difficult to open but when you break the shell you get a coconut oil. 

In conclusion, people it's people doesn't matter where they from or which language they speak, they can be good or bad, peaches or coconuts, not more than this. 

Olvass tovább

Giulianas adventures in Filantrópia

Nálunk hagyomány, hogy az Erasmus+ önkéntesek blogot vezetnek az önkéntes szolgálatuk alatt, ami több célt is szolgál, az egyik, hogy tudatosan, reflexszíven vegyenek részt a tanulási folyamatban, másrészt jó visszajelzés a számunkra is, ráadásul néha kifejezetten jókat nevetünk az önkénteseink megállapításain. Giuliana fél éve érkezett hozzánk Olaszországból, ahová néhány hónappal korábban Venezuelából települt át. Összetett identitása van, családja egyik része olasz, másik része szír, ő Venezuelában született és nevelkedett, önmagát olaszként határozza meg, az európia létet és mindennapokat nálunk tanulja, tapasztalja. (Ezek az infók fontosak ahhoz, hogy például érteni lehessen Giuliana félelmeit.) Eddigi élményeit foglalta össze angolul, amit két részletben fogunk megosztani veletek, fogadjátok szeretettel!

September 

 My first month in Budapest was amazingly scary, I felt part of a Hitchcock thriller, sincerely I didn't know what to expect about this adventure. 

I was pretty sure about the project, I fell in love with it in the very moment I read the description, but after being accepted a lot of things changed: being a volunteer has positive and negative aspects, requires skills and taking responsibilities. 

At the beginning it felt a bit uncomfortable to being welcome by strangers. The first thought that I have was "I'm gonna end in the Chinese black market without a kidney". But the people that I thought would have kill me, ended to be really kind and, if you are reading my blog I'm glad to let you know that I still have my kidney. 

One of my other fear was the Hungarian language. The Hungarian is not easy to understand nether to learn; I already have a lot of problems trying to learn it. But is funny to see everybody laughing when I said something completely wrong. I work in a charity shop in Budapest, my work is awesome we receive donations of any kind from clothes to alive snails, so yes, you can find everything in that little tiny store, also because every two minutes you can hear somebody screaming from the door "donation!". 

My coworkers have differents types of abilities, as understanding each other without speaking the same language, dealing with Hungarian clients not knowing how to speak hungarian, or challenging "Newton's law" creating mountains of clothes up to the sky. 

So yes, in this month my volunteering prepared me to hundred of things and teach me thousands more such as there are Hitchcock movies with happy endings and not everybody in this world wants to steal a kidney from you. 

October 

Somebody stole my cell phone. 

In October I learn to be more careful, be more patient and keep calm when a Hungarian Policeman tells you that your cell phone "is neither expensive or new enough" to complain about it. 

In other news, I had the chance to meet the other volunteers of Hungary. The training was a mix between long hours of games, evaluation of ourself and our works and getting you know each other's. 

At the beginning it was really awkward being there with a lot of strangers, but it was nice knowing people that decide to take the same path as you and with that the same problems. 

One of the things we found on a common ground with the other volunteers was that sometimes our ideas are not completely being listened by our association, in other particular cases strange coworkers, bosses that doesn't believe in us or just treat us like mere employees. 

Nevertheless, those unknown faces ended to be really nice, the training helped us and gave us lessons and in the end of the week we were running all over Budapest performing every task we have been assigned to, dancing Hungarian folk dance and toasting with palinka in the night. 

November 

My job in the shop varies, from taking new donations, organizing the clothes, cleaning, preventing Sara (my coworker) from play Bastille ones again, writing and correcting the board three times a day because I still think that Kedd (Tuesday) is with double E, taking pictures during every event of the store and of course about every new object, which we are receiving every five minutes, also but not less important defending my right of playing for the umpteenth time "All I want for Christmas it's you" 

We received all kinds of donations, normally if the bags are big people call us first and ask for permission. Sometimes we wait for few bags and instead we received a camion full of two meters tall boxes... that boxes were taller than me! That time we didn't even know what to do, we could communicate with the driver just with hands signs, we decided to take just four boxes and we sent back the others. The worst decision ever! :They were full of art and customers got crazy and wanted to buy all of them and we still crying and regretting that we've sent back the other ten boxes. 

On a beautiful morning I was in the middle of a pretty romantic moment with a slice of pizza when my boss called me upset asking were I was because it was 10:50 and the shop would of been opened in five minutes, Advice for myself: Kedd it's Tuesday not Wednesday. It was 

the first time I saw my boss upset and I didn't blame her, I spent the rest of the day telling her that I was sorry even if she already forgave me. 

In other news I traveled to Belgrade with other volunteers from Hungary, even do we spent twelve hours sitting in a bus with a bunch of strange, drunk and hippie people, a Serbian policeman shouted at me without any reason, we almost lost the return bus and I woke up the next day with my boss phone call asking me "are you alive?" It was a really interesting and fun adventure that I will never regret. 

Olvass tovább