As I said, my stay was very insightful because I had the chanceto learn so many things.
One of them was how to live with other people and build a community. It was all new to mebecauseexcepttheyearbeforeinFrance,IalwayslivedwithmymominMartinique.Asaresult,Ihadtoadapttothelivingsituation.Iwaslivingwith5otherpeopleinahugehousenexttoouroffice. I stayed in the same place for the entire year but I had to see my roommates leave fromtime to time because their staying was shorter than mine but others were replacing them aswell. It was heartbreaking in the beginning but I got used to it.
I think i lived with 13 different people in the span of the year.What was really cool is that by living with them and because of COVID,I shared so many moment with each of them.I miss those small moments like for instance,I would be in the kitchen cookingand singing, and then someonecomes and we would talk about anything, laugh or just saying bullshit. So simple yet so nice. I also remember havinga lot of movie nights or series binge watching with them. They even forced me to watch Harry Potter for the first time ahah!
I genuinely felt I found a second family.
I also shared a lot of memories with the other volunteers. We were a big group of 25 people, and everyday I would see at least one of them because they had to work in the office or some of them would crash in our house to talk. In those moments, I really felt the spirit of a community and as any group we also had our traditions like going to the ONLY bar in the city almost every Thursday for the famous karaokenight. We would have drinks,wewould sing until our throatshurt and have a blast. Those gatherings solidified the group and creatednice bonds betweeneach other.
Challenges were a part of "the deal" that we sign.
However, we also experienced some challenges. Obviously living or working with that many people cannot always be perfect and sometimes we would clash. It can get tricky because you could have an argument with someone at work and then carry it on the way home. But also having volunteers coming from all over Europe, and seeing the world in various ways would create some intense discussions. We had many fights, many disagreements, some major, others not so much. But it is a part of the deal that we sign. I personally try to stay away from drama as much as i can, even though i love some gossip ahah but i also had my share of inconvenience, anger and fights.
Those moments taught me as well that as much as i am entitled to my view and opinion, others are as well. But also, as much as i can think I'm right in an argument sometimes it doesn't matter. If someone firmly believes in something that I don't agree with, there is nothingmuch I can do about it. I can try to convincethe other party butif we both stick to our values, then we can only "agree to disagree". I will say that this idea has its limit regarding any social issues like discrimination or racism which is for me not a debatable subject. Otherwise, I think that in situations like this, the best thing I did was to say my piece and move on. All of that to say that toleranceis important and goes in so many ways. I really re-evaluate my degree of tolerance throughout my journey here.
my house felt like a safe place for me. It really felt like a home.
As a community we also had to face COVID, we were quarantined just like everybody else for two months. It really affected our work and it demotived me to do anything honestly. We were supposed to go to schools, make workshops for kids and all of that was just stopped. I also really hoped that once I would be able to walk again, I could participate as well in those activities but COVID's crisis shut that down real quick. As a result we had to change our activities and make them fit social media platforms. It wasn't the greatest but the best we could do considering the context.On a personal note,the whole COVID/quarantine situation was absolutely fine. Ironically i was already in a sort of quarantine since i couldn't move that much with my broken leg ahah. It also allows me to enjoy the presenceof my roommates more and to developmy hobbies such as paintingor drawing that I still practice to this day.
I also felt aroundMarch that I was adjusting well to Sighisoara, my house felt like a safe place for me and I was also a lot more comfortable in my surroundings. It really felt like a home. Also, my leg was healingproperly and by the end of May I could walk a short distance!!
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