On Arrival Training

Today I am going to talk about an experience that has made me realize many things that I did not take into account, which have made me reflect on everything that today I must improve in those aspects that I consider important to become better person, I will talk about my On Arrival Training.

My story begins in a 12-hour night train to Bucharest, in which I was accompanied by my friend Azik, who is also my room and project partner. You could say we were lucky since we were alone in a 6-person car, which made that long trip more comfortable and bearable. After about 12 long hours of travel we were in Bucharest at 6 in the morning, which means we had to wait until three in the afternoon to access our hotel room. We decided to do some sightseeing around the city, but unfortunately we could not see much due to the thick morning fog that covered all the streets, yet it was a pleasant walk and a way to relax the nerves I had for everything that this experience supposed that had not yet begun.

That same afternoon we already had our rooms, and the hotel was full of volunteers waiting for the introductory meeting that would take place that same day at night. I was nervous and did not want to stay in the room, so I decided to go buy a couple of things at the mall that was near the hotel hoping to meet a volunteer and start meeting people. Coincidentally, when I returned to the hotel, I seemed to hear people speaking Spanish and I approached to speak and make sure they were volunteers, and that was the case, it was a Spanish girl, a French girl and a Turkish girl, with whom I was talking all the way back. With this first contact my initial nerves dissipated a little and I was more predisposed and safe to start meeting many more people.

That same night after dinner I met a group of Spanish girls, who would be the people with whom I would have more relationship throughout that week. It was a girl from Madrid, a girl from the Basque Country, a girl from Valencia and an Italian, and we went with them that night to hang out and get to know each other better. The next morning the activities began, which were carried out in separate groups of about 25 people, and coincidentally in my group was one of the Spanish girls, but I didn't know any other person.

As far as activities are concerned, I simply want to say that they were very useful for me, since most of us had to work and collaborate with a lot of people that you didn't know about at all, which helped me to know how to adapt more quickly to new people and be more open in that regard. We could say that it was a great learning experience in terms of social skills.

Every day after the activities we had free time to spend it as we wanted, and normally most of the volunteers agreed to go out together and get to know each other better while we had fun. And in my opinion this was the best of the whole experience since every day I met a lot of people from different countries with different cultures, from whom I learned a lot about different aspects and could hear different points of view about personal issues that currently concern me.

In conclusion, I would like to emphasize that this experience is very rewarding and useful for making friends around the country in which you are volunteering. Wherever you go you will have people who will help you and will be happy to receive you in their cities.

#EUvolleyballScience #EUsolidarityCorps #alejandro