It is October 31st
2019 and for the first time in my life I leave my city for a prolonged period
of time. I get a coffee from the non-stop outside my house, say my goodbyes, go
with my parents to the airport, kiss them farewell and go on my adventure. I
went from SKG Thessaloniki to Athens airport and there after waiting for a
couple of hours I flew to Serbia. In Belgrade, just outside the airport, a kind
man was waiting for me holding a paper that had my name on it.
Naturally, after the long
trip I wanted to smoke a cigarette, but we were inside the car. Being the
pantomime virtuoso that I am, I manage to ask the driver if I can smoke inside
the car. He waives yes. Then I ask for a lighter and ask for the Romanian word
for it. For those who don’t know it is brigheta,
and it’s the first Romanian word that I learnt. I’m not gonna get too deep into
the discussion that I had with the driver with whom I had no common language,
but some of the other words that I learnt were masina, pulla, pitzipoanca and
cât costă.
At around 8 in the night I arrived at
my new house. It was raining heavily at the time and I was just rushing to get
inside. The first person I saw was the manager of the project, Daniel, but at
the time I didn’t know who I was speaking to. He introduced me to three lovely
girls, who back then were just new faces to me. It was Caroline, Gizem and
Paola. They were very sweet and welcoming and they gave me space and time to
get set up and relax. My roommate was back in his home country at the time.
I was cleaning my room and unpacking.
I was listening to music and wasn’t really paying attention, but I started to
notice people coming in the house. I didn’t really mind, and I didn’t want to
object or anything, so I just played it cool and did my thing. At around 10-11
I come out of the room to smoke a cigarette. I see the colorful party lights
reflecting on the hall mirror and as I enter the room the warmth and noise
alerts me of a crowd of people awaiting me. I enter the living room and see
around 20 pairs of eyes staring at me and immediately upon impact the amorphous
blob of young adults start cheering and clapping. My reaction was probably
underwhelming as I didn’t introduce myself properly, I just raised my hand,
said hello, and started talking to the first person I saw. We drank a lot that
night and I talked with around 5-6 people that night.
Next morning, I wanted to drink my
coffee and, you know, get set. I see the girls packing bags and I was thinking
like, “Nice good for them, they are going on a trip”. I ask them where they are
going and they tell me
“We are going to Coronini for the
weekend. It’s a village near Serbia.”
I answer “Ah, nice.”
I make my coffee, breakfast, roll my cigarette
and chill in the living room, contemplating my new life. All of a sudden Gizem
tells me
“Aide Sp-sp-sp Spider get ready we
need to leave!”
I was a bit baffled. “Why are you waiting for
me?”, “
“We are going on the trip I told
you!”
“Me too? Shit…”
“You have 10 minutes max… Hurry!”
I hadn’t unpacked my bag the night
before and I now had to get ready for a trip in 10 minutes. I chose to take the
whole bag. Needless to say I made an excellent impression on everyone and my
decision was applauded by all as rational and smart.
What I learnt in Coronini: My name is
apparently hard to pronounce. I am not good at bluffing games. That Serbia and
Romania have different time zones. The names and the faces of all the
volunteers and coordinating staff of Nevo. Also met my roommate Karolina.
The only thing that wasn’t so good
for me was one thing. Coronini is close to the Danube and it’s a humid windy
place. It was pretty cold, around 5 degrees. In Greece before I left, it was
around 25. So yeah, I got a bit sick. It took me legit 1 week to get better
because my weak lungs could not take the change of temperature and the amount
of social smoking that I was practicing.
So that’s mostly it about Coronini.
If you think about it, it was a pretty wild 72 hours. Got home, got a welcome
party, went to a village in the border of Serbia, got a bit embarrassed, got a
bit sick, met my flatmates, met 25 volunteers and coordinators, ate mamaliga,
got back home and got ready to start my first week.
