I came to Spain because I wanted to improve my knowledge in the international field. My internship is suppose to help me apply the information I learned through my studies. What I didn't think about before was that in this period I am trying to apply the Western style of teaching in Romanian methods of work. It's been a month since I've been in the embassy, between well-trained people. Unlike Ukraine, the people in this embassy are young and easier to communicate with. The work and procedure though it's pretty slow. This month I didn't have so much to work with...just translations, studies, a few meetings at the ministries and culture houses and reading the media daily, for news about Romanians. The problem is that people are on holidays in this period. I was expecting this, but I thought that they would still find something interesting for me to do. Till now I didn't apply any of the stuff I've been learning, but I learned a lot of great new stuff...which also applies to daily life...like paying super attention in everything you do. I begged them to send me to the consulate also...and because I perused and stressed them out they took me there today. The first thing I saw was a priest somewhere close to the consulate’s building, begging for money for the church. The image continued with people lying on the grass across the street in the shadow...waiting to come in. Inside there was noise...a thing that was missing at the embassy. Everybody seemed to be talking at the same time. I realised that I was behind the cashier’s office. They took me inside a room full of papers and registers. A woman greeted me...she said that she knows me from somewhere...and she actually has the same family name as me. She told me to sit and gave me one of the registers...for 9 hours I wrote down numbers and names of people applying for papers to go home. Because it's holidays and they want to go to Romania they realise that their legal forms have expired and they need new ones...and since the Consulate is the place where they are being released, this is where they come. People work together here more, and so the atmosphere is very different. I don't know if I like it more or not...but at least I get to observe the people from the diaspora. They tried to do the whole system by computers, but some people didn't agree, so even if the ambassador thinks that computers do everything, people write down everything by hand.
I will be here for one month at least...I will see...but I don't think I will stay there for 9 or 10 hours everyday.