Disclaimer: This blog post was brought to you with the help of the ever so lovely Hey Ocean!'s Make A New Dance Up.
"A dream you dream alone is only a dream; a dream you dream together is reality." John Lennon
Allow me to introduce you to the other players in this game of "explore the world."
The Basics:
I will be working with three other interns, Anastsiya, Jorge, and Loes.
The project manager who selected me for this project is Emese.
The current VPICX (Vice President of Incoming Exchange) for their chapter is Lajos.
I'm still called Kiandra.
This picture was taken our first time meeting each other. We then proceeded to purposefully get lost in the city of Szeged just to see if we could A.) find anything to eat, and B.) find our way back home. Both missions were successful. We have decided, since then, that we will all take a selfie every day to commemorate the clever stroke of fate that brought us all together on this internship this summer. I think someone is supposed to make a slideshow or something...and since I have all the selfies, I suppose I'll be making the slideshow. No big.
Meet Anastsiya.
This lovely lady is Anastsiya. However, she'd prefer you call her Nastya. Nastya is a 19 year old Junior who is studying at Yale Univeristy in the United States, but she's originally from Russia and plans to go back to Russia as soon as she graduates. She often finds herself torn between majoring in mathematics or physics (a debate I do not have as much difficulty with). She is one of the sweetest people I have ever met, apologizing profusely for even the smallest things. Nastya is very, very interested (read: obsessed) with a game called SET. I haven't quite figured it out yet, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it sooner or later. (If you'd like to give it a whirl, you can play here.) Nastya and I share a bed, at least until our housing situation gets worked out. At night, we find ourselves watching random TV shows, watching Donnie Darko (not recommended at night), or just talking about classes. Nastya is a pretty classic individual with a dark sense of humor. It only makes sense that we get along.
Meet Jorge.
Jorge would prefer you call him George. George is another one of the trainees on this project, the only guy. He, like Nastya and I, is a Junior. He's a bit older than us (something Nastya likes to remind him of consistently) at the ripe old age of 21. He's Mexican, from the same LC as some of the people I met when I was in Panama in April (AIESEC UNAM). George is a pretty quiet guy. He laughs a lot though, so he makes me feel like I'm funnier than I actually am. However, when he has something that he wants to talk about, he will definitely speak up. So far, I've learned that when George was younger, his list of career choices ranged from professional wrestler (complete with colorful face masks; think: Lucha Libre with a tie-dye kit), to baseball player, to soccer star. He's also an avid supporter of Grand Prix racing. Our first night here, he was quite enthralled by the race as one of the Mexican racers he supported when around the track 70 times. The race concluded, and according to George, "it was not a good race for the Mexicans." I like George. He's a funny guy.
Meet Loes.
Of the three other trainees, I know the least about Loes. That could be due to the fact that A) I only met her 30 minutes before writing this blog post about her, and B) she is not staying in the flat with us tonight. So let me tell you what I do know about Loes. First off, you're probably reading her name wrong. It's not Low-es, it's Low-sh. She's from the Netherlands, but not from Amsterdam or Rotterdam. She's from Utrecht. From what I currently understand, she isn't an AIESEC member, just an EP like Nastya. Loes seems like a free spirit. She decided to walk to the flat that she was staying in without an umbrella even though the rain was pretty heavy because the rain was refreshing. I don't know many people who would make a decision like that, so Loes got a couple cool points for that in my book. More on Loes in later posts as I figure out what she's all about. She wraps up the trainee section though. Long live TMASFYTE!
Meet Emese.
Emese is another person I don't know a lot about yet, but I'll tell you what I do know so far. Emese typically goes by Mesi (that's Meshi, not Messy). If you think about Summer for Youth--the project I'm doing--as an Organizing Committee project, then Mesi was/is the Organizing Committee President. It was her email that was attached to the TN form for this project, so she was the wise soul that put us four interns together. I've only met Mesi once thus far, but she ordered me a pizza with ham, cheese, and corn on it, and it was delicious. As far as I'm concerned, she's a cool lady. Oh! She's also the next LCVPICX for AIESEC Szeged, so whoever my successor is should keep Mesi in mind for future exchanges with Hungary.
Meet Lajos.
Lajos, or as he's more commonly known, Lali, is the current LCVPICX of AIESEC Szeged (at least until his term ends in July). It was Lali who picked me up at the train station when I first arrived in Szeged, and we've pretty much clicked since then. Lali's a 22 year old fourth year about to graduate from Szeged University after studying biology. Lali keeps some of his chemistry homework on his wall, so that was an initial point of contention. He's been allowing us to stay in his flat for a few days while our housing situation got worked out. I don't think his flatmate is quite as fond of us as he is. However, that may have something to do with the fact that it's currently exam period for Szeged, and everyone is more than a little stressed out (expect Lali who hasn't done much studying; who needs to study when you have AIESEC work to do?) I think Lali and I get along well because he not only appreciates my dry and sarcastic humor, he can often throw it back at me. Wit is a trait that I really appreciate in my friends. We've discussed many random things in these past few days. I could tell you what animal he'd like to be, what country he'd go to given the chance, and about his lack of knowledge of United States geography. Lali likes to make fun of me for being "underage" according to American standards, so anytime we drink beer (which happens about as often as you probably think it does), he makes a comment on it. I let it slide only because he teaches me how to say obscenities in Hungarian. But I'm a fast learner, once the teaching stops, I'm upping the sass levels.
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Well, that's the crew, if you're still reading you either really miss me, or you're really bored (it's probably not the latter).
Other benchwarmers will be introduced as necessary.