Why Romania? And why with AIESEC? These were the most asked questions when I told people about my plans to go abroad again. The second question was easy to answer because I worked for 2,5 years in AIESEC. The first one: Well it was coincidence. I just planned to go to an Eastern European country and the only reason why it was Romania was the date of the internship. It was a really nice coincidence.

Arriving in Cluj some people were already waiting for me to pick me up from the airport.

  From the beginning on people took really care of me and were very friendly, so I felt warmly welcome from the beginning of my time in Cluj. Cluj has a lot of international trainees. In the first days I met people from New Zealand, Greece, Ukraine, Poland, Azerbaijan, Puerto Rico, Hongkong, UK, Georgia, Turkey and Moldova. We also had a big global village in Julius Mall to present AIESEC and to get to know each other.

In my internship more…

Romania and New Zealand may be very far apart geographically, but being on exchange here has made me realise that it is not the world is not so small – and despite differences in culture, it is the actions of people that are important. I arrived in Romania not knowing anyone, but immediately felt at home thanks to my friends at AIESEC Cluj Napoca.

 My birthday was one day after I arrived in Cluj Napoca – but still, the LC threw me a surprise party, something I will never forget. The LC arranged group trips to sightsee around Cluj and there was never a moment where I felt lonely or without someone to talk to.

For 6 weeks, I worked on a development internship with disadvantaged children in Cluj, gaining work experience with a Romanian NGO. It is expected that there will be some challenges when working in a different country, more…