EVS Stories: ONE SUPA DAY (III) – by Baptiste Venegas

Hello. I think that I could speak about many days but I will talk about this day because, since I am here, this one had a real meaning for me and this day is CHRISTMAS DAY. Let’s begin!

So, in the morning I woke up at 10, I didn’t eat, almost like every morning. It’s rare that I do so in the morning. Anyway, I said hello to Ilyas and Maria which were already prepared for that day, Maria was cooking for her party with the volunteers and Ilyas was preparing to go out. Next, I was watching my face in the mirror laughing at that morning hair style. I was also preparing my stuffs for this day, my outfits, well everything.

In the afternoon, I went to the flat of Mihaly and Dora, a couple of Hungarians which are living in Romania since they are children. Those guys are, since I am here, so amazing with me: dressing me for winter, cooking for me and teaching me how to cook their traditional food. There, I met the parents of Mihaly, that speak both Romanian and Spanish because they used to live in Spain years ago and Mihaly even studied there for a while. Afterwards, we started wrapping the presents and decorating the Christmas tree.

It was a very special day for me because I don’t have any memories about Christmas with both of my parents, knowing they broke up when I was a child. This atmosphere was really different than what I was used to in France. Not better but completely different and really comfortable.

When we were ready, we went with Mihaly and Dora to Baia Sprie to celebrate Christmas with Dora’s grandparents, meanwhile the parents of Mihaly were in a different place with his sister. They cooked traditional Christmas food for me and they were singing next to the Christmas tree. They offered me a lot of presents and I was really stressed about the present that I was about to offer to Dora and Mihaly because I was (and I am still) so thankful for all they’ve done and they do for me that I didn’t want to offer something useless for them. You know, that moment, when you are alone in the shop, a random day, you find a lot of extraordinary things but then, when Christmas comes, you feel like everything is meaningless.

The same night we had the chance to see something really weird and fun for me, those groups of strange costumed people, walking in the street screaming RRRR with a lot of bells all over their body, and slapping the floor with their whip. To finish, we visited a lot of friends the same night, drinking and eating each time we were stopping to each house. Just imagine how I was feeling,  knowing I am not drinking often and knowing that I don’t hold at all alcohol. Still I really enjoyed it and it was quite funny, I remember that I was saying Nu, Nu mai, te rog. They were laughing and then they started giving me coca cola!

For me, for sure, this day was really special. I was with my best friends from here (that I also consider as part of my family) and I did things in a completely new way, different that I used to know since I was a child.

Christmas is really special and different for everyone but it’s still really amazing no matter where you are, no matter how rich you are, and for me, this one proved all of this in just one night. Thanks to my friends from here and to those crazy guys from my American football team. Go go Miners!

Baptiste Venegas (France) is hosted in Baia Mare by Team for Youth Association, in the “Life Skills for Rural Education” project, an European Voluntary Service financed by the European Commission through the Erasmus Plus Program.