Act.in.ua: Cesar from Mexico

My name is Cesar Orlando Embriz R., I am from Mexico City in LC AIESEC ITAM and I wanted to take and internship because I wanted to get out of my comfort zone; I wanted to break my daily routine and meet new people and cultures, know and learn from people that think way too different from me and achieve a more open mind. 

When people from LC AIESEC Simferopol contacted me and explained the project “Act.in.ua” I immediately accepted because I really liked the project: it was in a country far away from Mexico and quite culturally different.  Before taking the internship I almost didn´t know anything about Ukraine; although English was a requirement for the internship I thought that only few people would speak the language. I also thought that people from Ukraine were very serious and cold people; therefore, I started to think that the project wouldn´t be so nice anymore. Actually, some days before arriving in Ukraine I started to be a little afraid. 

When I got to Simferopol in the internship I was amazed that it wasn´t so much trouble communicating because a lot of young people spoke English very well. Also, as a Spanish native speaker I was impressed of how many people wanted to learn to speak Spanish and of how many more already spoke a little of it. I realized that I had a very wrong idea about Ukrainian people because they immediately treated me so nice, they were very warm and friendly people. AIESEC´ers, non AIESEC´ers, people from the “Act.in.ua” project, my internship teammates, my host family; all of them made this internship a life experience, one that I will never forget because I really learned a lot from them and their amazing culture.

During the project I had happy moments, sad moments, I passed through despair, a lot of frustration, anger, had parties, a lot of fun, laughter, learning… In three words: “a lifetime experience”. I met a lot of incredible people and now they are very good friends of mine whom I hope to visit someday soon again! Basically, this internship at Simferopol has been one of the best experiences of my life!!!!!!!!!