AIESEC Mykolaiv_Austrian intern story

Social project

“World without Borders”

(July-August 2010)

Internship in MykolaivRoswitha Hirzberger

Hey guys!

My name is Roswitha, I’m from Austria and 21 years old.

I decided to go to Mykolaiv/Ukraine to improve my language skills because I study Russian Language at the University of Graz. Furthermore I wanted to get to know Ukrainian culture and mentality.

In this presentation I would like to share my “AIESEC Experience” with you and let you know how I live and work here. So just enjoy it!

Saturday, 21st of AugustMy first week in Mykolaiv

At about 11 o’clock I arrived at the airport in Odessa. Here I’ve already met Marcus, the guy from Germany.

It was actually very funny that the first person I meet in the Ukraine was German.

After going to Mykolaiv by bus, Anja, Igor and Kolja from AIESEC Mykolaiv were already expecting me to welcome me to Ukraine and to take me to my accommodation where Jola, the polish girl was already waiting for me.

Sunday, 22nd of AugustMy first week in Mykolaiv

After the first night in Ukraine, I have to admit, I was victim of cultural shock. I thought I was quite well-prepared for this situation, but obviously I was wrong. There are just to many contrasts between Austria and Ukraine I guess.

But not in a negative way, that’s actually the reason why I chose to go to Mykolaiv, because I knew it’s different and at the same time very interesting.

Guys from AIESEC Mykolaiv did everything to make me feel comfortable here, and they succeeded.

First days at the camp. As Marcus, Jola and I decided to take part in the project ‘World Without Borders’, we went to the Camp ‘Zolotoy Kolos’ on Monday to work there with children from whole Ukraine and to tell them about our home countries und cultures.

Monday – Friday, 27rd -27th of AugustMy first week in Mykolaiv

In the evening I met my group of children (from Luhansk) for the first time.

With this children I spent the rest of the week on swimming in the sea, playing volleyball, chatting, presenting my home country and drinking black tee.

Monday – Friday, 27rd -27th of AugustMy first week in Mykolaiv

Zaporizhia & Dnipro

After our first week in Ukraine and also in the camp, Jola, Marcus and I decided to go to Zaporizhia and to Dnipropetrovsk to do some sight-seeing and to visit a conference, or maybe, it was more like a celebration of the anniversary of AIESEC Dnipro.

Saturday - Sunday, 28th - 29th of August

So we went to Zaporizhia by train and spent there one day visiting the Kosaks museum and the famous damn of the river Dnipro.

Zaporizhia & Dnipro

At about 4 o’clock we went by bus to Dnipro, where this celebration took place. It was quite cool to meet there some interns who attended their internships in other Ukrainian cities.

With them together we went by ‘marschrutka’ to the City Center next day, where we had lunch.

In the evening hours we arrived in Mykolaiv.

Saturday - Sunday, 28th - 29th of August

Today is a sad day: It’s the last day for Jola, she will leave tomorrow and go back to Poland. So in the evening we celebrated her ‘Goodbye’.

Monday, 30th of August 31th of august - 4th of SeptemberBack to the camp

Today we’re going to the Zooooooo I’m very excited about it, just because I love animals and because I was told that the zoo in Mykolaiv would be the largest and most interesting of whole Ukraine.

Awesome time in MykoSunday, 5th of September

Anyway… it took us almost three hours to take a look at all animals which live there.

Returning back to the camp. Tomorrow my group of children

(from Luhansk) will leave unfortunately.. I’m really sad about it, they were like my first and lovliest group (I already know that).

I’ll miss them a lot, but I’m lucky, that someone in this world invented vkontakte.ru

Our first two days at university...here we are participating in classes of German language. We’ll present our home countries and of course talk German to the students to support them in improving their language skills. I hope they will learn a lot from us.

6th - 8th of September 9th - 10th of September

Weekend in the Crimea11th - 13th of September

Early in the morning we arrived by train in Simferopol, where we first had breakfast. I really like Simferopol, it’s a very beautiful city with a lot of interesting things to see I think.

But above all I liked the art museum which contains also paintings from Aachen (Germany). After a long time of searching, we finally got to the restaurant we were heading for: the armenian resturant ‘Chest Prudy’.

Weekend in the Crimea11th - 13th of September

On Sunday we already at 10 o’clock visited the Tschechov Museum, which was the summer house of the famous writer. To me, it was very impressive to see where A. P. Tschechov has lived, slept, eaten and written some of his most famous books.

From Simferopol we took a bus to Jalta where we booked a hostel for 2 nights. Jalta is even more beautiful, but also more expensive than the rest of the Ukraine. But it’s worth it.

Weekend in the Crimea11th - 13th of September

After I did some shopping in the center of Jalta (some girlie stuff) Marcus was waiting patiently for me to go to Massandra Beach, where we enjoyed our meal at a Thai restaurant. Highlight of the day: We tried the wine of the viticulture of Massandra.

The following day (our last day on the Krim) we decided to visit the Liwadija palace where in 1945 the ‘Conference of Jalta’ took place.

There Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill devided Europe in certain zones, just as Austria was devided in 4 zones.

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Back from the Crimea I fell ill yesterday, so Marcus and I decided to stay one more day in Nikolayev and to go to the camp from 16th to 22th of September.

This has already been my 5th week here. Time is passing by so fast. But the last week will be awesome as well, I’m sure of that. A 3-day-trip to Kiev, where I hopefully get to see a soccer match of Dynamo Kiev. And the last days I’ll spend in Odessa, the first city in which i have been, and the last city I will be during my stay in Ukraine.

Back to Myko & to Camp16th - 22th of September

Our last 2 days at university. I’ll miss the students of the German lessons. They were just so interested in us and our cultural habits in Austria and Germany.

But on 28th of September we’ll be back for the AIESEC presentation and the Global Village at the university.

Last week in Mykolaiv23th - 24th of September

The following 2 days we enjoyed our time in Kiev with watching for example a soccer match between Dynamo Kiev and Arsenal Kiev and a lot of sight-seeing. Kiev we’re coming. Arrived in

the capital of the Ukraine on Saturday morning, we were just picked up by Vitalij from AIESEC Kiev, who took us to university, where a presentation about AIESEC and some interviews with the ‘Newies’ took place.

Quite exciting to be on the other side of such an interview (I had mine only a few month ago). After this we did our city tour with a tourist bus through Kiev. It’s a very beautiful city, I love it. It reminds me of my home country.

In Kyiv25th - 27th of September

Back to Mykolaiv. We are busy today, what is good. We get to know so many people here, above all at university. After Global Village we went to eat something near our flat. Then, unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to Marcus I really enjoy staying and travelling with him. I hope we’ll meet again soon. Within 2 days I’ll also leave the Ukraine.

Tuesday, 28th of September

It’s time now for me to go home I guess although I had such a great time here in Mykolaiv.

I’ll never forget anyone of this nice and kind people I met here. Above all I’ll always remember the members of AIESEC Mykolaiv.

AIESEC Mykolaiv in Social Media

•http://twitter.com/AIESEC_Mykolaiv•http://vkontakte.ru/id94351981•http://www.facebook.com/AIESECinMykolaiv