Welcome to the second chapter of my life in Slovenia.
We are three volunteers in EPI Center: Carlijn, from the Netherlands; Ana, from Spain and myself, from Spain too. We share a flat in Lucija and we have been living together for five months now.
So, how does the living together work when you have such different backgrounds?
Well, of course you have to get used to one another. Your habits are different and so are your personalities, which means that you don’t always see eye to eye. For example, I soon discovered that Ana loves talking on her phone and that she is very warm and close to us. Carlijn, on the other hand, is more independent and likes to spend time on her own. Also, she hates being late. Sometimes, even when we start work at the same hour, she will go ahead of me just to ensure that she arrives on time! At the beginning this was weird for me, but now it’s just everyday life.
As soon as we arrived at the flat we had to divide the house tasks, which was also a bit complicated. In addition, we have different schedules. Suddenly, I have to be aware of not making noise in the morning because I share my room. More often than not, we have lunch and dinner at different hours, and our diets differ a lot too! You realize that what you considered to be normal, like brushing your teeth for almost five minutes or going around in your panties, is weird for other people.
But after some time you just start to adapt. Sometimes you find Carlijn eating warm food for lunch at two o’clock in the afternoon. You notice that when Ana speaks in Spanish, she pronounces some “s”, even though she is from Málaga and they don’t pronounce “s” there.
And me? Well, my habits are now totally messed up. Sometimes I have dinner at half past seven in the afternoon, or I discover myself filling my bag with food when I have a trip, just as Carlijn does. When talking in English, some words and expressions that I never used before come automatically to my mouth.
In short: we are getting used to one another. We pick up each other’s habits. And yes, in the end, it is amazing having two flatmates. Even though you might have arguments or you may need time for yourself, at the end of the day you spend a lot of hours with them both. So, even if you weren’t planning to, even if you come across as a cold and indifferent person, you realize that you have started loving them with all your heart 🙂
