Erasmus + Internship: Maxime Le Duc - Month I

How to describe this first month of internship? Really intense and also overwhelming. At the same time, I was being able to discover new things and enjoying them, and I am still struggling to be autodidact. Thinking of its own action plan, reacting fast, planning what we have to do are things that are really difficult for me. At some point, I had a discouragement in my work, I felt a lack of motivation and energy, and I wasn’t being able to focus much on my work. 

What did I discover? I learned this month to manage a website. Mihaela gave me the task to manage a town portal and organise it as a touristic site. It was something at the beginning that I didn’t know, but I learned it pretty fast and became more able to do it. But the thing that actually cost me a lot of patience is getting used to the territory, to the town. When at first I did some ground checking, I was not really comfortable going to some places because I had this stereotype of “if it’s weird, it might be dangerous,” and also had a lack of comfort approaching local people. But at some point, I got used. It took some time, and it changed my perception of the town. 

I just continued to push my boundaries, and sometimes it’s hurting me, but when I overthrow it, it flows naturally, like a river. It’s like going to a medical check-up: we can fear the moment at first, and when it passes, then it flows well. 

Now, people know who I am in town, and it feels great just to not care and to adapt to a place. But at some point, after this end of the first month, there’s this autodidact way to manage tasks that I’m still struggling with, because I’m used to having tasks and to knowing what I’m going to do during the day. And it’s really hard at the same time reuniting academic skills with the ground reality or a non-formal way. But the thing that I’m actually trying to do is to trust in my skills, even though it can be hard. I had those voices that I couldn’t make it, that I should abandon, but whatever these voices are saying, I’m still continuing. Somehow, I still need a light to guide me. But even though I could experience discomfort with work, I discovered also how ASIRYS works and how I could combine some academic skills with an informal way. And also, I learned a lot about Târgu Frumos and the goal of ASIRYS. 

I think one of the alternative museums that I learned the most from is Cucuteni, because I’ve been to many exhibitions in Iași, Piatra Neamț, and it allowed me to have knowledge about something that I had only heard of before. I’m really surprised at how this civilization was able to create such artworks for their time. I’m really curious to know how the landscapes at that time looked like, how those people lived, how they communicated. I sometimes want to have a time machine to come back in time and to see how things from the past were. But anyway, that’s another story. 

As I said earlier, getting into the community was at first scary to me, but I managed well. We had this exhibition in Trinitas school with the French Institute and teachers. I presented my touristic strategy for Târgu Frumos, and it felt good to see how the teachers reacted and to be grateful to know their feedback. This helped me a lot, I think. Also, I participated in an excursion near Cucuteni Museum with children from low-opportunity families, and after this, I also got recognized easily in town. Kids are stopping, greeting me. Actually, I’m surprised to see that Romanian people in general treat strangers well. Of course, there’s a light part and a dark part everywhere, but I realised that people in general treat strangers equally and are happy to see new faces and to get to know new people. 

I also realise that they are ready to explain their lives to you, to communicate with you, without any bad perception. And this actually got me a lot because being welcomed is something that’s uncommon in the world, but in Târgu Frumos, it’s completely normal. And most people are happy when you understand them in Romanian. As I had a previous Erasmus experience in Romania last year, I learned another part of this country, the local one. I’m not observing Romania from a stranger’s eyes, but more with local eyes. I know how things work, I understand what people are saying in Romanian, I understand more things about this country.

The only thing that’s actually keeping me apart from this Romanian bubble is the fact that I don’t know how to speak it, and sometimes, I wish I could express myself in that language. I realize that this country has a lot of potential, and seeing it improve makes me really happy and gives me hope. 

Something that I couldn’t expect is to meet former volunteers of the past ART LAB 6.0. I was roommate with Ziad from Egypt, and I saw a good person in him. We had interesting conversations together. Even in a short time, you can meet great people.

About my professional perspective, I’m trying to visualize, and I think that in the future, I would like to work in a touristic structure in which I can thrive and create an experience. After discovering many tools to implement tourism and also visiting touristic centres, I realized that tourism can be the field where I would like to develop myself. Exploring resources, identifying them, presenting them is something that I like to do, and I hope to find my way in it. So, it’s everything about my monthly report. I hope for this month of June I will make things better!

Maxime Le Duc is completing a two-month internship with our organization, co-funded by the European Union through the Erasmus+ programme.