"Marzia from Italy about her stay in Berlin from February to May 2009"

My internship in an association working with international youth exchanges has given me the unique chance to experience what being in an intercultural environment is about, both in the office and for my project.
My colleagues came from France and Germany, but have had various stays abroad, so I consider us as an original and not strictly stereotypical – the classical and often overused idea for an Italian, a Frenchwoman, a German- team. Nonetheless, during the four months, I have found myself facing different ways to understand work and life, due to our differing cultural backgrounds and personal identities.

Work was extremely stimulating, but hard: sometimes me and my fellows approached our day-to-day tasks in a total different way, our view points being very far away, making it complex to find ourselves on a common wave. Other times, we meant the same without acknowledging it: we were indeed speaking one language, but took a while to realize. Other times again, we understood each other without saying a word. This case was very powerful and convinced me we were doing a great job! Our proximity has influenced our personal relationship, too.
Being with two other young women like I am, gave me the chance to see what issues they were going through and compare them with my own matters. I have found a lot of affinities: we three are trying to enjoy our present, we think about our future and the well-being of our beloved ones, we realize growing up is not easy, sometimes. But we don’t stop: we are motivated, energetic and stubborn. I have definitely reinforced myself by being with Sophie and Géraldine.
The exchange I coordinated during my internship – on the occasion of the Karneval der Kulturen 2009- was not the highest peak I have reached, so far. GEB has tried their best to meet my ambitions and needs and I would like to take this occasion to thank the GEB team deeply for being honest and for turning our connection into an open, friendly and safe space where I could always share my strengths and weaknesses; on the other hand, my relation with the sending organization in Italy is not so fruitful. This is also part of the lesson, I guess. In the end, the most important thing to me is that the participants in the Karneval -from France, Turkey and Brandenburg- state they want to keep on meeting people from other countries in the world, want to share their ways, want to get to know different cultures.

This is my hope for them

I believe that interculturality is a composite process and it is going to take long before we switch from a multicultural Europe to an intercultural one. The Leonardo Program is an important and not the only tool aimed at strengthening cooperation all over the continent and between people. Regardless of how long that might take, I will try to be the best person and worker I can be, whenever I am given the chance, in present and in future times.
Marzia Pistolesi, Italy