Letter from Kazakhstan💌

💎 A lifetime in months

For the last year of my studies, I had the amazing opportunity to do my internship abroad. After living 5 months in Siberia during my bachelor's degree, I chose to do my internship in Kazakhstan.

When travelling around Russia, I wasn’t alone, and it was, therefore, easier to go without being afraid, but for Kazakhstan, I was completely on my own.

The day I left Belgium, I remembered I cried all the way until Nur-Sultan where I needed to catch another flight until Almaty. I was terrified, I wanted to go back, my first solo trip, to a country that I thought was not developed, what was I thinking?

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Well, I am glad I didn’t. This country is everything but not what I imagined. Locals are warm, nice, helpful, funny, they have really great tolerance, they are open-minded, ready to show everything you need.

I met so many wonderful people and I arrived only one month and a half ago. I feel like I am at home in this country that is so far from Belgium. I feel like it was meant to be.

In Almaty, they are really lucky because just beyond the city there are the mountains. And the locals are going there every weekend, how could I not join them when this beautiful landscape is calling me all week?

Not far from the city you can find Kolsaï lake, Kaindy Lake and Charyn Canyon, which are stunning. I was left speechless when travelling to these places.

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I still have 1 month and a half left in this amazing country, and a part of me is already crying that I will have to leave one day. I fell in love with the culture that is so rich, I fell in love with the peace I found inside me every time I escape in the mountains, I fell in love with the kindness of the locals, I fell in love with the warm laugh that wraps me when I am with my friends here, I fell in love with their heart, their love, their tolerance, their joy.

When I am thinking about how much I was afraid at the beginning it makes me smile, little did I know at that time.  

I’ve always been told that an exchange is a lifetime in only a few months, and that hits me really hard here because that is so powerful and true. I have the impression that I am living a whole new life, when in fact I am just passing by in theirs.

But I am glad that I will keep this life with me for the rest of the time, that these few months will forever be my other life on the other side of the globe, that they will be mine to cherish every day later.

I am so grateful to be here, to have learned that I can do things alone even though I thought I could not. I am glad that I am not feeling insecure when I come home late at night, I am grateful for meeting so many powerful women here. I am grateful for this life

And I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Kazakhstan you stole my heart💖

From Lucille Villance (@luluenvoyage_)

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