It is the first of December, and I am now officially 3 months in Curacao. I will be honest with you. This change from the Netherlands to a Caribbean Island has been quite hard on me. The first weeks I had to adjust to a new culture, new people and missing everything and everyone from home. After three months I can say I finally settled, and time seems to go really fast now. If I look back on these first months, I can definitely say that this internship has already brought me some extremely valuable experiences and lessons.
Let's start with the culture here on Curacao. I heard early on that the Antillean people love to speak their own language, Papiamentu. A good way to integrate was to start saying 'Bon dia', 'Bon tardi' and 'Bon nochi'. They were right. I noticed immediately that my neighbours really appreciated it. Somehow this felt comforting. Knowing your neighbours has always been important to me. It doesn't have to be a really deep relationship, but you know you have people to count on when you're in need of help. So, the language was the first thing that I adjusted to.
Within the Antillean culture two other things are very common. First, it is the consumption of meat. I know this is also common in more Westerly countries, so it might be better to say that being vegetarian is rather uncommon here. Normally I am fine at a barbecue, but here I didn't have too much to choose from. Besides that, you often don't have too many choices whenever you go out for dinner. I had to adjust to their way of living and I by cooking for myself it became much easier. The second thing is their way of expressing themselves. A commonly used word, often by men, is 'Dushi'. It can mean anything from 'sweet' to 'sweetheart' and therefore it is used very often. I must say, though I am used to it now, it still feels weird being addressed as a 'sweetheart' by many colleagues.
In these three months I have become aware of the differences between cultures and I think I have adjusted pretty well. Besides that, I have of course seen way more of the island than merely the locals and their habits. I have been working on my research every week, but I had the opportunity to do some very cool things in my weekends and even during my internship. First of all, I have been studying dolphins at Dolphin Academy. A wonderful opportunity, which also gave me the chance to swim with these dolphins multiple times. Besides that, I had the opportunity to swim with wild dolphins which were passing by. They swam around me for a while and with a group of approximately 30 individuals, that was quite overwhelming. I couldn’t have been happier.
My experiences don’t end there, with the dolphins. This island has so much more to offer than I initially thought. I swam with sea turtles (a whole bunch of them), I hiked up the largest hill here, twice, and I got to go in a submarine. Yes, an actual submarine! I went down to 510 feet (app. 160 meters) and it was amazing. I panicked quite a bit when I got in the tiny cabin, but this experience was just amazing.
I do not want to summarize all these experiences to make you jealous. I really don’t. These things have just made a huge difference in my perception on things. When I came here, I had a really hard time. I actually wanted to go home a couple of times. Other students had gone to Ecuador, South Africa and New Zealand. I saw the most stunning pictures and I heard great stories. What I totally missed were my own experiences. I didn’t realise that whatever I had seen and done here was special as well. Being around dolphins every single day is an exception from a ‘normal’ life. I think it happened recently, that I started appreciating all I had. Not just the materialistic stuff, but also the chances and opportunities that were given to me. I worked for it and I followed my dreams, but it still feels as a lot of luck. In these next two months I will chase more dreams and I will try to enjoy every second here, so I can never regret my time abroad and I can enjoy being home to the fullest again if I step on Dutch ground again.