After loss, a summer to remember: Emiliya's story, Part I

By Emiliya Nedeva, CIEE Work & Travel USA 2017 participant from Bulgaria


It all started in the winter season of 2016.  I was checking my Facebook account when I saw a new video posted on my university’s page that caught my eye. A presenter of the “Integral” Agency was advertising a great scholarship offer in front of the university.

Once I watched the video, I started thinking that this would be a great opportunity for me. The scholarship itself is for a specific group of students who have grown up without parental support or have lost their parents recently. My case was the second one: I lost my parents at the age of 13 and 21, both to cancer. 
 
 That is why I went to the “Integral” Agency to discuss my case with the staff. They were very hospitable and took the time to answer all my questions and concerns.  They also helped me to arrange all the necessary documents for my application. After some weeks, I learned that I had won the scholarship. This meant that I could afford to go to the USA during the summer of 2017 and did not have to pay program fees or buy my plane ticket.  Since I am studying applied linguistics with English and Romanian, I decided this was an amazing chance to go and explore American life, culture, people, and nature. 

And so it was. I spent four memorable months in Arizona at Grand Canyon National Park, working as a hostess at the best restaurant there, the El Tovar restaurant on the South Rim. I greeted all kinds of people, Americans and visitors from all over the world. I had the wonderful chance to practice not only my English but also other languages like Russian, Romanian, Italian, and Spanish. I even learned some words in new languages I hadn't studied before, like French, German, and Navajo, spoken by the Navajo people indigenous to the Grand Canyon region. Every week, we had literally thousands and thousands of tourists waiting to be seated at a table with a view of the Grand Canyon.  As a hostess, I had to be sure that everyone was pleased with their table, which was very challenging, because almost every person wanted to be seated at a table where they could enjoy the majesty of the Grand Canyon. My team and I were expected to make everyone happy. Of course, this is an impossible mission—you cannot make everyone happy, and sometimes these were very hard situations to cope up with. I observed that most clients do not have the patience to wait, so I guess it was a challenge also for them.

Before I arrived at my work place, I asked my managers if I could have the day off on the seventh day, the Sabbath, or Saturday. This was important to me because I am a practicing member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. They had no problem accommodating this.
 
Living in a National Park was a big deal for me. I fell in love with National Parks in general, and one of the decisions I made while there was to visit all the National Parks and Resorts we have when I go back to my country. I fell in love with this kind of life—in the countryside. I also decided that one day I would build my own house outside of the noisy cities, where no polluted sky could affect our family health.
 

During my stay, I had wonderful roommates, with whom I could rest after work, laugh, enjoy exploring the park and traveling, cook new recipes, or just spend some quiet time together. They were from Russia and the Dominican Republic.  I made new friendships, which will last forever.