Month: May 2018

After three weeks in Romania, I left Timisoara for the first time, in order to attend the On Arrival Training, in which all the EVS volunteers participate once they start their projects.

I headed to Bucharest and the trip was an interesting experience. As I said, it was the first time I was living Timisoara, therefore, it was the first time I was using the train in Romania. Here is where the “interesting” begins:

When I got into the station I only had about 5 minutes left to the train departure and I was confused on where I was supposed to go. With that, I entered the first door that appeared in front of me, to get to the train. I started walking around the train and I could only see some normal seats (which was not pleasant, bearing in mind I bought the sleeping one). Eventually the train started moving and I was even more confused on where to go. I went through the same corridor 3 times until I found the employee that was checking the tickets and, surprise, surprise, he didn’t speak English. I managed to understand from him that I was not supposed to be there, which was quite obvious for me at that time, and I should look for his colleague to take me to my place. I went on to look and, when I found him, surprise, surprise, he didn’t speak English as well.

At this point I was starting to feel nervous, which now I notice I didn’t have a reason to. Anyway, in gestures, he managed to tell me that I could follow him. We literally crossed the entire train – I was in the last wagon, my place was on the first – but at least I got there. So: challenge overcame.

Back to subject, as I said before, in this week I headed to Bucharest which was amazing because on of my biggest objectives when coming to EVS was to explore the country as much as I could. In this case, with a big surplus of participating in the training and having all of the expenses covered. In just one day I visited a big part of Bucharest and reunited with a friend I met some months before in an Erasmus+ project – she was my guide through the city and together we walked 18 Km that day.

The On Arrival Training, mandatory for all EVS volunteers, lasted about 5 days and was a great way to know people that are now staying in all parts of Romania. It was also an amazing opportunity to learn more about different projects and share experiences, despite the fact that all of us had just started our journey. It’s always great to see that a lot of what we are feeling during this early beginning is also shared by other volunteers and I was lucky to have a group that was getting very much along.

So this was my third week as a volunteer in Romania. Let’s see what comes next!

 

 

My second week as an EVS volunteer was the moment to get to know my place, in some way or another.

This was the moment where I was assigned with my mentor and started having the meetings aimed at, firstly, getting to know each other and define, between us, what exactly means to be a mentor. In these first meetings, we decided how the process was going to be, in order to make my experience not only as easy as possible, but also productive, which means, in other words, to make it possible for me to learn as much as I can with this experience.

During this week, I started also to get more involved with the city, trying to get to know the surroundings and just walking around, with no specific place to go.

Timișoara is a city that felt since the beggining, for me. as a students’ city which can be proved by the amount of events happening around that not only are aimed at students, but also developed by them. During these days, Timișoara was hosting StudentFest, a festival created and developed by one of the biggest students’ organizations in the city. This was great for me bearing in mind that I got to know the city while getting in touch with romanian music and artists.

This week more specifically weekend, was also the second round of what we can call the „Building weekends”, which means, the reconstruction/redecoration of one of the spaces in the Youth House – an experience that I’m really glad to be part of.

To sum up, I know the road is long, but it’s incredible to look and see everything that can be taken off with just two weeks of this experience.

New country, new challenges!

April 29th was the day I landed in Budapest to come to Timișoara, and that was the moment it really hit me that this was real. My first week on EVS has now come to and end and I still don’t know how to describe all the feelings I’ve been through this week. As soon as I arrived in Timișoara, I got to know the place where I’ll stay for the next 6 months. Being used to live in a house with a big [and noisy] family, the feeling of being in “my own” apartment is somewhere between peaceful and weird, but I’m sure it’ll teach me how to take care of myself in a way that I never had to before.

After settling in and resting a bit, I had the chance to meet the members of the organization. Some of them I knew before so it was really nice to get to see them again. Everyone was really welcoming and I can’t wait to see what will come. Even though I feel thrilled about being here, I couldn’t help to feel a little homesick, especially when I’m home and don’t have my big and noisy family screaming around or my cat ruining the furniture. Despite this, I’m really happy to say that the amazing feeling of learning how to live in a different country is still winning against the feeling of missing mom’s food.

Regarding my daily life through this week, I had the chance to get to know the city both during the day and the night. The weather is amazing and really nice to take a few walks around or just be sitting on a terrace. I also got the chance to interact more with city’s daily life, going around and taking care of some stuff like opening a bank account (but always in English, which is something I want to change). Besides this and against all odds, I survived the [scary] moment of my phone dying and having no google maps to guide me back home.

What I can say now is that I’m still in shock, but a good one. Everyday I’m learning something new, especially when it comes to the language, and I can’t wait to learn some more about living in a different country, with a different culture and language. I’m thankful for what I already experienced and excited to see what comes.

EVS (European Voluntary Service), soon to be called ECS (European Solidarity Corps), is an international volunteer program funded by the European Commission. It gives the opportunity to all young people legally resident in Europe, between 18 and 30 years, to carry out an international volunteer service in an organization or in a public body in Europe, Africa, Asia or South America for a period that can go from 2 to 12 months. It provides the reimbursement of travel expenses and complete coverage of the costs of food and accommodation for the international volunteer.

Thanks to the intercultural dimension and its non-formal approach, EVS is a unique opportunity to come into contact with cultures different from your own and to acquire new skills and abilities useful for your personal and professional growth.

EVS proposes projects in different areas such as: culture; international mobility; sports; social care for the elderly, the disabled and immigrants; art; leisure; media and communication; environmental protection and education; and, finally, rural development and development cooperation.