Category: My EVS experience

After all the projects were finished, I received the visit from a friend from Portugal, that came to stay in Timisoara for a few days.

In the first two days, I showed around in Timisoara and, for the next three, we enjoyed the fact that the city is so close to the border with Serbia, and went for a “city break” in Belgrade.

It was the first time I went to Serbia, and we managed to find a really cheap way of going and coming back, with a Serbian transfers’ company.

Even though we had roughly 2 days to visit Belgrade, it was totally worth it. We walked around the city centre, went to the National Art Museum and got the chance to visit the so known nightlife in Belgrade. It was a great choice, bearing in mind that it can be a very cheap and beautiful destination.

Crossing the border between Romania and Serbia was a weird, and a bit scary, adventure as they went through all our luggage and passports very carefully. I think because of the fact that Serbia is not part of the European Union, the process is a bit more precise.

 

Anyway, this was a great choice to visit and I’m hoping to be back soon.

To continue with the non-stop wave of projects, as soon as the previous one was finished, we immediately started a Youth Exchange, named “Intervention for Youth”.

This time it was a bit different, as I was not taking part as a participant but instead helping around with what was needed, as for example, logistical matters.

The project was the continuation of a training course I did the first time I was in Romania, back in March, therefore before starting my EVS and, actually, the first time I got to know FITT and their work. Following the training course, this youth exchange happened promoting the topic of youth participation and intervention in society, and methods of participating.

It was a very interesting and fun project, very related to arts and with an amazing final show. For me, it was an amazing opportunity of doing some type of “job shadowing” and learning more about how to implement a project and manage all the issues that might appear.

A very good friend of mine also participated in this project, so it was the first time since I started my EVS that I had a visit of someone from home, which I think I don’t have to say how nice it feels.

 

Right after finishing the project in Baia Mare, we came back to Timisoara and started a new project. Even though it was nice to get to know a bit more of Romania, I was glad I was back in Timisoara and back to sleep in my bed! 🙂

This time, the project called “Reason for Reasoning” was about critical thinking, a topic that I’m particularly interested in. Besides having an amazing topic, the group in this training course was very friendly and fun. Everyone was very engaged, happy to be here, and excited to work with each other.

In this Erasmus+ training course, we learned more about things like norm critical approach, the difference between facts and opinions, the so famous topic of fake news and many others. In the end of the training course, we provided workshops on these matters for young people in the local community, which was a great way to get to know more people and, of course, share what we learned during the previous days.

As the cherry on top of the cake, I got to meet a group from Portugal and (finally!!) speak Portuguese again.

 

 

The next 10 days of my EVS were spent in Baia Mare, a city in the county of Maramures. During these days, I took part on an international training course, developed under the framework of the Erasmus+ programme.

The project, called “Creating a framework for tomorrow’s youth centers”, was a project for youth workers, where we learned about volunteering, management of volunteers, project writing, organizational development, among others.

Of course, during the free time, we got to know the city of Baia Mare and interact with the local community during some of our activities. This city is now the Romanian Youth Capital.

In our free day, in the middle of the project, we spent the day in a lake close to the city, making a barbecue and some of us fishing.

 

These ten days were great not only because I had the chance to know Baia Mare and learn more about youth work, but also because I got to know amazing people, from different countries in Europe that I feel lucky to have met.

The time before leaving Timișoara again was very brief. During these days I worked on a project I’m writing as part of my EVS.

This is a new experience for me, since I’ve never wrote or been in contact with the writing process of a project. Besides that, I chose the topic of gender equality, which I’m very passionate about but still it’s not so easy to approach. It’s a ‘huge’ topic and as I’m writing, I keep having the feeling that something is missing.

Nevertheless, I consider this topic as being of extreme importance and, therefore, is a challenge I want to embrace in order to have a positive impact in the local community when it comes to education and sensibilization.

These days were also filled with a lot of nostalgia. Being the only volunteer in the association tends to get, sometimes, not hard but challenging. Being with other volunteers was good because I got to meet people with the same “role” as mine which was nice and, coming back to Timisoara, I started to miss them. But don’t get me wrong, even though it gets a little challenging from time to time, other times I appreciate the fact of being alone, as it contributes a lot for my development, especially on a personal level – never before I got used to being on my own, which is really important.

Besides all of this, these days were very much about taking advantage of the amazing space we just got in the youth house, with which I’m in love with! 🙂

After finishing the on arrival training in Bucharest, I got the chance to continue to get Romania a little bit more and, this time, I headed to sighisoara with a group of volunteers I met during the training, whose project is taking place in this city. 

Sighisoara is a small city, which I’m usually not really a fan of, but one of the most beautiful I’ve been so far. It’s know for being the hometown of the “Dracula”, something you cannot miss while being there, bearing in mind all the souvenirs with his face on it. 

This small “city break” was also my opportunity to get in touch with a different evs project than mine and, besides getting to know the city, I got to know the youth center and a little more about their work there. 

Once again, the experience with the trains coming back to timisoara was something interesting. This time, I had to exchange trains in the middle of the night and, unlike Portugal, the trains are not saying the name of the station they are stopping next, which gave me a little heart attack every time  the train was stopping somewhere. Lucky me, the company’s worker remembered exactly where I had to leave and appeared in my seat to tell me it was time to change. 

After coming back to Timisoara, Revolution Festival was taking place. It’s (probably) the biggest festival in the city, with 3 of music, art and different activities. I went to the first two days of the festival and, in the third day, we had the inauguration of the space we built/redecorated behind the youth house. So, after a few weekends of work, this space was finally ready and open to everyone. 

The event was really nice, with a lot of people attending and a lot of music throughout the night. It was a great feeling for everyone that worked for it, to see how it looked in the end and how much everyone was enjoying it. It was this general feeling of pride and happiness. 

The week ended with a barbecue to celebrate our work and the new space we’re having in the youth house! 🙂 

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.