Tag: Timisoara

Lately, I have been thinking many times about how I want my future to be. Although things have changed a lot since the last time we could go out without a mask, and we did not have a curfew, life goes on, and we have to adapt to new circumstances.

For this reason, after finishing my university studies last year and realizing that my professional career could not start as I had planned, I decided that volunteering in Europe was the best option. I have always wanted to do volunteering, and due to lack of time and other excuses, I have postponed many times. 

The last months have not been easy for anyone, we have had to learn how to deal with certain challenging situations with fear and uncertainty, and we have witnessed how our freedom was reduced day by day.  However, when in January I proposed to my friend Esther to apply to ESC, we did not doubt it. “It is now or never,” we thought.

Surprisingly for us, the whole selection process was pretty quick, and in a month and a half, we were getting ready to come to Romania. I know we are so lucky to have the chance to live this experience together. We are friends since we were just three years old. I think, Romania is a beautiful country, which is sometimes so underrated, and getting involved in a valuable project like Youth Centres Up 2 is a great chance. 

Besides those mentioned above and after my Erasmus in Finland in 2015, which was an incredible experience that opened my mind incredibly, I discovered the European Solidarity Corps. That’s when I thought that any opportunity to live abroad gives you a priceless experience that takes you out of your comfort zone and forces you somehow to improve yourself every day. Hence, one way or another, we feel like we should make the most out of this adventure. 

In this case, the level of responsibility is high, but we have to commit to our decisions. If not, progress will never happen. Now we need to work side-by-side with other young people on a joint project that will unite us, with which we will explore new things, and learn a lot. Undoubtedly, although challenging situations will come, this experience will enrich us in many aspects. 

Finally, after a few months here in Timisoara, I feel comfortable, proud of the decision I have made, and welcomed by a group of extraordinary people.

Apart from that, I realize that whenever we think we know the future, even for a second, it changes. Sometimes it changes quickly and completely, and we are left only with the choice of what to do next. We can choose to be afraid of it, to stand there, trembling, not moving, assuming the worst that can happen, or we can choose to go on with the best possible attitude. 

In the end, I think it is just about taking a step forward into the unknown and assume it will be brilliant. 

Sometimes, I wonder how something as simple as a single question can change your life that much.

-Shall we go? –Let’s go!

This is how my conversation with my friend Miriam ended the day we decided to go somewhere else to be volunteers.

I have always been a girl who has thought that we all “have´´ to follow a standard life path for my background and surroundings. Fortunately, or unfortunately, 2020 came to our lives to change them at all. It has given us bad days, and it was, in my case, a rollercoaster of feelings though, I have lived through moments that if it hadn’t been for the pandemic situation, I would not have probably.

There will always be people telling you it is not a good time to have this kind of experience due to the world situation but, on the contrary, it was the best one for me.

I started my professional career in events management and marketing (what I studied for) when the Covid-19 appeared. Then, I went back to my hometown for almost a year (I left it when I was 18). I have excellent memories of what I did and who I spent my days with “there is nothing like being home ;)´´

I guess at some point, we all have felt lost this weird year. That was when I realised I had to do something else (because nothing ventured, nothing gained).

I have had two other experiences abroad, and I have always had the feeling to do it again. I do not know what the future has to offer me, but I am sure that it was the right idea to come to Timisoara.

Firstly, everybody doubts what will happen when it comes to an abroad experience, and I was not far. If I am honest, my expectations were not high. I think it was because the selection process was speedy, and I was not aware of the reality yet (I got my flight ticket one week after the interview).

Flights to Timisoara

After a one-day trip (and a few goodbyes), I arrived in Timisoara ready to have one of the best experiences in my life.

I am willing to work, learn a lot from everything and everyone, discover a new country and new people I will live and work with, have fun, and, one of the things I value most, grow personally and professionally.

Every part of the project has exceeded my expectations so far, and I am looking forward to seeing what has to come.

I always remember a phrase which says: ‘You win some, you learn some’. In this case, my insight is you do both, though.

I’ve always had the feeling that I should do more for the world. I was always interested in helping other people, but until now, I’ve never had the time to think about it and try to research some ways to get into volunteering. I’ve known about Youth Portal for some years now, other organizations were sending me offers, but it never felt like this is the one I should choose. 

When I applied for YCU2, I knew that my current job contract would end soon, and I would be supposed to look for something new. But just finding a new job was not appealing to me. I was exhausted from the daily routine, the angry managers, and poorly thought targets. I wanted to do something special, to have a new start and, maybe, pursue the call of helping other people. 

One day while browsing the opportunities on the Youth Portal, I found the FITT’s logo. It immediately drew my attention to it. As a side thought, I will add that I have lived in Timisoara for three years previously as a student. I clicked on it and started to read the materials, description, then I got on their website to make sure that the project is active and it’s not like a very old post, and I would just spend my time on meaningless waiting for an answer and keeping the hope of hearing back from them. 

I clicked with the idea they were presenting and how they identified the purpose of the project. Growing up, my community lacked a place that would be a safe space for everyone, a source of information, a source of opportunities, and just somewhere to get away from school and other people. Then I started to imagine how I would be helpful to the project and how I can contribute to the project. Will I be motivated enough to help and bring my contribution to the community? 

I applied, and shortly after we had the interviews, and in a matter of a week, I was ready to get on the road. Then I realized that I would need a visa, and at this point, things started to get harder for my mental health and general wellbeing. Applying for the visa was quite a challenge. They always had some comments about my documents, so I had to go to the consulate 3 times for them to accept my application. After that, every day was a waiting roller-coaster, the worst 39 days. 

Afterward, as I got the visa on my hands, I started to pack, and a day later, I was already on my way to Timisoara. It was pretty nostalgic to see the old things and places that you don’t think you missed until you see them again: the trains, the people, the atmosphere, and just remembering the old memories hidden deep down. As I arrived, I was welcomed by the people I somehow knew from my past, and everyone was extremely welcoming and humble. I felt like I’m back home and not as an alien in a foreign country. 

I look forward to what the future has prepared for me in this project. I believe in the team taking care of the project and the volunteers who have already arrived. I think that together we’ll do great things for the local community.

This spring is unprecedented… I can say that spring seems a little strange to me. In the spring, the flowers bloomed. With the wind touching your skin, hope spreads throughout your body. It did not feel that way this time. It came to me was like an endless storm that took everything. I felt as if everything inside of me was being thrown somewhere. What I knew flew into the wind. Lost. I tried to put everything I knew together to not lose, without even understanding what was lost at first. Of course, I did not get any results. I found myself silly. I am tired.

Then I decided to take a step back and do what I thought I did best. To observe what is happening around me… I let myself go on the roads I belong to and saw that spring was dragging everyone, not just me, to other places. This spring is unprecedented. It is like a blow to our dreams, tired of fighting like the spring is falling. It seems to distance us from everything, most importantly, from ourselves. Of course, while doing this, it does not neglect to use this potential of those of us who forget themselves while trying to be unique in our similarities.

After realizing this, I did what I had to do to understand the reason and surrender myself to nature. The nature that comes alive in the spring witnesses a different miracle, the miracle of birth and creation in the spring… At that moment, I felt like being reborn and realized that this spring, this time chose to show its face differently.

Nature, which has always welcomed us with unconditional flowers, made us a condition this time. This was our first bloom. In fact, the spring, which I thought had blown our hopes like a storm with its arrival, did not create these storms. We created them and let the beautiful energy within us go. It is our job to blame the spring. After all, this spring is unprecedented. This spring actually reflected what we are inside of us. To understand this, it was not necessary to look but to feel, to live.

Spring is like a field. Whatever you sow, you reap…

Being a part these past few months of an esc project was probably the worst time that I have ever spend in any country ever. My name is Marietta, and currently I am working on a project for FITT, I am a political scientist and I am doing my masters in Diplomatic and International Relations, I am from one of the most beautiful cities in Greece, Volos. I always have really high expectations and most of the time I end up getting disappointed and this is what happened with the past two months here in Timisoara.

The first couple of days here where amazing we were going out to parties, to really nice coffee places the project was starting to seem like it was going to be amazing. Almost all of the volunteers arrived and we were little by little started to form a team. Then Corona started and with that we were made to stay in our home 2 weeks before the rest of Romania, which means more or less we have been closed inside our home for more than two months.

This situation created a difficulty in actually working for the project. Everything turned to the virtual world which I do not appreciate and the only thing I could do was plan and micromanage every little detail of the activities that I want to do in my youth center when this situation will finish.

Leaving the difficulties aside though and the horrible mental state that this virus has created I have to recognize that part of the organization that hosts me here in Timisoara tried to help out and create for the team a program that will have us at least a little bit involved.

Now the past week we started again to plan more actively for our youth centers and for the first time in months the reason for which we are here is seemed to be actualized. I am really excited to go and fix the garden from my youth center and I was informed that in the next few days I will have a floor which I have been waiting for since last summer.

So everything has been moving forward little by little and after every storm should always be a rainbow, hopefully there is going to be a rainbow in our situation. This is only the first of many posts. Stay tuned and always safe.