My EVS blog from Stara Zagora

[athousandkmsfrommydoggos]

Long time no see

Hello everyone.

I'm home now. My project ended. C'est la vie.

Now is the time of transitions. I am struggling to organize every thought and feeling in my mind. To try to understand myself and make a review of what I've experienced.

Coming home was like coming out of another dimension and settling again.

The hard thing is that the life you've lived during your EVS seems easy and carefree, even though you worked hard (maybe some people didn't but it applies anyways). There are some amazing things, like the friendships you made and the time you spent with all these people that never leave you.

I have to be honest, I have some difficulties checking the Facebook and webpage of my organization. Maybe it's because that would mean for me to realise that all this time is over, life goes on. Maybe I see a different perspective now I have to pay my own bills, make my own living. Who knows? I for sure don't.

To sum up my feelings and my experience, I feel that this EVS I've done in Bulgaria have given me sooo many things that I still cannot sort through the loads of memories I have.

Maybe next month. Maybe next year... Who knows.

Toodely-doo!

[athousandkmsfrommydoggos]

Okay. Now let's talk about the positive effect of volunteering on your confidence.

It exists.

Okay, that's enough talking. Now I want to go home and sit in a corner because it was too much pressure and social activity to write that sentence.

I could say I used to be like this, but it wouldn't be true.

Although confident as I was before even I can notice that it's increasingly easier to approach people, ask questions, even try to act a complicated sentence out while everyone else looks at you strange when all you want to do is ask if the dairy product that they sell is only for cooking or you can eat it just like that.

Which also leads to the great topic of differences in products that you can buy.

But I'm not confident I could talk about it now, so maybe I'll collect a bit of courage by the next post and write it down then...

Seeya!

[athousandkmsfrommydoggos]

Sometimes. When working things can happen. Or not happen.

In any situation if you’re working with people or even with your colleagues maybe your and the others’ ideas and motivation is not the same.

...

So in those cases you have two basic options. 

-->Continue as you would’ve done, maybe even take over and do the job of the other person. (unfortunately that’s what I do and then die because of the exhaustion)

or

-->Complain, take on the attitude of the other, do nothing, let the world burn (unfortunately I cannot do this.)

But the most important thing, that accidentally is the hardest, is to talk to the supervisor, the colleague, the mentor, your father. Anyone. Make sure you’re open to discuss your problems so all of you can be satisfied.

Peace, oooot!

[athousandkmsfrommydoggos]

Summertime. When the living is easy. At least for kids. :) With the end of schoolterm our tasks changed. We now have camps in the mornings every weekday. I'm not going to lie: it's very hard. For every single day you have to prepare something for outside but also in the case of rain something for inside, you need to entertain 20+ different kids with different interests and sometimes the well thought out games are boring for the kids and you need to improvise. Also the camp here is not broken down to weeks so there are some kids who only come for a few days but there are those who've been coming for three consecutive weeks and you cannot repeat most of the excercises. But the end result is always worth the effort, when you're walking on the street and the kids see you and they bring their families to show, that is the person they've been talking about. There's a lot pf gratitude in the job if you put the effort into it. Cheers!

[athousandkmsfrommydoggos]

Beat Around - Radio shows by CEI. 157 likes. Radio shows created by volunteers participating in EVS.

So. My last post was somehow lost in the endless trash-burner of the internet universe and I have no idea what was actually a topic there...

Anyhow, I think it was a bit about advertising our radio shows. Now with a new skin and brand new signals (that we always forget to put on...) we are having discussions once a week and music selection on another day, also weekly.

So, if there actually are some people who read this blog, please, please, listen!

I mean I’m not begging or anything, just...you know. /wink-wink/

However, this is still connected to volunteering: when we arrived here I think none of us had any idea of how a radio show should actually be like. Well all these months have taught me that I still have no idea how to make a radio show. But now at least I’m consciously aware of it.

So by volunteering you can learn loads of interesting things about yourself.

I suggest that you try it also, because there’s always something to learn about what you cannot do. Or maybe you are a genius and you can. Either way you will only find out if you try it. :)

[athousandkmsfrommydoggos]

What is volunteering about...

For me it's the ups and downs, the good and bad, the improvisation and the creativity to get the most out of a situation.

There are lots of opportunities that are waiting for us to explore them. For me that is the biggest gift so far that volunteering gave me. The realization that I'm surrounded with opportunities as I'm surrounded with people and friends.

When you are in a different country for a long time you get to appreciate your own culture. For me it's in the smallest things. Like going to a shop and finding a product that is Hungarian.

But while embracing my own culture I want to learn more about others. And not just talking about countries and nationalities. Because everyone holds a different culture, a different upbringing and a different mindset.

And that is what volunteering is for me: differences and respect.

Peace, out. ;)

P.s. This is Petya my companion for a 3 hour train ride to the amazing city of Veliko Tarnovo.

[athousandkmsfrommydoggos]

Forest fire. My staying here has a great effect on opening my eyes and making me aware of the nature. Fortunately I have a wonderful flatmate who points out simple yet meaningful things that we could do to help the Earth cope with the manace that the disease called humanity causes. As I'm working with kids I see a big potential in educating children on how to be more aware of the impact we have on the planet. So in the future I plant to talk to the kids about recycling and other things one can do with little effort to help reverse this path of distruction that we humans leave in our wake. There's still hope. :) /The picture was taken in Stara Zagora, on top of a hill in the so called 'gypsy area'/

[athousandkmsfrommydoggos]

It’s been a long time since I last wrote but, what can I say? Busy days. To sum up, I’ve been in Hungary and then I’ve stayed in Hungary a bit more and then I went to Sofia for a training, where I met a lot of other volunteers, lots of good ideas abd wanted to change carriers at least ten times depending on who I was talking to… So, that is how I arrive at today’s topic: hitchhiking. I would never have imagined that hitchhiking is this easy and nice in Bulgaria - ir maybe I’m just really lucky. We are going to Veliko Tarnovo with my flatmate to visit some fellow volunteers. So we basically stood on the roadside for fuve minutes when a guy from behund us asked where we were going, as he is leaving from the city soon and can take us. He even called his daughter who speaks English to translate to us where he can take us. And then he made a detour si we have bigger chances to get another ride and in the end even gave us some easter chocolate. Nice guy. Then not even five minutes after another guy took us and currenly we are on the way directly to Veliko. So to sum up: genuinely nice people in Bulgaria, regarding hitchhiking. Even if they cannot take you they usually at least smile or make some gesture.

[athousandkmsfrommydoggos]

Plovdiv and other interesting things

So I’ve been living in Stara Zagora for 3 weeks now - wow - and I can say that I’ll probably never get used to the coffee machines on the streets and next to bus stops.

Anyhow, that is not the strangest thing that I’ve noticed while being here.

(Here, I’ll just need to take a bit of a detour from the main idea of my EVS blog. In Bulgaria there are a lot of stray cats and dogs. Also fact, there are very few animal shelters. Which really buffles me as this would be the perfect place for having a shelter because with little effort it would make all the difference in the world for those poor souls! So I took it upon myself to care for the animals. I went to the first shop and bought a bag of dog food and since I’m walking on the streets with it in my bag, in case a hungry dog comes my way. But this is all just in brackets, let’s talk about the really important stuff)

We have a radio show for ourselves - because somehow noone else seems to listen. But we are working on advertising the radio more. Anyways, if you have the time check out the page (https://e-volutionradio.com/listen-live). Also we have all the broadcasts recorded and uploaded to youtube so all 3 of our listeners can listen to it again. By the way, since I’m already on this topic: the german person, who listens to the radio for 24 hours each day, you are our biggest fan! If you send me your address we will send you signed copies of our pictures!

Cheers! (but not with Bulgarian beers, because for me they taste like beer flavoured water - no offense, though)

(this picture is from Plovdiv - just a random guy playing the bagpipe on the streets)

[athousandkmsfrommydoggos]

So, I just arrived at Stara Zagora.

The weather was nice, even though the air was pretty cool the sun was shining very brightly so my flatmate and I decided to take a hike in the city just to look around. She arrived one day before me, she is from Portugal.

When we were going through the gypsy suburbs of the city three young girls, around 10 stopped us and started talking Bulgarian to us. When it was settled that we don’t speak Bulgarian and they don’t speak English we started to communicate through gestures. 

Just around when we wanted to depart one of the girls asked to see my hair - I have short hair now. It was so unusual for her to see a woman with short hair that they were pretty amazed when I took off my hat.

Those are the kind of cultural differences that really teach us to be aware that what my seem natural to you might actually be very unusual to others.

(the picture is of a couple of gypsy kids, around 7-8 years, resting a bit before going on)