It's strange for me since it's only the very first week of December, but it feels like Christmas already. In Spain, the holidays are rather late comparing to the rest of Europe, since we start on the 24th for Christmas Eve and then it takes until the 6th of January, the morning when the Magic Three Kings come to visit us for the presents. In some families, like mine, there are gifts both for Christmas and for the Three Kings -dividing the presents harvesting in two days for paternal and maternal families -I'm a lucky one!
However, I've been noticing that people here have different traditions. Already two weekends ago the Christmas Market -or Vianoce trhy- was launched, which implies lots of people visiting in the evening looking for some hot wine -hot red wine with spices-, or some punch -fruit juices together with some pieces and, of course, rum or some other liquor.
Anyway, hot alcoholic beverages is not the only attractive thing in these places. A quite suggestive smell spreads from the small stands, coming from both salty and sweet meals. Very typical are the ciganska -kind of a hamburger with cooked onions- and tdrlnik -a bakery roll with sugar ans sweet spices. We went last Tuesday, after a promo-team meeting, Sarah, Olga and me to try out some hot wine and made some friends -quite quickly, haha.
I've been making some research with my colleagues and they explained me that tonight St. Mikulas is coming -that's why tomorrow we're going to Integra and Presporkovo to give some gifts-, and then on the 24th it is Jezisko who is bringing more gifts. Jezisko, if you translate it literally, would be kind of a new-born Jesus, bringing gifts -aha, makes a lot of sense. I guess depending on the family you'll have one or the other or both. Also my colleagues warned me about cleaning today my shoes, since Mikulas will put sweet in there if I've been a good girl or onions, for example, if I've misbehaved.
In any case, it's cold, the shopping centres and Christmas markets -that we don't have in Spain, btw- are full and it could start snowing in any moment -it would be good to see some snow before coming back to Spain, but you know, not too much :D
Coming back to the International Day of Volunteering that will soon conclude in Korean Tea-Meeting.
Tuesday 26th
Last Tuesday we went to YMCA building, to the A4 priestor where this Film Festival created by and for people with mental disabilities was taking place. We went some staff from INEX in colaboration with Bol raz jeden clovek, which is the association that organized it.
We arrived in the morning and helped with the decoration of the place, took several pictures of the public -for a surprise afterwards- and then a projection of an animation film started. In the meantime we got ready for different workshops. Sarah and I were in charge of one for making stars, in order to create a kind of 'hall of fame'. In any case, the creation of 'superheroes' and 'princesses' with the previous photos of them that we had taken got most of their attraction -I can't blame them!
There was a second session in the afternoon when they showed some animation short-films made by this organization, another professional film regarding people with mental disabilities and a concert. Since we agreed to stay after the concert to help tidying up I thought it was going to be too long if I also attended to the films, so I skipped it. Pity was that the concert was cancelled in the last minute, but well, we still enjoyed a bit together with Bol raz jeden clovek and they thanked us with lentilky (Slovak M&Ms) for our help.
Thursday 28th
On Thursday we had the second 'round' in Presporkovo. If the week before I focused mostly in the puppet and afterwards in a bag, that day was mainly about t-shirts. I made the first one with INEX logo template, personifying it with very long arms and legs and a Christmas hat. Then, copying the technique one of the mothers there was making with a kid -using tape to create a shape and later the kid came painting with his hands-, I created a t-shirt with a moose -or something like that.
The results, very nice t-shirts and bags. Here some samples:
Friday 29th - Sunday 1st of December: Miki Viki
Friday morning we came to the office with our backpacks in order to take the direct bus to Banska Stiavnica at 1pm. Tomas, Matiss and I were part of the team that bought the food for the weekend and prepared Friday's dinner for 40 people -but we found so many other volunteers in the way that we didn't work very hard.
Most of the people arrived around 8:30 pm, we had dinner and then we started with name games -happy to see new faces, actually. After those they had prepared for us a 'Let's dance' show, in which we had to go around the Scouthouse, find one paper with a choreography written and learn it together with other participants. Surprisingly I enjoyed a lot though I'm always saying I'm not a great fan of dancing. Funny fact, we found some markers and paper, so at the end we started creating our one choreographies -including just the Crow pose and the 'Macarena' one. We liked so much the dancing that we even had it in another moment, for the typical and always funny 'Tunak tunak' energiser.
This time was pretty relaxed for me since I didn't have to lead any session, so I enjoyed being a participant and taking part in teambuilding games. My favorite one was kind of a Trivial/Risk game created by volunteers from INEX (Dasa, my menthor, and Peta). You had to answer quite tricky questions about traditions and habits in different countries in the world and once you've answered correctly that country was 'conquered' by your team. Also with special questions, after some points you could buy other countries -we bought Russia, yeaaah, we big!
Nonetheless, Sarah and I introduced another session of preparation of gifts. I think they for sure have enough for Christmas, but they'll also use our gifts for other days of celebration for the people from Integra. I made kind of a butterfly, daring to even sew something to its wings -it was my second time sewing, first one was in the first session in Presporkovo for my hippy puppet. Also, we took advantage of the camera to make a picture together with my tutor, Olga, and my mentor, Dasa, two of the closest friends I made during my time here -ake su zlate!
In general it was a great weekend, and we even had a bit of free time to explore the city after Saturday's lunch, when I visited one more time Kalvaria with other participants. I also took my camera this time, hoping that it would snow and I could make some nice pics -and so I did^^, me happy.
Sunday 1st
Departing on Sunday after lunch, we managed to get back to Bratislava at around 6pm. I got home, left my luggage there and got to Azahara's flat for an intimate celebration of her birthday. I couldn't help talking a lot in Spanish that evening, since besides Simon and Laimona -her flatmates- and Lubo -our Slovak friend-, Aza, Miguel, Mariano and me were majority of Spanish speakers. It was nice since I realized I don't get to talk so much Spanish lately, and also because talking about finishing our projects they helped me out with my next step -that was kind of clear, but still good to have somebody else's point of view.
Great company, great cous-cous (Azahara's style, not arabic or anything, haha) and great moments -specially when the karaoke serie of 'songs-to-remind-you-how-old-you-are', Spanish hits version, started. I think I'll never forget the acoustic version of 'Que fantastica esta fiesta', top top! It was very nice evening and I felt happy to have these people close to me -pretty people like this party girl in the picture :)
I'm not really fond of this feeling that the end is coming closer each day, but I can really feel it since the last month it's already is here and I have so many things to take care of before departing -buying contact lenses, sending the receipt to AXA together with the previous one, sending a package home...
Regarding my future plans, well, let's keep it secret by now. I think I will only start preparing something back home since I also want to spend sometime there and finally finish my studies -I'm still officially a student, according to my scholarship insurance from University bill. In any case, it would be good to rest sometime before getting in the next adventure^^
And if you think because it's my last month that it would be more relaxed, I think you are wrong -I also used to think that way, but no. So far, December looks even busier, ale to je zivot!
Monday 11th
That day the EVS volunteers (Sarah, Matiss and I) stayed a bit longer in the office in order to attend a meeting of INEX's promo-team. With this group we try to get a better perspective on how to spread the word of volunteering and youth mobility among young Slovaks. We went through a list of tasks, divided some of them and briefly brainstormed about some others. We agreed to continue this communication by a Google+ group created for us. It was a funny meeting and also interesting for me -that besides my advertising background I'm rather interested in PR and general communication.
Tuesday 12th
Our dear Olga, EVS coordinator and kind of 'tutor' in the office, organized a tea-meeting about her experience in Japan. She was there for something like a month and participated in two different volunteering workcamps as a campleader: one for collecting green tea and another one to collect rice. She really liked the country -she was also telling it once she got back in September-, and I was happy to find out more specific details about her experience and about Japanese culture. Oli also prepared few tasty dishes to try out, like sushi -well, without fish but still-, Japanese green tea and some sweets with beans basis. The meeting happened to be quite a success, not only for the food tasting and the presentation, but also because of the great attendance from the public -we were all squeezed in the office, haha.
Friday 16th and Saturday 17th
This weekend I stayed in Bratislava for the farewell party we had prepared for a very nice couple of Armenian girls. They arrived to Slovakia last year and they were two of the first people I met here, very funny both of them. On Friday we went to a reggae concert in Cafe Scherz -passing before by Valhalla, kind of a shabby place, but still way cheaper than the one we were going to visit. We had a great time in both pubs, after all the important thing is the company -and it had been a while since I didn't go out with such a large group. It was a pretty enjoyable night. Here a pict of my friends :)
On Saturday afternoon and evening, the plan was to take the girls out of the house so their flatmates will arrange a party there. With the excuse of another friend that needed to leave that day, they accompanied him to the station where he 'surprisely' discovered that he had left his wallet in their place. When they reached the place back, friends from different contexts -work, other volunteers, parties- were waiting for them in a nice decorated and cosy living room. We ate, drank and laughed together like always, for me it didn't feel like it was going to be the last time I was going to see them. We said goodbye, though it felt like a 'see you later' :)
Wednesday 20th
Wednesday afternoon we went to Presporkovo Rodinne centrum to prepare together with mother and children some Christmas gifts for the clients of Integra, house for people with disabilities. I really didn't know what to expect since it's been quite long since I don't make any handcraft gifts. In any case, we had a great time and I let my creativity take the lead for creating a puppet and a tote bag. It felt good to create something nice that you know will make somebody happy in a close future.
Thursday 21st
Due to the silly rainy weather that we were having last Thursday, this photography workshop was unfortunately not so popular like the Japanese one. Don't get me wrong, there were many people interested in coming but they finally backed up because of this. For those who were there, we learnt 12 tips that Sarah collected for us, to apply in our photographic sessions. It was nice and inspiring, it motivated me to keep practicing with my camera.
Saturday 23rd
My friend Toni, from Liechtenstein, was one of the first people I met when I arrived here. At that time, he was living in Vienna but now he finished his studies and he's making an internship back in his country. But this weekend, he wrote me that he would be back for some days in Vienna and we arranged to see each other.
Timour -who joined me in the trip- and I wanted to arrive there with some daylight to make some tourism and take some pictures, but unfortunately we missed the train -twice- and we had just the time to take few pics in Museumsquartier. There we met Toni and his friend David, who guided us to the center and then to one of the famous Viennese coffee shops -Alt Wien. We rest for some time there before walking a bit more until Karlsplatz for the Christmas market, where we enjoyed a fire show, met with a Greek friend of Toni's and enjoy a cup of Glühwein -hot wine with spices, tasty and efficiently warming you up in these days.
After the Christmas market we took something to eat and enjoyed a couple of beers in Operngasse street. It's quite interesting, because there are only 60 kms apart, you can really tell the difference between Vienna and Bratislava, Western and Eastern culture. It felt good in there, it made me wonder about looking for future possibilities in the city -I still have to make up my mind, can not decide yet what to do next.
~
These days in the office I'm finishing a lot of important documents, like the summary brochure about the Youth Exchange Matiss and I coordinated, the final report about EVS and my Youthpass -the list of competences I developed in my time here.
It's eventually finishing and I really can see the end approaching gradually. I would lie if I say I don't feel sad for leaving but it won't be either true that I want to come back and see my family and friends after such a long time. In any case, I'm currently facing the process of finding out what to do after my EVS, which happens to be a difficult thing not because of limitations but because of the great amount of possibilities.
Everyday lately the question of 'what am I going to do next year?'shows up in my mind and different paths together with it. I really need a time to sit down with pen and paper, write down the different ways I can take and start making favor and against lists. I'll find our what is really the most interesting option for me and then totally go for it :)
On Monday I came back to the
office after the week off in Poland. Surprisingly, I didn't feel so
'post-vacation depressed' like other times before, perhaps because it felt
quite short and yet intense, and also because the cold weather doesn't get me
in the most eager position to make long trips.
Anyway, I arrived to INEX's
office full of energy and I tried to catch up with all the following events
-that are not few. The most urgent one was a national presentation I arranged
to do in a foster home for kids but I didn't have much information about it.
That's why we contact Svetlana, from this kids organization, and we agreed to
have a coffee after my working hours so she could explain me better.
We went to this place, YMCA,
only 5 minutes from the office. It's a nice old building with different spaces
in it. We chose a not-so-smokey bar and had tea and talked. She explained me
the main purpose of the so called 'Harmonia' project, was to show the kids that
there are people who can not talk Slovak and that use English instead, to
motivate them to learn languages in the future, by presenting my country. She
was very nice and we decide to be in contact for the details of the
presentation by email.
Tuesday 5th
I don't know if you remember
but I told you I was last month in a workshop about how to find an
international work or internship here in Bratislava. During this event, they
also promoted an illustration agency which has the office in that place,
Connect Coworking, and which was looking for some interns. Since many people
told me that the process to find a job takes around 2 months, and it was
already the end of October, I decided to write myself in the list of interested
applicants.
OWL Illustration agencycontacted me before leaving to Poland, but I
explained them about this and agreed to had an interview once I was back. By
email we arranged that it should be on Wednesday afternoon, but then Mirka, my
colleague, proposed me to go to this place -Connect Coworking- later in the day
because they were projecting a marketing movie for free. I told Petra, from the
agency, this and we moved the interview to that day -right before the film
projection.
It looks like a nice project
for me, but it also happens to be that this agency is mainly 2 people helped
currently by 2 other interns, which means they can not afford any remuneration
for them -it's quite a recent business, moreover. Also, they wanted somebody to
joined them asap, and I still have my contract with INEX and my working hours,
so it wouldn't be possible. I was interested in them and they were interested
in me, but so far it was not working for this time. They said I should contact
them again in January, if I still want the intern position and it's still
available -will see.
Anyway, right after we
finished it was about the time for the film to start. Mirka had already arrived
-and waved at me smiley while I was doing the interview-, and had reserved too
places in the first line sofa -didn't need to because there were 5 more people
attending the projection, but well. The documentary is called 'The Naked Brand', and it talks about the need of
big corporations to be transparent in the currently over-informed world -with
the internets! It was very interesting, I'd recommend it to anybody interested
in new horizons of advertising and PR.I'll
put here the trailer, and in case you felt intrigued,here's the full
movie.
Wednesday 6th
On Wednesday I was meeting
with my friend Dasa. Since I stayed a bit longer in the office and the time I
had was short to come back home before the meeting time, I decided to have a
walk through the center in the meantime. Out of nowhere I came across with two
EVS friends, Aza -who's also Spanish and living in Bratislava-, and Mariano
-Argentinian living in Piestany. There was also Antonio, Spanish living and
working in Bratislava who Aza had met months before. They told me to joined
them for a beer in Language Cafe, taking place in KC Dunaj, and so I did.
Since I could feel I wouldn't
be able to finish my beer within the 15 minutes I had before my meeting with
Dasa, I texted her to pass by this place and pick me up or join me and my
friends. She came and enjoyed the atmosphere, but I was also already made to
the idea of meeting her privately, so we went to Ginger Cafe -the place we had
arranged before, only 5 minutes away from there, and really nice house-like
coffee place- for a rather intimate moment before returning to Language Cafe.
I think it is the first time I
have a picture of some of this meetings, and also is the only picture I have with
Dasa that is not in an INEX event, haha -well, I lie, I also have one of us
from the day we met in Bratislavsky Hrad, but that's all. We had a great time
-we were in the Spanish table so it was good to relax and speak Spanish with
fluent people. We met Greg, from France, who had been only studying Spanish for
18 months and had a mighty good level. He suggested us a website for memorizing
vocabulary,Memrise, that I checked for Slovak -and
they also have courses! It's quite an useful page, feel free to take a look.
Not only working for languages but for anything you want to memorize.
As often in these meetings, I
was planning to come back home not so late, but it didn't happen like that.
When I was about to leave Aida arrived with Simon -the new EVS in Aza's and
Aida's organization for autistic people, SPOSA-, and so I thought about staying
a while to meet him. The 'while' turned out into hours when the 7E concert that
was scheduled to start at 8:30 pm, started at 10:30 pm for free. But I regret
nothing, it was great to dance to the Coffeeshock Company reggae and funky
rhythms. I left the place to take the bus at 1:30 am, and Aza, Aida and Simon
still stayed for partying in other pubs -crazy funny people!
Thursday 7th
This was the day of the
presentation in the foster home for kids in Modra, 30 km away from Bratislava.
The presentation was at 5pm, which means it was already dark when we passed by
the cute little village who keeps a rather old look -I felt like visiting it
with daylight sometime.
We arrived a bit late by car
with Svetlana and Maja, a colleague from the same organization, took all things
in a rush and entered a room with quite wild kids, all age ranges. Since they
don't speak English, Svetlana stood by my side all the time for the
translations, which started with a brief introduction and an energiser they
didn't seem too interested in. It wouldn't have been so bad if it was the only
thing they weren't interested it but the thing is that they also had the same
attitude towards the presentation.
At that moment it felt quite
awful. The kids were not paying so much attention and not being silent while I
was speaking and neither when Svetlana was translating. Some things I had
prepared were a bit difficult for them to understand so we skipped them, but
others were basic enough -they just wouldn't listen. Anyway, everybody seemed
more involved when the part of the videos and music came, and when the
presentation was over some of the kids came to talk with me -by my interpreter.
There was even one 11-year-old boy who introduced himself directly in English,
he was so cute.
In any case, when we were
collecting the stuff to get in the car and Svetlana saw my long face she
worried about my experience. I felt quite bad at that moment because it felt
like what I've done and prepared was pretty useless, but then she explained me
that some of them were interested but shy and that I should just keep the good
memories and the fact that at least some of them felt inspired and motivated to
start or keep learning languages. I couldn't get rid of my self-pity at that
very moment but I already have. As she suggested, I've kept the memory of those
kind kids who came closer to meet me after the presentation, and also those
-mostly the same ones- who ran and hugged me before I got in the car. That
was quite nice.
Friday 8th
Friday morning Sarah and I
woke up earlier than usual to get the train to Trencin (120km from Bratislava),
since we were having an INEX presentation in the 'Open Days 2013 na Úrade TSK',
organized by Europe direct Trencin. It was so different, firstly because the
place is normally used for official conferences and secondly because our public
were high-school students -who still remained silent even when they felt bored.
We took the train at 8 am,
arrived there at 9:30 and didn't have our presentation until 12:30. It was a
bit boring for us because it was in Slovak and we didn't understand almost
anything, but when talking with other students it happened to be also bit dull
for them, since they were not so much interested in European matters. I was
happy to change that when our presentation time came and we start with an
energiser and a good answer. Also, we were speaking in English, so they had to
made a bit of an effort to pay attention. Anyway, we made it short because
after so many presentations we knew they were tired, but in general it was
quite good.
After the presentation we took a bus to Priedviza and
afterwards to Bojnice, for visiting the castle. With the last sunbeams, Sarah
and I made a full photo-essay from the place, reporting the castle from every
possible angle. It is a very nice place indeed, and also the square nearby of
the little village where it is set. We took something to eat and drank coffee
in a rush, for taking the bus back to Priedviza. From there Sarah came back to
Bratislava and I waited a bit longer for my bus to Zvolen, for visiting my
friends over for the weekend.
Saturday and Sunday 9th-10th
Since Friday evening I arrived
rather late and I was pretty tired from the whole day, we just stood the night
at home with Thiebaut, Timour and their
'now-I-am-a-sweet-purring-thing-now-it-is-psycho-time' kitty. Besides, party
was planned for the next day when a newcommer EVS Spanish girl living in Banska
Bystrica (20 minutes away from Zvolen), was throwing a party in the evening.
Finally we decided to come a
bit earlier, around 6-7 pm, and join another friends for a home-made dinner. In
Yuko's and Hansol's apartment, they prepared risotto with mushrooms and
oven-cooked salmon, together with a glass of white wine -tasted even better
than it sounds. Geez, it was so good, and specially after so long without
eating any kind of fish. I think when I'm back for Christmas I'll ask my mum to
prepare fish everyday, haha.
After the dinner we went to a
pub called Smädny Mnich (Thirsty Monk in Slovak), drank for a while and made up
a questions game to heat up the conversation. Few beers afters we were supposed
to move to another place, but we stopped by for some food -kebab and fries.
Unfortunately, after that most of them decided to leave already, and so only 5
of us reached another pub -the birthday girl didn't manage to join us because
she was sick and feverish, but her flatmate and one more friend did.
We ended up in a metal pub
with quite loud music and the mood wasn't fitting so much. Therefore, we
decided to leave a bit later, since Yuko and Hansol offered Timour and me his
place over -since there weren't any means of transport to get back to Zvolen at
that time. We slept not so much, woke up to take the train at 9:30 am and
rested a bit longer in Zvolen. It was Sunday, which means after all day lazing
around I came back to Bratislava and finally had a good-night sleep, to get
ready for the following week.
