Thoughts about my EVS experience

Puh, I never thought that eleven months (and one day) could pass by so quickly. I’m now back in Germany for a week, but it’ll still take weeks and months to realize what happened and what it means for me.

I remember the 2nd of October 2015 as it were yesterday. My nervousity and curiosity to go the first time abroad, meet all these cool people and volunteer for almost a year.  When I remember contrary my last day as I woke up, the flat empty, everyone left already and this important chapter of my life seeing to be closed it sets the in a nostalgic state of mind.

During my EVS I met so many people as never in my life before. Of course I didn’t fall in love with all of them, yet every single one was important for me to learn something new. Especially the many volunteers or Romanians I’m keeping in touch with are precious. My flatmates are just awesome in their own individual way. I worked, lived and travelled with them. One of the best things in my EVS was to get know to all the cool people, meet and talk. I have no plenty of motivation to visit them.

Quite tied up with it I definitely enjoyed the international environment. I learnt so much, ridiculous and profound stuff. It’s definetely enriching and helps oneself to develop.

Additionally, I achieved a new view on travelling, seeing it as enriching experience and tool to learn. I appreciate that I met so many people during my trips, all of them different and telling other interesting stories.

I also learnt a lot about myself, my strengths and weak points due to my work. I like explaining stuff, but I am not a very good teacher. I like children, but would not like to do it in a job on a everyday basis. My voluntary service made me braver since I started to run activities I had not done before. In the end I changed my mind and will study now another subject at university than planned before. Mostly due to my EVS.

EVS was a great time to enjoy life and work by meanwhile getting confronted with plenty of challenges and questions. I learnt about myself, made new friends, could experiment a lot, travel a lot and had a very well-balanced and diverse time. The experience is far too complex to be expressed in words. I remind now my EVS time and think about all I’ve done, seen and experienced. It makes me smiling, I feel happy about it. That’s what matters the most.

My EVS experience: a brief stream of consciousness

When someone asks you to talk about an experience that you have had, it’s not easy to put in order your thoughts, feelings and impressions. So, be kind with me if you will find this article a little confused but try to consider it as a Picasso’s painting, where multiple perspectives are put together and allow   the observer to have a 360˚ view. (I know, I used a very “low profile” metaphor).

First of all, I have to admit that before my departure, there was an emotions’ storm in my mind: fear and curiosity for the “unknown” at the same time, enthusiasm for the new adventure and sadness regarding missing friends and relatives. What I really appreciated during this period was the support that I have received from unexpected persons, such as my grandma or some university mates. They encouraged me to do my best and use this opportunity for showing to myself that I was braver than I expected.

And the 1st October 2015 arrived faster than I expected… What a day! I remember that Razvan and Liviu welcomed me at the airport and suddenly I realized that these 9 months would be totally different from the life I was used to conduct in Italy: new house, flatmates (I am an only child!), new language, culture, currency; a lot of changes and all together!

At the beginning it wasn’t easy to cope with all these new things but through attempts, hints and suggestions received from different sources ( for istance: people from Young Iniziative and italian friends that have lived abroad), I managed to survive on my own J

Of course not everything was like unicorns and rainbows, there were bad days in which I was homesick or sad and disappointed because an activity didn’t go as I expected or the results weren’t totally positive. It sounds weird but now I’ve realised that I have to say “thanks” to them because they made me stronger and aware about how to deal with bad mood and find a way to move on. An important role was also played by my mentor Adela, who was always helpful and full of good adivces about “keep negativity away” (and not only about this topic, of course).

Moving to the activities, I really appreciated the non formal approach used in every of them: this method allows you to use your creativity and make the learning process funny and interactive for the volunteer and the audience too. At the beginning it was hard to change the mental approach and think differently: I consider myself a “product” of formal education and setting the mind to something you are not accostumed to, requires an effort in therms of perspective and thinking. Anyway, during these months I challenged myself thanks to non formal education and I tried things that I’ve never done before such as teaching my mothertongue or organising workshop in highschool. Through them I improved some skills and I discovered new ones, such as time management, planning and indipendency. It was the first time in my life that I was totally free: usually everyone receives instructions or suggestions about what she/he has to do in a specific working context; of course all this freedom it’s quite “shocking” at first glance , I felt lost because i didn’t have a path to follow but it made me more responsable, focused and efficient about my work. As the time went by, I don’t feel a fish out of the sea anymore but quite confident about my results achieved here through the non formal approach.

Other skills that I think I have developed are connected to everyday life situations. As I said before, I am an only child and sharing a flat with other people it is not easy at all. Every person has habits, personality and manners that can be totally different from yours. It’s up to you and the others of course to try to establish a nice and tolerant atmosphere in the flat and during the activities, so everyone will feel accepted. There were some moments of tensions or misunderstanding but I think that this experience tought me and my fellows to cope with them, through confrontation, discussion and mutual understanding.

Last but not least, I’d like to spend some words about Bucharest and romanians. Unfortunately, in Italy there are a lot of prejudices and negative conceptions about Romania and one of the reasons that brought me to take the decision to do my EVS here was to touch with my own hands and see with my own eyes the reality of this misterious and almost unknown country. I’ve already knew that Bucharest was called “the city of contrasts” and it’s true: very fancy buildings and degraded areas, luxury cars and homeless people, super modern shopping malls and little local markets. This variety of impressions is also visible in the romanian culture and language, both full of influences from abroad, and I was impressed how close is romanian to my mother tongue and I think that this is one of the reason why I didn’t feel a complete stranger here, beside the fact that the majority of romanians is friendly and easy-going. In addiction some locals told me, regarding my physical aspect, that I could be a romanian!

I think that a lot of impressions and thoughts will come to my mind after my return and probably I will under stand and discover new things about me later. The learning process is like eating: you can say immediatly if the food is good or not but the body needs to digest it to benefit fully from it.

Just one  more thing…. Multumesc frumos Romania!

Sunt din Germania

Buna ziua! Ma numesc Henri… blablabla… blablabla. Sunt din Germania.

Mentioning that I’m from Germany is sometimes interesting. Some people don’t care where exactly I come from, though for a certain amount of them it’s the starting point of a nice and instructive discussion.

So what comes up then?

Topic Nr. 1: refugees

Not only Romanians also other volunteers and people from other countries ask me about the refugee crisis. “What do you think about the refugees?” and similar questions are often asked. Mostly people are curious why we host such big numbers of them and especially what people in Germany think about them (welcoming, restrictive etc.). Quite often the conversation goes on and comes to very stupid point (refugees could be possible terrorists, aren’t they criminal?).  In Romanian I feel accepted and welcomed as a German guy living here. However, I can’t imagine the same situation if I’d be a Syrian refugee. Romania has almost no foreigners or even if there are foreigners they come from Moldova which is basically the same country (#Basarabia-e-Romania). So the majority of people here isn’t very welcoming to refugees, whereby it’s hard for them to understand other attitudes.

Topic Nr. 2: German mentality

That’s actually my favourite topic. It always becomes funny. Before doing my EVS I just read about prejudices about Germans, though now I can confirm that most of them are the most typical ones. Germans are seen as disciplined, in time, straightforward and focussed, utterly unrelaxed, working, perfect car builders, organizing  & rule lovers, polite, cold, not so sociable as others and aloof. By the way: Of course we don’t have fun or any (acceptable) sense of humor.

I do my best to fight against from images of Germany – in both ways. I mention that we have a lot of fun (which is shocking for a lot of people!) and also sometimes stop working and have a relaxed weekend. On the other hand I feel obliged to be honest. When I tell people about Cologne or the “airport” in Berlin I’m very satisfied to have destroyed their image of Germany as well-organized and performing country.

Anyway, it’s hard to generalize opinions about Germany, though I measured two main opinions (to make it easy).

On the one hand there are people who don’t like the plenty of rules in Germany which contain and prevent freedom and fun. Also they think we are very cold, don’t like people and socializing. So their image of Germany is one of a very good country regarding infrastructure and economy, though a very bad one when it comes to living and enjoying your time there.

On the other hand there are people who really appreciates a well-organized and strict way of living with a lot of rules and a solution/way for everything. Also they appreciate our mentality. We’re not seen as unsociable, but as people who are polite, not pushy and easy-going. Moreover, they are amazed how smooth things work in Germany and would like to come or live there.

Whereby we come to the next point…

Topic Nr. 3: Why the hell are you here? I’d love to live and work in Germany!

Sometimes, as I wrote also before, people wonder why I am here. A lot of them would love to work somewhere else (for instance in Germany) for higher salaries, with a higher living standard in a working state offering a future perspective. It doesn’t happen too often to me, but what should I answer then? I usually point out why I chose Romania (curiosity), that I like it here and appreciate a lot. That I also don’t really think about living here in the long run I mostly conceal.

In the end

I was surprised how many stereotypes exist about Germany. Both, the too positive ones as well as the unjustified ones. I lived for quite a long time in Germany and I know more or less how it is. For other people it’s the same than for me with Romania: Just go and see how it is in reality.

Thoughts after seven months of EVS

After more than seven months here in Romania, Bucharest, the project and the flat the spirit of the first months faded away, normality caught me. It’s time for a little review of my EVS experience.

Activities

In the first place my EVS is about the project. What I’m doing so far and how does it go?
It is still interesting to compare and contrast the non-formal education which I practice now with the formal education which I had to survive for the most time of my life. In the beginning especially it took quite a lot of energy to hold the activities in this non-formal way, though now it’s definitely better. It’s very cool that I can do things in a different way.

Especially in my language club I have the unlimited freedom in the way how to teach German. I can experiment a lot, just after the concept of trial and error. Up to now we did some pretty cool stuff… (let’s not talk about the failures)

 

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Moreover, the flexibility offered by our project is amazing. I only have a few activities fixed in my schedule. I can move the rest as I want. So I can decide on which day I’ll go to the social apartments, when to the abused children center etc. When I’m busy in one area I have the ability to focus myself on this manner and equalize it in the next week by laying the focus more on the others.

I enjoy that our activities combine a lot of cool stuff. The good purpose, flexibility and creativity, challenges and fun. Especially working in the social apartments is pretty cool (I’ll write a post about my work there as well).

People and travelling

I didn’t spend too much time on thinking about my time after EVS and how it’ll feel like. Though there is one thing I’ll miss for sure: The people and the international environment which is so awesome. As I was in school and back in Cologne all the people were very homogeneous (at least compared to now). During my EVS I get in touch with a lot of people with various backgrounds born in different countries. I arrived in this new normality. It’s so exciting, funny and instructive. I’ll give my best to keep at least a fractional part of it after my EVS.

There are plenty of people who travel more, plenty of people are more curious than me in these regards. Nevertheless, if I travel it’s always amazing, because afterwards I can always tell some funny stories. That’s what tempts me the most. For sure, it’s nice to travel to see a Romanian monastery, but what makes it worth an experience is not the monastery itself, but the five km of walking to the destination (with a heavy bag, minus degrees and snows) or hitchhiking, amazing experience.

Besides gathering stories and experiences travelling is also way to challenge yourself and come out of your comfort zone (and still I’m doing it not often enough). Going spontaneously to Moldova, or hitchhiking alone and negotiating then with the driver who wants money (I offered him my sandwich), it’s just exciting.

“Personal development”

A few words about personal development: One of my main goals for my EVS and also for many of the others quite important.

It’s a tricky thing with personal development. You learn a lot, you receive a lot of input without realizing it. Blow on blow things are happening. Always there is something new or different. Basically, in EVS you don’t have time to think. You just live and let things go with all its up- and downsides. So at the end of the month you learned a lot, although you don’t realize it. Little time to reflect and additionally you’re still caught in the EVS bubble and probably only afterwards you’ll realize how you changed. Meanwhile, I’m writing these lines I have no idea how much in learned and only a foggy glimpse in which manners. It’s just a better version of guessing.

The catch for me in this manner is that you’re basically confronted with two facts: 1. You want to develop yourself. 2. You can’t measure really measure the progress (in a serious way). Leads to the very vague and sometimes frustrating situation that you don’t know what you achieved. Some doubts arise; you question the decision to come here or yourself.

Here I developed some sides of mine more than others, I discovered well-hidden ones and almost forgot about the previously most important ones. There are times when you’re satisfied. These are (surprise, surprise) the good times. Unfortunately, the sun isn’t shining the whole year. For instance, I noticed frustrating backdrops and setbacks. Some things of mine changed and now I’m thinking whether these are good ones. I arranged myself more with the situation than seeking for progress (in any areas). With every step, from every attitude, there always up- and downsides, different ways of interpretation.

That’s what “personal development” leads to in my opinion. For any question I had – and answered – two new ones raised up. It’s just a hopping from issue to issue without ever finishing. My EVS brought me the uncomfortable conviction that’s a never-ending process without any final satisfaction which is still hard to accept for me. But hey, I’m one step further. I know it and now it’s time for the next one and figuring out a way how to cope with it. This is also one thing what my EVS taught me up to now: Don’t worry too much. And if you do so, search for alcohol and company (maybe also one of these dubious changes)

Bucharest and Romania

For months, I live now in Bucharest and Romanian. I gathered far too many impressions and opinions (partly reversely to each other) to point all of them out. Bucharest is pretty amazing, although I have to admit that it’s a question of taste. It’s in most parts ugly with ruins or communistic architecture, it’s also like Cologne (not a compliment, nothing get’s finished here), loud and a traffic which can be described from exciting until dangerous. Well, I’m in the lucky position to value the upsides higher than the downsides. It’s a very diverse city, full of contrasts; this is – in my opinion – what turns Bucharest in a very interesting city. The infrastructure is quite cool and this city offers you a lot of opportunities and events. Apart from that the night-life is also a nice one.

As Bucharest is diverse, so is Romania also diverse in a certain way. It’s marked my plenty of influences. I hadn’t thought about it before I came here, that’s what makes Romania so interesting. I don’t regret that I chose Romania as my EVS destination, not at all. It’s so cool, though it’s important (for me) to have in mind that a) I live the first time abroad, so I assume it’s normal that everything is amazing, b) I experience Romania as a volunteer which goes hand in hand with adventures and an unique lifestyle which is to distinguish from a common life here. Moreover, c) I’ll (probably) live here for a limited period, so I don’t worry too much about things I’d worry about if I have to stay longer here than eleven months (for instance my whole lifetime long).

Apart from that I’d suggest everyone to come here and experience the country. You can leave your prejudices at the airport and see by yourself how it is and probably you’ll come again.

I could write now some paragraphs about Romanian and what exactly is so cool about it, but I want to focus on some other, more abstract aspects.

Undeniably, Romania has some, well… let’s not call them problems, but issues someone should take care of whereby we touched the first one: Everyone is unhappy with the current situation. Sadness and frustration about the socio-economic situation is common. In Germany, we say that awareness is the first step to improvement, yet it seems that one step was made, but that people forgot about the concept of walking and stopped then. As I experienced it, there exists a strong feeling of resignation. People know precisely what should be improved, but instead of doing something they arranged with the situation. The common attitude is to accept the situation as it’s given and to become resigned a la “this is how things are supposed to be here. I can’t change them”.

This attitude is tied up with adapting to the circumstances here due to the history of this country. Furthermore, it’s pretty interesting how this attitude spread and caught me as well. On a different level, however I also became resigned and accepted the situation as it is. I don’t really care and worry about when new obstacles arise. I tend to think “well, that’s Romanian. Happens” Granted, my case is different, yet it’s fascinating and unsettling at the same time that it also worked this way for me.

Let’s draw some lessons. The good thing is that you learn here to accept that things are not perfect and how to deal with it. It’s a lesson for your life for sure. The bad thing is what you learn and which attitudes and behaviours you should avoid.

OK, one more lesson for free. Regarding problems existing here: I learned that many things highly depend on let’s call it “luck” and the circumstances. I was born in the “right” country, that’s the reason why I heard about passports only in ancient stories and Romanians have it far more difficult to travel. This is also one of the reasons why plenty of people want to leave this country and move, for instance, to Germany. It’s sometimes an awkward situation when I tell people that I’m volunteering here in Romanian which is completely the opposite of what they want. Working and living somewhere else. For me it’s a pretty weird situation and I can’t comprehend it to 100%. It’s driving me in a sad mood. Of course their reasons are legitimate and understandable, yet how shall you improve and build something here if everyone is saying “la revedere”?

So, to put it in a nutshell: How was my time here?

To cut a long story short, it was pretty amazing. Granted, I didn’t dance samba for the whole time because I was to 110% fulfilled with happiness. Though if I just compare what I did or experienced in my life before or estimate how it’d have been to spend my time now in university I’m almost before dancing samba. It’s unique, that’s the sad, yet even more amazing part of it. I didn’t make a lot of decisions in my life before going to EVS, though this one was definitely the best of my life.

(That’s a nice end I suppose)

 

Nu vorbesc româneşte.

 

“Nu vorbesc româneşte.”. Certainly, the Romanian sentence that I use the most in Romania. I may fall in love with Romania, Bucharest and Romanians. But I have still some frictions with the Romanian language.

First of all, Limba română for Romanians or daco-romanian for the linguistics is a romance language. It’s the only country in the Balkans, where you can find people speaking a language inherited by the Latin. It has as background romance and Slavic languages. I learned Latin, Italian and Russian at school, my native language is French and I can tell you that it doesn’t help at all !!! In Moldova, Romanian is also the national language. For a part of the population, they don’t speak Romanian but Moldavian. It’s also a way for them to show their identities. In France, usually we say that in Moldova people speak Moldavian and in Romania Romanian. I should add that before coming there, I didn’t know that it was the same language (to be honest I had no idea about where Moldova was, for me it was just somewhere after the European Union and between Russian …).

Let’s close this short cultural moment and come back to my complicated relationship with the Romanian Language. 6 months I’m there, I have still the same level that I had 4 months ago. So frustrating ! I’m able to read quite easy texts. Yes, I can do it (at least) ! But it’s basically the only thing that I can really do … Speaking ? Well, my vocabulary is the same since months and still quite limited. They also rolled the R. Why ? The french R is the best! Oral comprehension? I am too slow to understand people speaking too fast. Writing ? I just can’t. Romanian is so random. Random grammar rules. Some words can have up to 3 i ! What’s the point honestly?! No rules for the plural. Also rules that I never experimented in any other languages! For example, articles at the end of the word.

At least I can still order in a bar, ask for the direction, say the basic greetings. “I can” is maybe still too much! In a bar or a restaurant, it’s still quite tricky because when you ask for something to order and then the waiter ask with or without vegetables in Romanian. I’m like “what did you say?” with my two big opened eyes. So they switched to a language that I understand English. (That is also strange, now I love English because we can admit that it saves my social life. But before coming there I never really enjoyed to speak English !) Sometimes, I’m in the metro and some people come to me and ask me something. I’m again with my big eyes and say “Nu am înțeles”. It is not for sure the appropriate sentence to say because after, it’s them who look at you with the big eyes ! Well, it was surely something easy and not complicated … So, it’s better to say Nu vorbesc româneşte. Much safer !!

Otherwise, I think where I experiment the most the barrier language is with the children. They want to tell you things, but you don’t understand. It’s frustrating for you but also for them. But it’s also when I’m with them that I have actually the feeling to speak a bit. Because they begin to tell you “Oh, but you speak Romanian”. You can’t tell them that you don’t speak, because well they will think you are a bit crazy. For them, if you can say “Facem un cerc”, it’s already a lot !. So you switch from “Nu vorbesc româneşte” to “Vorbesc româneşte un mic”. The children are just so happy and laughing at you, because they are like “Oh my god, she can say it !”. Even if you say only “mic” or “mare”. Sometimes you may want to say something and you say something else, that has no sense with your current discussion . One other funny moment, it’s when they want you to repeat after them. You are like, ok I’m not sure if I can, because you don’t really know what it actually means! These children know that!

Other funny moment with them, it’s when they try to speak with you in English or in your mother tongue (French for me). Sometimes, you understand pretty well, you answer them “Foarte bine, foarte bine!” Or the other time, you are wondering about what the child is actually trying to tell you. Occasionally, you are wondering, if actually you really want to understand! .

I hope that at the end of my EVS, so in 5 months, I will be able to improve my Romanian and even to say to adults “Vorbesc româneşte un mic” and not only to Kids.

Recurrent questions. Same answers.

“Why did you decide for doing an EVS?”, that the recurrent question that we heard when for the first time, we met someone here. I have to say that it’s a good and difficult one. Before coming here, it was quite clear for me. First: Because I want Second: Why not ? Third: Because I want to do a break between my Bachelor and my Master. Forth: I want to develop myself and my soft skills. Fifth: Because I want to help. But now, it’s still clear but new questions appear. Are these reasons legitimate, selfish or wrong ? I don’t know and I think I will never know. Because it depends on my mood. Sometimes, it is “I was right” or “I was wrong”. But at the end, I just know that I don’t or won’t regret the choice to come here. If I wouldn’t have come, I would have regretted it for sure. Furthermore, my two last reasons were also a part of my expectations. I think that I achieved them. Even if I’m not totally satisfied with that yet, I still have five months and half. Knowing my character, I know that I will always want more.

But there are more reasons of why doing an EVS is so great. Here are some of them that I experienced and benefited:

1. You meet awesome people from different countries, with different personalities. But we have at least all of us something in common and it’s being a volunteer. Isn’t it awesome? Some of them will become so important for you.
2. You can travel in the country that you are living but also around it
3. You learn new languages. I’m trying to learn Romanian but also Polish. I enjoy telling tongue-twisters in Polish.
4. You improve your English skills. You get confidence in speaking.
5. You develop yourself and develop your soft skills in different ways.
6. You receive so many smiles from people, children that you work with. Even if sometimes, you are not satisfied with what you did.
7. You are doing human-size board games. Come one, it’s just awesome.
8. You discover new interests as Human Rights or Gipsy musics.
9. You dare to do things, that maybe before you wouldn’t have.
10. You will experiment a surprising path, with a lot of obstacles but always with the smile.

That’s what I get during these first months. I feel thankful for that. But I think it doesn’t depend only on doing an EVS but also on your willingness to experiment it. Because it’s your EVS, your adventure. You can share it with others but at the end you are the main character of your life.

After the second most recurrent question is “Why Romania?”. But for this one, I don’t have any answer. I don’t have any answer that can satisfy people. When I did my researches, I just know that I didn’t want to do my EVS in a country next to the French border and quite far away of France. I wanted to do it in a Central or East European country. So I choose much more the project in itself that the country. But I don’t regret this choice and I invite you to read my last article about it. Te iubesc Romana.

Obviously, the other recurrent questions are “Where do you come from ?”. “What are you doing there ?”. But my favorite one “How did you meet?” ❤