Hello, my name is Marina, I am from the south of Russia the city Rostov-on-Don.
Two other Russian girls and I came to Romania just a week ago but we have already met a lot of amazing people from different countries and I feel that I am falling in love with beautiful Craiova. I like a lot of things here: lovely buildings, beautiful nature, tasty baking, nice and helpful people and I am looking forward to explore more.
Now, at the beginning of the project we all full of expectations, hopes and ideas. And I really hope to keep it this way.
For me personally the EVS is an opportunity to leave my comfort zone, to do something Important, to improve myself and I am really glad that I have my EVS here, in Romania with an amazing team.
29.11.2016
Now it’s almost two month as I’m in Romania. So many things happened in that time that it’s hard to remember everything.
We started our activities at Elena Farago School, ANCAAR and Handball club. At first it was quite challenging for me, but now it became more interesting and easier because we already know what we should do, we know all children and their level of English at school and Handball club and that in ANCAAR nothing to afraid or to be worry about.
At the end of November we had our first holidays and decided to spend them travelling around Romania. We visited Bucharest, Brasov, Sinaia, Peles and Bran castles. For me personally Peles castle was the best part of our trip. It is really beautiful and atmospheric place. I want to come there in spring and see it again. I felt like I was in fairytale when we came to Sinaia. It became to snow heavily and castle looked fantastic with dark blue sky and white snow around.
During our trip for me it was also first experience of hitchhiking and I was surprised how kind and helpful Romanian people were to us.
In the middle of December we had one more trip this time to Sibiu. But it wasn’t holidays it was on arrival training. The training was very intense but really interesting and useful. Amazing trainers worked with us during a week, told us a lot of information about Erasmus + program, played different games and answered all our questions. We lived in a beautiful hotel and had a lot of free food. During the training we met amazing people – trainers and volunteers from other projects in Romania. In the same time after the training I feel even closer to everyone from our team feom Craiova. I am really grateful for this experience to National Agency.
I feel that I have a new life here. Volunteers are not just friends for me some of them already like a family. Our flat in Craiova really feels like a home especially after some hard days or after long trips. Sometimes I miss my family and friends in Russia but usually I just don’t have time for that. Time flies really fast here. I planned a lot of things that I should do here, for example I thought that would learn English and Romanian, but in reality I have no idea how to manage my time and even how to combine work and personal time with enough sleeping.
In conclusion I want to say that EVS for me so far means a lot of different emotions, sometimes really positive and happy; sometimes negative and upsetting but I think it is good experience that gives opportunity to know better myself and world around me.
23.12.2016
One more month passed by, a lot of things have happened and sometimes hard to remember all in details.
Our Christmas holidays we spent by travelling. It was wonderful experience for me. I visited two new countries and met amazing people. At first we went to Bulgaria and then for New Year celebration we went to Serbia. The weather during our journey was very cold but in spite of it I enjoyed our trip very much. I met new people who immediately feel like old friends (with me it happens not really often) and also was glad to meet other volunteers from Romania. I finally visited my friend from Russia who now leaves in Bulgaria and I miss her very much. I can say that trip was for me about people. It was some unpleasant moments but at the end I remember just good things. I feel that I became even closer with my girls from Craiova after all our adventures and of course I hope to meet my new friends from Bulgaria and Serbia again.
After holidays we came back to work. I really like to spend my time to prepare lessons for school. Kids and teachers are very nice and friendly. Every time we are trying to plan something new and interesting. I knew before that teachers’ work is really hard but couldn’t imagine that so hard. But I am happy when I can see that kids like us and our lessons so it definitely worth it.
At ANCAAR I feel more comfortable now too. At first I was really afraid to go there. I had no idea what I should do and how to communicate with kids. But now it much easier for me and we are finally doing something together. Also I feel how much I need to learn Romanian to work effectively there and hope to find time to improve it.
I also want to mention Living Library event in the penitentiary where we took part with guys from Restart project. It was really unusual experience for me. I don’t know how describe it with words. We had interesting conversations with guys from the penitentiary even made jokes with them, but I felt hard and think a lot about it afterwards.
One of the reasons why I like our EVS project I feel that it changing me. Now I know a lot of new things about other people lives. For example I knew almost nothing about autism before or never thought about life stories of people from penitentiary, but now, when I know, when I can see it by myself and when I am part of it, I think it’s impossible to be the same.
31.01.2017
31.05. 2017
Time flies very fast and I can’t believe that in one month our project will end… I had enough time to fall in love in Craiova – this small and cozy city. We came here in autumn and I liked it from the first sight. There are a lot of parks in Craiova and all trees were covered with amazing colours. I just regret a little that we didn’t spend a lot of time outside, because the beginning of the project was quite difficult for us and we didn’t know how to manage our time.
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In winter I was always cold and everyone asked: – “Why are you cold? You are from Russia!” But I live in south of Russia and in winter we usually have just one month of really cold weather and inside it’s always worm. Anyway I liked winter in Craiova too, especially with snow. Nicolae Romanescu Park was so beautiful. We went there for walk few times and had really good time there.
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But spring in Craiova is the best for me. At first magnolia started to flower. After endless cold it was so nice to see that big beautiful flowers. Than all fruit trees were covered with white, red and pink flowers. I wanted to go outside for walk all the time. And now roses are everywhere. I never see so many roses in my life. In our way to the office we are always passing this small park and it’s all covered with roses. I like this amazing smell that you can feel all the time during the walk.
I will miss this beautiful city…
1.06.2016
In April we had our holidays in Europe. 8 days – 3 countries: Belgium, the Netherlands and France.
We bought really cheap tickets from Timisoara to Brussels. In Russia it is impossible to find tickets like this so we decided to use this opportunity.
I have already been in Brussels and Paris but Amsterdam I visited first time. I liked this city very much. There are a lot of beautiful streets and houses, a lot of flowers everywhere and of course Van Gogh museum. I had a dream to visit Amsterdam because of Van Gogh. Two years ago I read the book of Irving Stoun “lust for life” and fell in love with this amazing painter. I have a lot of good feelings towards Amsterdam even though we didn’t have a really good couchsurfing experience there.
Paris I liked very much from my first visit and I was really excited about second visit. We walked really a lot there and at the end I couldn’t feel my legs but it is really worth it. We didn’t have a lot of money so we didn’t visit museums but it was a pleasure just to walk and see these beautiful streets and buildings. We were really lucky with the weather and relaxed on the grass near the Eifel Tower.
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I can’t say that Brussels one of my favorite cities but this time I looked at it differently because of our couchsurfing host. He lives in nice area with beautiful buildings and good atmosphere. Also he was really kind to us and I believe that we mainly have good or bad impression about our travel because of people.
In Belgium we also visited Hallerbos forest. We were so lucky to go there during bluebells blooming. It is truly a magical place. The whole forest was covered with blue flowers and I felt like I am in a fairytale.
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At the end I can say that our trip wasn’t easy and perfect but I really liked it. We made and saw a lot of things and you always change a little after an experience like this.
9.06.2017
7 months of our project we celebrated in Macedonia. If to be honest I never thought about visiting this country but now I want to visit it again. We went there by hitchhiking with a stop in Sofia. Skopje met us with really heavy rain but still I liked it immediately. But we didn’t have time to see the capital because we had to go by bus to Ohrid lake.
Ohrid is an amazing city – cozy, beautiful, with a smell of flowers, a lot of old nice churches and places with breathtaking views. We spend there just one day but it was perfect.
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Next day we had to go by bus to Skopje and there start hitchhiking to Craiova but in the bus station they gave us wrong information about time and we had to wait 3 hour for the bus, we tried to find a car so that we do not waste a lot of time in the bus station but didn’t succeed. So we arrived in Skopje really late and it was impossible to continue our trip that day. But I am glad that we stayed and had a little time to see this city. Also we found really cheap but perfect apartment in the centre for sleep.
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Next morning we left really early but didn’t manage to find a car all day so in the end we went by bus till Sofia and arrived there just after midnight. Next morning again tried hitchhiking and that time we were luckier. All day on the road, changed 5 cars and felt the happy moment of arriving to Craiova where a delicious dinner from Karina was waiting for us.
15.06.2017
In February I didn’t feel very happy and wanted to escape from the project and people around me. So I decided to find a work camp for my holidays and go there as a volunteer. I choose Serbia because I liked it very much after our New Year celebration there and also it is not so far from Romania. I found a project in the small city Kragujevac in Intercive park. My sending organization from Russia SFERA helped me and I was excepted to this project very fast. But the beginning of the camp was just at the end of April and it became a problem for me. At this time I really didn’t want to go anywhere, I really started to feel like at home in Craiova and didn’t want to separate with my second family.
But still any travel is an adventure and new experience so I pack my staff and went by train to Timisoara then to Belgrade and after by bus to Kragujevac. There I met my team – two other girls from Russia, one boy from Slovenia and guys from Serbia.
Our main job was paint ground in the park where children can learn how to drive bicycle. This place is really nice and always full of people. Also we participated in organization of children carnival. It was nice and emotional event and children prepared very good and enjoyed it a lot.
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During our say in Kragujevac we also went to the museums. I was imprested and touched by Museum 21. October. It is dedicated to the execution in Kragujevac on 21 October 1941 during World War II. The Germans killed several thousand innocent people – men, women and children – in a single day. After the war, the execution site was turned into a Memorial park covering an area of 352 hectares with 30 mass graves. In this museum we read about this tragedy and for me the hardest and the saddest part was letters and notes of victims that they wrote before execution, it was impossible to read these letters without tears. After that museum we felt really sad but I think we need places like this to remember all this terror that survived older generation and remember value and importance of peace and good relationship between countries and all people in general.
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I can’t say that I was really happy all the time during my camp – we had some problems and difficulties, also I missed Craiova and people here too much, but for me it was good experience. I met new interesting people, visited new lovely and cozy city Kragujevac and I think it is a lot.
15.06.2017
Time for my final article... 8 months in Romania… So many memories, emotions, people, feelings…
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When I was going to the project I have a lot of goals, expectations. And now I can say that most of them never been approach, but I don’t feel bad about it at all. I think that I got much more than I could imagine.
During long term projects like EVS I think you have another small life inside your normal life. New country, new city, new flat with new international family, new work, new friends, new problems and difficulties, new favorite places and new you… You leave your comfort zone and it changes you a lot.
For me volunteering life is really different from my life in Russia.
During the EVS:
I first time in my life tried travel with hitchhiking;
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Had bad and really good experience with Couchserfing;
Worked as a teacher;
Worked with children with autism and learned a lot of things about it;
Organised and prepared language cafes about Russian language;
Cooked almost every day and learned how to prepare perfect borch and different Turkish and Italian food;
Ate enormous amount of eggs (because they are cheap and easy to prepare);
Traveled to Serbia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Netherlands, Belgium, France;
Traveled around Romania;
Danced flash mob in Central Square in Craiova;
Got a lot of hugs, smiles, cards with lovely wishes from our amazing children;
Visited prison and spoke with youngsters;
Met an incredibly fat cat in the Biergarten;
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Celebrated New Year abroad with people who we met just day before but felt like real friends;
My first Christmas in Europe with amazing Christmas markets;
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Plus a lot of amazing people, difficulties with communication, misunderstandings, a lot of laugh, tears, friends, hugs, love, jokes, happy and unhappy moments.
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I think that EVS experience is unique for everybody and I can tell just about myself but I believe that even if you don’t like some parts of it and have some problems it is really worth it to be a part of this program.
