First entry in English

Okay, so my favourite place so far is probably the park in Oliwa (though, NOTOCIACHo has a high chance getting into the top three, as well... I am sitting there while writing this and having the best homemade chocolate cake/cookie/thing ever). The park (or more like a garden, really) makes me happy and safe. It has a sense of freedom but still keeps you safe with a feeling of calm content. I think its atmosphere somehow played a role in becoming more comfortable in Gdansk and surer in myself about the whole EVS experience, too.

            I know I always act as if I have spent at least a month here, even though it’s been barely ten days, but time goes by sooo slowly. All the impulses I have to take in and process... Especially on the first week I felt super overwhelmed by everything. The places, the people (that few I met, at least :D), the apartment, even grocery shopping was exhausting! Now I feel more settled (not completely, of course), more relaxed. This is definitely a happy day, today!

Next week I start teaching Hungarian. Morena managed to collect twenty interested people within a couple of days, which is insane. I mean, face it. I wouldn’t wanna learn Hungarian if I wasn’t one. :D It is a beautiful language and I love it, but I am really interested in how many people will actually show up on the first class on Monday. I am very excited! Not only because I have never in my life taught Hungarian to anyone, but just the fact that I have to stand in front of people like that again. It has been a long time that happened. But this is the good kind of excitement I feel. :)

The project I was accepted to do is still rather disorganized. It depends a lot on what I want to put in it and in the end, what I want to take home from this experience. I am willing to accept that and I am filled with enthusiasm on making my stay here incredibly awesome! I feel that if anyone goes on a 1-year volunteering somewhere abroad has to have a flexible mindset and a sense of patience to wait things out and realize the opportunities for development. Basically, I can do whatever I want, which was actually scary at first... I know that many people would say, woah, that is pretty cool, you can travel around, organize your own time and stuff, basically like a vacation, but I needed some time dealing with the sudden intimidation of the fact that there won’t be anyone telling me what to do. It was a lonely feeling at first, after ten days I see things brighter (they are seriously playing In the end by Linkin Park on the radio right now. :D).

          Oh, and I have for sure started being more comfortable by decorating my room (I bought a plant today. I’ll call it Bob... or something, I don’t know yet) and doing something to make the apartment a less gloomy place. It is a beautiful building with loads of unused spaces and we have a whole floor for ourselves. I will be living there for one year, I might as well want to feel good being there and don’t want to have the urge to escape to a café every time I have nothing exact to do. I don’t actually have everything figured out yet, but I’ve been thinking of getting some pictures and different decorations for a start. Also, sit down with everyone (preferably with alcohol close by) to get the differences and tension on the surface, because a lot of that gloominess comes from the awkward and bad communication we are having with the boys (obviously because of the language barrier).

You can say I am being far-fetched with this but I am a cozy person who needs to have her own little place organized to be warm and friendly. A safe spot I can return to in the end of the day. So in order to have that, things need to change.

Funny, this is a newfound willingness I didn’t have last week. A willingness to make things better. I am experiencing the same emotions I had back then when I joined AIESEC and turned my life into something it had not been before. So, you see, things are looking up. :)