...This is gonna be a loooong post!! xDD
I'm back in Tampere - after 5 days in Kokkola by the sea. I've met a lot of volunteers from all over Europe there and I've found a lot of new friends! I'm definitely gonna visit some of them in the regions or cities that they're staying. We were about 40 people there, this is (at least the majority of) our group:
One of my new friends, Šárka from the Czech Republic, is unfortunately missing on that picture --> she was at her cottage when the photo was shot >.<
(She's staying in Rovaniemi, probably the only one of us that is in Lapland, and in January she'll switch to Oulu. I'll surely visit here sometime and we'll hopefully have the chance to go to some concerts together, because we have the same music preferences...
- Šárka, I'm glad I could meet you and I'm already looking forward to meeting you again! You must come to Tampere! Or, like you wrote on my paper back then: - Jsem nadržená! xDD )
...but she's here:
...back: Šárka (from Czech Republic) and Kiveen (from France)
front: me and Marili (from Estonia)!
- I like that picture ;D especially because I look like shit on most of the other photos we made xD
Villa Elba was a really nice place - there was the main building, 2 saunas, 6 cottages where we lived in (I want to have one of these cottages myself someday!!!! ) and another building where we used to party together ;D
...and it was directly by the sea! :D Somehow these trainings are always in beautiful places!!
Aaaah I wanted to take a mass of pictures, but somehow both of my camera's batterys were dead after the second day >.< I suppose the camera was accidentally turned on when I had it in my pocket...
well, luckily the others took some photos too!
As awesome as it was, we also had a lot of programm all day long, so we were already tired afterwards. Still, we had some parties or activities in the evenings:
One of my goals during EVS is to be open-minded and try new things - I partially fulfilled this at our sauna evening! I already went to the sauna sometimes in Austria, but this time we went swimming afterwards in the ice cold September sea of Finland! xP (as far as it can be called "swimming" - we ran into the water, stayed shortly and then ran back to the sauna as fast as our feet could take us xDD ) but it was a great experience...and a great challenge! ^.^
Haha, one day some of us wanted to take picutres at the sea, so we went there, but all of us wanted to be on the picture, so we chose to use self-timer - which was like:
...and then we were like:
... xDD but we managed to take photos like:
Back: Clémence (France), Aras (Turkey)
Front: Šárka (Czech Repuplic), Magdalena (Poland), me, Michaela (Czech Republic)
On our last night together we had a farewell party in one of the cottages! haha most of the time we played "truth or dare". I've never played this game ever since I left primary school, because I don't like that game, but some people told me that EVS is a nice opportunity to try things one usually wouldn't do, so I took the chance and joined the game! It was...umm...very informative? xDD anyways we had a lot of fun!
Good thing there aren't any pictures of that night! xD
Oh, and I need to eternalize this one too:
I can't remember how this started, but it became a running gag to learn vulgar words in different languages, the most popular one "I'm horny" - so, this picutre shows a multicultural collection of that sentence.
As much fun as it was with all the guys, the training itself was also very insightful and it opened my eyes to a lot of things or gave me a different perspective on them.
During these days I've actually been thinking a lot. At first it's been a little strange to meet all the people who are now volunteering at most projects that I also applied to when I didn't have a placement yet, but talking to them now, hearing about their tasks, situations, maybe also problems, I feel like I've got the best project for myself! I wouldn't change with any of the others, because I'm all happy with living in Tampere, my awesome host family, my work placement and co-workers...I just can't find anything to complain about and there could have been so much going wrong!
I'm thinking about how to express my gratitude to everyone that has contributed to my well-being and still does, but I can't think of anything except saying:
A BIG THANKS TO ALL OF YOU!! ^o^/ It's not self-evident to be accomodated so warmly, receive help with all the stuff that needs to be organised at the beginning of living in another country and being cared for from so many sides! This goes especially to Mirkka, Lasse, Päivi, Mari, Saska, Saana and also Lilli! You are a great help and I really appreciate your efforts to make my life here as comfortable as possible!
Oh, and also a big thanks to those I left behind in Austria! Without everyone's support it might have been pretty difficult or even impossible to leave, that's why I consider myself being lucky to have such wonderful friends and family! Again, it's not self-evident to be encouraged to go abroad despite personal feelings of loss (this is dedicated particularly to my mother, father, grandmother and Marc! - I already miss you, but I look forward to meeting you again!!)
hmm...writing and thinking about this almost makes me become sentimental, so I'd better leave it at that point and just be happy with how it is :)
...We've also talked about making ourselves clear, why we are here in Finland now and what our tasks really are. Same goes for our targets and how we can reach them. It was like...taking a look inside and thinking about what we are doing now and what has lead to our decision. I think I got to know myself a little more.
Oh, and I've also tasted reindeer meat! :O it was...actually okay xD you could tell it was no beef or pork, but it didn't taste THAT different! Some friends told me I should try moose meat too, since it's even better...let's see if there'll be an opportunity.
I think that's about the morst important stuff concerning the training :) I'd better write the news of these last 3 days (in Tampere again) in a separate post!
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