EVS Stories: My place in the team (II) – by Sarah P.

Now it has been a little over two months since I arrived to Baia Mare, and I feel very grateful for everything I have experienced so far.

At work I found my place in the team, we’re working together really well, developing new ideas on how to promote EVS in a creative way. We have our routine, dividing tasks between us and working together on others. I particularly enjoy working on videos and building a stock photography database. Another thing I enjoy a lot, which I didn’t expect, is going to schools and doing activities with the students there. I’ve always liked teaching, but I never considered myself to be a person who is good with kids and teenagers, so I limited myself to only helping my friends at university. But here we sometimes go as a team to schools to inform students about EVS and last week I had the opportunity to present my personal project, phone photography workshops, to three classes by myself. And I found out, I can actually make a class full of teenagers listen to me! They seemed to enjoy my activity there, they asked questions and were just overall really nice. For me that was a very important experience. I know that my next opportunity to do photography related activities will be with even younger students, so I am excited to see how that goes. EVS really does help you discover new things about yourself.

Besides work, I am enjoying spending time with all the new friends I made. Baia Mare has a tight-knit community of international volunteers, and we meet up regularly for various events. From concerts to afternoon coffees, from meditation classes to visiting the Christmas market, someone is always willing to spend some time with you and enjoy Romania. We have spent countless evenings watching movies and playing games, laughing and talking.

When I decided to come to Romania I didn’t expect to meet so many people from so many different backgrounds, and I definitely couldn’t imagine how much of an impact they would have on me. I have met people who I would like to be a part of my life for a long time.

Together with these lovely new people I am exploring Romania, almost every weekend we’re on a trip, discovering places far and near. I am amazed by how stunning the nature is around here, and enjoy meeting locals. So far, Romanians have been very kind to me, almost everyone is interested in learning a bit about the foreigners they meet, and they are very helpful if you’re a bit lost. Thanks to these interactions I feel like my Romanian is improving every day.

All in all, my time here has been amazing so far, and I am looking forward to seeing what the next months have in store for me.

Sarah (Austria) is hosted in Baia Mare by Team for Youth Association, in the “IN4EVS” project, an European Voluntary Service financed by the European Commission through the Erasmus Plus Program.