Hiii everyone I am Clara, I come from Nantes, a big city in the North West of France and I am here as a short-term volunteer besides the Active Bulgarian Society.

I was a student for 3 years in Digital Marketing and Communication and decided to take a gap year to travel, enjoy life, and take time for myself. Thanks to an association that helps young people to go abroad, I heard about the ESC projects and I applied for this mission in Bulgaria which consists of promoting the ESC and Erasmum+ programs to local young people. The offer caught my attention as soon as I saw it because it corresponds to what I like to do: organize events, post content on social media, interact with a community, and most of all, share!! Indeed, sharing is the most important part of my trip, I want to share my culture and discover the culture of others, share my skills and learn from others’, and so much more.

One month after the confirmation of the mission, I packed and took a plane to Sofia! I think this was the best decision of this (hard) year and I am so grateful because I arrived in Blagoevgrad 2 weeks ago and already met amazing people.

First day in Blagoevgrad

Since I am here, I set up in my apartment with my three beautiful roommates and began to discover the tiny city of Blagoevgrad, it’s pretty cold here, but so cute! The first 5 days I thought I was back in my city in France because it couldn't stop raining!! :(( then the cold started coming in and it even snowed! We have been to the nearest ski station for a day the first weekend, it was so nice because we were able to see the mountains and to ski! I was with the 2 Spanish people, and I would like to say that dancing is more their thing than skiing ;)) but we had so much fun there.

Mountains view

Of course, I also began my mission by working at the office with the other volunteers. This is not a formal office, we can work with music and we are just having a good time while working. We organize events for the local communities, such as cleaning the park, yoga classes, intercultural night. This is the best way to exchange and to share! We also create a lot of content on social media, in order to share with our community and develop the association as much as possible.

We also have been to Sofia last weekend. We arrived there on Saturday lunch and visited the city. Even if the restaurants, bars, and cinemas are closed, we have been able to see a big part of the city, as well as the Ethnical museum, parks, historic monuments, local library... We rented an Airbnb for the night, we cooked handmade pizzas all together, and had a little party with games, chatting, and dancing. On Sunday, we kept visiting around and one of my Spanish roommates left Bulgaria. It was the first time I said goodbye to a person here, but unfortunately not the last... I think this is the worse part of this project: saying goodbye to people you had a connection with.

But the good part is that you always meet new souls!! Indeed, a new roommate arrived by plane in Sofia the same day, so we came back to Blagoevgrad together and he is now my new roommate!!

I just arrived but I already love this country, I think everybody is nice and hosting! A good thing is also that everything is so cheap so that we can travel all weekends!

Thank you for reading until here, see you soon xx

This article is created by Clara Vilette as part of her personal project. She is a participant in the "ESC: European Skills and Competencies" project, co-funded by the Bulgarian National Agency of Erasmus+ Program Human Resource Development Center.

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