Going for the first time alone abroad was truly excited! Since a long time, I wanted to leap in it …so I took a year and decided to make it happen.
When I knew that I was chosen to participate to this EVS in ABS, I didn’t have a lot of expectation because I had no idea about Bulgaria, its inhabitant or even people I will meet. The project and the tasks to accomplish were still unclear in my head but for sure, I was impatient! I took the opportunity seriously.
At first, I felt like a child when I first saw the city, during the flight and even after leaving the airport. All along the journey, I was impatient about everything: discover the country, meet the people, see the flat…so, we hang out for the first night and I met almost all the others volunteers. I was looking all around me with my eyes wide open. And I tried to speak to everyone, even if I knew I will have a lot of opportunities after. I wanted to enjoy every moment…so I did. Since I’m here, for more than a week now, every day and night I want do the more I can and to talk with the more people I met.
I quickly noticed that Bulgarian young people are kind and happy to welcome us. They tried their best to advise us and let us know about the best places to visit, the best bar and everything. It’s a pleasant thing to hear about tips, nice places, or even their daily life.
Talking English wasn’t that difficult for me. Of course, at the beginning, I couldn’t find my words and not be able to express all my feelings was complicated for me. But after a week, I performed better mainly thanks to my roommate who was always explaining me the words and their meaning. I finally remembered of some expressions or words and I felt more confident.
I took the EVS project as a unique opportunity and my goal was mostly to enjoy every moment and to travel around the country or even on the closest country to learn as much as possible. Even if I had only two months here, I wanted to live it up as far as possible!
Be open minded count a lot in a volunteering project, because you meet many different people who have different point of view and a different past than you. It’s important to realize how lucky we are to have the chance to get various cultures, languages, and have a better understanding about European countries. For example, when I first met people from Ukraine or Azerbaijan, I had no idea about…mostly everything concercning them. And I was so glad to find people smiling and enjoying to meet me as well. Get along with them was so easy and obvious...
If I had to resume what’s the most important for me in this experience, I would say : friendship, travel and culture. You learn a lot by talking with different people and you learn about yourself too, how you can handle to be on your own, how you manage to travel. Also, to have the ability to understand people whose are different than you, with a different way of thinking or point of view is so rewarding for me. I also want to discover how the other European country deal with feminism, homosexuality, power, religion, etc. because these delicate subjects can be handles in such different ways! I’m really interesting about it: comparing and learn about they live the situation ; depending on the country.
So, no more doubts: just go and launch yourself!
