Hellooo everyone, let me introduce myself :) My name is Leonie and I am one of the current volunteers of abs. I am eighteen years old and come from a small town in the southwest of Germany. After I graduated from highschool in July I wanted to go abroad for a couple of months to work as a volunteer. Thus I checked the European Youth Portal for different projects and applied for this opportunity in Bulgaria… and well now I find myself here in the beautiful city of Blagoevgrad!

At first I was really excited and everything felt new and unfamiliar to me (The Cyrillic alphabet, the Bulgarian language, culture etc.) but now that I´m living here for almost three weeks (time flies!) I really feel like I belong here. I already tried a few typical Bulgarian meals (they´re soo delicious, especially the banitsa) and know some basic Bulgarian words. Also, I met so many nice people in this short period of time and am really grateful for the kindness and welcoming attitude towards me ♡ (kisses to Ati and Tsvety).

I've already experienced a lot here in this city and can now even find my way around without google maps (at least most of the time). Together with friends I´ve been to Blago´s many restaurants, cafes, bars and shops, visited the city garden and some other nice places in the city. Furthermore, I spent one afternoon in the beautiful Bachinovo Park and went for a nice hike to “the cross” from where you can enjoy an amazing view on the city!

Also, I had the chance to participate in multiple events and already organized an event by myself! I really love planning and taking part in those activities, not only because you meet nice people and make new contacts but also because you have the opportunity to implement your own thoughts and ideas and create projects on certain topics.

In the last few days, four new volunteers arrived in Blagoevgrad and joined the abs team. Vittoria and Camilla, two girls from Italy, a French girl named Marie and even another volunteer from Germany (I couldn´t believe it when Malika told me that she´s even from the same part of Germany as I am- What a coincidence, isn´t it?!). All the girls are really nice and although they´d just arrived couple of days before we already had lots of fun together! We visited some nice restaurants in the city and also explored a bit of the city´s nightlife (which is great btw!).

Additionally, we had the opportunity to meet students of the American University (AUBG) at some of their parties organized by various clubs. We all had a great time there and were able to make new contacts (some of them even joined our events afterwards). We have experienced so much this week and I am convinced that we will experience so much more in the upcoming months!

Uhh I almost forgot to tell you about our yesterday's guest in our apartment… It was Bebe (that´s how we called her), the cutest kitten I´ve ever seen. I mean, look at those big incredibly cute eyes!!!

However, if you want to know what else is going to happen in the coming weeks, you shouldn't miss any more stories of the cool abs volunteers!

Tschüss und bis bald!!!

This article is created by Leonie Rathgeb - participant in the ESC Project ESC 2023-1-BG01-ESC51VTJ-000131842 in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, co-funded by the Bulgarian National Agency of Erasmus+ Program Human Resource Development Centre.

Disclaimer:

The European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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