Well, well, well… Here it comes! My first post in this blog 😊
Hello everybody! My name is Ana and I’m from a small city in the southest part of Spain (I could even say I’m almost African).
I arrived to Piran at the beginning of October, and it’s my first time in this country. Why did I decide to go to Slovenia? It’s a long story, but I was convinced to do a long volunteer program about education somewhere in Europe. I was looking for a project together with a friend and, at the end, I could decide to go with her to Germany or discover the beauty, the history and the people from this unknown country… So yeah, my friend and I broke-up just because I fell in love with all that I found on Internet about Slovenia (I was so excited that I bought a touristic guide of the country before coming here!)
I also had to break up with my job in Spain two days before taking-off towards Venice, but I’m sure this experience worth it. Working as a volunteer in Mladinski EPI Center is great. Here, I spend time playing with kids, especially a game called “Cactus”. Some days are crazy because kids are very energetic and the Slovenian language is (still) an obstacle for me. I hope to improve and to use less the expression “ne govorim slovensko”.
I remember my first day in Lucija. Just before arriving to the apartment, the driver of the GoOpti told me he was going to swim on the beach without any wetsuit (OMG). Then, I met Alberto and Martina. In that moment Clara was working in Piran and I would meet her later. But, once I enter to our room, it was full of post-its in Spanish giving me the welcome and explaining me some things.
On my second day I was already working in EPI. I couldn’t imagine I was going to start that early hahahaha. For me, the first week in Slovenia delighted me only with the landscapes and the sunsets there. Life was quiet for me as I could walk from work to home, stop anywhere to wait for the sunset, see people walking close to the sea, and kids playing in Tartini square… It means that I wasn’t stressed and that I could enjoy little things.
Also, I can’t forget how happy and grateful I’m with the bike. I think about it every time I take it to go to Piran (I guess Alberto is tired of me when I say that :P). I remember to go out with the bike to explore part of Lucija and I ended up in the border with Croatia. I didn’t know it was that close!!! Besides, I was also in Forma Viva with the bike a few weeks ago and the colours of the trees in autumn, together with a rounded sculpture, surprised me.
Maybe I’m being very intense with all of those things, so I will come back to the reality saying how beautiful it’s to have thousands of mosquitoes surrounding you… I don’t remember any day in which I didn’t have any mosquito bite, and it’s wonderf…PLEASE I WANT COLD WEATHER AND DEAD MOSQUITOES.
To sum up: at the beginning of the experience, I was afraid because I like to do a lot of things and this city has the same population as my hometown, where there are not so many things to do during winter. Surprisingly, I have found things to do. Clara and I started to play handball with teenagers that are (of course) much better than us, we went climbing to Koper with Slovenian people that are very nice, we met new friends, I tried tennis and I swam on the sea. I’m still missing some hiking days during weekends, but I’m pretty sure they will arrive. Btw, if you know someone who hikes, please write me 😊
See you in the next post!