December 2023
Already last month of 2023 and my third month in Slovenia.
I really enjoyed it, maybe because of the Christmas time. I spent a lot of time simply admiring the Christmas lights, in Portorož, Koper or even Izola. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the chance to go to Ljubljana but those ones looked very special.
For this month, we first had to decorate EPI, with some lights and Christmas tree. We also planned some activities for the kids at the youth center. We cooked pancakes, Christmas cookies, we played some funny games, watched a movie, wrote letters to Santa Claus and even went ice skating (I’m sad I couldn’t go because I was sick). I also had the opportunity to follow two trainings about virtual realities and mental health, which were quite interesting, especially the one about VR because I didn’t think that they had some many different ways to be used. For example, you can use to face your fears, to feel some emotions like empathy, to become aware of certain realities… and yes, maybe you look a bit stupid when you are trying those virtual masks but it’s crazy how you feel in this other reality.
Now that I had my on-arrival training, it’s easier to meet with some volunteers in the weekend. I went with one of my friends to Kamnik one Saturday to meet with some of them and even if we spent most of the time in a small Syrian restaurant (I would recommend), it was very pleasant because, this is something missing when you live at the coast. We also went ice skating two times, once in Ankaran (with one of the volunteers from last year) and another time in Portorož.
The last weekend before the holidays, me and Anne went to Vienna with 2 others volunteers we met at the on-arrival. I was really excited to go to Austria and visit this city, apparently nice in the Christmas time. And we weren’t disappointed. Vienna is quite impressive with all the big buildings. Of course, we visited every Christmas market and there was a lot of them! Everything was pretty, especially at night with all the lights but it was also very crowded and expensive (which I didn’t like).
Then, after that, it was already Christmas. I decided to come back home for the holiday. I had some problems with my flight, it was just a bit delayed, 2am instead of 9pm and we had to change airport. But otherwise, it was fine. Let’s say it’ll be a journey to tell. Going home for Christmas and New year was nice. I was happy to see some friends again (and of course my family) but also just eating some Belgian food I missed. Anne also came one day in my city to visit and it was fun and weird at the same time to show her a bit of my Belgian life. And then, it was already time to come back in Slovenia!