It is hard to believe but I am almost in the middle of my EVS adventure! It seems that I came yesterday but on the other hand I have already experienced a lot too.
In the half-way of EVS we have the opportunity to verify our experiences and goals during so called Zwischentreffen für Europäische Freiwillige. It is five-day long seminar where all volunteers from particular states meet and talk about e.g. their projects and further possibilities. We – volunteers from Magdeburg –we spent there the whole previous week. And we are satisfy with this time.
We came to Dresden on Monday afternoon. This time we really enjoyed travelling through Dresden because we were not afraid of unknown city anymore (we also had the first seminar in Dresden) and the weather was truly awesome! When we had got to our place of stay (villa Brücke/Most-Stiftung) we met many familiar faces (from previous seminar in November)! During the first evening we got to know also the rest of people, most of whom attended the previous seminar in Weimar. We met volunteers from Spain, Italy, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Poland… Together 16 people!
The topic of the second day was – Europe. In the morning we had long team work on what Europe means to me and according to me where the borders of Europe are. Whole afternoon we spend on discovering Dresden and its history, as well as searching for symbols of “Dresden in Europe, Europe in Dresden”.
Third day was about our projects, the problems that we have encountered so far and possibilities to achieve our aims during the second part of our EVS. We were working a lot with our plans, goals, means and also dreams. All this in order to create Youthpass at the end of our projects and to make best use of the time spent in Germany.
The fourth day was divided into two subjects. In the morning the woman from National Agency visited us to answer our questions about EVS and help solve our problems. After that we started an introduction to the topic “refugees in Germany” – we watched a movie about Turkish family that moved to Germany and their problems with finding themselves in new culture (“Almanya - Willkommen in Deutschland”). In the evening we had a guest – Patrick – who is working with refugees in Dresden. He told us about the refugees’ reality, his job and procedures. He also answered our questions. And finally in the evening we prepared some goodbye party. Everyone prepared a short movie promoting his/her country and then we watched them all together. We could not decide where to go for the next holidays! :) We spent this evening on playing and chatting.
Friday morning was the time of evaluating our seminar and saying goodbye. But for sure we will stay in touch with friends that we had made during this good time together :)
PS I attach two pictures: one is the view of Dresden. The second one shows the villa :)
