SEE YOU SOON, ANN!

My EVS in Poland

Hey! I am Ann-Katrin but the most people here call me Ann. I am at the end of my proyect and I want to tell you what I did in Poland during 11 months. 

Let's start from the beginning! I am here since the 2th September, but I remember my first day as would it be yesterday. My coordinator picked me up from the airport in Warsaw. After a 45min drive, we arrived to my hometown (Pultusk) for 11 months. I felt really welcome when I saw this Czech girl standing on the balcony with a big smile. It wasn’t a surprise that we became friends quiet fast. 

On the same day I met my other flat mates and some polish people to play soccer and I found some amazing friends in them. I also realized some differences compared to Germany. When I find out that you can't go for shopping on a Sunday I was really surprised. On Monday we had to do organization stuff but on Tuesday I had my first day in Kindergarten. I went there and everything felt unusual but after a few days it was the most normal thing on the earth. 

But what were my tasks in kindergarten? 👀

👦👧
Mostly I helped the teacher during classes or to change the outfits of the kids when we went for a walk or to the playground. I learned how to deal with 20 kids at the same time and that you always have to look at them. They have a lot of crazy ideas. 
My favorite days had been the ones when we went for a trip. I think it wasn’t only me who enjoyed these days😎😁😁.  At some point, when our polish began to be better, we (another German volunteer and I) started msking some presentations about Germany. I guess the kids liked it but not only they learned from us we learned from them too and I have to say, kids can be really good teachers.

I had some other tasks as well. Sometimes we went to schools and had languages cafes with the students or we talked about volunteering.  On weekends, we went to some events to show of our projects or helped out in other organizations. 

I also went for two weeks to a holiday camp for kids and I gave some English lessons or helped during other activities.  Such a camp is always a nice option to get in touch with people and I hope I keep it.

I wrote a lot about work but don’t worry a volunteers have a lot free time too.😅
Most of the time, I spent it with my friends playing soccer, volleyball or go to a bar but I had some nice walks around ore area too. On weekends we made trips as well. I was lucky to discover Warsaw, Poznan, Torun, Gdansk, Krakow and Zakopane. I mean, it's always good to see something from the country you live in. Now I know the seaside🏖, the mountains ⛰ and some cities🏙 and I can say Poland is a very pretty country.

But not all of my trips were just for fun. My first trip was to Warsaw where I had my on arrival training. I met a lot of new persons and learned more about the people, the country I live in and how to deal with problems. My second training was one from my organization. We travelled to the country side and spend their 4 days together with a lot of work and a lot of fun. After the half of my project I had my midterm training. I went to Torun for this training. The main topics in this training were self-reflection and what will I do after EVS.

Now I only have four days left till I will go back to Germany with all memories I made. After this time I can say I will come back. 

See you, Poland! ❤

WORKCAMP SEASON SERIES

Holiday camp in Zakopane!

Hey! I spent two weeks in Zakopane but it wasn’t just holidays I had to work, too. I went there with the Fundacja Zyj z Pasdja and helped them with activities for kids.

It all started with a 7hour bus trip from Warsaw to Zakopane. The landscape changed all the time first we could see a lot of fields than we passed some villages and cities at the end of the trip we could see the mountains. We were really happy when we arrived our hostel Api. 

What do you need after such a long trip? Of course food so our first way ends up in the dining room and we eat. After dinner we had time to unpack our luggage and then the first evening was over.  

On the second day, I had my first classes with the children but not the only one. We teach them some English and gave them some knowledge over our countries. 

We didn’t use the normal way of teaching. We are more creative than just talk about it or make presentations. We played games, sang songs and danced to it, did some origami or made paintings. 

The kids had some art classes as well and almost every day and we had some special guests that talked about their professions or we went to other place. 
We learned about the rescue team and the animals in Tatra, how to write, how to travel cheap and a lot more. There were also the options to visit a theater or to go to a concert. 

 

One day we also went in the Tatra Mountains and on our walk we had to pass a cave. On some places it was really hard to go to it we always had to look that we not bang ore head somewhere. Before we had to leave Zakopane we visited the city center and bought some presents for our families.

Now I am back after two weeks with a lot of activities and some more friends. Thank you for this time ❤

Ann-Katrin


➡ Photos taken from the offical web page of Fundacja Żyj z pasją.

WORKCAMP SEASON

It's summer and for our volunteers that means it's workcamp season. 

A workcamp is an international youth camp that connects people from different countries while working for local communities around the world .

For the last two weeks, our international and local volunteers were busy participating in different projects. They had the opportunity to work, live and spend free time with people from many countries and they are sharing their expereince with all of us. So, stay tune! 

Follow our workcamp official page in all social media to discover some picture of the volunteers adventures and funny moments there.

FACEBOOK: workcampsPL

INSTAGRAM: workcamps.pl

WEB PAGE: workcamps

And of sourse, don;t forget to follow us to learn more about our work, volunteering experiences abroad, events and activities.

FACEBOOK: fiyepolska

INSTAGRAM: fiyepolska

WEB PAGE: fiyepolska

We'll looking forward to hearing from you! Share your experiences and thoughts in the comments below. 

Thanks