In October we had an On-Arrival-Training in Stockholm. There, we met other volunteers from other countries that participated in EVS in Sweden. Most of them came from France, others from Czech Rebublic, Macedonia, Georgia and Miguel and me from Spain and Germany.
Lars, the trainer told us a lot about non-formal learning generally and EVS and we got information about our health insurance, rights, duties and a lot more.
The accomodation was quite nice. All volunteers slept in a big beautiful house and the food was very good. The place was called Kärsögården and situated on an island near the royal castle of Stockholm.
At the training we found new friends that visited us during the last months. We visited also some of them.
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| the house at Kärsögården we slept in |
Last week we had the Mid-Term-Training. We saw most of the volunteers from the On-Arrival-Training and some new faces from Belgium, the Netherlands, Lithuania, France and many Germans. We had a lot of fun together and really enjoyed the time there. Everybody had to present his project. In the end it was a bit long but also very interesting because the themes and locations were quite different. In the evening we played dices and cards (good that I brought them) and laughed a lot. We also built an iglo which was very funny. Actually, it was non-sense but we worked very concentrated and were surprisingly serious about it. Anyway, he next day we destroyed it. It was quite nice to meet people that were in the same situation as we are now and it was hard to leave them again. But we planned to visit some of the volunteers in Växjö in some weeks, so it's okay.
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| some of us having fun in the snowy forest |
Before christmas we had Swedish lessons twice every week. Then Oscar, the teacher got a little boy and stress at work and had to stop the lessons. Some weeks ago, we finally got a new teacher. I've got the feeling that we really learn something from her.
Although Swedish is a germanic language like my mother tongue German (and there are similarities) it is still hard for me after six months to speak the language. But I listen regurlarly to Swedish radio, read newspapers, learn irregular verbs and so I understand more and more. I hope it will get better soon so that I can speak it after the EVS-year.
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| our iglo (with three entrances and a chimney!) |
