16 days - 3 countries - 12 cities - nearly 5000 kilometers

I don't have to work during the whole July and so I'll start to travel tomorrow. I planned a big tour through whole Sweden with side trips to Denmark and Norway. I'll take the train and sleep mostly at CouchSurfing hosts. In Copenhagen I'll visit my former Swedish teacher who moved there and in Gävle I'll meet Cloe, the volunteer from France I already visited in the winter.

To make it short: 16 days - 3 countries - 12 cities - nearly 5000 kilometers.

my trip

Mid-Term-Training

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.

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.

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.

our iglo (with three entrances and a chimney!)

Snow, Snow and Snow

Last weekend Miguel and I were traveling. We took the bus from Linköping at 7:35 in the morning and went to Uppsala. There, we walked around and looked at the sights. We were fascinated by the amount of snow in the city.

snow in Uppsala

In the evening we continued our journey to Gävle. Arrived, we had even more snow. We went to Gävle because we visited Chloe who we knew from an EVS-meeting in Stockholm. It was also a great opportunity to see Gävle. So the next two days we walked around in the city and had much fun. It was cold but so it was only nicer to go to cafés after the long walks we did.

snow in the old town of Gävle

Maybe the most interesting thing in Gävle was the Gävlebock which is a 13 meter high goat made of strew. It is a local tradition that takes place every year in christmas time and we were glad to see it because some years it happened that somebody burned it down.

Gävlebocken

Monday, we took the train back to Linköping. We were curious about the amount of snow there because we left our bikes at the station and hoped that there wasn't too much snow so that we could find them - we were lucky and found the bikes. On that day there wasn't so much snow but the days after it was falling more and more with all consequences. Yesterday for example, we had to help some cars to get out of the snow and I made the experience that you shouldn't go by bike in every case of weather. I was going by bike some days ago but it felt like suicide. So, the bike is now in the café. Maybe tomorrow I dare to get it back home.

So many cultures!

Last weekend was very busy. Some weeks ago we had a meeting in Stockholm for volunteers that are staying in Sweden. There, we met a lot of people and this weekend some of them were visiting us. We never had so much people in our apartment, it was crazy. But we had a lot of fun together!

Then yesterday, we got the next visitor. An Indian guy who contacted us via CouchSurfing. He is staying for some days and I have to say that he made really great food. The last days I noticed once more that EVS is a great way to get in contact with different cultures. I met so much people from different nationalities here and that after only two months!

By the way, I made my next bread, which is much better than the last one. But as I said, that was not difficult.

The first two months in Sweden - time for a first report!

First, in Sweden was everything very new for me. But now it feels quite comfortable here. The people are nice, the work in the café is fun and I get more and more used to the language. For me as a German the Swedish language seems to be quite easy, but of course it is a foreign language so there are also a lot of tricky things. Some sounds are very strange and it's nearly impossible for me to pronounce them correctly.

The nature here is very nice but it's raining all the time. That's not a big problem for me but it would be nice to have some sunny days, too. I hope it will get colder soon and the rain will become snow.

There aren't many things I miss in Sweden. But to be honest, the bread in Sweden is not very good. That's why I started to make my own. The first one was a disaster - it looked strange and it was hard to tell between the bread and a piece of concrete. But now, I'm going to do a new one and I hope it will get better.

But honestly it's not difficult to make a better one! I will see...

What is EVS:

What is EVS:

EVS stands for European Volunteer Service and is a program for young people from 18 to 30 years to get in contact with different European cultures. It is supported by the European Union and should help Europe growing together.

EVS is also a great chance for you to develop your own personality, your skills and a lot more meanwhile you are supporting your organisation with your project. It is a great possibility to profit from other persons experiences and to let them profit from yours... . There are many projects in each country in a lot of cities. The themes of the projects are very widely spread so there should be an interesting project for everyone. Possible themes could be sports, art, environmental protection, disability, religion and fight against racism. To get a more detailed impression you should check out the database of all projects at the following link: http://ec.europa.eu/youth/evs/aod/hei_en.cfm.

The length of the projects is different. It reaches from 2 up to 12 months. To take part in EVS you don’t need to have a high qualification. It is not important what kind of education you got and you don’t have to speak the language of your host country because you will get lessons there to learn it. Maybe the most important things you have to bring are to show interest in different styles of living, to enjoy meeting new people and to be generally open-minded.

A great thing about EVS is that except for maximum 10 % of the travelling costs you don’t have to pay for it. So it’s also possible to take part in it without spending tons of money like you have to for many exchange programs and related stuff.

Countries you can do EVS in are:
Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Macedonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and United Kingdom.