Hey everyone, I am Vaso from Greece and I’m 24, and I finally made one small dream of mine a reality by applying to an ESC project and getting accepted by INEX. After doing a preparation meeting with my sending organization which is called United Societies of Balkans, and exchanging lots of emails with Barbara from INEX, I was finally ready to come. I was the first volunteer to arrive and Barbara was the first person I met here. She picked me up from the train station and explained everything to me (even brought me some food on the first day and invited me for dinner with her family because I was here alone). During the first week, I met everyone in the office (they are all so nice and welcoming) and we also celebrated Barbara’s birthday!
Then, Madelyn arrived in the middle of the week and I was so happy to meet her. We hit it off from the beginning and now she has turned out to be a very close friend of mine already. We have also taken upon ourselves to boost INEXs TikTok account and we have been having fun making trendy TikTok’s lately.
The first activity we attended was at the English International school, where we presented a quiz for the carnival period called ‘Fašiangy’ and honestly, I had so much fun with all of the little kids. I also loved the traditional costume we were wearing during the event. It was all organized together with the Family Center called Prešporkovo. At that same place we started doing Slovak lessons every week with Madelyn. I have been kind of struggling with the pronunciation of certain words and it is a slow process but our teacher is really kind and understanding.
The tea meeting was coming up as well where me and Madelyn had to present our countries. It took me lots of hours to prepare the presentation and I was a bit anxious before because public speaking makes me nervous, but everything turned out really well! It was an evening full of laughter and tasting of the food I and Madelyn prepared (which everyone said was delicious). I personally prepared Greek tzatziki and a traditional cheese pie.
One kind of difficult event for me this month was visiting DSS Integra for Valentine´s day and making a disco party for the clients. It was quite overwhelming to see all of these people with disabilities in one room and it made me cry a bit. It was emotional for me but seeing all the happy faces of these people after we started dancing with them and prepared a quiz warmed my heart.
In the beginning, I was a bit overwhelmed once I saw all the tasks I had to finish during the month, and we also had the preparation of the INEX workshop (the topic I chose is “Bullying in friend groups”) as well, but once I got down to doing them, I realized that there is enough time for everything and no need to feel pressured.
When it comes to my free time , I am a really outgoing person so I have been going out in Bratislava every night with some very fun international people I have met here. I love the nightlife in the city and all of the bars. Another fun thing that Bratislava has taught me is how to play table foosball, since every bar has at least one table, and it has become my new favorite ‘sport’. I did not have time to travel outside of Bratislava yet because I wanted to discover everything in the city at first. I really like hiking, so I went on a small day trip to Hainburg in Austria for that. I have some upcoming trips coming up next month and I know that it is going to be filled with trainings so we will travel a lot.
Another thing I have improved on is my cooking skills. The truth is that I do not really like cooking but since I am trying to be on a budget here, I have been getting better and better at making food for myself and stealing ideas from my friends and Madelyn😊.
It was one of the most fun months I spent in a while and I am super excited for what is coming in the future.
