Céline Berthier
I have spend Christmas with my family and friend in La Rochelle and then Paris. It was very good and so amazing that everybody speak a language I can understand and speak. Christmas time
In December GSA have organize plenty of activity as usual. For me the big thing was the English newspaper and the treasure hunt for the moving afternoon. I still have the French lesson and this is what i enjoy the most with Romanian and Hungarian lesson. Because this is where I learn thing. It's still very cold here but the snow is melting slowly. Tomorrow I will be in France for 10 days. I hope it will be revitalizing for me.
Winter is here
During the last two week, i have worked on the newspaper and it's interesting to learn to use a software and to watch tuto on the web. I have also done the Spanish video but I'm not so happy with it. I hope I will be able to do better for the Austrian video. The French lesson are going on and I have to look for new idea ! We started to learn Romanian, It's nice to know some word in order to communicate in the other region of the country. In my city in France, it never snow because I live near the ocean. Since one week, our city is cover by snow and I'm very surprised to see how people managed to continue their life normally.
November 18th
At this moment my weeks is composed by several activity : -Hungarian lesson -French lesson -GSA activity : make a video clip about the Spanish event, organize photo exhibition I have to work on myself a lot in order to be compatible with their way of working. French lesson is the most interesting because I have to search for exercise, I get to know more French grammar. Hungarian is still very difficult and I'm so in rage because their is a lot of things were i can't be autonomous : go to the doctor, get an appointment on phone, understand a menu ! Last week was the presidential election in Romania and it's was very interesting to speak about politic with people. The politic culture is very different from France.
The language barrier
Since the language barrier is one of my biggest issues during my EVS, I have decided to write about it. Before i came here, I was thinking that it will be difficult to learn Hungarian. But in my imagination, after 3 month, I was thinking that I will be able to understand a common conversation. Today, I think that I'm doing real progress but still I don't understand a common conversation. And to get understood it's even more difficult. Today I had a Hungarian exam. [I don't believe in exam. I hate to have a grade. And one exam is never the exact truth about your knowledge.] But this morning, I get that i wasn't very good at all. I really want to learn Hungarian and also Romanian.
The assessment of a quarter of a year
It's been 3 month that I'm here. Let's do a little assessment of my life in Kezdi. The things which were awesome : - the 2 first weeks, Where we were discovering everything, It's was sunny and hot. Everybody were so welcomed (don't worry they are still !) - the support or the GSA team : The member are very available for us, they listen to our problem, help us to solve it. It's feel like we are in a family. We take car for each other. I hope one day I will be able to help them back. - discovering Romanian/szecler culture and try to understand they way of seeing things.
Walk into Autumn
Hello regular reader ! Autumn is well installed, here in Kezdi. We have put on the heater ! On Arrival Training : During one week we have meet other volunteer and follow courses to understand better EVS and Romania. It was very interesting and we had a lot of fun with the other volunteer. Thanks to this training we have now some places to stay in other city. It make me understand that here in Kezdi we are in a special volunteer organization : 1 > we are only 3 EVS, for example in Arad they are 20 from one organization, 60 in the whole city. 2 > nobody is working in our organization, everybody is volunteer, It's non-professional.
Every day life on a EVS in Green Sun Association
Today I decided to explain you my every day routine for you to know what kind of schedule do I have. First you have to know that usually we have 2 days free by week : Sunday and Monday. Sometimes it is changing when we have an event on Sunday. My schedule changes everyday (i like this very much) depending on events, other people schedules and sometimes the weather. We have an on-line agenda that is filled by our coordinator. Most of the time, my activity start around 9 or 10 in the morning so it is very casual. We have a break for lunch around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. Then we have another work time in the afternoon.
When you start to feel comfortable
In the GSA, we are starting to have the possibility to take some organization task, to really do something. Now, we can start to offer new ideas, even if sometime we are still consider as « weak children who need support and translator». It's difficult for me not to be able to understand the language, because without the language you can't have a lot of responsibility. It's also hard for me to understand the way the project work. It's so far from organizations where I worked in the past years.
Begining of an EVS, Step by Step
My EVS started 3 weeks ago, I have done diferent task during this time. Communication : As a new volunteer in Kezdi, we need to promote the fact that an european program is happening in the city. Three volunteers from differents country will live in this city during one year ! We had a press conference in Hungarian where we just had to sit in a chair and to smile because we can't speak and we can't understand... It was very frustrated ! We also had a radio interview instantaneously translated by a member of the organization. We started to write article (in english) and to take picture for the website about GS event.