After EVS: new friends, new skills and new destinations

These masksare the perfect representation of my mood during the last days of my EVS project in Serbia: happiness and sadness. On one side I was really happy to come back home; I missed a lot my family, friends and (I have to admit it) coffee and pizza! On the other side it was very hard to say goodbye to all those people who were there for me during those 9 months. I already knew that I would miss everyone but, at the same time, I was sure that soon or later I would meet again all of them.

Once back to Italy I noticed how the country that hosted me for such a long time had influenced me. Answering “da” or “ne” instead of “si” or “no” was already a signal, but the most upsetting thing was becoming aware to drink coffee slowly instead of drink it all in one sip…for an Italian like me sipping coffee for more than 10 minutes is something unimaginable!

Moreover, I realized that I have also left something to the people that I met. Not only some people are still in touch with me, but also some guys who attended Italian workshops write to me in Italian! It goes without saying that I am very proud of them!

After a long-termproject like EVS, it often happens to feel lost because after so many experiences it seems to have nothing to do once home. For better or for worse, it didn’t happen to me. I hadn’t time to realize to be back in Italy that I had to prepare for a new destination. After almost three weeks from my return I started packing for Japan, from where I am writing to you now. Needless to say, here many things are different both from Italy and from Serbia, but change is not something that scares me, actually what terrifies me is immobility.

How did I get here in Japan? Until the middle of December I will be in Kobe and I will be an intern of the student support team in Ashinaga, a Japanese Ngo that provides economic, educational and emotional support to orphaned children and young people. That’s what I’m doing now, providing them any help. Organize events, give language lessons, provide support in the research of new study opportunities abroad…these ones are only few of my duties. It’s incredible thinking how in about a month I went from having a tutor to being a tutor.

I am convinced that participating in the EVS project in Serbia has been an excellent choice. Besides meeting wonderful people, I had the possibility to put myself out there and to learn a lot of things. I believe that the skills developed during this experience in Serbia were useful for arriving here in Japan.

I will never forget the great opportunity that Somborskiedukativnicentar gave me to become active part of the organization for 9 months. I was lucky to meet so kind and helpful people. I hope to come back in the future and to see this organization full of Serbian and international volunteers involved in many new projects in favour of the community. I have no other option to wish you good luck!