I set foot in Estonia on the night of 10 November. I started wandering freely in the streets of Tõrva on 24 November. I'm Ayşegül. 22 years old and I come from Turkey. I am volunteer at Tõrva Open Youth Center. Every experience I have had in this country that I have never dreamed of coming to is a first in my life. I am fascinated by the culture, human relations, language, history and geography I am in. I will try to explain all aspects of Estonia from my own perspective, including my first impression, my volunteer experiences, the places I visited. :)
During the 2-week quarantine period, I settled in my house. I studied in Estonian. Frankly, I haven't tried to learn from scratch for a long time. Since it is an agglutinative language, it has similar word and sentence features with Turkish. Nevertheless, it is a bit difficult to notice the attachments, learn the rules and form sentences according to the people. Learning a new language in a country where it is spoken as a mother tongue is worth it. Being able to communicate with children in Estonian is one of my most important personal goals for me to learn this language :) In addition, I did some research about Estonian lifestyle, cultural influences, cold winter months, places to visit.
Hej!
That was the first Estonian word I looked up. I learned it even before coming to Estonia and back then I though the language isn’t that different compared to German.
Oh boy, was I wrong!
While packing my suitcases for the flight I was surprised that I was that calm, but all the emotions and fears unleashed themselves on the last two nights I spent home in Germany. My biggest fear regarding my nearly 9 months future home was not getting in touch with other people especially around my age.
…that was my first thought sitting in my new appartement, after a rather difficult journey containing hours of waiting at the airport to finally get the Corona-Test- Sticks pushed in my nose. Ouch.
Arriving in my flat was different than I’ve expected, because Vallo, the nice guy who picked me up, told me I’d be the first volunteer this season and therefore I’ll have to live alone for a while. For me, this was the first time not having anyone else around and I felt a bit lonely and sad, because I thought I’d never find some new friends here. Spoiler Alert: Luckily, I was wrong haha.
MTÜ Tankla ja USA saatkonna koostöös detsembrikuu algul toimuma pidanud inglise keele laager lükkus Covid-19 tõttu edasi ning toimub nüüd 29.-31. jaanuar Sangaste lossis.
Laager saab olema põnev ja vaheldusrikas. Oma lugusid tulevad jagama Flex programmi kaudu Ameerikas vahetusõpilaseks käinud noored, saadakse teadlikumaks meediast ja ettevõtlikkusest.
30. novembrini on võimalik esitada kandidaate 2020. aasta Valgamaa aasta noore, noortesõbra, noorsootöötaja ja vabatahtliku tiitlile.
Kui sina tead kedagi, kes väärib vähemalt ühes eelnevalt nimetatud kategoorias ära märkimist, siis esita ta kandidaadiks! Kiitusega ei tasu olla kitsi! Kõik kirjeldused vaatab üle kolme valla esindajatest koosnev komisjon ja teeb kokku kogutud tekstide põhjal oma otsuse.
