What a month! A year couldn’t start better!

I collected lots of different experiences and had many adventures, especially in my midterm meeting in the middle of nowhere. From experiencing the pure cold, even though we still don’t have snow, to some exhausting activities. This was all part of my january. But, to avoid confusion, let‘s start from the beginning.

 

My January 2020 (I have to learn now not to write 2019 but I think that’s the case for everybody) began with an activity which was organised by the defence league. And, important to mention, that day, my day began at 5 in the morning. With my tutor and a few other workers, we had an airsoftgun station. Youngsters from whole Estonia could try to play with those airsoftguns. It was new for me as well. However, the coldness made everything a bit harder and now I know: There is only bad clothing, no bad wheather. – That’s the truth!

Furthermore, my weekly crafting clubs still take place and our activities this month were quite creative, at least this is my opinion. One cool thing we made, were bottons. The youngsters could choose pictures for it, or, even more fun, be creative on there own and draw some paintings. The results were amazing. But this activity did not end just because the crafting club was over, no, the children continued weeks later. The fridge in the youth center but also my fridge is now decorated with lots of beautiful bottons. :)

But not only the bottons were part of the crafting club this month. We also made some drinking cups. With special colours, the kids had the possibility to decorate their cups as they wanted. And because we had not a big amount of those special colours, a challenge for the youngsters was to make other types of colours with the already existing ones. Some were actually very nice, I have to admit!

Besides all those crafting activities, just dance and billiard competitions took place in my youth center as well. My skills in billiard get better and better and in the end of the year I will be perfect. ;) No, I think that will never come true.

Anyway, there is also one thing I have to mention: we got new board games in our youth center! Currently, youngsters are trying out new games. I always like to learn new board games with the youngsters because it’s simply a lot of fun and we are improving our english skills.

As you already know, I really like Tallinn and Tartu. So, because of that fact, those two cities couldn’t be missing this month as well, I was there again. Meeting some volunteer friends, have good conversations and enjoy the city life. This is basically how I spend my time in those cities after a long train ride through Estonia. :)

Moreover, in this month a very special event took place as well. It was the midterm meeting with some volunteers from whole Europe and with the wonderful trainer Nele. This meeting was a pure adventure! Maybe I should explain why I had such a good time. Okay, lets start from the beginning. The first funny thing already happend in Tallinn. We got the information that a minibus, and mini is very important, will pick us up from Tallinn and bring us to central Estonia. Yes, there was a bus but this one was not mini at all. It was a big travel bus. Anyway, maybe not so funny as it was for us. But you have to imagine, a group of 12 people looking for a minibus and then there is suddenly a big one..... Finally, after around two hours, we arrived somewhere over the rainbow ;)

In a cosy atmosphere, we obviously talked a lot about our ESC projects, the ups and downs, our experiences and adventures, what the future will bring and what we already achieved in our services. I got many interesting informations and travel tipps as well – there are those ghost towns in north Estonia. Seems scary but I definitely have to check those places out. Oh, the word scary reminds me of our hiking trip through the bog, which was definitely one of the highlights for many people in my midterm, including me. My first thought was: hiking in Estonia is probably not exhausting at all because of the simply fact – it’s always flat, which I couldn’t say about Austria. – 65% are coverd with the alps (mountains)! ;) Anyway, in the end it was very exhausting but also funny. We, as a group, developed our community and it was so nice to see how we helped each other, motivated each other and tryied to stay calm in tricky situations, for instance, jumping over a river! Greatfully everybody came across alive. And then the darkness came! For me it wasn’t so scary because we had a good guide, so I thought he can bring us back anyway... However, when he told us that this bog is about 6 meters deep, I was a bit scared to sink even though we had those special shoes. Finally, a quite modern bus ;), brought us, exhausted but also satisfied and a bit proud volunteers, back to our warm place.

In the beginning of our hiking trip everybody was motivated and in a good mood. Yeah, at this time we didn't know that we will walk in the dark and that hiking in a bog is actually very exhausting after a few hours! ;)

Overall, I can say this midterm was amazing and if you are a volunteer who hasn’t had it yet, you can already look forward to it! Positive energy, good conversations, motivation, lots of joks, fun and quality time with inspiring and fantastic people. - This describes my midterm in just one sentence.

I end this blog with another cool thing even though I became sick.. I participated in the Eskogukond meeting in Nelijärve. It is a community of some volunteers and estonians. Now, I am also a member of this community. And we had a hike again. This time with some interesting and funny teambuilding games. We planned future events and had a good time together. And, important to mention, I saw my first icelandic person in real! ;) A man from the icelandic national agency of ESC visited us! We got to know some interesting things from Iceland, for instance, that in Iceland ESC is not so popular than here in Estonia, - was quite suprising for me. But, I am sure that in the future Iceland will be an ESC country because it’s such a great place!

This was the view from our window - quite nice! And with spider decoration, funny and super weird at the same time!

I hope you had a good month as well and all the best!

Now some words in german:

Der erste Monat im neuen Jahrzehnt war echt spannend und ich durfte wiedermal sehr viel erleben. Im Jugendzentrum fanden viele crafting activities statt, zum Beispiel machten wir einmal Trinkgläser. So wie jeden Monat, lernte ich neue Tischspiele kennen und verbesserte meine Just dance skills. Ein Highlight im Jänner war aber definitiv mein midterm meeting mit anderen Freiwilligen Mitten im Nirgendwo. Wir tauschten Erfahrungen aus und hatten eine lustige und spannende Zeit zusammen. Mit der Wanderung durchs Moor wurde unser Zusammenhalt bewiesen. In jeder schwierigen Situation, wie etwa das Überqueren eines Flusses, waren füreinander da und halfen uns gegenseitig. Außerdem bin ich jetzt auch endgültig Mitglied von der ESC community hier in Estland und es fand auch schon das erste Treffen statt, in dem wir die Zukunft planten. Ich hoffe euch geht es gut und wir hören uns im nächsten Monat. Bis bald! :)