…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.

 

I somehow survived my quarantine with cleaning the appartement, Netflix and nice Skype meetings with my family, friends and also Rasmus and my Tutor Elina, who already gave me a few tasks to do, e.g. learning the rules for “Bohnanza”, “Ligretto” and “Catan”, which are popular games in the youth center.

After bit more than a week and my second Corona test, I finally started working at the youth center Tõlliste in Tsirguliina. The beginning was a bit awkward because there were no kids, but after a few hours, some girls appeared and we started playing board games (which is now part of my daily routine 😉).

  

In the following weeks I did not only get to know many different games, but also new people. I was relieved to meet Mylene and Sidrit, a volunteer from another organisation and a student in Valga. We all were happy to find new company and spent many nice weekends strolling around in Valga City (my highlight was definitively the cake in Kohvik Johanna, my new favorite place here). After a bit of time also Xaver, a german volunteer, arrived and together (despite Corona) we were able to participate in one of the coolest events in Valga: The party at the Rockklubi. It was lots of fun and heavy metal.

At work also many great things happened: We played a lot of “Just Dance”, I presented Austria and we made “Kaiserschmarrn”, we had some parkour lessons where we learned how to do a front flip, we drew portraits and the kids showed me how to make an Estonian “cookie cake”, which also contains cookies, dipped in camomile tea. A rather strange combination, but better than expected. Last but not least we had a sleepover at Valga youth center, where we played much “Halli-Galli” and stayed up all night. Such a nice event!

 

At the end of the month, not only the first snow but also Aisegül, a Turkish volunteer in Tõrva arrived Valga county. I am so happy I found so many new friends 😊 Furthermore, we had a trip to Tartu and we also joined a pre-christmas-celebration at Valga. What an eventful month!

 

By the way, now I don’t even mind living alone in my flat anymore, well, actually I enjoy it 😉 I think in this month I got more independent than in half of my life haha. Therefore, I want to say Thank you! to the Tankla team (especially Rasmus and Elina) for giving me the chance to spend the year here in Estonia. It was a very spontaneous decision after I had to cancel my actual plans of staying abroad in Armenia (thanks to the war) and I am really glad I am now here in this peaceful, green country! Aitäh!

 

Mein erster Monat in Estland ist vergangen und ich habe schon wahnsinnig viel erlebt. Sei es mein erster Corona-Test am Flughafen (schmerzhaft), die erste (Quarantäne-) Woche komplett alleine in meiner neuen Wohnung (weniger schlimm als erwartet) oder mein erster Arbeitstag, an dem zu Beginn nicht einmal Kinder anwesend waren- der Anfang war vielleicht nicht so ganz, wie ich es mir vorgestellt habe, doch danach ging es stark bergauf. Ich habe neue Freunde in Valga kennengelernt, war auf einem Rockkonzert, habe in der Arbeit viele Brettspiele gespielt, an „Just Dance“-Battles teilgenommen und war auch bei der Übernachtungsparty im Valga Jugendcenter dabei. Ich bin dankbar, dass ich hier in Estland sein kann und bin schon gespannt, was ich im Dezember hier so alles erleben werde!