The new year: hopes and expectations of a volunteer EVS

09 Led The new year: hopes and expectations of a volunteer EVS

My last month in the Czech Republic it was the most intense since the beginning of my project.  I’ve chose to spend the Christmas holidays in the Czech Republic, in order to deepen my knowledge of the customs and traditions typical of this country. My vantage point of observation was the city that is my home  since three months. While traveling to the Czech Republic I was lucky enough to stay in close contact with the people of this city (especially with colleagues of the association and with the people I have met in recent months) Some of them have welcomed me as a family member, even though I do not speak the language well Czech, my friends explained the Christmas traditions.

Obviously as Sardinian-Italian, my main interest is focused on the culinary theme. I got to have breakfast with the Vánočka, accompanied by coffee with correct vaječný koňak , a typical liqueur made with eggs, very sweet, ideal for cold winter mornings beginning of the year. Days continued with lunch: light and warm as the typical polévka. But the main dish, typical on the night of December 24, is the fried carp, (smažený kapr) accompanied by mythical bramborový salát, the czech potatoes salad. And for best wishes to the streets with friends in the Czech Republic? Why not stroll accompanied by a glass of svařené víno? Perfect to face the harsh climate and enter into climate evening.

The EVS is all these things, but not all. it is also above all listening, dialogue and sharing. It is primarily a challenge that involves the voluntary, and that concerns the ability to adapt, the desire to make contact with another culture going to flush out with passion and interest in the small differences and similarities that exist in every European nation .

Now before me there are other nine months of the project that I’m sure will be the most interesting of the three months already elapsed.