Selin travel experiences in Germany

ESC seminar was so great!

Also with the new flatmate,Mira!

After a long trip (trains may be the only unbearable thing in this country haha) we finally arrived in Weimar.(After missing 2 trains and taking 2 wrong busses) The first days were all about getting to know other volunteers and trainers Lisa and Heike. It was really nice to meet all those people from different countries. I even found 2 people from Turkey who are having their projects in Hameln and Würzburg. It’s always nice to come across with people you grew up with the same culture and values as you, in a very different country..

In the seminar we had an activity which was all about presenting our ESC project to the group so Irma and I took our time and made a big poster about our project.(We may make people jealous a little bit because our project was the most eye-catching;))

Meanwhile the activities were so much fun and we were learning many things from the presentations about the ESC program. We had the chance to discover Weimar. At the end of the seminar everyone in the seminar was so sad that it’s over and we all promised that we will visit each other. That's why the seminar was more than a training, A TOTAL GAIN! Time to work again!

On the 6th of January we had the Montessori Heidelberg Schule wood carving project. This is the project we have been doing on Mondays. Here we have younger children than the age we usually have. It’s very nice to work with them. Since we have a very new volunteer and flatmate in the city, I decided to join Mira and Claudia to do Mira’s registration to the city and to have a look at Heidelberg. During our small trip in Heidelberg, Claudia gave us some information about the city and recommended good restaurants and cafes. Still can’t get over how beautiful this city is!

The next week we had a wood carving project. In this project we built a bench and a table for the school garden. The children picked the ideas for what to have on the wood. For the table a student drew an anime character. For the bench the whole group decided to have the school name and their names on it. Project lasted 4 days and 3 of those days we were in WerkStattSchule and the last day we went to the school to finish the project. It was fun!

On the 17th of December we met with Jojo to talk about the bicycle workshop we are gonna have and discuss the bikes we have. On that day we had a very long media meeting with Uta. Don’t mind me saying long, we had snacks by our side so how bad could it have gone?

On 22th of December we had a big meeting and greeting at WerkStattSchule.We had many events summarizing the last year and exceeding our expectations for the new year. It was very nice that almost every family member of the WSS were there. So it was a very good chance to meet the ones I haven't met yet. At the end of the day, we had a very delicious dinner together. Christmas spirit is a real thing in Germany. Unfortunately the Christmas markets were closed because of the Covid situation but I really had a very nice Christmas. Because i found a little gift for us from Hagebutze when i woke up in a very sudden moment, random people that I don’t really know who wished me a Merry Christmas while I was walking to market, Hendrikje invited me to her house to celebrate the Christmas evening with her family after she found out I will be alone and it's also my birthday. So many things to be thankful for…

After the 22th of December we had a very long holiday. In the last days of the year, I traveled to Stuttgart and enjoyed the vibes there. I also met my family members that live there. I can say that I really enjoyed the holiday until the last moment.

For the 31th of December I joined Mira and her friends we went to a church first and then we went to a friend’s house to have dinner and to celebrate. Even though it was a very different way to celebrate New Year’s, I really enjoyed it!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The new year started pretty nice and pretty GERMAN, I can say! Raclett is a real topic in Germany in the last dinner of the year they said. So I entered the new year in a very delicious and traditional way with friends. Since we weren’t working until 10th of January, I thought it would be good to take my time and relax. So in these days I grabbed a coffee and went to my favorite spot in Heidelberg and hang out with my friends. After a very long holiday we started working again with the wood carving project in Heidelberg Montessori Schule. It was normally the last day of this project but because it wasn’t ready yet we add one more Monday to this project. Before the next Monday we needed to finish some carvings so at the end of the week we went to WerkStattSchule to complete the wood and make sure it is ready for the last step, painting. The week started by 17th I took my days of to spent it with my sister who came to Germany to visit me so in that week I had the chance to explore Heidelberg all over again and to travel to Berlin.

After a very nice vacation of mine, I started to focus on German language and the TO DO list from the media team we created with Uta (SIMU). I prepared some tables for the next meeting. On the 25th of January we had digital printing workshop at WSS. We learned the ways to do it all together and had a very cute bag with that Karo designed in the workshop.

IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! 28th of January Mira and I had our last German class with Claudia and said Goodbye to her. It was very nice classes with her. And it was very suprising to see how far we have gone so far. Because when I first got here, I was not able to understand or speak at all. Now I am in the team GENAU! HAHAH :D