My second month as international volunteer in Romania

 ... So continuing my EVS trip in Tirgu Frumos. Thanks to Mihaela - the project coordinator, Dragoş - my mentor, Alin - my Romanian teacher and the volunteers of our organisation, Asirys, I had another wonderful month in Romania that passed so fast, full of new information, new pictures, new trips and many new friends.

From the first days of the month we continued our cooperation with the local shop where we organized some meetings with the volunteers and discussed about the Greek intercultural day. We also started an event called "Thank God it's Friday", where we are presenting each Friday, European movies in our youth center for the volunteers and all people interested. The first movie we saw it was a German one which was followed by an interesting conversation about the message and what we can learn from it. During the weekend, I visited the botanical garden in Iasi and saw a lot of flowers and trees that grow in the country this season.

The second week started with visits at two local schools where we discussed with the principals about how we can cooperate. 

In Trinitas Highschool we visited the traditional museum of the school and we arranged to cooperate in a project about tranditions and crafts. I suggested to the director a science lab in the school with autistic children. Next day we met with Larisa, the English teacher of the schools, we is also volunteer in our organisation, with whom we brainstormed new project ideas. 

In Petru Rares School we arranged a long term partnership and a workshop for the student leaders. 

At the end of two days, I met with some volunteers in our youth center, we made rehearsals with Greek folk dances and we prepared for the Greek event. I followed a new online Romanian lesson, on the European platform. 

This week we had another European movie event, this time from Italy. Saturday, I hosted  the Greek event in the local shop we cooperate with. I made a presentation about Greece and about places people could visit in Greece for vacations. The participants wrote their names with Greek letters and I teach them how to make Greek coffee. The event ended with a presentation about Greek folk dances. Actually the local volunteers from our organisation helped me and we all danced together. Sunday I visited the Biblioteca Centrală Universitară "Mihai Eminescu" and a guide showed me all the spaces and told me about the history of the building.

In the third week I helped the project coordinator to organise the receipts of the projects and she explained me a lot about the European projects. Next day, Alina Mirela Ipate invited us to visit Institutul de Chimie Macromoleculară "Petru Poni" in Iaşi. She told us a lot about the history of the institution and we met some of her colleagues. At the end of the day we went to SportED in the university of Iaşi and we heard very inspiring speeches from professionals like the Olympic champion Ana Maria Brânză. The week ended with a visit to Petru Rares Highschool where we had an workshop with the students about volunteering. From 15th until 23rd of November we participated in a Drama Tool training course. I had made a different report about this experience. 

When we came back from the training course we were also part on a science lab which was established in the local shop (Casa Modei Tîrgu Frumos) that cooperates with us. I helped the chemistry teacher during the lab to work with the children and took a lot of photos so we can post them on our Facebook page. I also participated in a workshop, which was presented by Ioana, one of the volunteers of our youth center, with the topic of Healthy Lifestyle.

At the end of the month I did some interviews through Skype for volunteers from universities in Europe and I had another Romanian online lesson. I also participated in a clay workshop in which the teacher told us a lot of information about ancient Romanian ceramic art. Actually it was very interesting the fact that she showed us sculptures from Cucuteni, the place where I stayed during the Rroma HeArt project on August of 2018 and I first discussed with Mihaela, who was the coordinator of that project too, about me doing EVS here in Tirgu Frumos. I was funny how this month ended with a connection of how all began.

So this is how it was my second month. See you all next month with more new information and pictures.

As you may know, we are hosting at the moment our first EVS volunteer, Nikolia, from Greece. She will spend 12 months with us, helping to develop our youth center and create a more active community by volunteering! Each month our volunteer, Nikolia Papadopoulou will share her experience in Romania through a small report which we will post it on our blog.

Building Bridges is a project funded by Erasmus+, a programme of the European Union. The content of this article is the exclusive responsibility of the authors, and the National Agency and the European Union are not responsible for how the content of the information will be used.