My first month in Baile Tusnad-A small flashback

After I finished High School, I decided to start the adventure EVS before going to university. Consequently, I applied for a lot of projects in many different countries, including Romania. So, after some succesful and also unsuccesful tries, I finally got accepted in a project, called ”Non-Formal-Life” in beautiful Baile Tusnad. Before my departure my feelings were mixed, because I have never been away from home for almost a year. Naturally, out of nervosity I began to doubt my decision a little bit, but on the other hand I was filled with motivation and curiosity. So, on the 31st of October, my journey began:

At first, I arrived in Bucharest and spent the night at my relatives place, only to continue my journey to Tusnad the next day. So, on the 1st of November  we went to the airport to pick up one of my fellow flatmates from Lithuania and then made our way to our hosting town together.When we arrived we were greeted very warmly by our coordinators and after seeing our flat and having a good, satisfying dinner, we fell asleep immediately.

On the next days we explored the town. As Baile Tusnad is the smallest city in Romania, I was a little bit surprised at first to see how silent it is here and how few people wander around the streets (in fact, I tend to call Tusnad ”Sleepy Hollow” in my mind, because the air used to make us pretty sleepy during our first weeks and of course because of the silent atmosphere of the town.:)) I am from a big city, so this change in environment was quite new for me. Nevertheless, I am still stunned to wake up here every day and see the magnificent mountains surrounding us.

After a couple of days our other two flatmates from Slovakia and Hungary arrived and we could finally start working. At first, we talked a lot about the European Voluntary Service in general and after two weeks, we started our first project in the local school with the topic ”Together for peace”. Connected to this, we organized games, presentations and even a little theatre play, in order to show the children the importance of living together in peace. Apart from that we also oganized handicraft activities for the kids and created some very nice christmas decorations for the freshly renovated Youth Center. The kids here are so adorable and sweet and they really enjoy giving us hugs and kisses.:) I really like working with them, although it’s  challenging sometimes as well. Especially the smaller ones get bored very fast and then it is sometimes difficult to keep them in a good mood. But challenges are part of EVS, and I am willing to learn how to deal with difficult situations.

Last but not least, there is still some space to report about some free time activities of ours. Every friday or saturday we meet with some locals for a weekly boardgame night and on wednesdays we usually play Basketball (at least we try…:D). On weekends we normally travel and explore Romania (surprise, we don’t go partying :D) and so far we have managed to visit some beautiful places in this country. We went on hiking tours to the Falcon Stone, Apor Tower and the Saint Anna Lake, which are all located in the surrounding area of Tusnad (unfortunately, we haven’t had the pleasure of meeting with Mr. or Mrs. Bear so far :D). Moreover, we had the chance to see Sibiu at our On-Arrival-Training and we made a trip to Castle Bran also known as Dracula’s Castle. Of course we didn’t want to risk anything, so we carried a lot of garlic with us. 😉

After this month I feel really happy here, because Baile Tusnad and my life here start to feel like home to me, although I still discover something new about this place and its people everyday. That is why I am really looking forward to the following 10 months and hope to gain the best out of this experience for myself.