EVS in Santiago de Compostela

Less than two weeks ago we bid Marine farewell.  She was the second to leave our “family” of volunteers.  We were a group of 12 in total and now we’re 10 left.  Marine was an integral part of our life here in Santiago.  She was always egging people on to go out, do stuff together and have fun.  In just her first weeks here we had a running joke that she´d tell you “Come on - you never come out with us!” when someone had spent a few evenings at home. Well, and with this ‘bye bye our friend’ a realisation slid in place:  I realised that now the farewell season has started.  David’s going home this Friday and we’ll bid Fritzi aloha in less than two weeks.  Then Eva’s leaving at the end of July -less than a month from now!  And us who finish last ... our projects terminate in exactly two months, that is we’ve only got 8 weeks left.  How little time! And with all this?  I had to decide for real what to do when my project ends at the ...

I just returned from a holiday trip to England.  Seems like us volunteers travel quite a bit, no?  Well, in my ’umble opinion it’s important to travel as much as possible - take every opportunity that comes in your stride and go! To tell the complete truth my initial travel motive was centred upon an exam I had to sit in Birmingham.  Of course, once I had to book a flight to England I wasn’t gonna stay there for just one day to sit for the exam!  The fact that one of my best of friends and a favourite cousin live in that country was an added motive to stay for a few days. I found both Birmingham and London, the two cities I visited, very enjoyable.  Up till a week ago I had a very bad impression of England and now I’m glad to say that this did a one-eight-oh degree turn and I like England!  Well, well.  During my stay in the capital there was a tube strike hehe.  At first one would think: ‘Lucky, ain’t you?’  But, in all truth and fairnes...

Santiago...rain is an art. They use to say it here and it’s better to believe it because if not it’s very easy to become crazy o get a deep depression because of this particular climate. Of course before coming here I was said that it rained a lot in Santiago but the notion of “raining a lot” was different. “A lot” here means too much, sometimes for entire weeks without stop. For me grey days without sun are always sad and bring me a bad mood but the worst thing is a rainy weekend in June. This Sunday was exactly like this… From the morning the weather made us forget all plans to go to a beach or at least to spend a day out. But one always should search for some positive moments in each situation. So after sleeping enough we all gathered in the kitchen like an exemplary family enjoying late breakfast. After several cups of tee/coffee and endless conversations about everything, the hope that the rain would stop was disappearing gradually. Well, in Santiago if you wait for rain to stop f...

On Sunday a bike ride was organised by the centre, on occasion of the Federation Day (the centre operating within a hierarchy where the Federation is made up of different centres as far as I can fathom).  We met at around noon in front of the centre and, after a very nice guy called David sorted out all our bikes (checking brakes, fixing seat heights, etc), we set off on our way. It was a very nice ride, starting from the city centre, passing through to the outskirts until we reached the riverside.  It was a very hot day - for the others at least;  I thoroughly enjoyed it, give me a sweltering hot afternoon any day instead of rain.  And here I must say that, me who’s always complaining about the rainy weather, has been jumping for joy these past weeks due to the sunshine.  We’ve been getting some really warm days.  The Galicians are complaining that this heat leaves them lacking energy.  (At least Lorena, one of the monitors, is sincere enough to adm...