March Reflect - Travels Around the Country

March has been a month full of emotions and new experiences in which I have learned and enjoyed a lot. It has been a long and intense month in which I have not stopped traveling from one place to another and which has been full of flavors, lights and reunions with people I have not seen for a long time and I was very excited to see them again.

To begin with, every Wednesday we meet in the TOTEM kitchen with other ladies to cook desserts for an hour and a half, and this month we had the opportunity to share our own recipes. In my case I decided to prepare some sweet peaches, a delicious traditional Romanian dessert. It was a pleasure to share my culinary culture with the ladies and enjoy their company while preparing the sweet.

Moving on, I am very excited to share my personal project with TOTEM. I am working on a bingo of typical Spanish and Czech foods, with prizes that include typical Spanish food. And this month has been based on that: managing the project with the coordinator and planning it so that the following month it can be carried out.

In addition, I had the opportunity to attend the Pilsen Festival of Lights, which was a magical experience. I saw lights projected on the church in the center and then a big puppet guided by people, it was an impressive spectacle. Not only that, but also one of the days of the month we met with Irena, who is Juli’s mentor and we met with her to catch up a bit. The get together was in a very cozy cafeteria, where I tasted a delicious Basque cake which made me feel at home.

Then, from March 10 to 15, I attended the mid-term training for volunteers in Přerov, where we stayed in a 4 star hotel. During the week, we dealt with topics such as team building, key competences and youthpass, wellbeing, communication workshops, interculture, exploring  Přerov, cestina, mini project, open space, action plan evaluation and closing. It was an enriching and fun experience in which apart from eating delicious food and a lot of it during the whole week since we had a buffet for all the meals, I really enjoyed meeting again all the volunteers that I had not seen since the on arrival training.

After the week in Přerov, some very good friends of mine that I meet them on arrival training and I decided to go to Olomouc, since we were very close to Olomouc and to make the most of the time. Therefore, we stayed the whole weekend in Olomouc and on Saturday we went to spend the day in Ostrava. It was a mind-blowing weekend full of discoveries.

In addition, from March 20 to 26 I had the opportunity to travel to Barcelona for a week. It was an exciting experience, as not only did I reconnect with my friends from Barcelona whom I had not seen for a long time, but I also tried climbing for the first time, attended a calçotada and visited a trampoline park. It was a week full of adventure and fun.

Finally, the last weekend of this month we went to Vienna and although it was short it was very intense. On Friday we visited the center, went to a traditional market there, took a walk in the park and then went to get ready for the Alec Benjamin concert. On Saturday, we went to the chocolate museum, then to the museum of historical art and finally we visited the great hall of the Austrian national library. To finish up, on Sunday we took a walk to see the neighborhood and the funny houses and before catching the bus we visited a porcelain exhibition.

All this while enjoying good food and having my comfort zone with my volunteer partner and my Spanish friends, who in the end are the ones who always make me feel at home. All in all, March has been a fantastic and incredible month and knowing what is coming in April I am sure it is going to be an equally exciting month. Thanks for reading and see you next time. See you soon!

Livia