There's no denying it, these bloggers are bound to make you jealous. Whether it's their guts, their energy or their tan you admire, overseas volunteers have got plenty to share with you about their remarkable work in fascinating countries. Read on to find out what you could be missing.

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Thursday Oct 27, 2011

Spanish Adventure

I'm Abi. I am currently doing a 'Youth in Action' European Voluntary Service project in Valencia, Spain. Although it's a bit of a mouthful, what this equates to is the opportunity to live and volunteer abroad with funding being provided by the EU for your travel, accommodation and food.  I had been living in London since I graduated in 2010. Since graduating, I have undertaken several internships in the field of Advertising, all of which I had enjoyed. However, given the current job climate for graduates, landing my dream job has proven difficult.

I had always wanted to travel and I thought a 'Gap Yah'might not be such a bad idea. However looking around at the various voluntary opportunities on offer were not financially viable for me. I was also dubious about some of the voluntary projects I saw, where the volunteer pays £3,000 to move some bricks around for a sense of well being.

I was given a book for Christmas which explored voluntary options in Europe. I had never thought of staying a bit closer to home as it sounds far more exotic to say you are visiting South America, South East Asia or Australia. Yet having looked into this a bit further, I was excited to find that there were voluntary options through the EU available to all young people between the ages of 18-30. The scheme is called European Voluntary Service and it allows any young person, from any background, to go and volunteer in another country. In return for your time, the host organisation will provide you with accommodation, money for food, your flights and even pocket money.

Having found a sending organisation in the UK, Concordia Volunteers, with their help I began searching for a placement. Each week I would send 6 options to my Co-ordinator and she would apply on my behalf. I wanted to learn a language at the same time so I looked for projects mainly in France, Italy and Spain. After a few weeks of hunting, I was accepted on to a programme working in a youth centre in Valencia. And here I am...

I have been here for 2 weeks next Monday and it has all been a bit of a blur. After landing from a very early flight, I was picked up from the airport by my co-ordinator and shown around the small town, Silla, where I will be spending the next 9 months. I felt apprehensive and excited all at the same time.

I am living with another volunteer from Poland; she is fluent in Spanish and has a boyfriend in the town where we live. Her boyfriend undertook a voluntary program in Poland through EVS and this is how they met. It seems that EVS also can sometimes act as a dating service too :P

We are both working at the local youth centre which provides advice and services for local people. The weeks are very varied but tasks include going in to local secondary schools to encourage young people to use the youth service, teaching English to those people who require lessons, administration in the office and helping to work on youth campaigns. Needless to say the last few weeks have been busy, getting to know my new surroundings, trying to speak Spanish (badly I might add) and engaging with local Spanish people to understand their culture a bit more.

The only problem I have found so far it the difference in eating times. As an English traditionalist, I like to have three square meals a day. At 9, 12.30 and 7. However, the Spanish have breakfast normally but don't eat lunch until 3, and have dinner at 9. I think this is going to take some getting used to.

Every morning, before we start work, we have a coffee in a local cafe with the other employees of the youth centre. It is nice to start the day with a 'Cafe con Leche' and a small lesson in Spanish verbs.  I am hoping my Spanish will get better with time but people are very patient and happy to let me attempt Spanglish.

I will update soon with how the Spanish adventure is going.

Best wishes

Abi

Posted by Abi ( 9:52 AM )
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