Inspired by Dilya's post about her adventures with visa, this post is dedicated mainly for those who are planning to go on EVS/abroad or preparing to leave already. It’s not very much about practicalities (as your organization will prepare you for these), but more about emotional ups and downs.
Volunteering abroad is great, meaningful and rewarding in many ways. Most of the time I love being here and I am very grateful for this opportunity and if I could go back I’d definitely not choose any differently. But there are some rough times when I feel that nothing goes well and I miss a bit my “old and easy life”. And I know this is normal, yet knowing it does not make this any easier.
As in the beginning of January I just got through such a period, I have been thinking a lot about this topic lately and about my experience as a volunteer in general. So here is a list of the good and bad things I experienced so far, I hope you will find it interesting and/or useful:
1. Freedom: This might sound like a cliché, but living far away from everything and everyone I know gave me an enormous amount of freedom. I have been always very independent, but here I really feel that I have full control over my life. This is something I find scaring and deliberating at the same time.
2. The people who are the closest to me are far away: I think this is the hardest for me to handle. Even though I can talk to my family and friends almost every day, it is not the same as seeing them in person regularly. On the bright side though I’m not so far away from home and I know that strong relationships don’t depend on the distance.
3. Start everything from zero: This is actually something I enjoy. Building up new habits (or re-building old ones), new ways of working, new relationships, new hobbies. And balancing this out with everything I already have. It takes a lot of time and effort. And patience – especially with myself. :)
4. Language barriers: No matter how well I speak Spanish or English, there are just days when nobody understands me no matter which language I speak and this is frustrating. Also some people always look at me as if I were an alien. But I learnt here some expressions that I’m pretty sure no language school would ever teach me. :)
5. Losing fear (or handling it better): As I’m in a completely new environment, most of the time I have to step out of my comfort zone to do things: working in Spanish, making new friends, sometimes even shopping for a small thing. :) Doing new things are always somewhat scary, but when you have so many of them at the same time you just stop being afraid, because you realize that so much fear would stop you from actually living your daily life.
6. Value of money: Well yes, from a volunteer’s salary it’s sometimes hard to make ends meet, especially because I had full-time jobs before, so I'm used to a different way of life. Although I’m much more creative now in finding alternative solutions for practically everything and I am happy with it. I think this somewhat brought me to a new level of consciousness with money.
7. “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”: I didn’t decide to go abroad to find myself or get to know myself better in the first place (as I’m continuously working on this for quite some years now :)), yet it is still fascinating to notice how the things I thought were my strengths and weaknesses transform. Also some days I feel completely lost.
8. Intensity: I'm not really sure why, but I feel that the days here are more intense. I enjoy more the good things, suffer more from the worse ones and my mood changes more often than it did. But this means that I also value time more, move on faster from the bad and take chances I wouldn't have taken before.
9. Small town life: This was something I was a bit afraid of when moving here, as I lived always in a city. Well, in winter there is not much to do here in the town and sometimes I feel bored or paralyzed. On the bright side going to Madrid is always an option and I also hope that spring and warmer weather will bring back life to Illescas too.
10. Cultural differences: Again a cliché, but as I love diversity this is something I consciously observe and enjoy. Though here I didn't have any big cultural shocks, sometimes the lack of organization and postponing things to the last minute set me on edge. But the fact that people are nice, helpful and easy-going usually compensates for this. Oh and the food (as an essential part of diversity) as well. :)
