EVS is the best option you can choose
Even short-term EVS offers many new experiences, fun and long-time friendships. Ricardo is 23 years old lad from Valdepeñas who decided to take part in the project realized in Poland. He faced many differences between culture as for example having dinner at 6 pm instead of Spanish dinner time late in the evening was a little bit challenging but Ricardo did his best.
- Present yourself.
So, my name is Ricardo García. I’m 23 years old. I’m from Valdepeñas, a city close to Ciudad Real but now I’m living in Ciudad Real because of my studies. I’m studying to become a teacher.
2. Where are you doing your EVS?
I was doing my EVS in Bydgoszcz, a city located in Poland.
3. Why did you decide to go on EVS?
Well, I decided to do my EVS because it was a short EVS so I could do it without problems in order to my studies, and also because it was an EVS where I had to work with children, non-formal education and I wanted to show all of the something about my country, with activities and games.
4. What is your task to do there?
As I said before, my task there was divided in two ways. Some days I had to prepare all the activities in the office with my partners, and the others days we have to make it with all the children they come. We showed our different countries with games and activities.
5. Did it change your life?
I think yes, because it was first time that I spent a long time abroad (it was just one month and a half) and I had to manage my life there, with the pocket money, and also it was also the first time that I travelled alone. And of course for all the experiences that I lived there with all the people I met there.
6. What did you learn there?
I learnt how to manage myself abroad and also working in a group, split tasks and try to do our best with children.
7. Did your expectations meet with the reality there?
Of course yes, I was with a lot of high expectations and I fulfilled. It was the best experience of my life.
8. What about the culture of the country you stayed in?
First of all, it was pretty hard to get used to timetables because sometimes I was having dinner at 6:00pm meanwhile I have dinner in Spain at 9:00pm as soon as possible. Also, there is a huge religion country because of Jean-Paul II, so almost everyone we met it was a religious person, not like in Spain.
9. Was it hard to change your life from one day to another day?
First days there, of course, it was hard because it was a big change in my life. Always you do an EVS or something like that (at least in my case) you’re a little bit afraid of what you’re gonna find in your destination, how people are gonna be, the country in general…
10. Can you tell us something very interesting about your experience?
Something interesting was when we were taking a beer in a pub, and suddenly a man who was listening speaking English invite us a beer and then we were speaking about the project, about us during the whole night.
11. Do you have any funny story?
This story is funny now, but at that moment it wasn’t funny, hahaha. We were waiting for the tram in order to go to the bus station. We were going to spend the weekend in Warsaw. We were waiting and there was an advertisement in Polish which we tried to translate but apparently, it wasn’t important. Then we realised tram didn´t work so we had to run to try to take another tram and we arrived just at the time the bus left, so we had to stop the bus and we could do our trip.
12. What about the people you met there?
I met really great people there, and after more than a year, I’m still keeping in touch with some of them. Fortunately, I could meet with two of them after my EVS.
13. Do you recommend EVS to other people?
Of course yes, If they are thinking about a new experience and living abroad, it’s the best option you can choose. 🙂
