On Arrival Training is over and I'm officially dead now

Hey guys! So after four refreshing days after the rather exhausting youth exchange I found myself sitting in a train again, this time to Ostravice. Still a little tired but in good mood, we jumped off at our stop and saw other confused faces as well - those had to be more volunteers heading for the on arrival training! Indeed, we were not alone. All together we walked to hotel Hamr, me being very pleased by being able to speak to a German personally again in about a month. Our group was comprised of a large number of Spanish and German people, some Austrians, French people, an Italian, of course my favorite Portuguese, the Norwegian Linn and Ilayda was the only one from Turkey. 

Over those five days we had some Czech lessons (very helpful!) and discovered useful things about life in Czech Republic, be it how to manage everyday life, traveling, socialising and all of those issues. Reflecting on the purpose of EVS and what kind of connection volunteers and their organizations should have (eyesight level!) opened my eyes to how negatively I thought about volunteers so far. In my mind there was a very clear hirarchy - volunteers should be happy to be volunteers and they are definitely on eyesight level with their recieving organization.

It's safe to say that it was also very soothing for us to realize that everyone feels useless in their project from time to time. This might be different for people in other countries, but the language barrier makes it particularly difficult in Czech Republic to work properly. Often times you want to help so badly, but there is just no opportunity.

On Saturday some of us will meet again - at an EVS party in Prague. I'm still dead to be honest, with the shorts nights during the on arrival training as well it's hard to keep my eyes open and I just need some rest. Next week a training course here in Trendum is about to come, which means 20 new people from 10 different countries. Man, we're living on the fast lane for sure!

To close this all off...nerozumím Česky!