Every EVS participant knows that trainings during the service are special periods. And this week I had a chance to participate in mid-term training, organized by Bulgarian National Agency. Of course, trainings are to develop skills, gain new knowledge and do all those serious things. But it is not only about that, because trainings are also to meet volunteers from different Bulgarian cities, share experience, talk about good practices and just gain new friends.
We spent almost a whole week on mid-term training, sharing the hotel with on-arrivals. The first thing is that we cannot believe that we are already mid-terms! Time is passing so fast, and we all have been feeling like just a few days ago we have been those unconfident, unsecure on-arrivals. And now… we are experienced, almost professional volunteers! That is very weird feeling that is impossible to express. So we came there, to the hotel at the end of Sofia. First impression? Do I really need that kind of hotel, with the SPA center and high standard of rooms? Then excitement came, I saw faces that we know from our on-arrival, but also new ones. Does not matter if we knew each other before, or not. We all knew that we are the big EVS family, that is in Bulgaria for the same reasons. Then, sessions started. As always, some of them have been super interesting, whereas others I found boring and predictable. But what I will remember for a long time is one very special session called Sofia Mission, which was a kind of city game. Okay, I am living in Sofia for four months now, but even for me it was a chance to
see that city from different perspective. And we know that for people from different parts of Bulgaria it was even more exciting. Cooperation was the main aim of that activity, and I must say that my group was a dream team. We had leaders, supporters, people with creative ideas, but also those who scheduled everything. That was the fun part, but the most educational session was about our future. We have been asking, what after EVS? And if it is something after EVS? It appeared that it is not only something, but there are many of possibilities, and we do not have to finish our Erasmus+ or just international adventure.
That was it. Our week, different than other weeks. We have not been working on media portal, anyway we have chance to collect some nice confessions from other volunteers. This week our team developed in different way. I believe that it was not a waste of time and we will take into account all information we receive from trainers and our big EVS family.
