First days as a volunteer in Ourense

Hello world, my name is Stepan Prikryl. Iam 20 years old and i come from Czech Republic – hearth of a Europe.

 

I decided to become the volunteer of Sustinea organisation in Spain – region Ourense - and i have to say, that it was one of my best decisions of my life. After i finished my studies in Czech i started to work and i didn't feel that this type of work (costumer in shop) i would like to do for a rest of my life. One day came to me this opportunity that i can travel with Erasmus plus to Spain and to start working for a Sustinea organisation. 

 

The Sustinea organisation is focused on a environmental problems and ecological problems and they try to solve them as effectively as they can.

I arrived on 23^th of February to Ourense by a train – before that i took a flight from Prague to Madrid. I was pretty tired after a whole day of travelling because i woke up at 4am.

 

 Finally when i arrived to Ourense, my new friends (Paulo, Joana, Rebecca, Inma) where waiting on me on the train station with a welcome poster and Inma – my mentor was dressed in a typical carneval costume. 

 

It really made me laught though i felt exhausted and sleepy. Then we went to my appartment and i jumped to my bed and i immediately fall a sleep. The next days i became habited on my new "home." :)

 

Now something about my first impressions of Ourense city. Because i arrived exactly on a time when a carneval starts here, my first feelings are pretty mixed but not in a bad meaning. 

 

 

It's not a typical to have a such a huge carneval party in Czech for almost a 1 week. People where dressed to a crazy costumes, the gigs where on a every corner of a street and the atmosphere was very extatic – everybody enjoyed theyr time. I really love parties so i enjoyed it so much. One friend of Inma lend me a Starwars costume so i felt that i was a part of the carneval too. What i really love here is that people still live theyr traditions altough in this modern age lots of them are dying fastly.

 

The architecture seems really amazing especially in the Old town. It has a parfume of it's interesting history. I'm really looking forward to see more of a monuments. The parks are also nice for example for a afternoon picnic or for a joga stretching or whatever. Everywhere in the city are fountains that makes really calm atmosphere though it's in a city with a pretty much population. Typical is that everywhere are lots of a shops. 

 

What i really approciate is that i have a ecological shop a 2 minutes near my flat. :) The food is here more healthy and it looks more full of nourishments. In Czech we have a lots of products which are going to be imported to Poland, so the quality its not as good as here. I really love the local fruits and vegetables especially the mangos and avocados.

 

 

The people here are more open then in Czech. They are also more vital and full of life. It's really amazing to see an old lady - approximately she can had like 80 years old - going ouside to have a walk on the sun. Sometimes it's very funny how poeple speaks very fast and sometimes it made me fell a little bit comfused. But i have 9 months to learn a Spanish language so i believe that i will do it!

 

Otherwise my expactations have been almost fulfilled. The appartment is full equipped, the people are very nice and a city is full of life. I didn't expect that it will be raining so much. Iam really looking forward to a start of my first project. During a spirng we will work more in a office but during a summer we are going to work outdoors and that's what i really love. 😊