I want to tell about my EVS experience I had this year. I started my EVS on 1st May 2018 in Latvia. I didn’t mean to choose some project, there was recommendation from my friend and I decided to try anyway.
I was leaving Armenia without any idea what will be in the future, and also I didn’t really know anything about Latvia. I was ready for new experience.
My city was Jekabpils, 2 hours away from Riga. I love my city and miss it very much. Latvia welcomed me very good from the first day I arrived. I was feeling at home. I was living with azerbaijan girl for 2 months, then she quited the program and I was alone for 2 months. It was a bit hard to be there alone, but I could make it work good, it was summer, so there was a lot to entertain me with.
Then arrived Marion from Austria and she became the most important person for me in this short period of time.
I was having Latvian language courses, which was kind of meaningless for me, because I know Russian and in Latvia they were all speaking in Russian, so there was no problem with communication. The language was hard, but I understand quite a lot already.
I was teaching English there, making different events, such as movie club, handmade events, sport event, cooking events etc.
We were also planning events in different cities of Latvia, se we were travelling a lot.
EVS is a life experience and I have learnt a lot there. You are trying new simple things, that you may never try in your country, like painting walls, sewing flowers, making posters for different events.
You are making friends from different countries and that connection is something new and so nice, that makes you and them travel after the project, meet each other and keep in touch.
There can be difficulties, ups and downs in the project. You should know how to deal with them. In my case I didn’t have difficulties, but some days were just not so lucky or happy, that’s normal. The reason can be missing your family, friends, country, but you know, that all you have here in this moment, you may never have again, so just enjoy it.
We were making a lot of EVS promotions in Latvia and I hope, that we could motivate some youngsters to try it, even though Latvians are very cold and introvert people, that can help them to change themselves.
For me the hardest part is after EVS part. When you are back home, you have changed a lot, but everything and everyone is kind of the same, they are in their everyday routine and you need time for adaptation and feeling part of it again.
I have travelled a lot during this year, I have been in Lithuania, Estonia, Germany, Norway, Finland, Russia, Poland and more than 20 cities in Latvia.
I experienced hitch-hiking, which is awesome, I tried couchsurfing, which is the best app for travelers.
This was the most colorful year of my life. I never regret for trying it and will do some project again very soon.
