Hello, my name is Kate, I’m from Russia. I’m 25 and for the last two years I’ve been working at the vocational school as an English teacher. Not so long ago I understood that I need to change my life somehow and started to look for a way to improve the situation. I had an extremely good experience of volunteering at the ecological camp in Spain so I decided that I need to take up international volunteering as for my gap-year. It turned up that from all the variants EVS was the best. I’m not going to enumerate the reasons why exactly because for all the EVS participants they sound banal, but here’s why EVS suited me best: and that’s the possibility of doing what I always wanted to do.
I always liked Literature and even wrote the short stories and the scripts for the sketches at the students’ theatre. I hated studying at Philological department but writing was the only thing I liked from my University time. And here in Trbovlje there was exactly the vacancy for the volunteering at the theatre. And they appreciated my idea of writing something for being played. I’ve already applied for the EVS in the theatre in Poland but I was rejected and it really broke my heart. So when I was approved in Slovenia that was a perfect match.
I’ve always been not so bad in Geography, so I knew what Slovenia is about. In comparison with Russia it is like a breath of fresh air, because everything you need is near: mountains, seaside and the valleys with the small towns inside seem like landscapes from the children’s fairytale. After the industrial giant with one million and a half population from which I come from that feels literally like a spa resort. Even the coal-mining capital of Slovenia with the highest chimney from the power station in Europe that I live in now (Trbovlje, ladies and gentlemen) for an average Russian seems like a perfect place for vacation. People who live here just don’t understand what they have and don’t appreciate, but that can be said about all people in the world.
People in Slovenia are pretty the same like in Russia: that I’ve learned when I was going to Trbovlje from Ljubljana by train. Just the same: tired people going home sitting on each other. Feels like home, really. But here maybe because of the small sizes or the climate people are much more relaxed and opened. And really like to talk. They can start from the topic “weather” and end the conversation asking you about how you’d like to name your future children. People seem to be really interested in you, and that’s flattering. They especially like to hear how it is to live in Russia, so I feel kind of a super-hero telling one in two that it is minus 30 in winter in my city. And people are so amazed by this fact drinking the third cup of coffee outside in a freezing cold when I can’t feel my fingers or legs. People fascinate, so does Slovenia.
Kate, EVS volonteer in Dom Svobode and MCT
