Hello again and a happy new year!

Time has gone by fast- by now I have been living in Terrassa for almost 4 months. During this time I’ve experienced a lot and at the same time not half as much as I would want to. There are always a lot of plans and never seem to be enough time to do all of them, but I am slowly getting into the rhythm of taking things as they go and not stress so much about the things I have not yet done. 

So what has been happening? I remember that I could not explain concretely what it is that I do in La Vibria in my first post. Well, 4 months later I have even more vague answers- which is a good sign! Some examples of what I have done so far, after the first month:

• Helped out with a local project Feinateca, to facilitate sessions for young local people, which enhance their soft skills and support them in accessing the labor market and possibly find a job
• Introduced some educational games created by La Vibria and other NGOs to other local youth workers
• Helped with facilitating intercultural evenings at La Vibria, where people from different countries demonstrate their traditional food, customs, dances, culture
• Gathered different methods for team-building workshops, that trainers-facilitators can use in training courses and other projects
• Helped out with writing some projects and done some administrative work
• Tested and tried to improve some educational games 
• Helped to host and facilitate an international training course about social entrepreneurship in Terrassa
  

… and many other smaller tasks. I have had the full possibility of joining activities and projects that I am passionate about but also to try out tasks and things I would never have the chance to do in my daily life. So I would say the work experience is just getting more interesting every week. 

In my personal life I have tried to experience as much as possible. I think one of the biggest highlights was going to a Bachata & Salsa festival called Lovedance in November in Santa Susana with other people from my dance school. It gave me a chance to improve my dance skills for 3 days by attending classes and practicing at parties in the evenings. I have met many local people and this has given me the chance to get to know and to understand the local culture a lot more. I am still attending the dance classes and even went once to try out the Castellers practice- a seriously brave activity. Even though I understood that this is not for me, it was really admirable to see how it brings together people from such a different age and yet every member is important and valuable. 

I have slowly started to discover other areas in Catalunya and even managed to go on top of La Mola which was very special to me, considering that Estonia has no mountains. I have tried to see more of Barcelona. The volunteers now have local mentors- local people who volunteered to be our support and to show us the local life. Through that my mentor offered to take some of us to see Girona, so we had the awesome chance to visit the local historical places there- surely a day to remember! Other than that, daily life in Terrassa keeps on being interesting. The occasional Thursday “meetings” at this important conference room called La Republica, some group reflections in Zurito after Catalan class, movie nights with other volunteers at our flats, supporting our own people at open mic nights in Reina Victoria… I guess to sum all of it up- it is super cool to keep meeting local people, but what is awesome about this experience is the fact that there are so many volunteers and we stick together, which helps us through both the good and the more difficult days.