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March 19, 2018 / by /

Laura - EVS Volunteer from Italy

 

Laura, our EVS volunteer from Italy tells about her experience:

“Deciding to leave is always a leap of faith, but if you are patient and active to continuing your way for every step you go forward you will feel the ground under you more solid.

Before arriving in Georgia for my EVS I didn’t have so many expectations about what I would have found in the city and in the hosting organization. I just wanted an experience that would make me more interesting on the job market and I wanted to put myself out there with a new challenge abroad that goes beyond university studies and that would allow me to discover a new country.

I learned this from my previous experiences abroad that leaving without or with very few expectations it will never disappointed you and so I arrived in Tbilisi ready to take and make the best of my EVS. However, none of the possible expectations could have accurately included this whole experience. Here I had the opportunity to confront myself with a new and quite different culture and a new social and work environment that were diverse and stimulating both from a personal and a professional point of view.

At work: managing Italian classes, taking part in English workshops, teaching English with games and songs in a kindergarten, helping with Erasmus+ projects and dealing with deadlines was interesting and taught me a lot. Especially I’m so proud about the Italian course, because with Michele, the other Italian EVS volunteer at ICPI, we did not just give our lessons, but with our students we created a really good and unite group of friends. Furthermore, the most important is that I’m so happy in ICPI, there I found many stimulating ideas and a wonderful community where I can share my goals, realize projects, support each other, and discuss constructively.

When people ask me what my EVS is, the first words that come to mind are educational and enlightening. Being a volunteer has taught me so much about myself, it has made me more active and self-aware. I’m very satisfied with my experience and I do not think that even if I could go back and restarting it I would change something: living and volunteering in Tbilisi opened so many interesting doors really useful also for my future and I think that the difficulties I encountered also helped make this experience so important to me.

The most beautiful thing EVS gave me is the people I met that I’m sure they will always be there for me also when my experience in Georgia will be finished.  My roommates and coworkers that now are like a family, Georgian and International friends that over time have become really close and important part of my life: each one taught me something new and opened me to realities I did not know”.