Joventut

Quart de Poblet, abril 2020.

Hello,  I’m Giada, I’m italian and I’ve decided to spend one year volunteering in Spain, in a city close to Valencia, I’m here with Andrea, and since she already talked about ours activities –> go and read her post if you haven’t done yet.

I’m gonna write my impression about Spain, here is very similiar to the south of Italy (environment, people).
You wiil find very frindly people, they will immediately treat you like you’re part of the family, or a close friend, and it’s something, if you like me have never been alone for more than a month, very beatiful, heartwarming and reassuring, it helps a lot, I can easily say that the best part about this country for me are the people.

Talking about the city, you will encounter lot of orange trees on the road, (don’t touch them you can get a fine, plus you can’t even eat them).. a warm weather, car that will stop at every pedestrian crossing (I was shocked, it rarely happens to me at home), the beach, which you can easily find with few stops of metro, and if you like meat the original paella! If you are vegetarian lots of restaurants only for you!
And talking about food if you search well you can also encounter shops that most likely sell products from your country! Could be silly reading this now but after you are here for some months you will be happy to find a taste from your home country :)

Quart de Poblet, abril 2020.

I have arrived to Valencia, on the 7th of January, 2020 (we still did not know back then that this year is going to be a real life movie..). Enrique, the best tutor of the world (He told us to say this every time), was waiting for me at the train station. We walked to take the metro to Quart de Poblet, there was sunshine and oranges hanging on the trees, it was a warm welcome.

That same day I visited “Quart Jove”, the centre we are doing our activities. I have met Leo, and all the other cool people working there (a lot of names for one day). They have shown me the apartment, we had a talk. In the afternoon Leo was my guide around Quart. The following day we went to pick up Giada, She is with me in this project.

So this was all in the beginning.. Since then: I have learned that not everything is how you imagine it before, but that is fine. The biggest lesson: communication is the key. Even if it is uncomfortable sometimes, talking about problems and finding solutions helps, in the end of the day you will sleep better..

We are working with wonderful people. One of the things I love the most is the ambient at Quart Jove. The “almuerzos” together, the good talks and the interest they share for one another. I am happy to be there.
Our apartment here needed some fixing, but slowly it started to feel more and more cozy, it is nice to see that process.
We participate in the activities of the youth centers, helping in the organization. We also have conversation groups, English and Italian, and in the mornings we do a bit of everything related to youth activities.
We had our “On arrival training”, in Benicàssim, which was just amazing!

So everything was beautiful, we were finally getting familiar with people, and with our tasks, the spring was slowly coming, we couldn’t wait to participate in “Las Fallas”, to do an Easter trip…and then the End Of The World hit in (commonly mentioned as Corona virus). What now? It’s been one month since the homestay started. We are doing conversation groups online, having Zoom meetings with other volunteers in the same situation. Surprisingly, it is not as bad as I was expecting it to be after one month.. I hope that it will end soon, that we can go back to enjoy this experience. Until then, I will stay creative at home, I will keep doing what I can to stay active. Luckily we have internet, Antonio and Enrique are helping us with activities. We will survive this together!