viernes, 30 de noviembre de 2012

Residencia de los mayores

As a European Volunteer I need to prepare my own project during my voluntary service. In Hungary I am volunteering with children so I decided that here I would like to work with elders. We started to look for the perfect nursing home with my flat mate and very good friend, Iza. Finally we found a small one with not too many residents, we talked to the director and they were absolutely open for all of our ideas and initiatives. So we spent the first day with them on Monday, we had a small gymnastic in the morning and then we prepared Christmas cards and Christmas tree ornaments in small groups. It was such a nice feeling and actually not much different from the way how I spend my time with children.
This process of life...when we are children we need help with walking, eating and entertaining. Then after 70 more years we need all of these help again... We discussed this beautiful circulation of life with my walking lady, Justa, who is exactly 90 years old, but as fit as a teenager. It was a great pleasure to listen her stories from her childhood and about the years she spent in Switzerland. We laughed a lot together, especially when the nurse said that we can go out to the street so: "Justa leave your walker here". She immediately left the aid, caught my arm and wanted to start. When the nurse arrived with the wheelchair we all broke into laugh as she wanted to give her a biggest help while Justa wanted to walk without any.

I can't wait to go back again! This time we will start to decorate the residencia for Christmas...

miércoles, 28 de noviembre de 2012

Viva la vida nómada!!!

I have never explained you why EVS is so extremely fantastic! Probably you can see many advantages of it from this blog, but there is one important thing which I have to explain. What I love the most is that in your everyday life you are living with certain limits, you believe that these belong to you. But one day you wake up, there is a great opportunity which gives you the chance to cross all of these lines. You mustn't miss it! You have to forget about your fears and comfortable routines.

One of the best examples for this was our teambuilding weekend. I have to admit that sleeping in my own warm bed, having a nice hot shower before I go to sleep, switch on the heating when I am cold or eating my delicious bread prepared by the baker always belonged to my accepted needs. These make me feel comfortable and home. I always felt that these are things which I don't want to give up (not even for a few days) what's more, which I insist upon! Last weekend I crossed this boundary of mine...


                 
We arrived to this "handmade" house in the middle of nowhere surrounded by this breathtaking view:

             

We had different teambulilding games, but for me the nicest and strongest teambuilding element was collecting wood for the fireplace and for the oven and preparing our own bread.


That amazing amount of wood which this thing can eat...


This is our own Teide from flour...very bad people are playing with the food:)

And the result:)

And I thought that I had already seen beautiful sunsets before this one...






miércoles, 21 de noviembre de 2012

Good morning volunteers!

Almost three month ago we arrived here so it was just on time to participate in the Arrival Training for European Volunteers:) This event was held in Candelaría (slowly I spend more time here than in La Laguna), in a 4 starts hotel. I don't remember when was the last time when I ate so many delicious things namely we had full board: all you can eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. Yes, I know Marci, it would have been your heaven:)!
This made it very easy to prepare the perfect birthday breakfast for Marie (which happened to be on the last day of this "holiday"). From my many German friends I have already learned that this is an essential element of a good birthday. 


Marie's Birthday Brunch Table

We prepared lots of surprise for her during the day including the inevitable video about her with some embarrassing pictures:) 


Here she is trying to understand our birthday wishes which we all wrote in our own languages to make it a little bit more difficult for her:)


During this week I had my third visit to the Teide National Park which is always a big surprise. I have never seen this place twice the same. This time we had cloudy weather next to the ocean but glare above the clouds at the foot of the volcano.


Above the clouds

The coldest sunshine ever:)

I have to write a few words about the organizers who made this event so special. I have to emphasize that this was not a holiday (even if it felt like:))!! This meeting had important aims and most of the topics really made me think. One of my favourites was when we had to make a city based on the European and our own values. It is always a great pleasure to think about something new which I have never had in mind before. And to design a city (and also to build it) is definitely a thing like this.


Finally it became a little bit utopian

At the end of the week we made a lot of new friendship so the bridge has been built between the volunteers of Tenerife and Gran Canaria, hopefully we can mutually visit each other in the upcoming months.
Finally we had a random salsa class...to make the experience unforgettable! 



In few words: fantastic people, incredible food, super cool activities and such a great weather!

domingo, 11 de noviembre de 2012

Such a long time ago...

I know, I am totally lost... In the last few days I had so many things to do so I wasn't able to report every moment of my life:) The main reason of my disappearance is that I am working really hard on my master applications, this is the most important thing in my life right now. I hope it is a strong enough reason to neglect my precious blog:)
But here I am again! Probably I could try to summarize all of the things that happened since my trip to La Gomera, but I will only mention the most important one. (And leaving out for example my first real Halloween with costume and spider queen make-up:))

Last week my parents visited me. After two month it was amazing to see them again. I was extremely happy that I could show them all of the beautiful places on the island. It is worth much more if you can share these experiences with your loved ones.
We visited all of the sights which you could already read about here (so who can tell me what is this place?:))








 But there were new experiences for me too such as the drago milenio which is one of the most popular sights here. This is the only place on Earth where this kind of tree exists and this one is one of the oldest.


Close to the drago there is a beautiful butterfly garden where the butterflies really fly on your hand, shoulder, head, back (with a small help: a drop of nectar).

She found immediately the best place: the hand of my mum:) 

And sometimes also without any help, when you don't even realize...
I was concentrating on touching Mr. Huge Lizard when somebody found my back a nice place for a short rest:)


Another new experience was related to one of the biggest business of the Tenerife is the pearl. I have never heard something like this. In this small pond you can fish out a shell which contains a pearl. It depends on your luck if it is a golden or silver one or if it is small or big. The fishing costs 25 euro but it can also happen that you catch a pearl which is worth more than 100 euro.
If you would start to wonder where is the business part... You can choose from thousands of necklace, bracelet and earrings and for another huge amount of money they put your own pearl into these jewelries. Obviously you will choose something because otherwise what can you do with that small ball?
Even if I think it is ridiculous, I have to admit, I had it in mind to try it out. But then I decided that this is still not the age of pearls for me. And one day when I will have a pearl necklace then I would like to have one like Audrey Hepburn has in the Breakfast at Tiffany's. Maybe for my 30th birthday from my husband:) I have to remember this:)!!


Before you would start to miss my culinary adventures I show you this incredible Mexican platter which we had on the beach of Los Cristianos as a farewell dinner.

An unforgettable dinner with live music and candle light (even if it is not visible on the photo:))