BACK.
Looking back to my EVS year in Brno, mostly joyful moments come to my mind. I had a chance to spend wonderful time in a new country, exploring local culture, meeting new friends, living in multicultural community and becoming more open minded person than I was before.
The motto of EVS is learning by doing and I can totally agree with that. I traveled from Siberia faraway to Czech republic, where I had been working in forest kindergarten where children stay outside whatever weather is it. In the beginning I was shocked to see how children freely climb over top of a tree and play in mud or go for a walk to forest and don’t feel cold even in frosty winter. After this year my perspective on pedagogy just as my colleagues stereotypes that Siberian people don’t mind cold were changed. I not only survived but also fell in love with concept of forest kindergarten.
When you live in one house side by side with people, who have different cultural background, you clearly realize how great is diversity. 14 strangers from all around Europe with different personalities, native languages and food preferences eventually become close to you. Breakfast, habits, style of your roommates might seem unusual to you in the beginning, but at the end you adopt some foreign recipes into your diet and learn much more about each other’s countries&cultures. I was so lucky to have the nicest and the funniest flatmates I ever had in my life. We used to come up with crazy ideas and do some stuff together like breaking the world’s record of the tallest pancakes stack, hitchhiking in Slovenia and recording our rap video dedicated to Kohoutovice - our lovely neighborhood in Brno.
My EVS experience was amazing mostly because of people I met on my way. We had a lot of fun with volunteers in Brno, having our crazy parties, traveling together around Europe, discovering Czech culture (by this I mean not only beer). I was totally satisfied at the end of my project, there wasn’t time I had regret about my decision to go for EVS to such a nice city as Brno. It’s a perfect place to socialize in local pubs, find hobbies depending on your interests, have a walk in city forest, visit a llama farm and etc. Long story short, you can not be bored here. On top of that, Lužánky is very hospitable organization, taking care of volunteers very well.
In conclusion, I would recommend doing EVS to those who are ready to let adventures and challenges happen in their life.
Dolgora Ayusheeva