Hey there! IntegrART 8 speaking!
I bet you were missing us – we were very busy during November!
For most of us at work it was a time of preparation to start our own activities, which was both exciting and tiring, I must say. But then we completely got a breath of fresh air by spending a week in Warsaw for the on-arrival training!
It is the first of two trainings conducted under the framework of the National Agency that supervises the development of volunteering projects. We didn’t really know what to expect – we had heard from other volunteers that it could be boring, but some thought it was amazing! So on Sunday 17th (for the first team, composed of Celia, Claudia and Emma) we packed and hoped for the best!
Honestly, we had a great time there! We got to meet so many different people from other countries and learned about their culture. However, we all had something in common, our enthusiasm and commitment to the projects we’re involved in, so it was also very helpful and inspiring to know about their different perspectives and work conditions. We’re still in touch with some of them and we’re pretty sure we’ll get some lasting connections out of it and visit each other throughout the year 🙂
Most of the activities involved some kind of intercultural exchange and lots of interaction, so it wasn’t easy all the time, but for sure it was fulfilling. Time on our own apart from the scheduled was also very fun, allowing us to get to know each other and the city of Warsaw better. For sure we’ll have to go back there because there wasn’t time for everything, but it was so different from Krakow you either had to love it or hate it, and I think we chose the first. Maybe the early snow and great accomodation & food we got at the hostel also helped haha
Then, before we could even share everything that had happened to us, it was the turn for Aile, Johanna and Miguel! From what we know, their team also struggled with one of the first collaborative games the instructors proposed, so we also felt less stupid xD
Apparently the experience was pretty similar to ours. They met pretty cool people that will already pay us a visit in Krakow around January, and definitely enjoyed meeting so many different cultures and backgrounds. After talking all about it now that some time has passed and we also had the November evaluation meeting, we do agree on the fact that some topics could have been deeper explored, but overall the experience was fun and satisfying. Looking forward to the midterm training in Spring!
