From UK to Bolzano Blog dei volontari

My experience in Bolzano has been fantastic. I have now done 9 months here so I´m coming to an end of my project (I finish in 3 months). When I first arrived I was excited, scared, nervous all these things - a mixture of emotions. At first it was hard especially with the language barrier. Here at my work they speak German and Italian and don´t really speak much english. So yeah it was hard but with the language course and a bit of time, I´ve improved and can understand pretty much everything now. I´ve met lots of new people here, there are other volunteers and the local people aswell. Its a really friendly place to be and I really like the environment. I am surrounded by mountains so its alot different to Manchester. Its also alot smaller than Manchester! It was very cold here in the winter but it has got better , boiling most days. Except the last couple of weeks we´ve had rain :(.The volunteer work is great here. I get on with all my colleagues and I speak to the elderly people everyday. The elderly people are really nice they helped me with language problems and they make me laugh sometimes. Its really nice as well once you get to know the elderly people really well. Now when I go on holiday or on a course they always ask for me and for my whereabouts. Some have been through both world wars and it can be very interesting to here what it was like for them and how they have coped. In my work I read newspapers to a few who can not see very well, play bingo, dominoes, ludo generally have a chat with them and I love it. I also do my own thing: designs for the old people and they colour them in. I started of with easter designs like rabbits, eggs ect for easter and now I draw designs of buildings, flowers whatever they ask for.