Voluntary Experience - Italia - Blog dei volontari

I was lucky. In all honesty i have to say, that i had no idea what i wanted to do after school. I was randomly applying here and there, without much effort from my side. But then, a friend of mine told me about the ESC, basically travelling, eating and living somewhere else and that for free. Not even for free. They even f*cking pay you for it. You just need to work a little bit but seriously that is manageable. 

Ive escaped my hometown and for the first time in my life, i lived somewhere else aswell as lived on my own. And when you, as a young person, get bombarded with all these at once. You really grow as a human. Sometimes its pleasent, sometimes you´ll suffer but when you actively seek the discomfort and the unknown, you become something more than yourself.

There was I. When after months of applying here and there, the Mail came. And just in one week i already bought the ticket. Knowing nothing about Italy, the Association or the kind of school i´ll apparently will be working in.

I then proceeded to fly to Bari. It was a stressful experience with 2 flights connecting my homecity of Hannover with southern Italy. I got out. Late Summer, beginning of autumn and i wished that i will enter a new world. Instead half the Airport was full of German Tourists trying to rent cars. The exact people i wanted to escape from. 

It was then, stuffed with all my luggage in the old and slow trains, gazing into the landscape and the sea of Puglia that i realized that i am finally there. 

My room was inside the fifths story of a house directly at the sea, meaning that i was going to sleep to the noises of either italians relaxing or drinking at the "Lungomare" or the waves of the Sea itself. 

I felt like home actually instantly and the work in the school and the occasional obligatory meet-ups were fine but they were just the small price to pay for cherished and unforgettable memories and people.

I hope you decide to go aswell. I mean its free travelling and learning, come on. Just go out of your comfort zone and you´ll never want to go back.