„Eine Auszeit vom normalen Leben.“
Elisabeth Schwarzkogler on her very personal EVS experience in Bucharest
I have spent more than half of my life studying for my future. I spent hours at school and at home in front of books in order to complete my vocational training. At the age of 20, I took my first step into the adult world. A world in which I earned my own money, paid taxes, took care of my insurance, argued with my colleagues and negotiated my future with my boss.
My life began to turn into a dangerous routine. The first few days in the new world were still exciting, but soon you learned to finish work more quickly, the days became longer and shorter at the same time and everything was carried out according to the same reaction pattern.
Suddenly you're working so fast that it feels like you're standing still.
I couldn't come to terms with the idea of already knowing what I was going to do with the rest of my life at the age of 20. I've been studying and working for it for years, but I'm not ready to live it yet. So I needed a break from normal life. Something completely different from Austria, from routine.
"Romania it is. A really beautiful country, but are you sure? You know it's very poor!"
"Take care of your bag and never walk around alone at night, promise me that!"
"Do you have insurance there?"
"It will certainly be an... um... interesting time for you down there, over there or wherever it is"
"Romania? Are you prepared to spend nine months traveling only by carriage?"
The reactions were very different when my family and friends found out that I was going to Romania for nine months to work on an EVS project. Between honest concern and ridiculous stereotypes, I nevertheless heard their enthusiasm. They thought I was brave.
One step out of your comfort zone.
I didn't deliberately choose one of the poorest countries in Europe. Of course I had criteria. But the main thing was that I didn't want to do the same thing as in Austria.
"Congratulations: After a really agonizingly long wait, finally an answer. From September 2013, I would be able to spend my EVS time in Romania's capital, Bucharest. A whole nine months! Me, on my own two feet. Literally alone. In a city I'd never been to before. A city whose language I don't even speak a little... NINE months. 273 days.
Admittedly, the panic only hit me four hours before I left my family home, but it came with overwhelming force. The whole time I talked about my adventure, how much I was looking forward to it, but when the time comes and you really have to leave your familiar nest, you realize how used to luxury you've been.
Fortunately, it took me the same four hours to find my feet in Bucharest. But from the first day I felt at home. It was fantastic!
Sunt voluntar în Bucuresti din Austria.
EVS brings you into a community full of bright and sometimes open-minded people. They invite you to be a member of their family. They are your best friends with an expiration date. You put all your trust in strangers you've never met before. At a speed that makes you dizzy. Step by step, you tell them more and more about your past and spend a fantastic present with them. You tell them more than your true friends, you can be what you are, who you are. No apologies, no "I didn't expect this from you". No surprises, because everything is a surprise. Being surprised becomes your new routine.
Everyone reflects an unfinished book in different languages that you can't read without the author's permission. But here in Romania, a chapter is written in a common language. You play a role yourself. You build a wonderland for yourself that becomes sacred. Visitors are welcome, but not wanted.
Of course, everything can backfire and you can be disappointed, you can feel uncomfortable in your organization, not get along with your flatmates, wish the days went by faster... But that's not the case for me.
Of course you can feel uncomfortable with the small apartment where you have to share a room. You can lose your nerve when you have to call the manager every other week because the washing machine no longer works, the toilet system has broken down, the sockets don't have power and there's no internet. But you can also say that this is MY shitty little apartment and that you would never want to change it in your life.
And once again, life proves to you that humor is the most important thing! The be-all and end-all.
I'm currently in the middle of my project and what have I experienced? I've met people from all over the world, tasted traditional food from all over the world (the most exotic so far was frog legs, photo), danced until the early hours, discovered love, worked with my patients at the center, had my heart broken in over ten different languages, had my heart broken, laughed until I cried, slept through an earthquake, had a car accident, had conversations until my eyes closed, made children laugh, spent days and nights with people I'm already sure I'll never see again. All these memories, these experiences that have either moved me to tears or made me smile, they have touched me in a very intense way that I have never experienced before. They are deep in my heart. And I have no regrets, because it was all worth it.
You scream. You laugh. You live. You feel.
EVS gives you a break from normal life. From everything that is normal. You will be confronted with more than you expect, come back with more than you expect, if you dare.
It's a time when you can be selfish and still do something good for the world.
It's a good balance.
Welcome to the adventure where you never know what tomorrow will bring. You will love it!
More information
Attention. The EVS no longer exists in this form. The project is now integrated into the European Solidarity Corps and is called ESK. However, the framework conditions have remained largely the same. Our current article focuses on the change from EVS to ESC.
EVS = European Voluntary Service, means living in another European country for 3-12 months (there are also - a few - places outside Europe) and working on an ecological, cultural or social project there. Travel to and from the project, insurance, rent, food allowance, pocket money, transport costs to the workplace are covered by the ERASMUS+ program (formerly: Youth in Action), in return for 20-30 hours of voluntary work per week.
TIP: Start organizing in good time (about 8-10 months before the planned start of the project)!
- Erasmus+ and the EVS
- Database with EVS assignment projects (Austrian Youth Portal)
