Lotte’s diary – EVS in Torino

3 months later

Ciao!
My name is Lotte and I have been an EVS volunteer at Eufemia for almost 3 months now. I remember the first days of my EVS as if it was last week. The weather was cold and the rain was tapping on the window of my room. The locals told me that the weather would turn around and get better. I kept repeating this to myself in a desperate attempt to hope for a brighter future here in Turin. But soon I found out it was all a lie. I have been trapped in a city where it never stops raining.
Joking aside, of course I think it is a shame that the weather was not what I hoped for in the beginning but since I am a Dutch girl I can handle the rain!

Regarding my other expectations before coming here, I didn’t have a lot of them. I got to hear in February that I could come here and in April I arrived in Turin, which means that I didn’t have that much time to create expectations. Maybe not the best way to start an EVS project. For example I didn’t know that much about Eufemia yet and I didn’t have a pre-departure training. Nevertheless it turned out great. Even though I am sometimes still in the dark about what I am doing or what I am supposed to do, I think I am lucky to stay with Eufemia. They give me the chance to do everything on my own pace. These first months we got the chance to get to know the different projects that Eufemia hosts and witness how they work. Next to that we got Italian language classes and we also got the chance to host our own little projects such as the language club, the movie night and Eufemia Xtreme!

Another nice experience was the on arrival training in Rome a couple of weeks ago. It was a really good experience and we made new friends that are doing EVS throughout the whole of Italy, which means that we now have places to stay for a holiday for example. This already worked out great because in August I will be spending a week in Sardegna.

What I have learned these first months is that the Italian bureaucracy is real. It is a weird contradiction because except for the bureaucracy, other things are not taken very precisely here in Turin. For example my Italian teacher was at least 15 minutes late everyday to the language class. Also double appointments here in Turin are not that weird. Another thing I discovered is that swearing in the church is not weird here, just like playing reggaeton music there.
Next to this I have also experienced the openness of the Italian culture, people like to involve you in their life and invite you to stay spend time with them.
I can truly say that I am enjoying my time here by discovering and developing new skills within the projects of Eufemia. And next to that I am really enjoying the beauty of Italy (and the food). What makes it all even better is that I can share all of this with the amazing people around me (that luckily share the same passion for food).
All in all it has been a really good experience so far and I am glad I still have more than 9 months here to discover and develop more.