Juli in Greece

I’m Juli and I moved to Greece in middle of September to help the local sport club and community in Nea Moudania. 

I was quite nervous, since I didn’t really know where will I live, who will I work with and what was I exactly going to do. But when I arrived everything settled pretty fast and smoothly. With my flatmate – who was incredible - we had a comfy place near the sea and just a few minutes from the gym, where I worked. Everyone was open and ready to get to know me, the kids were a bit strange and first, but at the end I got to love them the most. I was easy to adjust to the life there, it was less busy, more relaxed and generally just peaceful. 

My work was divided into two main parts, one with my hosting organisation and the other with POM, the sports club. Sometimes I helped with local events on the town square or in the school, but it happened quite rarely and was a bit too dis-organised for me, so just let this part not bother me much, I didn’t really put a lots of effort in it and my organisation was very understanding in this matter. I had the opportunity to design some flyers and educational games, which was an interesting experience for once. 

But with POM I was in love. I had groups age 5-14 and I loved working with all of them. Obviously, we had some language barriers, especially with the younger kids, but with some creativity I was able to communicate with everyone. My main tasks were helping with warmups, games, equipment and mostly just being there for the kids when they needed it. And I really can’t express how much I enjoyed working there. 

Like when I'm writing this, I’m home for a month now, but when I walk past a group of kids I’m still looking for the familiar faces of the children I worked with, it just became so natural to be around them.

About friends and free time. I was in pretty great terms with the girl who did the project with me, and we had some trips and activities together, but I wouldn’t say we became life-long friends. I did get along well with most of my colleagues, but we weren’t really hanging out outside of work. And the town itself was very small, so I didn’t have many people to meet with there. I spent the first part of the project mostly alone, going on hikes, swimming and drawing, but it was rather peaceful than boring. The around February it became boring, so I started to go up to Thessaloniki to meet with erasmus students, which was fun, but I didn’t feel like I belong there. I was able to make a few friends tough, so from then I was mostly meeting with them in Thessaloniki, we even went on some trips. 

Was I missing out on important things at home? Shortly, no. In a more detailed way, I was incredibly afraid that one year is too much and people will forget me, but they didn’t. I was not in much contact with my friends, I felt like I’m kind if abandoning them, but when I came back it was like nothing happened. In some ways it’s even scary how little everything changed. 

Hosting organisation:

You in Europe aims to create solidarity and understanding between societies, especially in Europe. Ιt promotes volunteering as a mean of enhancing social cohesion and equality, a tool for the integration of individuals from vulnerable social groups. In this context it establishes communication networks between populations in European countries. Additionally, they promote volunteerism through European projects in the field of non-formal learning in cooperation with other organizations with similar aims.