I was volunteering in Granada, Spain in a boarding school, for almost one year and I can tell you that it was more than just being a volunteer. I became part of a new community, I have a new family, home and I found a new purpose in my life.

I arrived to a boarding school in August with the mindset of being open to everything new, with huge curiosity for what is going to come in the upcoming next year. My organization was amazing, it works in a lot of different fields, participating in multiple european programs. For this reason I had the chance to gain a lot of experience in various fields. I was two english teachers' assistant, I was helping in their classes, I practiced english with the students one by one. I arrived without knowing any Spanish, so during the year the kids were my best teachers and hopefully me theirs. I also played with them and watched them during their free time, helping the educators work. These kids are struggling with a lot of different social difficulties, but still they found joy and happiness in their life. I learned  a lot from them which helped me stay positive and motivated during my volunteering. I had the chance to organize my own workshops for the small kids, we did different arts, I'll never forget how happy they were when we made salt-flour dough together. During the summer when the school ended, I was working with adult boys who were part of the emancipation program, we had different non-formal workshops, learning classes, I gained a lot of confidence while working with them, because although they were the same age as me, they paid attention to us and participated happily in what we had prepared for them.

During my free time I took every chance to explore Spain with my volunteer group, we visited different cities, rented a car to do road trips, we made unforgettable memories together. I fell in love with my city Granada, because it has a beautiful historical center, also it's surrounded by nature, where we did hikes, watched the sunset, went on walks, and afterwards went to sit in a nice bar to have tapas.