December
Christmas time, where is all the snow?
This month at very beginning of it, I had to say sadly goodbye to Merve as she finished her project the hardest thing I did this month, miss you bella.
I welcomed new new roommate Daniela, showed her all around Triggiano and Bari, gave her so much information about everything, that even I was overwhelmed.
I had opportunity to help out at local event Run4Christmas, where I was responsible for making cotton candy in what I have great practise as I used to do it for few years at local summer festivals in my city. It brought me a lot of memories and joy.
At work for Christmas in Pleiadi, we celebrated with kids by playing tombolone with surprises and extra tasks. Together we danced, played and at the end ate some panettone.
At Mensa on 23rd we prepared cena di Natale for all. I decided to do something special to share with everyone, so I baked “pierniczki” typical cookies in Poland, that every year I would do with my family.
Because this year I was spending Christmas away from my family I decided to prepare with Daniela small Christmas dinner at home, she cooked Borsh and I did some “jarzynowa” salad and of course pierogi. I had call with my family.On 25th December we decided to go on bikes to near by beach San Giorgio to have small picnic by the sea, weather was amazing.
Happy New Year everyone!
November
Could this month be..
This month I started by going to Trani, I’m impressed how after all this time, I still can find places to go that are not far and easily reachable. I enjoyed the city as every small trip I do with Merve.
I had the opportunity to take part in Training Restoring, Embracing And Living a REAL life off-line in Hungary, Hódmezővásárhely We focused on training how to prevent internet addiction, how to live a mindful and conscious life with electronics. I’m glad I had the chance to participate in it and to be able to see a new country as I never visited Hungary. The way back home to Bari was a struggle, I had to get from Hódmezővásárhely to Timișoara. Not only I started my journey at 7.00, but also had to take two trains to reach Romania, with a heavy backpack and only few hours of sleep it was challenging, but I succeed and got picked up from the airport with amazing sign made by Merve saying “You succeed, be happy you are in Bari!”.
Rest of the month passed calmer then first half of it, luckily!
Ci vediamo a Dicembre!
October
Where is autumn, will it ever come?
At the beginning of the month I had to say goodbye to one of my rommates – Sena which left me very sad as we many many beautiful memories together, and became really good friends, for one of our last nights we went to restaurant and I can say I’ll remember it for very very long time. Missing you a lot Sara!
During this month I also visited Poland as in 15th of October election took place for new running party and I thought it would be amazing to not only do my duty as active citizen, but to also visit my family and friends.
During this month I also visited Poland as in 15th of October election took place for new running party and I thought it would be amazing to not only do my duty as active citizen, but to also visit my family and friends.
I can say that coming back was very emotional for me, because I missed close ones and the cold weather (5°C), winter jacket and a hat were essentials, Italians wouldn’t believe me as during that time in Bari was 23°C.During my visit I went to all my favourite spots which I missed a lot and when time came, just like that I came back home to Triggiano.
As per usual I traveled a bit in Puglia, this time I explored Ostuni – citta bianca, only hour away from Bari, it was spectacular, almost no tourists, calm and quiet, magnificent, would highly recommend to visit it when summer season is over.
This month Merve had the craziest idea, to cut her hair, and to be clear, I never cutter anyones hair, I didn’t even came close to doing so, but when she asked me, I had to say yes, for the plot, for the jokes, of course we prepared ourselves for such a challenge, we both 2 euro scissors and I watched one YouTube tutorial, at the end it did came out good, and most important straight, but I don’t think I’ll ever do it again.
October passed very quickly, with a blink of an eye, I’m ready for November!
September
End of Summer, Beginning of Autumn
Month hated by many, not only the summer heat is over, kids go back to school and first signs of autumn shows, it;s cold, and I love it, I’m back at work I can finally wear some long pants and don’t have to worry about being too hot. Couldn’t be more excited!
This month I’m not only working with kids in Capurso Pleiadi, where my responsibilities are helping kids with their homework and support them in their English language study, I come up with educational games for nice time and practice. I also have opportunity to work in Mensa, to help out in the kitchen and each week I’m trying to bake some new recipes, even started new series on social media called ”Bake with Us” where I show how easy baking can be.
Other than working, I had a close friend visit me from Poland, I was able to take them for little trip in Bari to all my favourite spots, had some amazing gelato and showed them how Italians like to drink their espresso with sugar. In one of the evenings my amazing roommates Merve and Sena prepared for all of us lasagna, and we spend the rest of the night playing cards, it’s for sure one of memorable nights for me. Additionally I took them to Polignano e Mare to enjoy the hot weather, as in Poland the degrees are lowering day by day.
And while on one of our small trips with Merve, we met this adorable couple from Canada that was currently on vacation and they recommended us this small city Giovinazzo and a cafe there, so we knew where we are going on our last weekend with Sena, as she’s finish her project. Great day and to finish it off with style and class, we went to restaurant, where I have to admit I cried a bit.
I also had occasion to sign up to Public School for Italian class, as I wanna continue my journey learning this beautifull and hard language, I do feel like I’m getting better at it, I’m still struggling with gramma, but I mastered my small talk with locals, and what I’m lacking in knowledge I will make up with a smile.
August
NOT SO SLOW AUGUST
August as I learned it’s called “dead month” everything is closing, everyone went for vacation and so did I.
After saying sad goodbyes to all kids in summer camps, I began my vacanzione.
I spend most of the month on travel to different cities of Puglia and more or less spend time actively like practising playing on kalimba, riding bicycle and taking as many as I can sunbathes.
About the travel, I visited for a weekend Napoli with few of my friends, what surprised me is how big is the city, I thought it would be more walkable, and less crowded, but I’m glad I went to experience new place. I spend my time there on sightseeing city, I saw the Castel Sant’Elmo and had very fun evening at Queartieri Spagnoli.
I visited Matera with my roommate Merve and her friend Tony from Germany, I really enjoyed Matera, such a beautiful city, I’m sure I’ll be coming back there. We made a very smart decision of firstly going to tourist infospot to ask for advice how we should plan our day and what we must see, the lady gave us a map and draw all over it with directions. It took us around 6 hours to see all of the places she pointed and in the evening we just found nice cafe, had some gelato and played cards to finish the day nicely.
I visited once again Monopoli, but this time I saw it more throughly, and I discovered new places there, walked the whole shoreline and had lunch in a new place. And for the very first time I experienced in small city Triggiano, fiesta San Rocco, oh what a memorable night. It reminded me those parties in Poland I had in my grandma village as a kid, live music, fast food and few stands with antic items. The whole centre was decorated with those beautiful lights that I was impatiently waiting to light up. Other then enjoying music and some dances with locals, I spend the evening on playing cards on a bench with my friends.
Last, but not least my roommate Merve came back home and I was so happy so for the first time I baked brownie for that occasion, they came out very tasty.
See you in September, when school starts!
July
My first full month in Italy, what a time.
I finally started fully working, learned all about my responsibilities and what is expected of me. I worked in three different summer camps, one in Bari, called Pirate Camp, one in Triggiano named Happy Campus, which is perfectly fitted name for it and last one in Capurso. Working with kids as support for stuff and animator has been amazing, personally I feel like work with kids is teaching me many things, specially patience, how to be creative and flexible, because it’s important to read the kids energy.
This month I was able to participate in On Arrival Training in Rome, where I got a closer look of how volunteering works,learned about Italian culture, took part in many building teams and self improvement workshops as well as met lots of new people from all over Italy, some that are living not so far away from me, because just an hour away from Triggiano in Molfetta.
One of accomplishments of mine is getting codice fiscale, truly feels like an Italian with that card.
I tried lots of new food, panzerotto is my favourite now, Merve also prepared lasagna for the first time and I already know we’ll be eating more often from now on.
I also started with my flatmate Merve italian language course in Bari Passaporto Italia school, where we will continue our education of the language in next months, I’m very excited for it, because one of my goals is to be able make small talks with locals and be able to in some way express myself, and in need ask for help when I get lost or very confused, which happens quite often.
The end, more coming soon.
June
WELCOME TO MY JOURNEY
Cześć everyone,
my name is Michalina Błaziak and for the next 7 months I’ll be supporting EUROSUD and their actions on a project “Picture It – Build your Future in Italy”.
A little about me, I come from north of Poland, from Gdynia with the Baltic sea and I’m a freshly graduated 20 years old student of Technical Economy School in accounting.
What I used to do before Italy?
I have been a local volunteer in my city since I turned 15 years old, helping with food bank, charity shops and events for seniors. Also I have been working as animator with youth at summer time, I really enjoy working with kids as I think they are very creative and have much different approach to things then adults, and that’s what makes work with them interesting. I also used to be a mentor for long term volunteers, I would help them accommodate and show them around as well as would be their support and someone that they can turn to if there would be any issue. I took participant in two youth exchange about ecology and global warming, one of them I was helping to organise in Poland and the other I went to Germany for.
My interests
I don’t have one main interest I like to try lots of stuff, like arts, from time to time I will pick up a pen and write something that I like to call poem, music, I started learning how to play on kalimba some simply notes. I enjoy reading and studying new things, specially how their work. And any type of activity, sport, yoga or just daily walk on the neighbourhood, since Triggiano is new to me, I’ll be taking a lot of those. I’m passionate about ecology and the whole movement to reduce, reuse, recycle.
Reasons and goals
I choose a project in Italy for plenty of reasons, first of all I wanted to experience culture that is far from mine own, I’m very excited to learn the traditions and Italian way of living, for example How it is to have shops closed from 1 pm to 4 pm, scusa – siesta, to find out what is the real pizza and that there is no chicken or pineapple on it, or that ketchup is forbidden on pasta. But also I choose Italy to have the opportunity to learn new language, it’s my main goal to be able to have small talk in Italian. While I live here I hope I can improve and gain new skills, personal development is very important to me, I want to look back in years and see how I changed and grew as person.
That’s all for now, ciao! 😉
