Mid-term in Derby

I just got back from my mid-term training in Derby. It was so good!

Firstly, I managed to get lost in Derby with a map. (not to mention the fact that Derby is a really tiny city with the population of just quarter a million) At least I had plenty of spare time to get to the hotel, so I managed to be there at exactly the right time. On my way I also met some EVS who went to on-arrival. It came out that on-arrival and mid-term were both at the same time. Cool.

It was so nice to see all the other volunteers again and talk to them and make plans and hear about how they have been doing. It seems that my project is one of the best ones- some of the people hadn't even seen their mentors, had problems with the accommodation, money etc. I also saw Gaye and well.... She obviously didn't want to talk to me, but I tried to find out why she had deleted me from her friends list. Not need to guess or what? Anyway, during our training we were supposed to analyse our projects and she told so many so bad things about St. Michael's. I'm not going to repeat them here. But really, some of the things she said made want to slap her to her face. They were so not true. And.... I think she was expecting everybody to do everything for her in here. Well, everybody did everything they could, but you have to be active yourself to have a great time. And obviously she hadn't read about the project very properly before she came here. But well... I'm not gonna bother myself with her anymore. I'm glad she left because this way I could move on and move to the Lodge with Timea. She is a lot more talkative and active person to live with.

As I said, during the training we had to analyse our projects, point out the best and the worst things. I could happily say, that there weren't many major bad things about my project. Good for me! We also had to thing about the emotional curve and for most of the people it was going towards the positive way.

On the first evening we went to a pub to have pub quiz. That was cool. We drank beer and answered to questions about UK and EVS. We stayed in the pub until it closed. There was a local ex-EVS volunteer who came to our training also to talk about his experiences. In the evening I had a nice talk with him. He was in Italy and did some youth work. And as all the EVS volunteers, he never wanted it to end. His EVS, I mean. But right now he is in an indie-rock band and has a job. But still, he wants back....

Yeah, about the end of the EVS - It's 6 months left for me to be in this country. A bit more, but basically only 6. On the second day we talked about the youth pass that we have to write after our project has ended. We also did the mid-term evaluation about our projects.
Then we had to thing about where we're gonna be in 1 years time, so in July 2012. I have been a bit confused about lots of things recently but then I got really confused. I realised, I don't want to study psychology anymore and want to just change it into special studies. But I can't. I have to finish it, I have only 70 EAP left. Oh, crap..... I realised I didn't want to go to school at all, but just go and travel around a bit more. And more. And more.....

In the evening we went out to see one of the volunteers performing in an open-mic night. We saw lots of other bands as well. Most of them were awful. I wanted to run out of the room screaming. The volunteer who performed, did it really well, and it was great to hear it. During one of the performances some random people got on the stage, being really drunk, and just yelled into the mic and danced around all the time. It was a bit weird to look at it but funny at the same time. I just stood there during the whole show they made and watched it with my mouth wide open. After the open-mic we went to one club, but it didn't have many people in it, so we wanted to find another place to go but eventually all the people just headed back to the hotel and went back to sleep.

On the third day we spoke about our future opportunities and different projects which will allow you to live on the money of Europe for some years if you're really lucky. I'm definetely planning to take part in some of the projects. Yeah... if I only didn't have to go to uni again.

We were supposed to send a picture to the trainers before the training and then on the last day we were given a frame and we had to decorate it and put our picture into it. I had chosen the picture we made in Cardiff about a week ago with all the people watching at the camera. Lots of noses.... We also had to talk why we chose exactly this picture.

To end our training, we made a group picture and then had the last lunch together and then everybody started to go away to catch their trains....

On the first weekend of August I will go to Gloucester to see some of the volunteers who live there. They live right next to the Forest of Dean. Aaahhh! So cool! I am really looking forward to it.
And also..... We are planning with one girl to go to Scotland :) Even better! Now we've got really nice plans :)

I am glad that we had our training, but it was too short. And it was a bit sad also, because the training meant, that we have so little time left in the country now...... And some of the people I saw for the last time...

Time to think about moving on... Again.