Ciao Ragazzi! Our names are Clara and Smilla and we are the new volunteers for the organization Active Youth for Europe in Italy, Pompei (2020/21).
We arrived to Naples International Airport in the end of August with some nervousness, but most of all excitement. When we walked out of the airport Ferdinando, the president of the organization, was waiting outside to pick us up. The first day continued of a lot of new impressions, we had our first meal in Italy by the bay, got to see our new apartment, and were introduced to some friends of Ferdinando in the evening. We had a very welcoming first week. There were always someone taking care of us and showed us around.
Now, we’ve been here for almost three months and a lot of things have happened since we arrived in August. We come from Örebro, Sweden and the biggest difference between our country and Italy is the culture, which we have had the chance to discover for the past three months. We are learning new things everyday, both when it comes to the culture and the language. We are getting Italian-lessons every week and we are also using the Online Linguistic Support, which is provided by the European Commission.
In the whole month of September our organization organized many projects, both youth exchanges and a training course, and we worked just one week in the office before the projects began. During the projects we helped out with coffee breaks, were in charge of all the social media, and made the final videos of each project. It was a stressful month, but also a lot of fun and we learned so much from the experience.
Now we are excited to see what is next to come!
// Smilla & Clara
Active Youth for Europe 