From the 20th until the 24th of May, I went to my On-Arrival training at the coast of Slovenia in Debeli Rtic. The whole point of the training is to have better knowledge about EVS and also to meet new people that are in the same situation as myself. On Monday we arrived at the hotel at 1 p.m. and we had some lunch and introduced ourselves to eachother. There were 10 people all together doing the training, 2 French, 2 Turkish, 2 Bulgarian, 1 Spanish, 1 Hungarian and 1 Czech. The ladies who were in charge of the training were Alenka Oblak and Jerneja Modic, the perfect people for the job :)

And then the (work) began – yeah right, it was more like having fun. We started with a few team-building games which were really good to get to know each other more. That lasted till maybe 7 p.m. and then we had dinner. After the meal we talked about our hopes and expectations and did a short presentation of our youth centers, where we will work for our time here as EVSers. One thing I noticed about everyones hopes and expectations, were that we all had pretty much the same thing to say about it.

Tuesday was my most favourite and memorable day, we started in the hotel were we talked about the rights and responsibilities of people participating in EVS, I learned alot from this topic especially on what I can and cannot do. Then after lunch we went on a boat trip which was AMAZING!! I got to drive a pirate ship for the first time and it is something I will never forget. I really enjoyed myself and so did everyone else :). After we got off the boat trip, Alenka and Jerneja told us that we must make a project for the following day which must involve the local community and we had a budget of 5 euros to spend. This we were all shocked with, we had no idea what to do but then we got into our groups and talked about what were the possibilities that we could do. We divided into 3 groups to do 3 different projects, me and 1 french and 1 turkish girl were in a group and our plan was to interview cyclists around the city of Koper.

On Wednesday we started with our project and headed to Koper, where we would ask the local cyclists some questions about cycling and how it has had an impact on their lives and why they cycle in general. We prepared 12 questions to ask the people and also we would take a picture of the person so we could present it later that evening. We did not need our 5 euros for any part of the project so we just decided to rent out our own bikes and go for a big long cycle from Koper to Izola  and back :). When we were finished interviewing people and having fun, we went back to Debeli rtic where we would present our projects. We were really happy with our project and thought that we done good.

On Thursday we started early in the morning with the evalution of the projects and we talked about how they went and what could have been better. And also we had an introduction to the Youthpass where we were joined by a lady from the national agency and she explained what it was and also any other questions we had about EVS. Then  we talked about how our time here so far in Slovenia has been and then had a reflection for the whole day. We finished early that day so we decided we go chill out at the beach and play some games :).

Friday (the last day :( )
Friday morning, we got up all exhausted from the great week that we had and we had our last supper before we left to go home. We all exchanged phone numbers and emails so that we can stay in touch with each other and also planned how we would meet up at least once during our time here.Then we wrote letters to ourselves for when we come back to the mid-term training that we can see the letters which we wrote, in my case it was what I would achieve from now till the mid-term training so when I do see the letter again I can tick off all the things in which I will have achieved. Then, it was time to get back on the train and get back home :(. It was great because everyone was on the train back home together so we just played some games and had some fun before we left eachother. Then that was it we were all back home and the training was over :)

If you decided to read all of this and read it to the bottom well then I thank you because this is only a taste of what EVS has in store for people, so many oppurtunites to learn new things and meet new people and make the place that seems to be strange – your home :) For the last 3 weeks I have been on  a constant high, because everything here is great from the people you work with, to the people you meet on the streets. Now that I have completed my arrival training I have now made 11 more friends and will be sure to keep in contact with these people. If you want to know more, then you can send me an email at james@zosko.si  or you can look at our info page www.mczos.si :)

By: James McCarthy
The New EVS Volunteer from my new home Zagorje Ob Savi.