Today is a great day for whatever strange reason. I woke up feeling sick and I was thinking to call the Co-ordinator and ask him for the day off, but then i just came and now I am happy I did. I am having a great and productive day today.

Last night while I was in bed I was thinking to myself about my family and friends at home and I felt very lonely, because for the past 5 months that I have been in Zagorje ob Savi I have had to do all the things I didn’t when I was at home in Ireland such as cleaning the whole house, cleaning my clothes, making my own food, doing shopping, saving money and not being lazy and getting my ass to work. This is just a small bit of the things that I must do. I had only a small experience on these things before I came and now I can safely say all of these I am doing pretty ok with, well sorry I lied it takes me a long time to clean my house.

I have 1 month left and everyday I keep thinking about it, I am even having nightmares :(. It will be the best and worst day of my life so far. I say goodbye to everyone I ever met in Slovenia and if you know me you will know that I probably know more people in slovenia than the president himself. And the good part of it is that I get to see all my family and friends. The people who I have not seen in 6 months and everyone who knows and cares about me. Also to show everyone that me James McCarthy has turned from that little messer in the back of the classroom in school would and did something with his life. When I am home everyone will notice this massive change in me. Everything about me has changed except that I still like to joke and have fun but I have gone from a boy to a man in a matter of months. I never knew I could do half the things that I have done now to this day. The youth center where I work is the reason that all of this has happened. I am forever grateful for what they have done.

As the music artist Aviici says in his new song »hope i get the chance to travel the world but I dont have any plans«. These words are the best way to describe my journey from Ireland to Slovenia. I am apart of the community now, I know all generations of people from the small kids to the older people and for me leaving all this behind me will be very difficult. But when I get home everything that I learned in Zagorje will have a big impact on my future when I return home.

Also the youth center here has received some good news that there will be 2 more EVS people to come here to Zagorje and take over for me. 1 girl is from Poland and her name is Joanna and the the other girl is from Turkey and her name is Umay. Girls if you are reading this which I am sure you will because you will have to write blogs I just want to tell you how jealous I am of you girls. Your going to have the most amazing time of your life here in this beautiful town. Make every moment count because it will be all over before you realise. A small bit of advice is dont be scared to get out and meet the community there by far the greatest people on this earth, everyone is kind and friendly and I am sure you will no problem with this anyway :) . So just to say I hope you have a great time here in Zagorje your new home for some months.

Anyways thats enough typing from me for today I think I will go home have a nice cupp of coffee and chill out. To the people who read these blogs a huge thank you I appreciate it alot. This blog was just to let people know how I am feeling and I also because I forgot what other work I had to do :) čau

Written by EVS volunteer james McCarthy