Hello
everybody!
This
text is about my daily
life in Italy, I hope you enjoy it!
So,
I wake up at 7:30am, più o meno, what is pretty late compared to my
standards in Germany.
Since
I’m in Italy, I have to have breakfast at least for 30min,
otherwise I feel tired and not in form to handle the daily life.
That’s another thing that changed, because in Germany I was always
late so that I hadn’t enough time to enjoy my coffee in the
morning. I really appreciate the change and I have to admit, that for
me breakfast is the most important meal now.
After
breakfast I usually go to work by bike, except when it doesn't work
which happens approximately once a month. Usually I work from 9-12am
and from 2-6pm with two exceptions because I have an Italian course
twice a week in the morning, so instead of work I go there.
As
I said in my last article I work at VKE, an association which works
and supports children and young people by giving them space to spend
their time. But these places are only opened in the afternoon.
Allora,
in the morning we often clean or prepare handicrafts for the
afternoon. And in the afternoon we go on with that but in
participation with the children and their parents. Besides that, we
play active games which are invented by ourselves, to get in contact
with everyone who wants to be a part of it. In the beginning it was
hard to get really into the games because I had to forget that I’m
an adult and I should behave like that. These kinds of games
challenge me because I have to play like a child. With that I make it
more interesting for everyone around. Furthermore I improve my skills
of imagination because it is needed to feel the spirit of the game. I
have to accept all the rules and conditions of the game, even if it’s
really ridiculous at first, because if I don’t like to play the
game, why should the children?
In
addition there are possibilities to develop skills in connection with
educational theory and pedagogy with your mentors what is really
interesting for me, in view of the fact that I start to understand
children’s behaviours which were nonsense for me before.
Regarding
to the Italian course I have to admit that it is not so good because
it’s really slow and I feel like I don’t really progress there.
In addition if we want to study faster we’re not allowed to during
the course.
On
the one hand we learn something of course, but on the other hand we
could learn so much more while we spend or waste our time there. So,
if I want to improve I have to do it during my working time, my
lunchbreak or after, and to be mentioned, most of the time there are
a lot of cool things to do which keep me away from studying.
Because
of this intensive time in the course, I still have problems with
communication in general, but especially with children. I think they
are sometimes afraid because they are not used to deal with people
who don’t speak their language. For them it’s a totally new
experience and I understand their first reaction. The only thing
which helps is initiative and patience (and studying).
When
I have to communicate with my colleges there are no problems because
we either speak in German or in a mixture of German, Italian and
French and there are always possibilities to understand each other.
In
my free time I spend time with the other European volunteers in
Bolzano. I have to mention that the majority is from Germany and for
me it is a little bit disappointing because one of the reasons to do
a gap year was to get away from German behaviour and lifestyle. But
everything has advantages and disadvantages. I have learned a lot
about dialects, detailed differences in the German education system
and the difference between carnival and ‘Fasching’ for example.
We
travel a lot in Alto Adige, the province where we are living, because
it is free with our bus/train-tickets. At the weekends we spend our
time at places with free entrance, for example the “Long Night of
Bolzano Museums” or any strange concert, where the people around
are always 20 or 30 years older than us. And sometimes we quit after
10 minutes but at least we were open-minded and tried it. And after
everything, our final destination is Picchio the best (and) cheapest
bar in Bolzano and drink wine (because beer in Italy tastes like
water with some sugar or lemonade in it).
The mixture of work and free time makes the life really enjoyable and unique. I learn a lot of stuff the whole day long either about other cultures and languages (especially swearwords) or dealing with people in general. If one wants to live in a peaceful atmosphere, there is the need to talk with the people around you to explain different behaviors, to understand and to respect each other. And that's the reason why I learn more here than in my regular life.
Nina Dentler
Bolzano, Italy
