Ciao tutti!!

I’ve finished almost 8 months. And now I live in Bolzano. This month let’s talk about my new apartment and my new flatmates.

Firstly the new house was a big disappointment for us. Because we waited 6 months for this house. And then, when we arrived to here, it was completely empty. I mean; we didn’t have glasses, moka, mirror in the bathroom, washing machine (we still don’t have one) pillows etc... Oh wait; the main bomb is coming: the heating system didn’t work and we didn’t have hot water and our house was colder than outside. So our first day in our ‘sweet’ home was a big shock for us and at the end of day we returned to Trento. But this was just a temporary solution and the next day we had to go back to Bolzano. Further we slept with 3 blankets. We had this situation almost 5 or 6 days. Finally after 6 days they fixed it and it has started to work. Actually it didn’t work in my room (I think I’m just an unfortunate little girl :/ ) but it was okey after a week in the cold house. (We got used to it) However our kitchen was still empty.. After two weeks I went to Turkey for two weeks. When I returned, SURPRISE; our kitchen was full of all the stuff that was missing and every day Daniel brought sth from his work place although we had enough stuff and in the end we had to tell them to stop sending us new things. Now we have more stuff then we need. But we still don’t have a washing machine (this is such an irony). Maybe now you’re thinking what are we doing without a washing machine? We have really lovely friends and they’re always welcoming us at their home to use their mashing machine, although it is still an exhausting situation. We’re still waiting for it and we hope they will buy it before we’ll finish our project. Maybe they will never buy one... WHO KNOWS?? Anyway, until now we didn’t talk about good stuff, so let’s change the topic.

I have two sweet flat mates. Well let’s start with Daniel. He’s from Austria and he’s 18. Before we moved to Bolzano, we traveled together every day in train to go to Bolzano. Furthermore we were together almost every day and now we live together which is so funny and crazy. I said crazy because after 8 pm you can see him while he dances in my room with a pan on his head and spoons in his hands. Or you can find an iron, detergent and some more stuff from the bathroom in your bed. In addition, his explanation was „they sleep in there“. Or when you want to pee, he can just sit on the closet. (Not because he has to use it but because he wants to block it from me[you can see him in the picture]). In spite of all those funny things, he’s really good teacher and he always has a big motivation to teach German or Italian. All of this makes him special and because of this I feel so lucky to I have him.

Since the first of April we’ve a new flat mate. His name is Dorin. He’s from Moldova and he’s 27. He’s not as crazy or abnormal as Daniel :D. And he’s also more calm then both of us. (Because of this maybe he thinks we’re abnormal :D). I know him just for 2 weeks. But I can say that he’s very nice. Additionally he has a loving heart. Besides the most important part; he cooks so deliciously (especially if you yourself can not :D ).

Seda Orhan

Bolzano, Italy

Hello!!

This month I wanna talk about some elderly people at my workplace. All of them are so special and unique but some of them are also funny because they have some behaviours which make them notable.. Well, let’s start with Carla. She is a person who loves to dance more than everyone else. That’s why she always wants to go to the sala where there is the musical threapy almost every afternoon. But the problem is that she tries to go there by telling lies instead of just being honest. She has just one lie which she uses always. She says „I need to go to the toilet“ but everybody knows that after bathroom she just disappears. You can find her in the sala everytime. And she does this every ten minutes, also when there is no musical threaphy. Hence everyday we have this conversation with Carla;

Carla: Che c’é oggi di là? ( What is going on in the sala today?)

Me: Oggi non c’é niente, Carla. (Today there is nothing Carla)

Carla: Vabbe. Io devo andare in bagno per fare pipi. (Ok. I have to go to bathroom to pee.)

Me: Okey Carla ma dopo il bagno vieni qui perché non c‘é niente di là. (Okey Carla but afterwards come back here because there is nothing in the sala.)

Carla: Si si, torno. (Yes yes, I'll be back)

But she never comes back :)) Therefore I have to wait for her in front of the bathroom in order to bring her back to the others in case that she wants to go to the sala. Because if there is no activity in there, she just sits and waits for nothing. Now imagine that every ten minutes. That’s why I have to pay attention to her. But that doesn’t change how sweet she is and I love dancing with her.

Now lets talk about Carmela. She is the oldest in Centro. And she has some rules and you must never break a single one of her rules. If you do, you can see how sweet Carmela suddenly turns to someone who is very angry. Firstly she has a doll and she always takes it with her except some situation. The most important thing is to never touch her doll!! Even if she say so. If you are asking yourself how I got to know this, I accidently did it. (never will I ever again!!). It was like this; one day everyone was in church to pray and I was preparing the tables for lunch. I saw her doll on the table but the problem was that I had to take it from there because I had to prepare all the tables for lunch. Thus I thought I could quickly take it and put it next to her bag. Because if I put it next to her bag she could have thought that it was herself who put it there. Anyway when I held it in my hand, I saw Carmela in front of the bathroom door. She was smiling until she saw the doll in my hand. It was the first time for me when I saw her really angry. I didn’t know what to do. I just put it back on the table. And then my supervisor was also there and she made her calm down. I was lucky because she was there with me. It was my first month in which this happened, so I didn‘t really know anyone, so it was quite awkward. That’s why I didn’t know what to do. Actually now I know what I should do if this ever happened again. But honestly I would prefer to not face this situation ever again. Because she is so cute when she is not angry :).

They have lots of special people like those in the Centro. But I wanna talk about one more sweet person who is not from Centro. She is Natalina and she lives upstairs in the nursing home. (Centro is a little bit different upstairs.) Normally I work in the Centro (not upstairs) but I know lots of elderly people from upstairs from the time I help Fiona (she works upstairs) or when there is musical threaphy in the sala. Anyway, Natalina is as sweet as many other people but the funny part about her is that she uses the word „certo“ (sure) a lot. In addition to that she uses it with a very funny accent and she always uses this word even though it‘s not needed. For example;

Me: Ciao Natalina! Come va? (Hello Natalina! How are you?)

Natalina: Ciao!! Tutto bene grazie. (Hello!! Everything’s good thanks.)

Me: Va bene. (OK.)

Natalina: Si Certoo!! (Yes, Sure!!)

Upps!!

The first time I couldn’t really understand exactly what she meant but now if I can’t hear „certo“ from her, I‘m actually worried if everything‘s o.k. xD … And furthermore I got used to this accent. When I say certo myselfe, I unintentionally I say with the same emphathy like she does.

In fact I have lots of stories about the people I take care of every day. And every little moments is special to me. Furthermore I’m sure, I’ll have so many memorable stories until the end of my EVS.

Ciao!!

Seda Orhan

Bolzano, Italy

For English version scroll down.

Merhaba!!

Neredeyse 6 ayı bitirdiğim burada ve çoktan bir çok anım oldu.. bazıları komik bazıları ise korkunç. Bugün içlerinden Akrep ile ilgili olanı paylaşmak istiyorum. Bir pazar akşamıydı. Biz çoktan uyumak için hazırdık. Ama ben banyodayken Julia bana seslendi ve onun sesi endişeliydi. Bu yüzden hızla odamıza koştum. Ve o bana akrebi gösterdi. Akrep neredeyse 7 santim uzunluğundaydı. Ve kapının çerçevisiyle duvar arasında duruyordu. Julia’nın elinde onun terliği vardı ama korktuğun için öldürememişti ve tabi ki bende korktuğum için öldüremedim (Bu yaptığımız birinci salakça hataydı.). Biz nasıl öldürebiliriz diye tartıştığımız sırada Mako bizim sesimizi duydu ve geldi, ama akrep yüzünden bizim odaya giremedi. Sonunda Trento daki diğer gönüllü ve aynı zamanda komşumuz olan Danieli aramaya karar verdik. Ben Daniel’i aradım. Çok korktuğum için doğru düzgün açıklayamadım ve ‘odamız da bir hayvan var’ dedim( Tebrikler Seda, güzel açıklama). Sonrasında ise ‘odamız da bir akrep var ama öldüremedik sen gelip öldürebilir misin?’ Dedim. Daniel bir kaç dakika içinde eve koşarak geldi. Ama bir diğer problemimiz ise biz çoktan kapıyı kilitleniştik ve Mako bunu bilmiyordu. Bu yüzden biz akrepi gözden kaçırmamak için göz hapsine aldığımız sırada Mako aşağı kapıyı açmaya gitti ve kapının kilitli olduğunu farketti. Tekrar yukarı gelip anahtarı aldı ve sonunda kapıyı açtı ama Akrep gitmişti!! Biz gözümüzü sadece iki saniyeliğine ondan ayırmıştık ve o aniden ortadan kayboldu. Biz onun kapının çerçevesi ile duvar arasına girdiğini düşündük ve Daniel onu oradan çıkarmak için uzun bir süre uğraştı. 30 dakika çabalamamızın ardından pes ettik çünkü ne yaparsak yapalım işe yaramıyordu. O an da büyük bir problemimiz vardı çünkü saat çoktan geceyarısıydı ve bir sonraki gün çok erken kalkmamız gerekiyordu. Bu yüzden uyumamız gerekiyordu ama asıl sorun şuydu; nerede uyuyacaktık ? Tabi ki de akrep olan bir evde uyuyamazdık. Bizde yorganlarımızı ve yastıklarımızı alıp Daniel lerin evine gittik. Gecenin bir yarısı sokakta elinizde yastığınız, yorganınızla üzerinizde pijamalarınızla yürüdüğünüzü hayal edin. İşte tam olarak böyleydik. Tamam kabul komikti. Ta ki küçük bir koltukta oda arkadaşımla ile uyumak zorunda kaldığım ana kadar. Ertesi gün etrafımızda ki insanlara bu durumu anlattığımız da çok normal karşıladılar ve ‘İtalya da çok normal’ dediler. ( Ciddi olamazsınız..). Bir sonraki gün işten sonra bir çözüm bulmamız gerekiyordu çünkü akrep hala evimizdeydi. Çözüm olarak; evde ki böcek öldürme spreyiyle bütün evi ilaçladık. ( yaptığımız ikinci salakça hatamız ise odanın kapısını kapatmayı unutmak oldu ve şuan akrep’in nerede olduğuna dair hiç bir fikrimiz yok). İlaçlama işleminden sonra bir gece daha arkadaşlarımızın evinde uyumak zorunda kaldık( ve tabi ki yine koltukta :/ ). Üçüncü gün artık eve dönmek zorunda olduğumuzun farkındaydık. Umuyoruz ki onu öldürdük. Ekim ayından beri ne zaman akrep aklıma gelse odanın duvarlarını kontrol ediyorum( Bu arada paranoyak değilim sadece emin olmak istiyorum.). Gerçekten ölmüş olmasını diliyoruz ve bu olaydan sonra, Julia ile birbirimize söz verdik eğer bir daha akrep görürsek direk öldüreceğiz :).(Umarım yapabilirim)

If you see a scorpion in your room, what do you do?

Hello!!

I almost finished 6 months in here and I already have lots of memories. Some of them are funny, some of them are horrifying. Today I wanna share one of them about a scorpion. Well, it was a Sunday night. We were almost ready to sleep. But when I was in the bathroom, Julia (my roommate) called me and in her voice there was panic. So I ran to our room. And she showed me a scorpion. It was almost 7cm long. And it was in a place where the door and wall meet. Julia had her slipper in her hand, but she was afraid to throw it to the scorpion. So she couldn’t kill it, either I also was so scared I couldn’t kill the scorpion (This was the first stupid thing we’ve done). When we were discussing about how we could kill it, Mako (my flatmate) heard our voice and came. But she couldn’t enter in our room because of the scorpion. Finally we decided to call Daniel who’s another volunteer and our neighbour in Trento. I called him. I was so scared that I couldn’t explain properly what was happening. I said ‘we have an animal in our room’ (well done Seda, good explanation). Then I said ‘we have a scorpion in our room but we can’t kill it’ continuing ‘ can you come and kill it?’

In a few minutes he was in our appartment. We had already locked the door but Mako didn’t know about it. So while we were keeping eye on the scorpion, she went downstairs and tried to open the door. She noticed that we had already locked it. So she came back up again to take the key. Finally she opened the door but the scorpion went away!! We took our eyes off it for just two seconds and it disappeared immediately. We thought it went in between the door and the wall (behind the door frame). Actually Daniel tryed a lot of times to take it out from there. After trying for 30 minutes, we gave up. Because no matter what we were doing it was not working.

Meanwhile we had a big problem because it was already midnight and next day we had to wake up early. We needed to sleep so the question was where? We could not possibly sleep in house where we saw a scorpion of course, instead we took our quilts and pillows and went to Daniel’s home. Imagine walking in the street, midnight, with pillows and quilts while you are wearing pajamas. We were exactly like this. It was funny until when I had to sleep on a small couch with my roommate. After sleeping on the couch, the next day we told a lot of people about this situation. Their reaction was like ‘it’s normal in Italy’ (Are you serious?).

Next day after work we had to find a solution because we were sure that the scoprion was still in our home. We had a spray to kill the insects and we used it for the whole house. The second stupid thing we forgot was, to close room’s door, since scorpion was there. Now we had no idea where it was. After the ‘insect spray’, we slept one more night in our friend’s home (couch again :/ ). On the other hand we had to go back home with the hope that scoprion was already dead.

Since October until now when I remember it I check out our room’s wall. (by the way I am not paranoid, it’s just to be mentioned). We really wish that it was dead. Moreover, after this event we promised to each other (me and Julia), in case we see another scorpion again, we’ll immediately kill it :). Hope I can do it.

Seda Orhan

Trento İtaly

       Kilo almak için sebep mi arıyorsunuz, alın size sebep; ‘makarna’ ve ‘pizza’. Tüm dünyaya adını duyurmuş olan 2 en önemli yemek. İtalyan mutfağı çok geniş bir mutfak yelpazesine sahipmiş gibi gözüksede, tamamıyla ‘makarna’ ve ‘makarnanın içine ne koyabiliriz’ den oluşmaktadır. Tamam kabul ediyorum gerçekten lezzetli makarnaları var ama bazen insana bunu neden makarnanın içine koydunuz dedirtmiyor değil. Ya da bunun içine de mi makarna koydunuz :D (çorbanın içinde çorbadan çok makarna olması gibi)

      Türk mutfak kültüründe büyümüş biri olarak makarnayı ‘öğrenci yemeği’ olarak görürdüm, ta ki bugüne kadar. Bu son 5 ay içinde bir insan nasıl her gün makarna yiyebilir öğrenmiş oldum. Çünkü gerçekten makarnayı nasıl lezzetli soslarla pişireceklerini biliyorlar. AMA!! Her gün karbonhidrat ağırlıklı beslenirseniz ne olur ? Kilo alırsınız!! Benim gibi. Şu günlerde hem makarna yiyip hem nasıl kilo verebilirim sorusu üzerinde çalışıyorum. ( Bulursam sizinlede paylaşacağım :))

         İtalya da günlerim en lezzetli makarna ve pizzaları yiyip, nasıl kilo veririmi düşünmekle geçiyor. Umarım depresyon kapımı çalmadan önce bulabilirim :/

          Hoşçakalın!!

Italian Food

       Are you looking for a reason to get weight? That’s ‘pasta’ and ‘pizza’. The most important two dishes that the whole world knows. Although Italian cuisine seems to have wide range, it consists entirely with ‘pasta’ and ‘what we can put into pasta’. Okey I admit, they have really delicious pasta but sometimes it makes you say why put these ingredients in pasta? or why put pasta in it? :D (For example the soup has more pasta in it)

       I grew up in another culture and in Turkish cuisine pasta for me was a student meal. In this last 5 months, I learned how to eat pasta everyday. Because Italians really know how to cook it with delicious sauce. BUT!! If you eat more carbohydrates everyday, what will happen? You'll get weight!! Like me. I’m working on this issue now: how can I eat pasta and lose weight at the same time. (If I find an answer, I’ll let you know :) )

       Yes, I've been spending my days in Italy eating the most delicious pastas and pizzas, and thinking of how to lose weight I really hope I'll manage it before depression knocks on my door :/

        Goodbye!!

Seda Orhan

Trento, Italy

Ciao a tutti!!

I’ve left behind 3 months in Italy. Time is passing fast. This month my topic is ‘Christmas Markets’ because I wanna write about something new for me. Christmas Markets have been opened in the end of November. I didn’t know anything about Christmas Market before, because there isn’t any in Turkey. Therefore I saw it for time first time in Italy.

I wanna explain a little bit what the Christmas market is for who doesn’t know. The market is open area and it consists of huts. The opening and closing time depends on the city, but I think the atmosphere is more beautiful at the evening because of the lights.

Firstly I went to Christmas market in Bolzano. It was the first opening day, that's why it was so crowded. There were long queues to buy hot wine or some special food. So my first experience I just saw the atmosphere. The second time I went in Trento. Here the Christmas Market is bigger than in Bolzano. Finally I tasted the hot wine. It’s quite delicious and also good choice to be warm. Except wine there are lots of kind desserts and decorations for Christmas. But the bad side is that everything is expensive. I think it’s expensive due to its traditionality and it's only for one month per year. Anyway, I went to see also another Christmas Market in Arco and this Christmas Market is the top of one in Trentino-Alto Adige. There are more huts and more food.

Markets are open area but you can smell different food every five meters when you pass the each hut. But you can’t just pass, you feel like you should taste all of them. So I think, everybody will get weight after this month :))

Once and for all it’s nice place to take hot wine and unwind the day's tiredness with friends.

Seda Orhan

Trento, Italy

Hi Everybody! Firstly I should tell you how I decided to apply for the EVS project. Last summer I finished the university. Then I had to choose to start a master program, to start working or to discover a new country and get some new experiences. I chose the last one, because I wanna have new experiences and learn more about different cultures and languages before starting my career. So I searched for lots of projects. The most important thing for me was to find a job which could be close to my profession. Finally I found my project and now I'm working in the nursing home with elders.

It’s been almost three months since I started the project. However I’ve already gotten over experiences, such as new cultures, new friends, new lifestyle, to learn how to cook (actually I’m not still good at it) and more than I could imagine.

My EVS is about working in the nursing home. Actually it’s different from a real nursing home, because elders come there in the morning and they go back home in the evening. They don’t live there. It’s like a kindergarten for elders. The main idea of this kind of nursing home is to improve some skills, read newspapers and books, play games with them in order to make them active in daily life. We think and prepare different kind of activities and exercises for them everyday. When we think and prepare something for them or just take care of them you can see happiness on their faces and that is the biggest motivation for me.

The nursing home is in Bolzano, so I work in Bolzano but I live in Trento. Everyday I travel to Bolzano with Daniel, another volunteer in the nursing home. It has to be like this until January, because in January we’ll move to Bolzano. Before coming here I was thinking it would be quite difficult to travel everyday to another city, but now if I could choose between these two cities, I would prefer to live in Trento, because I'm feeling comfortable and delighted with my friends. I live with Julia, Mako and Gizem. They’re volunteers like me. Although I have to move to Bolzano in January, I think I’m lucky because I met them and I know I have a second home in Trento after January.

Seda Orhan

Trento, Italy