It is over. My project is finished, I will go back to Austria on Sunday. If feels unreal right now, I think I will realize when I arrive back at home and everybody will speak German again. It is incredibly how fast 11 months passed, but that happens when you enjoy the time and I really enjoyed it. Even though there was the lockdown and the pandemic.. That wasn’t easy, but for no one and I was in a quite privileged situation because I didn’t had any finical struggles or other existential problem during this time.
But now I want to focus only on the good sides of the project, and there where a lot. Too many to count I guess, but I will try. The best thing is for sure all the amazing people I met, during the project. Of course, first to mention my fellow volunteers with whom I was in the same project, who are simply amazing, the stories we wrote together are unforgettable. It doesn’t matter if it was just our Friday party night, travels together or just simply chilling somewhere in Warsaw. Now we are all again distributed across Europe, which make my travel list long, but I am super exited to visit them one day. But I also met a lot of volunteers from other organizations in different cities and also in Warsaw. We all shared more or less the same experience and that is something which really creates a connection. Some volunteers I only meet for one night but all the time I met someone new it was truly great. During the workshops I had the chance to talk to a lot of polish students and sometimes they showed me their towns and gave me some insights in their lives, and this was for me so valuable and I really appreciate that. Also, I should mention all the teachers who put the effort into contacted us to have workshops in their schools, so that the students can have this intercultural exchange. Last but for sure not least, I want to mention my coordinators who helped me with everything and always without any mourning. The atmosphere was always so friendly, and I know this is not obvious.
Before I came I didn’t know a lot about Poland, just basic things that I learned in school. But now I can say after Austria, Poland is the country which I know best. I have to admit I fall in love with Warsaw, it is an amazing city. But I fell also in love with Krakow, Gdansk and Wroclaw, cities which I have to visit again in my lifetime, and I am pretty sure I will do. If I wouldn’t have to go back to Austria, I wouldn’t. The contrast between living a 2 million inhabitant city with a tiny village with 900 people is huge, but it will be my realty again. But I don’t want to see this now with sorrow.
Right now, I am just happy that I took the risk and went to Warsaw and I had for sure one of the best years in my life.