fredag 20. november 2015

New volunteers - new blog!

Hello everybody!

Here is the link to the new EVS blog:

EVS Blog 2015/2016

Hope you guys will like it :)


mandag 17. august 2015

This is the end... My only friend, the end.

What can we say. It is the end now. We had our last party on saturday and Jose left yesterday afternoon. The only thing that remains of him are the lonely slippers in the hallway and the great memories. We all are really sad and started already to send pictures and "I miss you" on facebook.
The mood in the house is different without Jose. Kristine drove Jose to the aiport and Léa went with them like she promised. Andris and Charlotte are soon to leave as well, in fact in 2 weeks. We can really feel that is the end and we start to say goodbye to all the people around us.
Léa is the only survivor since she decided to stay a bit longer and try to find a job in Stavanger.
           
In the end we just want to say thank you Norway, it was an awesome year, we'll see you again.
Ha det bra Norge !





Svalbard & Lofoten

This summer we were not just occupied with FFF and Vier, but we also did some trips in Norway!
First trip was to Svalbard far far north. In fact, only 1000 km from the North Pole.
In Svalbard we spent three intensive but awesome days up there.
During our stay we rent a tent and sleeping bags and slept at the Svalbard camping, freezing cold !
On the first day we went hiking on a montain next to Longyearbyen and had a view over the area from there.
On the second day we went hinking and then on the evening on a boat trip. Of course we had guides with us all the time since you are not allowed to leave the city of Longyearbyen without a riffle because of the polar bears. The nature upthere is very different from everything we`ve seen before. On the boat trip we tried to see polar bears but unfortunately they were too far north.
Instead of polar bears we saw other wilde life like puffins, whales and a polar fox, which was pretty amazing as well! We also got friends but some really agressive birds and they almost picked Charlotte's hat!
One of the weirdest and coolest things was the midnight sun. It really messes up your day rythm to 24 hours of sun.
All in all the trip was super amazing and Svalbard's worth a trip :)








The other we did was to the Lofoten Islands. We landed in Bodø (the most depressing city in Norway we've seen) and took the ferry to Moskenes (We had our "base camp" there.). From the ferry we couldn't see Lofoten Islands because the weather was so bad. It was all cloudy rainy and foggy.
Building up the tent was a real adventure and we were all soaking wet. We really diserved the evening beer!
The next day we walked to Å (greatest city's name) 5km and checked the town. In fhe afternoon we hitchhiked to Kvalvika, an awesome bay surrounded by moutaines, 40km from Moskenes.
We hiked down and had a little lunch with Nugatti and fresh bread from traditional organic bakery of Å. Since Kvalvika was quite far away from the main street and there were no cars,  we had to walked all the 8km way back to the big road where we stood for one hour to get a ride back to Reine. Reine was nexst to Moskenes and we had to walk another 5km until we finally arrived in the camping at 22.30. With 25km of walking, this was the most tiring day of the whole summer!
On the next day we hitchhiked to Hennigsvær with a swedish american couple. They took us all the way up and we did a bit of sightseeing while driving and we stopped twice to enjoy the view and take pictures. In the end we all got a bit carsick from the narrow and curvy roads.
Hennigsvær is known to be the "Venice of the north" and we can all agree that's a very nice little village.
The nex day we went further to Svalvær with two norwegians. They were really nice and they let us leaving the backpacks in the car so we didn't have to cary them all day in Svolvær.
Svolvær is defenitely the second most depressing town in Norway but we went for a hike on the montains next to the town and we had an amazing view. From the harbor we took a Hurtigruten boat back to Bodø. The view was spectacular and we saw killer whales passing. It was a great experience :)





The summer

During the summer the youth clubs were closed and we all were involved in FFF ( Fiks Ferdig Ferie) which is the summer program for kids from Stavanger Kommune. One part of it is Vier, one week of summer camp for children between 7 and 12 and takes place in a big house 45min away from Stavanger. You can find spring board, canoes, volleyball and football pitch, a little bay....
The kids are free to do whatever they like. The adults organize activities like mini olympics or hiking trips. We all got to spend the week to work there.
The other part of FFF is Ferieklubb, where the kids stay only during the day time (7.30-16.30). They do different activities like going to the swimming pool, the cinema, museums...
Both of them are fun work and the kids really enjoy it!




lørdag 27. juni 2015

mandag 18. mai 2015

17th of May

Norwegian Constitution Day is the National Day of Norway and is an official national holiday observed on May 17 each year. Among Norwegians, the day is referred to simply as syttende mai (meaning Seventeenth May), Nasjonaldagen (The National Day) or Grunnlovsdagen (The Constitution Day). A noteworthy aspect of the Norwegian Constitution Day is its very non-military nature (contrary to France for example). All over Norway, children's parades with an abundance of flags form the central elements of the celebration. Each elementary school district arranges its own parade with marching bands between schools. The parade takes the children through the community, often making stops at homes of senior citizens, war memorials, etc. 


We were  in the city center with the other volunteers and some other friends to see the parade. Stavanger was completely crowded, there was food everywhere, lots of boys really dressed up with a suit and more girls dressed in the traditional costume the "bunad" (different patterns depending on the region). The atmosphere was really joyful and suprisingly the weither was good! It's a part of the culture so it's something that we wanted to see. :)






European Youth Week, report by Léa

Alterna, concert organized by Metropolis
As we told you in the previous article, we took part in the european youth week meaning that we helped/organized activities for youngsters.
We started on the 25th april with fritidsklubbenes dag, afternoon during which one we had a stand outside the Stavanger's library to promote the EVS program. We were located next to the youth clubs stands and at the same time some young bands and dancers were performing on a stage.



Cathrine's live painting







On the same day, one of the youngsters of my club, Cathrine (16 y.o), did a live-painting in the hallway of the library, and a lot of people stopped by to watch her, so it was quite successful ! She has made some paintings at the club before, she is really talented.



Katedralskole

On the thursday 30th april, we went to the Katedralskole of Stavanger to have an EVS promotion.
The school gave us a classroom just for us and made an annoncement to the studients. We had about ten young people interesting in going abroad. We explained them everything and shared our experience as european volunteers, The atmosphere was relaxed with nice chats.. The best promotion we've ever had !



Oda (16 y.o)


On the saturday 2nd of may began an exhibition that I was in charge of. One of the younsters of my youthclub is really good in photography so we decided to print out some of her pictures + some of Øyarock  and hang them in the library to promote different kinds of young talents.