Friday, March 26, 2010

Party Article

The European Voluntary Service Seminar can not exist with out Parties.
That is a fact and so everybody was really happy, when they heard, that there will be finally seminar next week.

Seminar means meeting new people, playing many funny games, seeing Athens and of course party a lot.
So it was like a little shock when we heard it was only Seminar for the Volunteers of Orfeas Organisation and in Xylokastro, the village we know best.

Nevertheless we and the trainers kept in mind, that Party is an important part of this Seminar and after the first meeting, working and eating together, Elias and Filios spent some bottles of red and white wine, with the condition, that everybody has to appear at Seminar at nine thirty the next day.



We stayed in the big room of Hotel Apollon, drank some wine and hearing some really good music. Because of that soon many people were dancing in the middle of the circle of chairs. We had some excellent Turkish dance performance and a lot of enjoyment.



After 10 o’clock we need to chance the place, because of the noise a group of 26 people make.

We decided to party on at the beach behind of the forest, which protects the inhabitants of Xylokastro from our music. We found a table, where we could put on the great music station and which turned into the dance floor soon.
We “shut up and drank”, talked, danced and the last Volunteers left beach around 3 o’clock.



Of course the most people did not appear at nine thirty.
We thought about some punishment, which reached from getting no coffee until to get thrown out of the Seminar. For luck we do not have to realise these at Tuesday morning, even the drinking started at two o’clock, after the lunch. Some people drank about one bottle of Metaxe in the Siesta Time.

In the evening we continue the drinking and celebrating in the Turkish flat, near Hotel Miramare and later on the beach until 2 o’clock again.
Sounds quite excessive and to be honest, it is.
So this Seminar reaches from nine thirty a.m. to two p.m., and we are enjoying every minute.

On Arrival seminar in Xylokastro 22.-26.3.2.2010

All the new volunteers of Orfeas Organisation have their own on arrival seminar in Xylokastro. All together there are about 30 short-term and long-term volunteers. Volunteers are from all over the Europe: Turkey, Germany, Austria, France, Portugal, Lithuania, Estonia, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Finland. And of course, our trainers Elias and Filios from our hosting country Greece. Our seminar is taking place in the Hotel Apollon, which locates near the center of Xylokastro.
At Monday night we met the trainers and talked a little bit about the seminar, what themes we will go trough in the next days.



Tuesday was a long day, we discussed a lot about EVS, our own path and own project. We also made small theatrical plays about our work and life in Greece; it was a lot of fun!!!



On Wednesday we talked about youth pass. And we also made EVS promotion thing, we had to promote EVS to the young people of Xylokastro. So we prepared some promotional materials, like flyers and posters, that the young people would be interested to do an EVS. We also made videos about the promotion, and we had a lot fun watching the videos.



On Thursday we made videos about our life in Greece. The videos were about Greek culture, language and volunteerism. The day was also Greece National Day, the day of the liberation from the ottomans, so the centre of Xylokastro was full of people, and there was also a parade in the square. At the afternoon we discussed about the rights and responsibilities as an EVS volunteer.



Friday was the last day of our seminar. During the morning we had a very interesting workshop; it was a story about different kind of choices and point of views. First we discussed about it in small groups, and then we made a theatrical play about the situation. This workshop really opened our minds, we discussed about it afterwards. In afternoon we discussed about Youth in Action, about different kind of projects that we could do after EVS. Then we got information about useful websites.

So you took the red pill

Gia sou ! Welcome in the blog of the EVS Volunteers in Xylokastro !



Have a sit, feel comfortable on your chair and enjoy sharing a little part of our volunteer-life in Greece !