{"id":5926,"date":"2026-02-11T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ib-polska.pl\/youth\/?p=5926"},"modified":"2026-02-11T13:22:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T11:22:15","slug":"half-a-school-year-of-volunteering-is-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ib-polska.pl\/youth\/esc-out-of-a-volunteers-view\/half-a-school-year-of-volunteering-is-over\/","title":{"rendered":"Half a school year of volunteering is over"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It was late summer when I arrived in Krak\u00f3w last September. The sun was shining and it was warm. Now sunshine is merely a faint memory and instead of nice 27 degrees, it\u2019s minus 10. That may not sound inviting, but Krak\u00f3w and everything and everyone connected to my volunteering experience here make even living in the freezing cold worth it. It\u2019s also not like the whole five months I spent here have been like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When I arrived during said late summer weather, I was incredibly nervous and did not know what kind of people I would meet, how I would like my job, if I would like living in a different country and and and\u2026 There were so many uncertainties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Luckily, I met a lot of amazing people and also luckily I do like my job. At first it was a bit overwhelming and I had to get used to things like the loudness of a primary school, but the staff at the school is very kind and the communication with the children worked better than I expected given my lack of polish skills. And as for living in a different country, it\u2019s definitely an interesting experience with its up- and downsides. I really do like Poland. I like the country and the culture and I especially love the city Krak\u00f3w. It\u2019s so beautiful and there are so so many amazing things to do. But of course it can be hard to be far away from your family and old friends, even more noticeably so when you\u2019re sick for example. I\u2019m also not a fan of not being able to speak the language fluently, it can be frustrating to not be able to express yourself like you want to. But I would say both of these “struggles” are manageable and the latter can simply be seen as a motivation to learn Polish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Realising that we reached the half time point of our time here, made me understand how much I enjoy this time here. I get sad, when I think about how we have only four more months \u00a0here. The last months passed so incredibly fast and I know the next months will too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It makes me want to be able to slow down time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Article by\u00a0 Yara,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

European Solidarity Corps volunteer<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Point of view of European Solidarity Corps volunteers\u00a0<\/em>from\u00a011\/02\/2026<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was late summer when I arrived in Krak\u00f3w last September. The sun was shining and it was warm. Now…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[89,90,11,54],"class_list":["post-5926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-esc-out-of-a-volunteers-view","tag-eusolidarity-eusolidaritycorps-europeansolidaritycorps-volunteeringabroad","tag-volunteeringabroad","tag-krakow","tag-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nHalf a school year of volunteering is over - ESC teaches me something<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It was late summer when I arrived in Krak\u00f3w last September. The sun was shining and it was warm. 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