I’m happy I got this chance, cause after all the excitement of being in Macedonia for eight months it would be a hard tide to just get back home not knowing exactly what to do next. For me it feels like I’m sort of postponing the actual coming back this way. In fact the only real shock for me till now was the weather. It is too soon to know precisely what my EVS has done for and to me. Now that I’m back I long to be in Macedonia again, but while I was there I quite often missed my home. I remember my time as EVS as very special, a real chance to get to know a completely different country and all its particularities. To work, party and live with people from all over Europe. Culture clashes were bound to happen, but luckily they were just a minimal aspect of the greater experience. The best memories I have are from trips through the country with a mixed group of people from Macedonia and other countries. Also I had a great time working with the children in the daily centres in Shutka, for me it was a completely new experience to work with children and I think I have learned a lot from this. Meanwhile I also got more of a sense of the political issues Macedonia faces, even in everyday life they play their role. It was particularly striking to me how many of the local youth are dreaming to leave their home country, something I didn’t imagine before to be such a big thing. Among many feelings I had I also sometimes would feel almost guilty for being so privileged to come from a ‘rich’ country where nothing seems impossible.

When people here ask me how my time was, it’s very difficult to give them an idea of what it was like. Also telling the same stories over and over starts to bore me quite fast. In general I recommend people to visit the Balkan themselves or do an EVS of their own, I cannot be sure exactly how, but I know it will change your life.