L’articolo scritto da Cristina, volontaria SVE presso l’associazione OTI a Cipro

I still remember the day before the departure… I was completely scared, and I was always thinking about
why I applied for this project in another country, alone and with my absolute afraid of the English language.

The thoughts in my mind were so many: “Will I be fine?”, “Will I be able to make a new friends?”,  “Will I learn the English?”, “Will I enjoy the project?”, “Will I be able to do the job properly?”, “Will it be too long for me to pass 6 months in the island?”. All these thoughts overcrowded my mind and I was prepared to spend a sleepless night. After, at 3 a.m. the alarm clock rang and I was prepared to start the long trip to this unknown country. So, I said goodbye to my parents, some tears went down, and then went! My adventure has starting! I was alone, ready to face up all my fears! So, after spending three hours in the bus, other 3 hours in the airport, and as many hours in the plane, I landed in the Paphos airport.

I got on the bus and after two hours I arrived in Nicosia, and there were waiting for me, the coordinator of the group, Nandia, and one of the mentors, Stravros: my adventure in Cyprus has officially began!

I was really afraid in the beginning about what to say to them, but they had started to talk immediately to make me comfortable.

Then I arrived in the organization and I met the others members of my EVS team. At first I have met P.J., the Irland guy, in the beginning I was really scared about him, because I didn’t understand a word of about what he said, but the first impression was that he was a really kind guy. After I met my roommate, Renatta, the Portuguese girl and immediately we start to talk about her country and we broke the ice! And then Eduard, the Slovak guy, and Davide, the other Italian guy!

But the surprise it has not ending, because one hour after my arrival, the coordinator informed us that the next day we were going to the Youth Exchange in Paralimni, with other 40 people, from nine different countries: panic!. Another sleepless night. In only 24 hours my life it had completely changed: new people, new country, new changes, new adventure.

From that day, a lot of time have passed and this experience is already over… If in the beginning I was afraid that 6 months in this island it would be a lot of time, then now I think that that time have passed too fast!!!

By the way, I have met a lot of people during this experience and almost all of them are great, I understood that English is not a problem and that you can communicate in a lot of different ways, I have met people from different countries of the Europe and all the word and I learned how much difference there are in the different countries and I understood that the culture difference are not so far from my home culture. Also I have learned that to overcome the fear is necessary to embrace it and not avoid it.

It was a wonderful experience and I would recommend to everyone to try once in a life this kind of
experience because it can enrich a lot your life and I am sure that you are not going to regret this, I
promise.

Cristina Parenti