Second day in Croatia

Ok, this is already my second day in Croatia, Osijek, where I am for my EVS.
Why I am here? That' s a long story.
Once upon a time there was a Latvian girl, called Madara, who was involved in some NGO' s. And then to here organization came a girl from Austria to do here EVS (which stands for European Voluntary Service). And so Madara became her mentor, because there was almost no other people in organization who talked in English. She didn't know lot about EVS and things, but it became more and more fun. Madara met other volunteers who visited Anna, her Austrian volunteer and they had lots of fun together. About that time Madara graduated university and started to work. But she had a feeling that work from 8.00 to 17.00 is not the thing she really wants to do for whole the rest of her life.
The thought about EVS, the possibility to do new things, meet new people, etc., etc. came in her mind more frequently. At her free time she used to go to the web page of EVS projects http://ec.europa.eu/youth/program/sos/hei/hei_en.cfm and dream about taking part in one of them.
Then one day one of her friends told that his organization has been approved as the one, who can take part in EVS and that his organization can be the sending organization in case she is ready to take the challenge and do EVS.
So Madara decided, that it is enough to dream, she has to do something.

12.04.2007 – I send out e-mails to three organizations, which projects seemed interesting to me
15.05.2007 - Youth Centre for Non-formal Education CREATORS not CONSUMERS in Croatia, Osijek, approves, that I could be one of the volunteers in their project (yesterday I got to know that I was chosen from 150 people. WoW!!!)
01.06.2007 – the project was submitted in European Commission (because there is no National Agency in Croatia)
28.10.2007 – our project is being approved
01.11.2007 – scheduled project start
15.01.2008 – real project start

So you see - lots of waiting :) Although I think it' s not always like this.
Now I'm here in Croatia, together with Magdalena, my Austrian colleague (again Austria!), and there is another girl from Italy coming next week. First days has been full of technical and bureaucratic details - as registering in police that we have came to the country (that was something new for me), going to the bank to open our accounts (and discovering that there is no Latvia in the list for Croatian banks), having the first language lesson, getting used to new apartment and things like that.

So, what do I want from my EVS?
To gain new experience in non-formal education field and to understand, if this is the thing I want to do in my life. And of course - to learn Croatian, to meet new people, to learn things about Croatian life and culture and myself.

That' s it for today :)