LETS MAKE A VIDEO

Tonight I can't sleep because of reasons. So I try to fill the empty space from the blog. This night I went to the bar with couple of my new friends, other volunteers. We talked about what we are going to do after this month. I still don't know if I get to school, so I didn't have much to say. But I had fun, even if I can't sleep now. In one moment I felt like I need to get away from there, but one of the volunteers told me to stay with them. And I'm glad that I did stay.

But yesterday I started to practice video editing. It was fun to learn everything again. I made just 30 second video edit,  but it took about an hour to make it. It's hard, because we have lots of material, because we film every day.

These days I've been walking around the city, even if my legs hurt really bad. I don't know any other way to move from one place to another. But I can always keep breaks and take some pictures with my phone.

The first two pictures are from the old bridge. In first one you can see the new walking bridge and river that has no water. Second one is the castle or something like that. Some day I will find a way to get there. It's a long walk and mostly uphill, so I don't know if I can make it.

Next three pictures are from Plaza España. Our final event is going to be there. Plazas are important to people here. There are bars where they can go after work or at evening. The drinking culture is very different than in Finland. You don't really get drunk, you only just drink one beer with people and then you keep going. I did that yesterday with my mentor. Okay, we juts went to nearest bar to drink beer from Murcia and try some special snack from here. We ate chips with pepper and lemon. It was good, I need to try that at home too. 

Last one is from our hostel. There's not much to say about it, it's some kind of artistic sculpture. It hangs from the roof in the staircase. I think it looks nice, so I took a picture from it.

But that's all from this night, I try to be more active with this blog.

- Anni

HIGH ABOVE CITY

Last night we were at place where you could see the whole city. It was amazing, you could really see really far and it looked like city lights were blinking. I think that's because of the hot air, like there is some kind of steam in the air. We were there till 3 am and some people still stayed there. We drank beer, of course, and I get to know that you can buy it in big, 1 liter, bottles. It was really fun to be there, we singed and some of the people played guitars and ukulele. They are very talented.

Tomorrow we start working. My first working day starts with summer camp. I'm in video group, so I don't have workshop days. We just go everywhere and film stuff. I'm pretty exited, but at the same time I'm nervous because I don't know any Spanish and there comes kids who don't speak English. I started to look for some games for us to play at summer camp. My sister sent me list of games and I'm at the page 32 of 72 to read it. 

I realized today that I haven't shown anything about this youth hostel, so here is a picture from our room. Our room is South Park themed. There isn't any cabinets so my part of the room is pretty messy. To organize things I need somewhere to put my stuff. 

Today others went to Aguilas (I think it's written like that) to beach. I didn't want to go because I needed rest. I didn't sleep well at night so I spend this day at hostel. It was really quiet, here's only few people with me right now. But I think that others will come back soon.

- Anni

LEARNING SOMETHING NEW

Today we still had volunteer training. We had a quiz about Lorca and I learned lots of new things. I didn't know any answers and people talked a lot in Spanish, but it was still fun. We even had to go outside and ask from local people questions. Like how to flirt in Lorca and what people do here at Saturday nights. I have noticed that not many people talk English in here. I'm glad that some people of your group speak Spanish, so they can help if we don't understand. 

Last night we went to center of Lorca and there was music and dance show. It was awesome, but I did a poor choice of shoes and now my legs hurt. It was about 20 minutes walking to there. 

I tried to take picture from there, but it was already dark so you can't see anything from that. We drank some bad beer and watched dancers and listened that awesome music. 

Today was hot day, as always, but in hostel here is air conditioning. It's nice and maybe it's even too cold sometimes. But I still like it, it reminds me of home. I took a picture from park that is front of hostel. At evening we sit in there, there's also local people. Last night they even brought their own table and chairs there. You don't see that kind of thing in Finland. 

One thing that confuses me is how bars work. You just order something and they don't ask for money then, you can pay at the end of the night. How they can trust that people really would pay? 

But I think that's all I need to say today.

- Anni

WE ARE HERE

Yesterday we arrived to Lorca. We had to wait in Stocholm about 5 hours before our flight to Alicante left. It was very long time, specially the last two hours because in Stockholm airport there is free wifi for three hours only.

But now we are in Spain, everything is fine and people here are nice. We are staying in youth hostel, here's 21 people staying from 8 countries. I think that I'm going to do just fine, even though my English is pretty bad. I freeze every time I have to talk and I feel like nobody understands what I'm saying. I'm actually the shyest one in the group. But maybe I will manage. I just need to relax and speak.

Wifi didn't work at all last evening and today until 7 o'clock. It felt very strange to not have connection to home. I'm little bit homesick.

We had volunteer training today and we had to do things that aren't really in my comfort zone. But if I have learned anything, it's that learning doesn't happen when you are comfortable. First we had to remember all names and then we learned what is it like to be an volunteer. I still have a lots of questions, but I don't know how to say them in English. We even had a talent show, where everyone showed us what they can do our working groups. We have painting, music, theater, video and dance groups. Everyone here are very talented.

Today I will not post photos because I didn't realize how early dark comes here. I miss summer nights at Finland because I don't feel comfortable when it's hot and dark.

Well that's enough for today.

- Anni

VANTAA

Today I arrived to Vantaa. Traveling in train isn't my favorite thing, because it's always hot and noisy. We met with Tony, one of my traveling companions. We were in the same train from Joensuu. I had to finally decide how we go to Lorca from Alicante. I still don't know how we survive, but there's hope. At least I survived from first part of traveling.

This is my room in hostel. I don't have own bathroom, but I'll manage without that. I just realized that I really don't have much food, so I might have to walk to the store. I don't know where that is. Google Maps isn't really helpful with that.

But that's enough complaining! I'm actually super exited, even if I forgot my computer mouse at home. I hope that's all I forgot. Even if I'm tired from traveling here, I know that everything is going to fine and I'm going to have lots of fun. 

- Anni

MOMENT BEFORE TRIP

So this is it. Almost everything is packed and tomorrow I will go to Vantaa by train. As you can see, my bag is full, I might need to take something off from there. I'm never a light traveler, I need to improve myself in that. And I can't even take my camera with me, so I have to take photos with phone. And ukulele has to stay at home too. And normally I have at least five books with me when I travel, now I can take only one. And I've never been away from home for month. My longest time abroad is maybe two weeks, I really don't remember. I'm really going to miss my friends and family, but hey, this is opportunity to make new friends!

At Wednesday me and my companions will fly through Stockholm to Alicante. I glad that our flight isn't super early in the morning, though we need to be at Helsinki-Vantaa airport at 8 am.

Right now I feel so excited but also nervous. What if something goes wrong? What if my bag is too heavy and I need to pay extra for that? What if I oversleep and miss the flight? I need to stop thinking like that.

I really think that this voluntary job is going to be awesome experience. This isn't going to be easy, but if I don't do anything, I won't gain anything. So wish me luck, this girl is going to an adventure!

- Anni