ESC i Borås

So here we are, in the middle of our project (almost to the day). We came in September despite the pandemic and we try to do our best. It can be challenging at times. Youth centres in which we work are having less and less opportunities to organise activities since autumn and currently we mostly work online or outdoor. I think the hardest part is the uncertainty. You often don’t know when you schedule a meeting with you coworkers or start planing your own project if it’s gonna be possible next week or a month from now. BUT I also feel that this challenges in a way made our project maybe even more full of opportunities to grow, because we constantly adapt, change priorities and overcome the circumstances. And we have fun while at it! We share our cultures with each other in volunteers house, we get to meet wonderful Swedes, we learn the language and other new skills.

The days have become longer and sunnier so many of you have been  probably started enjoying spring barbecues…so it’s time for tzatziki sauce to become one of  ‘your best friend’.  Tzatziki is a refreshing  greek  sauce  based on yogurt that can be made in no time at home. It can be enjoyed  with meat, a dip for  veggies or as a spread on crackers etc. It doesn’t require any special equipment so all you need to have are some simple ingredients.  

Ingredients:

300 g  strained yogurt

1 cucumber 1/3 clove(s) of garlic

3  tablespoon(s) vinegar, of white wine

1/4 bunch dill, finely chopped (optional)

2  tablespoon(s) olive oil

1 pinch salt    

pepper

  Directions

Peel the cucumber and grate with a cheese grater, using the large blades

Put in a bowl. Add a pinch of salt and 1 tablespoon of white wine    vinegar.Toss and set aside to release its liquid.

In the meantime, combine the yogurt, 1/3 of a garlic clove (minced), 2     tablespoons white wine vinegar and  3 tablespoons of olive oil.

Mix until  combined. Mix until it is combined and creamy.

Squeeze  the cucumber with your hands to release any remaining liquid. Discard the  liquid and add the cucumber to the yogurt mixture.  

Stir into mixture. Add pepper and adjust salt according to taste. 

Add some finely chopped dill and your sauce is ready.

New sun, new week, new podcast, new volunteer ;) Becoming an artist, dealing with fire and falling out of the bed... Heloise from France will share her secrets with you about life and work in Borås.

https://soundcloud.com/evs-boras/podcast-with-heloise

New week, new podcast, new volunteer ;) if you can't resist the urge to know what swedish "Lagom" is about, what a Mentor is doing and where do go in Borås listen to our former volunteer Nata from Serbia.

https://soundcloud.com/evs-boras/podcast-with-nata/s-jdm8i

New week, new podcast, new volunteer ;) Quentin from France talks about finding a new home here in Borås and how to celebrate the famous Midsommar!

https://soundcloud.com/evs-boras/podcast-with-quentin

New week, new podcast, new volunteer ;) In this episode you can listen to our volunteer Irfan, from Austria, how he's dealing with learning Swedish and his trip to the dark and cold "North"!

https://soundcloud.com/evs-boras/podcast-with-irfan

A podcast with Sebastiano from Italy about his experience as an ESC volunteer in Borås. Hear more about his life and work here in Sweden and how he met his first moose!!

https://soundcloud.com/evs-boras/podcast-with-sebastiano 

Stay tuned!

Hello Andria! Yes, we are looking for volunteers for a project starting in February. Here’s the link to the vacancy and info on how to apply: https://www.facebook.com/groups/EVS.vacancy/permalink/3080020052025906/

Borås is Borås. 

Borås is not Sweden and Sweden is not Borås.

It usually takes a bus or two to discover the different faces of Sweden. After a while this faces get boring but luckily Borås is also not that far from the other two Scandinavian countires. I fell in LOVE with Denmark long ago, they feel more continetal and way less scared of human interaction (yes, strangers will talk to you there). 

So ... while the days are wet, cold and gray in Borås, the Sun shines in other places not so far away and rainbows conquer the skies.

A. 

(Double rainbow in Malmö)

Hilarious swedish idioms. Idioms are useful and tend to be hilarious, especially for those of us who are new to a language. Here are some examples: 

1. Ingen fara på taket (No danger on the roof). A swedish way of saying ‘no worries’.

2.  Lägg ägg!  (Lay eggs) = no way!

3. Du har satt din sista potatis (you have planted your last potato). An intresting way of saying that i had enough of you.

4. Har inte alla hästar hemma (someone hasn’t all their horses at home) = someone is not  very smart.

Here is a list of ten little things that are making my stay here worth it. 

And no, none of those has to do with the weather.

Cut to a gif of the current  weather situation. WE ARE IN AUGUST, OK?

So, we were saying, ten little things:

1. A perfectly well made kanelbulle, that tastes neither too much like butter, cinnamon nor flour.

2. Free coffee refills at the cafés. And I just realized they might not be free, but I will keep refilling my coffee anyway.

3. The way the bus drivers wave at each other while driving. Keep doing it, guys, you really warm my heart.

4. CLEAN PUBLIC RESTROOMS. How on earth they manage to do so is mindblowing.

5. Swedes trust towards society. All those bikes with no chains would not last five minutes in Torino.

6. The new graffiti art in Sjöbo.

7. M.’s cheesy quotes on a gloomy day.

8. Hosting Nana and Nila, and if you don’t know who they are, the joke is on you.

9. Seeing one of my plants grow a new leaf.

10. Unexpected acts of kindness from strangers, co-workers or, even, flatmates!

Hej hej, 

Swedes love to talk about Swedish weather, so this post is dedicated to my favorite season, Spring!! 

Finally, the long and cold winter came to an end. A few weeks ago we said farewell to sub-zero temperatures and we welcomed the daytime summer temperatures. Unbelievable but the days feel warmer with 15 to 20 degrees Celsius. Woop woop! Don't get me wrong, I like snow, I just recognized that bright, sunny days make me feel more happy and energized.

I crave for new experiences and spring offers me the chance of renewal that I need after the dark and long Swedish winter. 

I do not want to say more, I will let my pictures talk instead. I will come back to you with more photos from the beautiful open landscapes of Sweden on a later post. 

Stora pussar och kramar,

Maria 

Have you ever thought about what does a volunteer actually DO at their workplace? I can’t answer for everyone, but I can give you a peek how a volunteer’s life can look like in Norrbyhuset - a meeting place with youth activities:

Mondays are for staff meetings - like in a lot of youth centres. It is a good way to start a week, when everyone's gathered around and we go through the questions that have popped up among the group. (Not of course forgetting the fika! You can’t write a blog post without fika!) After the meeting, we still have time to open the house for visitors, even though it is a shorter day for them.

Tuesdays can start off with studying Swedish and coming to Norrbyhuset afterwards. At the house, there’s homework help, language café, helping in the library, playing cards with the kids or table tennis with the youngsters... You might have a certain room/place in the schedule, where you need to be in - for example in the "reception” welcoming everyone - or you could be going around helping, where needed. 

On a Wednesday you can start your day in the office checking emails and planning for your activities - maybe even writing an evs blog post ;) When the visitors start coming in, it's good to move in to the “verksamhet” (= activities/functions) to help out there. There might even be an event that needs preparations. We have had author visits, theatres for children, NorrbyDagen, Finland Day, party for women (on women's day) and many more...

On Thursdays you might work an evening shift. There is also the meeting with the youth workers about youth activities and how youth work is organized in the house. After that you might have your own activity for the visitors. I have done handcrafts with kids, arranged a table tennis tournament with staff and had reading for dogs, for example.

And Fridays we close earlier (at 16 o'clock), so they are usually a bit more quieter days. There's some more time to finish your things in the office, catch up with colleagues and help those visitors who find their way in. Or maybe you want to even use one of your vacation days to have a longer weekend.

(And every Saturday is a family day in Norrbyhuset, and you can find yourself working every fourth one. Doing your own activities or helping other staff members - maybe you even have a visitor who wants to create their own thing.)

Every day of the week starts with either a morning meeting (for day shift) or a “handover” meeting (for evening shift), where we go through, how we feel and what is going on in the house that day. Every evening we end with “logging" the day - going through if there has been something special happening and how did we deal with it / how could we improve.

Some other weeks there might be trainings about violence prevention or meetings with other EVS volunteers. You probably will do other projects, as well, outside of your youth centre.

Every week looks always a bit different and that is what keeps it interesting!

Hej hej!

I am Giuliana, one of the "newbies" and you are probably wondering "Is this going to be another of those settling in/I miss home posts?", well, in a way yes, and in a way no. 

As the title says this post should be about cinnamon buns, or kanelbulle, which were the main reason why I came to Sweden, but we are getting out of topic...

Anyway, cinnamon buns. You may remember me from that very awkward video that I hope nobody saw, the super short one where I said "Hi" and I added that my goal was to find THE BEST kanelbulle in Borås. I am proud to say that I started my quest to find the very best, like no cinnamon bun ever was. I tried many: I went to Viskan and ordered one, I went to Balthazar, I tried one at Espresso House as well, and get a few frozen ones. Ok, maybe not that many, but I have been living here for two months only! Alas, none of those cinnamon bun brought me to Cinnamon Buns Heaven. The closest ones were the ones I baked with one of my mentors during a busy evening at the Fritidsgård.

And although it was an immense improvement compared to the disastrous attempt of the week before (me, C. and V. didn't quite manage to pass the cinnamon buns basic test), they weren't the best I have ever tried. Did they spark joy? Yes, but not enough, so the quest must continue.

While looking for kanelbulle I started following dreary paths, like any knight-errant , and ended up in a wonderful place. Yes, I am suddenly changing topic to start talking about my favourite place in Bor ås! I didn't even know it existed until last week. It restored me and finally made me feel at home. 

I am actually considering moving my room to the woods, but I don't think it will be smart if it rains, and I am pretty sure it will rain at some point, we have been having too many sunny days already. I will attach a couple of demonstrative, not amazing, pics from my discovery and say “Hej då!”

G.

Bonus:

1. How many time did I write cinnamon buns?

2. What is the name of the place?

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the [one] who’ll decide where to go”.

©  Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss

Hej allihoppa!

Jag heter Phil och jag är från Armenien. Jag har börjat mitt frivilliga projekt på Viskafors och Ridhuset Fritidsgårdar i Borås Stad 6 månader sedan, and here is a little story from my life.