My name is Lana, I am 19 years old and I am from France.
Let me describe my adventure in a country that I don’t even know the language.
In the end of march, I arrived in Izmir. It was for me an unexperted opportunity. Everything started just because someone told me about this voluntering. One interview and a few days later, I got accepted. Honestly it wasn’t on my plans to go abroad but for me it’s one of the best option to learn new things. So 3 weeks later, I arrived in Izmir, under the rain.
I had a few days to discover the Izmir before really starting my work here. It’s really different for my home country, France. It was very humid and warm. Surely because of the sea. I still have some trouble to get along with the weather here. Because it can change in a few hours.
But Izmir have one incredible thing for me: If you can’t decide between mountains and the sea, here you have both. One day you can go hiking and the day after you can just enjoy the view of the sea.
Another thing that suprised me is that even if you don’t really speak the language, people here are really helpful and kind. And they have delicious food.
On the day I am writting this article,one month and a half passed. I had the time to discover a lot of thing and meeting new people. During that time, I managed to get a lot of friends.
From Volunteers to random people, I spent my time enjoying discovering new things with them.
It also really helped me for knowing what I really want to do, here, I was a sort of English and French teacher. And my dream job is actually being an English teacher in my country or abroad. So it’s a good experience for me to be in the shoes of a teacher for at least two months. I saw what being a teacher really is. I could also fight against my shyness. As a shy person, at first it was hard to speak in front of people who are for the most of them older than me. I hope that the end of my Journey here will end well and in joy.