review from Krapina

So long, my stay in Serbia and Croatia have been fantastic :)
I have worked for 20 days in the REX cultural centre, seen all of my family and I'm still enjoying my rest of the vacation in the christmas mood!

When I come back to Estonia, I already know that I won't be sorry that I decided to do something like this and I can only thank my great host Lemmit for making it possible :)
As he said himself - not many EVS volunteers get a chance like this, to do what I have done.

This was a kind of a test for me as well...to see if I'm capable of organising everything by myself, without anyone's help and I am proud of myself with this accomplishment :D

There is one thing I haven't done yet...which demands much more time, but I believe in myself and my resolve.

Cheers from Krapina :)

the 100th post

Woohoo, I have reached 100!!
So, as the holidays are still around, I'm still at my grandmother's place and will be here until the 6th of January.
After that I'm leaving to Zagreb again and will be around my brother until the date of departure - the 11th.

Ok, bye for now :)

Merry Christmas!!!

I wish you all a merry Christmas!
Enjoy with your family and your loved ones.
May all your wishes come true :D

All the best,
Goran

Awaiting Christmas

I'm here at my grandmother's place now and the house is full :)
The snow has fallen this morning and it was really nice to walk through Krapina and breathing the cold fresh air.
I visited my aunts and I'm just enjoying my time here hanging around my family.
A perfect vacation, you might say.

After working for 20 days in Belgrade, I believe I earned my free time. Everything I needed to do, I did - even more than that.
As this might be the last time I see my family for quite a long time, I'm going to enjoy every moment of it...before I return to the North Pole XD

Ok, back to the family debate :))

I wish all of you a merry Christmas and a happy New year.

Cheers!!!

The end of the Belgrade adventure

Today is the last day here. I have already bought the bus ticket to Zagreb.
As I'm leaving early tomorrow, today is the last day I am here at REX.
I had a great time here and I hope I will come back to visit them in the near future.

Now, starting from tomorrow, I'm resuming my real vacation with my family and actually doing nothing.

Next update from Zagreb. :)

Today is the last working day of this week...Saturday and Sunday will be my free days, so I'll probably just roam around Belgrade, if the weather will be nice...or, if not, I'll just be home, relax and watch Fox Crime/Discovery Channel.

On Monday, I'll buy the bus ticket to Zagreb and leave on Tuesday morning.

So I'll have only 1 or possibly 2 more update from Belgrade :)

in 5 days back to Croatia

I can expect that these few remaining days of my stay in Belgrade will be easy and without frustration.

I will just be around the office doing the usual stuff and I'm good with it.

In three days I'll buy the ticket to Zagreb and I'll have to go to the police to "logout" from Serbia XD

Christmas is coming near and I'm really looking forward to spending the holidays at my grandma's place :)

Gonna go eat now and resume my daily duties here :)

a piano concert at REX

Today, there was a piano concert called Post-Piano by a pianist - Nils Frahm.
He's a german pianist, he was a student of the last Chajkowski students.
His performance today was astonishing!! That is one totally new way of playing the piano and creating some sounds I didn't know could be created on the piano.

Other than events like these I'm just doing regular stuff in the office...nothing especially interesting :)
After this awesome evening I'll be going home, drink some coke and enjoy the rest of the evening/night.

So, cheers!

Report from REX

I have been here for a week already and my experience is nothing but positive.

Everyone here is really friendly and talkative (as it's supposed to be in South Europe :P)

Dusica is really a hardworking person - a true workaholic.

Like, she was sick a few days ago and she kept calling the office all the time cause he was worried about the preparations of the event which was taking place...:)

Milica and Jovana are other 2 colleagues I work with and they are great people, too.

The centre is a lot smaller than NELK and the place is really overcrowded. The office has too many people inside, really XD

There is an another EVS volunteer here, Anna. She speaks advanced serbian and everyone can talk to her normally...

I see that the standard here in Serbia is low... the salaries are really low and the prices are the same as in Estonia and Croatia, so Serbia is not really a perspective country to live in.

The city of Belgrade is quite dirty and big, it is cleaned only once per week.

I visited a few other cultural centres here and I have been exploring the city, so I know my way through the city already...I can't lose myself anymore :)

Ok, that's it in short.

Another report coming up :)

volunteering in REX

These past 2 days I have been helping in the REX office with enlisting REX contacts.

People here are great, so I have no problems with that. Everything seems to be going well and I really enjoy being around here.

When I stop being lazy, I will upload the pictures I have taken in Belgrade XD.

REX

Today is the first day of actually doing something in REX.
For the past 2 days I have been walking around the city of Belgrade and I have taken a lot of pics. I will be uploading them soon, as soon as I bring the neccessary USB cable.

More updates coming, when I'll actually have something to report.

Beograd

And here it is, Belgrade!
I came 3 hours ago and met most of the people in REX.
Tomorrow I'm starting to actually do something, so today I'm just resting.
The place is quite full of people, constantly someon around...I feel that you can't ever be bored ;)

Well, when I actually start doing something I will write my thoughts about it here.

Farewell until then!

Belgrade

I'm leaving for Belgrade, Serbia in 2 hours, already the bought the ticket.
The trip is around 5 hours long by bus and an EVS volunteer from Slovakia will be waiting for me at the station.
So, I'll post an update from there and describe what I'll be doing.
Gotta go get ready now, bye!

back in Zagreb

Yesterday, I came back to my brother's place from my grandmother cause I'm leaving for Serbia in 3 days.
It was great to see that my family is doing fine :)
Soon, I'll be pausing my vacation and resuming it after the stuff that I have to do in Belgrade are done.
Until next time, when I'll actually have something to say :)

Cheers!

8 days until Serbia

So, soon I'm going to Belgrade for my 20-days volunteering project.
I'm still at my brother's place and enjoying my time here :)
Playing games in my free time - what would you want more? :P

a new week in Croatia

I'm here 6 days already and I'm still stuck home cause of the sickness.
I can pretty much guess what's the reason for that. I see that coming here this way wasn't the best way, but well, what's done is done.

Well, hopefully, I'll completely recover very soon, cause it has been lasting for almost a week already.
All of this came as a shock to me, to be ill for the first time in 10 years :)

Never mind, you don't bitch over spilled milk...so, I'll just wait for it to pass.

Farewell.

Back in Croatia

Finally home!
The trip was very exhausting and I ended up with some throatache...but everything will be allright and be back to my original self in a few days.
These days I will be at my brother's place and later I'm going to my grandmother.
I'm very happy I'm finally here cause the trip took really forever - 27 hours in total, so until yesterday I didn't sleep much for 3 days.

Well, until further notice, I bid you farewell...time to enjoy my vacation!

Tomorrow - Time to leave

Ok, tomorrow night I take my leave :)

Before that, We'll have a workshop in the printing museum...so, afterwards, I'll be preparing mentally for 26 hours of travel.

This is the last blog post of this year in Estonia...and I will, of course, continue writing it in Croatia, too :)

So, wish me luck!

I bid you farewell for now :D

in the office-alone

For the first time during my stay here, I have been alone in the office all the time :)
Lemmit has gone to Spain for a meeting and he'll be probably back tomorrow. Madis, on the other hand, has gone to Viljandi due to his university duties.

So, that leaves only me...I'm not lonely or something, but I'm just not used to be here alone all the time XD

In 3 days I'm gonna leave, so all this doesn't actually mean anything :)
I have to do some last checks, go through the travel itinerary once more and decide what to take with me.
I believe tomorrow everything will be ready and I'll be waiting just to take my leave :)

Btw. Tomorrow is 11.11.'11 - What will happen, I wonder? :P

5 final days

Together with this day, there are, all in all, 5 days until my departure.
Lemmit has gone today on a meeting in Spain and he'll be away for 3 days.
During these last days I have to really try hard to find what to do...cause I'm lazier than usual and during this time, I find my PSP very appealing cause time passes very quickly while playing games.

So, 2 more posts before I leave...and then I'll still be keeping my blog updated every two days as usual...but in Croatia, not Estonia. :)

only 7 days left!

And here it is - 7 days until my vacation :)

There are no more "big" events before I leave, which is good cause I will be able to stay in the "easy" atmosphere and mood :)

In a few days I'll check everything about the itinerary and the tickets...just to be sure I don't forget anything.

These following days I'll work around the printing museum and help Madis with whatever if he's around.

I can hardly wait the time of my departure :D

the Zombiewalk day

Today at 7 p.m. starts the Zombiewalk, an event in NELK.
I am not participating in it, but I was cleaning the big hall before and the antechamber today.
Now when everything is pretty much clean, they can start holding the event there.
After the event starts I will start scanning the museum guestbook, cause it would be a good idea to have a digital version of that and do other office work :)

I'll have a little break now, go eat and then get onto business :)

research about halloween scary music

Internet is full of junk...that's a fact!
I have a task to find some scary music for the Zombiewalk event and I was able to find very little...there is just too much junk!?!?!
I can't seem to find anything nice, and my perfectionism definitely doesn't help in that XD
I am searching for already 3 days and I found a few so-so songs and everything else is crap...not even a good movie OST!
Well, whatever...I'll just submit what I have and get done with it XD

big cleaning day

Today we were cleaning the big hall on the ground floor of the building for the Zombie event that will take place on the 4th of November. A lot of dust, really :)
After the tiring cleaning we went to Zen Zen to eat some chinese food and it was really delicious! :D

Well, starting from tomorrow (when possibly Madis will come from his meeting in Bordeaux) I´ll have something to do in the office, or if not, then around the printing museum.

soon - holidays!!!

In 16 days I´ll be taking my EVS vacation and I´ll be going to Croatia :)
I can hardly wait to see everyone again. I already booked the flights, bus and train and now I just need to wait to depart :D
Until then I´ll do stuff around the museum and work in the office :)

Other than this, not much has changed...I´m still here and everything is great, just as planned :)

back to Tartu

Finally back from the EVS mid-term training in Elva. As I didn't have a computer here, I couldn't update my blog so I'm doing that a few days later :D
Basically, 4 days of talking, eating, having fun and contemplating. A great experience indeed :)
The first day the entire program was in the motel and it was all about from where do we come from and our projects. The second day was talking about problems and situations we encountered in Estonia. Also, we were discussing social entrepreneurship. After that we went out for dinner in the only Elva bar/restaurant.
The third day was extremely tiring because we had to cycle across the entire Elva county. We were put into groups of 2-3 people and got some points of interest on the map. Then we needed to go to those points and take pictures as a proof. Because of that, Edvin, Ofir and me have passed 60 km.
We returned when was almost dark. Most of the people later had sauna.
The final day was basically reflecting on the previous ones and discussing about YouthPass and our plans after EVS.

So, now I'm back in Tartu and from tomorrow continuing my duties here.

Cheers! :)

EVS mid-term meeting

Here it is - the mid-term meeting is 2 days from now in a city in South Estonia called Elva.

It will be held in a motel within a forest, which I think is really cool :)...and again, 4 days completely financed by the Estonian National Agency for EVS.

Tomorrow will then be my last working day here in the NELK office, so I have to finish everything unfinished to be able to leave with the clear concience :D

What can I say - perfectionism is a blessing and a curse, but one can be happy if he can manage it and keep it under control :)

Cheers; See you the morning before the meeting !

1-2-3 pianos

This morning me, Lemmit and Madis were lifting 2 big and 1 huge piano in the truck...which, with loads of other stuff, was supposed to leave for Sänna - and it did!
Now the pianos have a new home and I hope they will take good care of them, because transporting them was quite of a job :)
Afterwards, we had an another volunteer meeting about the "Zombiewalk" project and I did complete my task - folklore research. Now everything else is left for them...and I told them that if they have some research task again, they can talk to me.
Ok! Quite a busy day today...and now, after watching Monty Python Live at Hollywood, I can go to sleep :)

Cheers!

2 workshops

Today, two workshops were held in the printing museum - first the notebook workshop for children and after that, the lynloleum workshop where people were carving stuff themselves on the lyno plate and then printing them.

During the first one I was there to clean the letters and putting them back in their place and on the second one I was there just to take pictures.

Tomorrow is a day of relaxing for most people...but not for me :P, I have important matters to attend to. It was an interesting day today and it´s far from over :)
This night I´m gonna do some research about some other interests of mine for which I didn´t have time before...so, an another restless night ;)

´till next time!

pics from Sänna

here, as I promised :)

 this cat was following us all along :)

 the sun - planetarium path

It was great :)

The Halloween/Day of the Dead topic

Lemmit and us (the volunteers of NELK) had a meeting today about the possible coming event of halloween. We were discussing about the organisational matters and presenting some ideas about it. It has come to that that my role is of a folklore researcher and that is quite of an interesting topic for me...and i will definately give my best.

So, from tomorrow I´m starting this folclore research and after I complete that, I have to study and research about the Gruntvig project for Madis.

Btw. I completed the indexing of all the books in the cupboard of the Printing Museum office. It was thorough work and I could finally use some of my librarian/archivist skills :)

So, tomorrow, back to research!

notebooks, notebooks, notebooks

Lemmit has told me that we have to make a total of 120 notebooks. half of them A4 size and other half A3. I have cut a lot of paper today and I am not even close to half...we will need much more paper than we currently have :)
I see that I have quite sharpened my technique...I seem to make less mistakes than before...which is a great thing!

Tomorrow I´ll probably start working with Madis on the Gruntvig project and I´m really looking forward to that ;)

So, until I stop being lazy to post the pictures from Sänna...I bid thee farewell :D

Sänna culture manor

Yesterday (and this morning) I have been to the Sänna culture manor, 75 km away from Tartu.
It is a truly beautiful place. It has a huge house which half is still under renovation and half is nicely renovated :)
I have been there with Madis and two other volunteers Anna and Tobias.
There I have ment a German EVS volunteer, which unfortunately, doesn't speak english.
Other than that, we had a great time with a big swing and an interesting tour along the line of the planets - planetarium (cause there are planets spread around the area in regard to our galaxy...quite intriguing...and of course, it has the sun in the center :)

I will post the picture one of these days :)

Cheers!

more office work

Working with Madis on the Community AiR residency programme. We have been putting together an application to apply for funding.
Today I have finished editing the "budget" part of the application.
Tomorrow we'll probably submit it. As for the Printing Museum, I haven't been doing anything there lately...and the only activity for me there will be this Saturday cause there's a workshop.
So, that's pretty much it - as I've said, I'm in the office all the time doing research and dealing with different kind of projects and web pages.
I'm waiting for a reply from the Irish National Printing Museum regarding something...but it seems I'll never get it...

Well, until next time, cheers!

the EVS mid-term evaluation

So, the mid-term evaluation is coming near...20 days left.
I´m looking forward to meet other EVS volunteers and discuss about their projects with them.
After the meeting soon comes my desired holidays...and I´m searching for other opportunities, maybe Ireland or Spain...something like that :)

Long way to go until then, but I keep my hopes high!

Back to work now - whatever that is :P

Cheers!

researching on my own

Now when Madis is gone to business meetings and I don't have stuff to do in the museum...I am in the office translating the webpage and researching on my own about NGOs.
I will probably establish one in the arts and culture sector...but that's just an idea for now. Much research needs to be done beforehand.

These few days I will continue doing just that...until Madis returns and we have some concrete assignments regarding Tartu AiR or my own project.
My mid-term evaluation is on 23rd and lasts for 4 days, so I have to take care of that. I can feel that it will be 4 long days full of talking and activities.

Well, for the time being I'll concentrate on the tasks at hand and leave out all the rest.

Good night. Cheers!

Finished sorting the old books in the office

So, I have finally finished sorting the old books in the office and I'm now resuming with the translation of the Tartu AiR webpage.
I have been quite busy today and I have a few plans for my future business, so I sent a lot of e-mails to a lot of people. Just hope that at least one of them succeds :)

Now, back to research and planning!

Cheers :)

Finland - a magical northern country

And here I am! Back from Finland.

I have nothing but great positive experiences.

It truly is a dream-country.

Magical nature, air filled with feeling of long tradition, very friendly and warmhearted people,...

Even the apples are much more juicier than any other I have ever tasted. :)

A big dream of mine has finally come true, so I can't possibly express my happiness through words.

Here a few pics of my trip: