Today, I’m going to write about me and my situation in Denmark. Probably not the most interesting article, but definitely an important one to understand what is coming up next!
First things first, a little introduction to understand what I am doing here!
My name is Marine, I’m 24 years old, and I come from Bordeaux, where I’ve been living pretty much my whole life.
I guess this all started after 5 years in university, where I graduated from a bachelor’s degree in Communications and a master's in Health Promotion and Social Development.
Right after, I decided to take a “year off” to figure out what I wanted to do with my life and started a volunteering mission in France to work on gender equality. It truly was a fantastical experience, where I learned a lot, but it seemed way to short.
Indeed, a few months later the mission came to an end and I had to figure out, once again, what to do in the future. That’s when I started looking for other volunteering programs and found the European Solidarity Corps (ESC).
I registered on the website, not sure about what kind of mission I was looking for. Communication, health, gender equality… The problem when you are interested in all kind of subjects is finding what to focus on...
Imagine my reaction when I found an offer for a mission combining communication, social integration, and even a little bit of health, in Denmark.
I applied for the mission, got an interview, received the final agreement, hated myself a million times for this crazy idea, and 3 months later I was on my way to Denmark.
On August 13th, around 5 in the morning, my adventure started.
After taking 2 planes and a 4 hours bus, I arrived in Aarhus about 12 hours later, super exhausted. I was welcomed by Rose (my contact person in Denmark) and Mathilde (my mentor and person in charge of keeping me alive and sane). They showed me the apartment and had dinner with me before letting me get some well-deserved rest.
The next day was my first day in the city hall, where I am volunteering. The first week was super intense: meeting a lot of new people, getting used to work in English while trying to understand the Danish way of life. But everyone was super nice to me, and I pretty soon started to help with the communication of Folkets Møde that took place on September 27th & 28th.
Living with other volunteers
Even though I was the first volunteer arriving in Aarhus, I didn’t stay alone very long.
The first person joining me was Mayerli, my roommate, who arrived a couple days later. She comes from Madrid and is volunteering for our hosting organization, Dansk ICYE. At first, it was weird for me to have a roommate, since I only lived alone or with my family, but since we haven’t killed each other yet, I guess everything is going great!
A few weeks later was the great arrival of most of the volunteers. Mayerli and I had a busy weekend, welcoming everyone.
The first volunteer, Hannah, arrived on Saturday after a long day traveling by train from Germany. Sophia, from Austria, was the first volunteer arriving on Sunday, followed by Jana who came from Germany too. All of them are volunteering in nursing homes. Finally, last but not least, I got to meet my future partner in crime in the Folkets Møde mission, Maria, who traveled all the way from Portugal.
It’s only a few weeks later that my compatriot, Sonia, who comes from Paris, arrived to join the team of the girls volunteering in the nursing homes.
All of us live in the same building, in 4 different apartments (if you suck in math: 3 apartments of 2, and one alone). It’s pretty nice to be all together when we want to, while being able to have some real privacy when needed.
You will see later in this blog that after only 3 months of volunteering, we’ve already been through some crazy experiences with the “Dear Neighbors” group!