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I guess it is not too unusual being in a place to think every other week that this is my favorite town until I see another one. This is a story dedicated to the cities.
In Jena there is a lot of people, form different parts of Germany, from different countries and the atmosphere here is fantastic. The situation that you meet the people you know everywhere, because it is in the size of Tartu, is so cute. Jena is surrounded by mountains that are all in the hight of Suur Munamägi and they are covered with good hiking tracks. Because of them is in Jena always warmer then in everywhere else. There are not too many people and always when I meet somebody up threre we greet eachother. Once when a bikers group went pass then I had to say 20 times “Gutten Tag!”. What makes Jena more interesting is that it is so manysided. Besides the river-side cute houses, the oldtown, villas, we have also here the “Little Russland”. That looks like Lasnamäe, but here accure different nationalities. For example one man from Africa that is an excellent Drum-player is my most often “Hello-friend”. I see him quite often and always we say hello as we knew each-other for long. The atmosphere in Jena is wonderful- free, friendly, people are cute and curious. So in the tram the last week I mate a girl from Turkey. She is studying here Politics.
Jena is opening up to me bit-by-bit. As I have a year I must say that I do not city yet at all. But I have had to made little tours for my dear Estonians here and I am a guide for the girl that works here from march, but does not know many people here. And I personally have not had right tour myself. But in Jena, where are very many hidden places that are around the corner, you can discover so much, when you just open your eyes. So I quess there is enough to discover here till the next summer.
Rudolfstadt is the cutest little town I have seen. For me Rudolfstadt could be the synonym for cute. There happened a funny insident I have been told many times and where I am actually the main character. As always the situation where I do not understand the whole conversation exactly is not new for me, so when I set a meeting time with the boy from the town I must have heard wrongly. He was there earlier than I and was looking for me. As he is a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a volunteer I knew is Estonia that came from Germany, he did not know how to find me. He was asking from the people standing in the trainstation whether they are Leene. And actually he asked from my friends who coincidentally also there were. And they told me about it later, many times as a matter of fact. That day I had to meet also the friend of a friend of a friend of a volunteer I knew is Estonia who told me about this boy in Rudolfstadt. As I had been writing with her for a couple of months we were eager to meet each other. But we did not meet afterall on that day. What the funniest was- when my train left the trainstation to go to Jena, Sara´s train arrived...
But today was the day I met Sara, last time mentioning that she was the friend of a friend of a friend of a volunteer I knew is Estonia. In Germany it is very popular to do Voluntary year. It is like my project, but in Germany then. The third favourite city- Weimar. The choise became only because of the little shops. Oh these second-hand shops, cute-thing-shops and postcardshops- that is something unbelievable.

The keyhole

The most popular questions what I have to answer every day- where are you from and why did you choose germany. With the first one there cannot be many difficulties. Sometimes it might be a little bit tiring, as my friend in the second half of Evs chose another country and name to introduce herself, but it is a good place to start a conversation. The other question more complex. I could talk about it for hours. So i could start with the fact that Germans are so cute and lovely people and tell them stories of my friends, tell about the way to get to know myself better in an environment, where my siblings as well live. And yet they wait to hear a short answer. The best answer I have heard to this question was given by the spanish volunteer Rafael here who said he would like to learn how to be practical, organised and make plans like the germans. I do not have such a good answer yet figured out- i have to work on it more. One of the trains of thought is visible here.

The Evs is for me something very clear as in Estonia my relations with the volunteers were quite close. Or should I say has been? With every experience there is a big difference between practical and theoretical. Until I came here EVS remained only a word for me, one of these tousands of terms I am familiar to. I must say that I think I have not understood it yet that I am not here for the summer only, there will come the autumn and winter, finally spring.

As I am here experiencing this year, the project, then the words that were to define Evs are probably changing. At the moment I would say that EVs is "looking through the keyhole from the other side".These rather distant words must become more clear, but that in the future, but now on this milestone i have recorded them. To explain a bit more why the activity with the keyhole, I will spend a couple of lines. It cannot be the key, it might have referred to it like that, but no trip cannot bring automatically the solutions. The project is rather connected with viewing and concentrated looks(besides asking questions) what is the premise for learning, understanding and adjusting.

I cannot say that every person needs to go through this amasing experience like Evs (although every second should do that ;), this is said little overexaggeratedly to stress how much I value it). Evs quite often means just being ready to adjust to a new environment and being ready to go through with your dreams, the changes that are vital. This is the thing I have believed for two years and I am witnessing it at the moment. I cannot deny that it is possible to achieve such attitude and energy, environment and changes in every place.

As I have thought quite a lot about the meaning of Evs, for me til now the most important factor is time. Time makes evs so magical time. The fact that the volunteers are not rushing through life, gives them moments with themselves, opportunity to analyse the development process and help others, to be creative . These different aspects can be summed up with the skill that is needed- noticing. And again, to see and understand your own character, others around you, cultural differences you need to take time.