Week in Toruń

 So, I have returned from my mid-term training in Toruń. The city is absolutely beautiful. Inside the old town walls it seems as if completely untouched by the modernisation of the outside world. Full of history, with the cobblestone streets and the ruins of the castle still remaining. The city is lively, full of people, though hardly any tourists. The architecture of the old town of Toruń is very united, so for standing for the feeling of realness, at least more than compared to the fakeness of Warsaw or the contradictory of Kraków, not to even mention Poznań on this. Of course it's just my opinion, but there's no doubt that the city is beautiful in any case.

One of the city symbols is the frog. According to Lonely Planet (click) the legend says that a witch once came to the town, but wasn't welcomed by the locals. In revenge, she invoked a curse, and the town was invaded by frogs. The mayor offered a sackful of gold and his daughter to anyone who would rescue the town. A humble peasant boy then appeared and began to play his rustic fiddle. The frogs, enchanted by the melodies, followed him to the woods and the town was saved. Much like the Pied Piper story. Anyway this supposed to be a symbol of luck, and there's a fountain next to the town hall, surrounded by these statues which we groped a little. One of the other symbols and attractions is the Leaning Tower, which as it's name says, is a leaning tower (which originally it wasn't). According to our trainer-tourist guide, if you're able to hold your balance while leaning on the wall of the tower, you shall have a straight life (I didn't see many of us succeed).

City tour and ridiculously photogenic observing Ivar

The mid-term trainig differenced from the on-arrival training a lot. As the on-arrival training mostly provided us with the tools to mak the most out of our project and how we can improve our competences effeciently, the mid-term training was more about gathering the knowledge we've received and aknowlodging the competences we've improved, and how to benefit from them for the future. The whole future-orientation of the training was a huge positive aspect. In general the atmosphere of the training was more relaxed, less theoretical as we already know about the official parts of EVS and more about us as individuals.

We had a workshop in the museum to share our knowledge with others. There was intercultural learning; italian gestures, history of spain, traditional dances, different alphabets, but also origami, graffiti writing and my workshop, juggling for example. It was really fun and also  a good way to to reflect your self-expression.

We also layed some paper boats to the river, as wishes for the future. The day was really windy and the river was going crazy and I think all of the boats sank within the first minute after touching the surface. However, the idea's what counts, right?
What are your future plans after EVS? Was one of the topics we talked about. I have some plans, but the truth is, I really don't know what's going to happen. But I feel like this experience and all the personal growth I've gained, the new perspective of myself and of the world surrounding me is supporting me in a way that no matter what happens or which path I choose to take, I will be on the right way.

I'm overall satisfied with this week, the group of people was amazing and we worked well together. I was lucky to have so many friends of mine there but also to meet other people, sharing the same experiences. And have a lot of fun with them.
Also I made a succesful, as well as a long journey to the other side of the river to get some photos of the city. From here you can see that it's not very big, but has a lot of character (kind of like myself).

'I only have one month left of work. This all seems so surreal, what has happened, what is going to happen. Kind of like I felt when I first got here and was adapting to the whole new life situation. It's scary to think about the fact that all this I've somehow relied on is going to be over soon. But thanks to also this training, I feel more confident on being able to accept new challenges and continue my journey.