My journey in Greece

My name is Lucia. I am from Germany and in September 2024 I left my home to live abroad and start a new life at this organization in Serres.

Since the point when I arrived at the airport in Thessaloniki and now, it has been six months. Six months full of collecting new experiences, travelling and meeting great people. Even though, I still have two months until I am going back home, a lot has already happened that I can draw great memories from.
Beside all the ups, there are also some downs in this time period. I had to struggle with homesickness and also the challenge of living together with other people. I am a person that needs a big amount of time for herself and managing this, while living in an apartment with 5 to six people, was something very difficult for me. But the people here made it a lot easier, because I had a lot of luck with my roommate and in general the other volunteers.

Apart from the living conditions, I enjoyed this experience of stepping out of my usual habits and being self-dependent. Being on your own is also important when it comes to the work at the organization. You have a lot of freedom while organizing events, but sometimes the resources are limiting, and you can get frustrated, because the outcome is often not as impactful as you would have imagined. For me, the highlight was the Radio. The personal broadcasts by me and my roommate here, were something I was looking forward to every week. Choosing your own music and having your own little Podcast is really nice and made a lot of fun. What I liked about it was, how personal it was. From the music up to the topics and settings, it was completely up to me and my friend, what we wanted to choose. It made me proud to manage those broadcasts and getting better at them from time to time. It felt like I was not only making an impact in general, but I was making an impact on myself.

Another highlight were the trips I made with the people here. Because Serres is only a small city, I felt trapped at some times. To escape this feeling I often made trips to the nearest bigger city, Thessaloniki, which I have grown to miss a lot. The harbor and promenade always helped me calm down and made me appreciate even more that I was given this opportunity of living in a different country.

From the bus station in Thessaloniki I made a lot of trips with the bus since they have a wide range of possibilities to go to. My trips to Sofia, Istanbul and Athens were so amazing, and I am really grateful for these experiences.

In general, I can say that this voluntary service helped me develop some key essentials like being responsible and coping with stressful situations. I will always view it as a very important step in my
personal growth.

Lucia Dublanka