Hello everyone! My name is Sara and last year I partecipated at two different Erasmus+ projects, one at Turks and Caicos, an archipelago in the Caribbean sea, and the other one at Göteborg, on the south-west coast of Sweden.
Yes, exactly, in one week I went from sunbathing while having a drink on a coconut lying on the sunbed, to find myself, wearing scarf and jacket, in the freezing and windy Göteborg.
One of the funniest things happened in this month and a half was a story that brought me to the creation of a masterpice. ☺
While I was working at the reception in Turks and Caicos, the maintenance worker- that from several days was “using me” to photocopy a creole gardening book- asked me if I could help him with a work. We went to the warehouse, where he showed me a piece of wood that, in his opinion, I would be perfectly able to trasform in a wonderful and appealing sign to rent the house. After about 20 minutes spent to search in that mess something that may be useful for us, we found two paint (that a worst match was difficult even to think) and a brush that seemed older than me. With a fantastic dull gray and a pumpkin orange I wrote “house for rent” and the phone numbers to contact. It seemed a little bit too anonymouse to leave it that way, so, considering that the house had a garden, an unhealthy and after mourned idea poped into my head: drawing some flowers, a carrot and a tomato.
While the smell of the paint was spreading all over the cafeteria, the only room available to paint it, I imagined the gratitude that I would receive by who would have dinner there. During all the process, my colleague was learning a ton of italian songs and he tried, with poor results, to emulate them, getting distracted from his real job: finding other paint. I still remember his triumphant expression when he showed me a jar of red paint, the most suitable colour for leaves and vegetables! After having unsuccesfully tried to obtain it from the grass of the garden, I went to the kitchen searching for help wearing a kind of gardener uniform extremely stained of I don’t know what. The legendary sous-chef, who worked there waiting to become a famous singer, gave me a kind of sauce that they had to throw away and that they claimed it to be pesto, no need to say that the famous genoese sauce has noting to do with that thing. After two hours of intense work we achieved a good result and I was even paid $ 20.
I wanted to tell this short story to say that Erasmus+ projects must be seen, both as a moment of great growth and liability, but even a moment of fun and getaway from our usual routine, that lead us to new and unexpected experiences and passions.
Be brave, leave facing your fears and I will promise you that you won’t regret it.
Sara
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