Wednesday 30 July 2014

rainy country?

cheers dear blog-followers :P

again, we're enjoying an absolutely beautiful day here in crowthorne, berkshire. since I arrived in the UK we had about 5 days of rain, that's exactly what I had expected - NOT ! but I won't complain, I'm very grateful for these warm days here at lattitude 51° north, so against all expectations it was not totally absurd to bring tank tops to the UK.
however, here are some pictures of our first real rain (it was pouring heavily, I was almost soaking wet after stepping outside for about 4 seconds to close the door):



on friday evening we started to celebrate bianka's birthday, at 12 o'clock her birthday cake (a real austrian sacher torte, had taken me about 2.5 hours) was presented. although she didn't succeed in blowing down all the candles at once, we wish her all the best for her future (:

we've got blacklight :D

happy birthday !

v.l.t.r Julie, me, Yiwen and Sarah



my following days were characterized by extreme laziness, nevertheless I managed to leave the house three times. the first time to pick up the new volunteer from albania - her name is elisa - at saturday evening (she was not on the expected train, so julie picked her up later). then on sunday to show elisa wellingten college together with julie and last but not least at sunday evening finn, julie and me went to the bowling center in bracknell with some staff of tova, finn's house.

now I have to go to work, it's the afternoon shift today, 2-9.

byebye (:


PS: today I found a very pretty place in the forest while I was running - some pictures, don't know if they can describe the aura of this place.



distances



Sunday 20 July 2014

our village & CSV volunteers day

hello (:

day 22 in the united kingdom, though it seems way more. having a lazy sunday, yesterday most of us weren't very active eighter.

I really have the feeling that I've already settled in well, a lot of things are much more familiar than at the beginning, of course. british bank account and debit card, mobile phone contract, having registered for NHS and the GP, beeing owner of a young-person's-railcard - that all supports me in feeling at home. now we're all waiting for our first pay day (since we're volunteers we don't earn a fortune, but we get some money for covering our daily expenses and our food).



... just realized that I haven't even written a single word in order to explain what I'm doing here :D
alright, as I said, I am here at Ravenswood village "which is home to 130 people with learning disabilities living in 13 registered care homes set in over 120 acres of Berkshire countryside" (taken from the website of Ravenswood Village). we, the volunteers who live in Dafna, work in these care homes, mine is called Kadimah. in kadimah there are 11 residents and about 20 members of staff. in my house all except two residents are capable of speaking, so depending on their level of self-dependance the residents need more or less support. often you just have to give them prompts to do some things, like focusing on preparing their cereals as most of them get distracted easily. others have to be looked after continously since they tend to do things which can harm themselves. at the beginning it was quite hard, I had to learn all the names of the residents and also staff all at once and what's more, I'm still busy getting to know all the residents' habits and their daily scedules. but now, after three weeks at work everything is much more familiar and therefor it's not that hard anymore. due to the fact that I've not had any trainings yet, my current tasks are limited to supporting the residents at breakfast and lunch, doing the laundry, loading and unloading the dishwasher and sometimes accompanying staff and residents to activities (going shopping, for a coffee, to music therapy, swimming lessons, etc). I'm really looking forward to my trainings, I hope I'll get a bit more responsibilities and opportunities then.


on friday 11 june, five of us Ravenswood-volunteers attended the CSV volunteers day in london. CSV is a british organisation which coordinates lots of projects for volunteers in the whole UK including Ravenswood village. all the volunteers who currently are placed in south and east england were invited to this volunteers day; effectively we were about 20 people, I think. our journey to regent's park in london took about 90 minutes and was about 17 pounds each (including return and day-travel-ticket for all zones in london), which is quite cheap. when we arrived in london, british weather was welcoming us. nevertheless, we had great fun with all the other volunteers. we played some games at regent's park and then walked to the CSV headquarters where we had a multicultural lunch. every volunteer had been asked to bring some food which is typical for his or her country. as there were people from great britain, south-korea, germany, costa rica, columbia and austria (and maybe also some other country, I'm not sure) we could choose out of quite a wide range of different meals. after lunch we went to king's cross for all the harry potter freaks, very cool !!! also we spent some time in a pub before everybody headed into different directions. daseung, who's been staying here in dafna longer than us new volunteers showed us some nice parts of the city, camden market, china town, etc and then we went home aswell.


finally, I only want to tell you one more little story. a huuuuuge fail :D this friday evening we had been playing some funny games (which included the consumption of alcohol) at our house, when I came up with the idea of going out in Reading which is the next bigger city to our little village. collective approval - no sooner said than done. everything worked out well, at about 12pm we were in reading where we asked some locals where to go best. soon we found some club which seemed to be nice, but then.... our dear girls (all three of them!) suddenly realized that they hadn't brought any ID with them!!! we boys couldn't believe how anybody can forget to bring any proof of age, especially in a foreign country. facing the fact that our first train back would be at 6 o'clock we had to think of some alternative. after a short break at mc donalds we just took a taxi, which costed us 50 pounds.
hopefully next time nobody will forget anything and we'll be able to go out properly :D

stay tuned, more to come (;
cheers



King's Cross

f.l.t.r. Finn, Juliane, Bianka, Daseung, me


Wednesday 16 July 2014

into the wild (or just bracknell forest)

heya (:

don't really know how to start this whole thing.. I know I'm a bit late with starting this blog, I arrived here at my project about two and a half weeks ago, but who cares :D
makes no big difference for you as a reader, just for me as the author of this "blog-thing" (have never had one before) since I somehow have to sort out my thoughts in order of making everything understandable for you.

so, how should I begin.. I'm a 19-year old austrian who had decided about half a year ago that he would like to go abroad for a year before starting his university-studies. after filling loads of forms, writing several motivation letters and one concluding interview via skype I finally got my confirmation: Dear Matthias, I am pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to volunteer at CSV EVS Ravenswood which is in Berkshire.
and here I am, at Ravenswood Village in a house called Dafna (every house in our Village has got a Jewish name), living together with nine other volunteers from different countries all over the world. at the moment there are "only" eight of us but two more are to come in the end of july. currently, our dafna-family consists of three south-koreans, three germans, one taiwanese and me, an austrian. the two girls who will probably arrive at the end of this month are from austria and albania, as far as I know.


allright.. I know my arrival is already 18 days gone, but better late than never:

after going out for the last time in salzburg with my friends on friday 27 june I started my journey to the UK on saturday morning a bit wasted. fortunately, my flight was on 10:55, so not too early. saying farewell to my family was not so easy (for them :D), I hadn't really realized the whole thing at that point of time, therefor it was not very hard for me to leave my hometown and my people.

journey worked out well, I just struggled a bit with catching the right trains, but in the late afternoon I finally arrived in Crowthorne, my hometown for the next 12 months. first impression: very british weather (rain, obviously), cars on the wrong side of the road, small but neat village with lots of low-rise buildings.

I think this is enough (probably way to much) text for the beginning, I'll add some pictures, maybe that's better.
following happenings in short: two volunteers picked me up, got my room in my new home, somehow confused and very tired, went to bed early. next day trip to portsmouth with the other volunteers, shopping and visiting isle of wight, got to know the others a bit better - so my state of mind had improved a lot after this day; somehow the starting shot for me settling in.

allright, enough for today, more to come (;


Dafna



Heath Lake

f.l.t.r Bianka, Daseung and Yedun



f.l.t.r. John, Yiwen and Christina