Discovering Nottingham

Picture by Lena Borovkova

I’m back from some busy days in Nottingham. Although I didn’t spend my time in Sherwood Forest with Robin Hood and his Merry men I did have some merry times on my midterm evaluation training alongside EVS volunteers across England. Starting off Monday morning with a flight to East Midland Airport I was welcomed by the first day of spring for this year. Indeed a pleasant surprise!  Once at the hotel I found out that I had my own room with an en-suite bathroom, a good start of the day! Spending the afternoon getting to know the other participants and starting to reflect on our experiences of being volunteers in the UK.

I was surprise how little they knew about Northern Ireland and I felt the need to try to explain the situation in a manageable way. Even thou I have spent the last 6 months learning about the conflict, it is still hard to truly understand the nature of the events. Republicans? Unionist? Nationalist? Loyalist? Religion? Politics? UK? Ireland? Culture? There is no easy way to describe it, therefor there is no easy way to understand it. I was happy that they really wanted to hear about life in Belfast and how different our experiences of volunteering in the UK really are.

Picture by Lena Borovkova

We spent the next couple of days investigating future opportunities, talked about the youth pass, shared stories from our projects and exchanged experiences. Learning about slang in England was also an interesting one. Didn’t know that the words were so different from Northern Ireland. On the other hand I got the opportunity to show off with exotic expressions like “Dead on” and “Now you’re on the pigs back”. We had a lot of craic, even if I had to teach them what that is.   We also had a jolly good time doing treasure hunt exploring the picturesque town which included missions like “Take a picture with Robin Hood” and “Take a picture when a person is serenade you with an instrument”. Guess who was in the winning team?

Picture by Lena Borovkova

Time passed fast as always and late Wednesday evening I was back on the island again, after spending two hours waiting on the delayed flight. The past couple of days have been really interesting ones. Not only because of the opportunity to meet new people or exchange different experiences, but also because I have really got the opportunity to reflect on my experience this past couple of months. Thank you new friends in England and thank you Bob for being an awesome trainer! Hope to see you all in Belfast this summer!

Emelie