Introduction to our Workplaces

Hei alle sammen!

As promised, we will now start to write something about our work places and our tasks there in order to show you more about our daily life. I will start with Tasta and Byhaugenkaféen, my two work places.


Tasta Fritidssenter

Tasta Fritidssenter is located in the building of Tasta Bydelshus, which is one of the public centres in the district of Tasta. It is run by the Kommune and people or organisation can rent some rooms for private parties, workshops or other stuff.
In the left part of the building there is Fritidssenter. we have a billiard table, kicker, table tennis, indoor skating park, a really good rehearsing room for bands and a giant screen for watching netlfix our playing play station on the couches. The kids can come every Tuesday, Thursday and every other Friday. My job is to look after them and sell them sweets or toasties in the kitchen. On Thursdays we also have the Taco night and usually we prepare one warm meal a day as well. Furthermore we some special events going on like a Halloween Party for example or a movie night with free popcorn.

The bands rehearsing there are also a huge part of the "Tasta atmosphere". The members are between 16 and 18 years old and play in four different bands. (And almost everyoone is named Espen). Sometimes they give concerts at our club our at Checkpoint Charlie (a bar in the city centre) as well.


Byhaugenkaféen

Byhaugenkaféen is a nice old house, located in the Tasta are as well and with a long history about having been a point of social gathering  for many many years. The Kommune rents the building out to people organzing seminars, workshops and parties, but it also the centre of the voluntary work in Tasta. I have my own office there and I work together with Jeanette, our EVS coordinator. I prepare workshops for children (autumn workshop, christmas workshops etc.), projects like exhibtions our group meeting of the local envirnomntal group. I am also in charge of our official blog.

It is really nice place to work, too and it has got a fantastic view! Sometimes there is the monday cafe taking place - we prepare waffles and coffee for elderly people, so they can enjoy themselves here.

These were the first wrok places - loooking forward to writing about the next ones:)
Ha det!
 

The first month

It’s almost unbelievable that a whole month has already passed now. A month full of activities, new people, sunshine (yes, sunshine) and fun. Now everyday life is starting, we feel like finally being a little bit more settled. But this   feeling will probably increase with every new month we spend here. Two weeks ago we came back from Balestrand, where we went to the On-Arrival-Seminar of all EVS volunteers, who are in projects in Norway. So we met a bunch of cool people from almost all European countries. Next week four volunteers from Germany will even visit us. In Balestrand we did A LOT of activities including a biking trip, a mountain hike, canoeing and a tour through the town and its famous hotel. We also learned about the Norwegian history, the culture and everyday life through drama classes, workshops and presentations. But most of all: We had fun. Too little sleep, singing, playing games, tasting the new organic sidre and two birthday parties (Vincent’s and mine) were just too fantastic. And despite of all these activities it almost felt like holidays. A few brave people even went swimming in the 13 degrees Fjord! Because we can J All in all it was just an amazing experience and we’re all looking forward to Oslo in February, where the midterm seminar will take place.

Now we are back again and finally Cristina is with us! J The family is complete now. And we also get to know all the local people including our Coworkers in the organization (Predominately on parties), so that we are being ready now to throw our very own party in Sunde in the end of October! Furthermore the autumn holidays just started. This means most of the people are on vacation in the mountains now, the schools are closed and many youth clubs are organizing special events. Vincent is going to go on a camping trip tomorrow together with the teenagers from Bakgården, Cristina is going to go ice skating with her team from Hundvåg and on Friday there was a concert at Tasta Bydelshus organized by the bands rehearsing there. Furthermore on Wedndesday there will be something like a fall workshop at Byhaugenkafeen for children. Yes, it’s getting started! We just hope the weather will stay like this ;)

Ha det bra!

Welcome to Stavanger!

Hei!

Welcome to the new blog about the EVS in Stavanger 2015/16! Four volunteers from all over Europe (well: France, Spain, Czech Republik and Germany) will work at different youth clubs in Stavanger, the lovely city in the southwest of Norway and also the city with people speaking the weirdest dialect...
On this page we try to give you updates about all the interesting stuff we're doing as well as the boring stuff and promote the EVS project as well :) The organisation is called "Ungdom og Fritid", which basically means "Youth and leisure" - They run the youth clubs as well as being our coordinating organisation.
Since the first week's almost passed and so many things happened, it is time to start writing!
We live in a nice house together in Sunde, it takes 15 minutes by bus to go to the city centre, with a shared kitchen, a bathroom (including the one and only Iron Throne) , very individual rooms and the best thing: A trampoline. And since the weather is being untypically beautiful (despite the cold autumn winds), we already spent some time doing nothing but jumping around (maybe that's the reason for starting the blog too late - due to the trampoline we're getting lazy as f***). On Wednesday there was a huge welcoming lunch for the three of us (Cristina hasn't arrived yet) with nice Indian food at Kyvirksmarka, Vincent's working place. We introduced ourselves to the team and also got to know the other Co-workers. After having some nice chats most of the people left and we helped Vincent tidying up his new office. Mari (Vincent's boss) also gave us the leftovers of the meal, mentioning, that since we're volunteers, we will be poor and won't have enough money to buy food. That kind of frightened us... In the evening we went to our first language lesson and learned how introduce ourselves in Norwegian, but of course not in Stavangersk- that would be completely different. Great! :P
Thursday was our first day at work. We will introduce you to the working places at a later point. We got to know the team again and all of us were overwhelmed by all the Norwegian language around us. On Friday two of us had to work late, so we decided to celebrate our first Norwegian weekend on Saturday. And so we went to a complete Hipster bar the next day, decided that we're to broke to pay for more than one beer and had much fun outside in the park.
Sunday therefore was quiet. We did a lot of cleaning and found many interesting things hidden in our house.
We are really looking forward to Cristina to arrive next Monday and then going to the On-arrival-seminar in Balestrand next week!

Ha det!