Life at VANT: December

My December in Viljandi by Ilia

Hello, Ilia here. December was a really nice and festive month, full of Christmas spirit and meaningful activities. The month started with two days at school, where we visited Viljandi Gymnasium on the 3rd and 5th of December. During these visits, we gave presentations about volunteering and introduced the Erasmus+ volunteering program to the students. Since the 5th of December is International Volunteering Day, it was a perfect opportunity to show young people what possibilities volunteering can offer. We also shared our cultures and got to know the Viljandi community better.

Another highlight of the month was attending the Viljandi Christmas Market together with Ege and Merlin. It was a very nice experience, and I met many people from the local community. I also helped work with young people and took part in decorating the youth center, which made the atmosphere even more festive.

Later in the month, I traveled to Tallinn to meet other volunteers. We had a great event there with our organization and shared experiences together.
In the youth center we also organized a movie screening with my movie club, where we watched A Christmas Mystery, which was a lovely and cozy experience.

In the last days of the month, we participated in running a Billie Eilishthemed escape room. It was a lot of fun, and it was great to be part of such an interactive and engaging event to finish the month.

My December in Viljandi by Denisa

I must admit that December passed so quickly! As shops put their Christmas decorations on (even though they already did so after Halloween), I helped a bit too, to decorate our youth centre. I decorated two tiny Christmas trees and when other colleagues put fairy lights around windows, Christmas atmosphere in our workplace could begin!

Since there is former volunteer residing in Viljandi – currently working as a Estonian teacher in Viljandi Gümnaasium, she found an oppourtunity for me and my „co-volunteer“ to hold a presentation about our home countries and our cultures for students of upper classes in school mentioned above. We had to present for three groups, one on one day and other two, two days later. Fortunately, we got really nice feedback and questions from both students and teachers.

Later that month, as we agreed with colleagues at the beginning of the my project, for each month, each colleague has to organize one informal fun event, it was my turn this time. I just came up with an idea and fortunately I got a lot of support from my colleagues. The plan was to visit one of the bogs nearby and have a little hike together. We had pretty okay weather that day, made nice pictures and spent time together. On the same evening, I went to local restaurant, where we had Christmas dinner also with other people than current staff. Multiple courses were provided and even tiny Christmas gifts were handed, as we all participated in secret Santa.

At the end of same week, coordinator from coordinating organization planned Christmas hangout with other fellow volunteers. We did some Christmas handicrafts to decorate the hostel itself a bit, we went to the beach, saw Christmas market and just overall chatted about our experiences and issues that are happening to us since the last time that we saw each other.

During the last final week, before youth centre closed for Christmas break, I held my very own Christmas event. It can be described as a combo of Christmas-themed quiz and preparation of really quick and easy sweet snacks with no need to bake them. We prepared bananas dipped in melted chocolate and then freezed them for couple minutes in fridge, in order for them to be served rightaway and „fake“ cheesecake from crushed bits of butter biscuits, sweet curd and chocolate or frozen fruit on the top. December felt super busy, but super fast at the same time. I am looking forward for new month and its new challenges!