Modus Vivendi

 España Month n°1

Salut ! My name is Elise, I'm 19 y.o and come from France. 

Welcome in my blog, here you can know a little more about my journey in Spain. Which is for now pretty interesting...

Well... What an adventure ! 

That's what I'm telling myself when I think about this first month here, in Spain. And honestly... I don't know where to begin .

Let's start with a little bit of before. Because, we always need a bit of context. As I said, I'm 19, turning 20 this year, and as pretty much every person of my age or more, I don't know what to do in my life, I love everything, learning new knowledges, honestly If I could I would inscribe myself in a thousand different courses in a thousand different universities/schools. Anyway, after 1 year and half of superior studies, one thought was stuck in my mind. Travelling, discovering, making art and learning from life experiences. That's what I needed. Thus, I applied to the ESC (European solidarity corps) not knowing I was actually going to do it. 

But here I am. Writing a first month review.Crazy right? 

Ok all of this didn't come without worries. Indeed, before coming here in Camprovin, I was let's say, worried about the unknown of this adventure. Will I get along with the people here ? And my roommates ? I don't speak Spanish or just a "hola Que tal" ? I was scared of leaving my friends, my family and the people I love. 

  But anyway, I jumped deeply into this lake of fears. 

    I got to be honest, when my mom left me in Logrono, I felt so strange, my only thought was "What the hell am I doing here in a country I don't know". But, then Sylvia and the other volunteers (Marta y Marta) came to pick me. Sylvia directly hugged me, and all my worries flew away.  

    As the days went, I fell in love with Camprovin and the people here: los abubillos y abubillas). They are welcoming, generous, warm and full of life.

    However the only flaw is that it can sometime get boring, but, what comes with boredom ? Introspection and creativity. And, this is not boring.

    What is also not boring is the work we're doing. Morning is "Oficina", we stay in Camprovin and do some bureaucratic work, and late afternoon is "las taller". We do theater workshop with people with Down Syndrome or children. I love doing it, it's so much fun ! They are really creative. 

    About creativity, back in the months before Spain, I really struggled to find inspiration and to be creative. It was really hard. Nonobstant, the calm, the sky, the abubillxs, this fresh air, the honey of this man Javi, being away from people I love, being away from people that don't know I love them, the sun, all of this and so many other things brought up my art, my spark or what I called my H'art. 

"No one expected me. Everything awaited me" - Patti smith: Just Kids

pov: quand j'essaie de parler espagnol 

March:

Few words, few honest words, on this month: 

Ok

Nice

why not

borring 

almost holidays 

great time 

no so good

bye 

new friend ? 

hello april 

April: 

 April is my third month here in Camprovin. I went in vacation for few days, it was really nice to see France again, it's crazy how some traits of our cultures are so different. Like, really I cannot adapt to the eating hours... I'm an early bird.

What else ? Work was ok, I don't really have much to say about this for this month, it cannot be exiting every times. 

But I can say that I really get along with my roomies and that's super cool. We have a lot of philosophical and life conversations. 

OH ! also, this month of April was a bit..eeeh emotionally roller coasting, It's very common to feel lonely here, well at least for me... However, the univers offered me a blessing for a couple of weeks, he's typical of la Rioja...he's name is... CHORIZO ! 

This little baby dog was found wandering in Camprovin, full of garapatoz, dirty, but so so so very cute and beautiful. We offered our help during the "founding a family" process. We gave him our heart and he gave us his. Actually the first night in our appartement his slept with me in my neck/ shoulders. I wanted to keep him because we had this connexion together, but we found him an other family, and I can still see him, I actually take walks and sometimes babysit him. Anyway, this is my new best friend and foster kid chorizo mi amor. 

 

 

 

May:

Hi, it's me again, honestly may was pretty good, I really liked this month. Tho, it went crazy fast. Like a flash really intense but colourful.

Compared to April I feel way better, I think I'm starting to adapt to this life, the rythme and people, I mean it's always different, there are periods of difficulties and other that are easier. 

This blog is fckg disorganise, I never when and where to start, but it's kindda...my life. 

alright I'm going to do themes.

Work: Work was really intense, really...lots of extra hours, but good, At least we're not bored. We went to a sort of award ceremony and we won won a price which was really cool. Also, I got probably a bit intoxicated by spray paint bomb, I had to create some materials for a play and I didn't protect myself... But I felt like a Subway surfer player, expect that I didn't have to run. May was also the end of Theater classes with the children, which was a little emotional because I really like them. And finally at the end, we participate two morning in a row to a training course in Logrono, with the Irish team, great, loved it, (free food). 

Social life: This month I didn't felt as much alone as I felt in April. Maybe because Mercury stopped her retrogration thing. And I'm really trying to put myself in a more positive mind even if it's difficult. 

I'm happy because I feel a strong bond with my roommate Marta, she's so cool, and it's nice to learn a different perspective of life and behaviour, I don't really know how to explain. 

Also, I hang out more with my new same age neighbour friend and that is awesome because we have great times together, loooot of laught, deep conversation support, gay, movies. So that's great, It's hard to feel confortable with someone, and that wasn't an issue with her. 

Also, a new roomie arrived, Annika, she's really cool and interesting ! 

And finally, my best friend Timothé came from France (with his car 😏) he spend 4 days here, and it was incredible. It was awesome, we walked around Camprovin, Najera, we went to Vitoria Gasteiz (btw fell in love with the city), we got a tattoo here, we ate Napolitanas, encounter a artists shop, a Basque Band in the street, parks, a lot of fun. We also chilled a lot and slept long siesta. And we ate a lot, of salad. 

  don't know were the pictures went but yeah.         

Et voilà 

Fue mi mese de May ! 

Ahora we welcome the pride month !!!

June:

June was sunny, happy, cool. 

I'm going to try to make a quick summary. 

At the beginning of June was the fiestas of Logrono, with my new friend (lol it's Yanis) we spend the weekend together there and lived our best life, eat a lot of ice cream, walk Wallas, a dog. It was really great. 

We bought a Unicorn bubble gun that cost us an arm (10 euros), though it was a really useful purchase. 

We get along even better. 

We actually spend our month of June watching movies and hanging out and eating salty pop corn (that is an other Spanish thing that I'm trying to understand, I like it, but then I'm thirrrrsty) 

Work related: Intense

Last shows of Arsido, they did a perfect job, had fun, I could learn and experience the work behind the stage, and manage the sound (I liked to a lot) 

Moreover, we could participate few days to a training course in Logrono. 

Life here feel more and more like home. 

I realised it when I went on vacation for 2 weeks (last week of June and first week of July), I felt SAD, when I left Camprovin. 

I left we Chorizo to see if life in France would fit him (it did but he didn't like cat, as I'm writing this summary of June...in August, Chorizo lived happily in a Spanish family. 

Alright, so holidays were so good, relaxing, I saw my family, my best friends, I turned 20. 

I went camping ( with Timothé, Anais, Ines, Nathan, Heloise the most gorgeous) we had loot of fun, I miss them very much 😢) 

Picture tiiime

July + August 

July past terribly fast. 

SO much things happens, some things changed, improved. 

The 14th of July, the volunteers of CES 10, arrived. We previously prepared their house, made the shopping. 

Work related: 

I was in charge of the kitchen food area. Thus, I planned the menus, made the list of what to buy, helped the cooking teams, it wasn't a easy job, I honestly made mistakes and sometimes as we had long days, I did my work a bit crappy,and I got angry easily,  but hey, at the end it went good, and the volunteer were amazing and hardworkers. 

We also did a lot of theatre and workshop, they created an all performance (ruta interpretativa) around the already present artworks of Camprovin, it was amazing. I was in charge of the music and guide the crowd. SOOOO, the first performance happened to be perfect, but the second, omg, I did the music so wrong, I was very disappointed with myself, but I learned a lot. 

Ademas, I helped one of the artist of Camprovin arte festival, Sophie,  I did some postal card with her, write some, it was interesting I liked it. 

Finally I did my poesy workshop with everybody, loved it but, I'm not sure I want to do it publicly, I'd prefer do it intimatly with the girls. Still as my personal project. 

Alright, even If work was a loot, we also had so much fun with the volunteers. 

A group of 10 amazing human beings. Every single one with a big heart, and something to learn from.

I connected strongly with 3 of them: Asia, Eva and Flo. 

With them and Yanis we formed the "I love pussy gang 🤟 " long story I cannot tell you, just... we rock. 

So basically we had parties, went to the swimming pool, had philosophic conversation, hugged each other, loved each other. 

They left the 14th of August and now I miss them fu***** lots because yes, we became friends. I'd like to see them all again. 

Now we're the 21 of august and we got back to the oficina. Still love it tho ;) 

Also went for a weekend in San Sebastien with my best friend Youna

September

September is the "on the move" month. 

Work

1-6th: The first week, I went to the mobility of Teatro&Bienestar to Ezcaray. This project aims to sensitise and open the dialogue on mental health and linked it to Theatre. For this mobility,  I was able to be part of reflecting and organising some of the activities and their content. It was really interesting. Of course as my Spanish is not enough elaborated, I didn't tal neither presented the activities. The participants who were teenagers, were taking the time seriously and were very open to the subject.  The place there was nice, it was kinda like camping but instead of tent it was cabins. Overall  had a pretty good time. 

11-15th: Second week: This week, Marta, Chiara, and I had our second CES formation in...Mollina, a town one hour from Malaga. This seminar was...ok, very intense, some of the activities were nice, but overall it's too much, I learned some things but yeah most of the time I wasn't really listening as it wasn't't dynamic enough and very heavy. Nevertheless, the last day, the girls and I had to wait 4 hours for our train in Malaga, we went to the beach, they swam, and I got a spontaneous tattoo. It was great to spend some quality time with the girls. 

Vacations "youhouuu": San mateo

16-24th: Third week. It was San Mateo a big fiesta in Logrono, I didn't go, instead I went for a week in France to see my family and friends.  I was happy to go but also happy to come back and see my compañeras. 

Last week: back to work in the office and live a peaceful life.

  

October

I want a "S", I want a "E", I want a "A", I want a "S", "O", "N", "A", "L", "D","E","P","R","E","S","S","I","O","N". 

This month we welcome, the first symptoms of the seasonal depression, lack of vitamins D, and the lost of every sense of motivation. 

Anyway, well October was nice, calm, cold, a bit hard to start,  rainy but overall charming. 

Work

The workshops started again. In my case I only go to Theatro&Bienestar because the workshops with the children from last semester didn't work. This is unfortunate because I loved working with them. But it's ok. T&B is nice, the teenager are cool and participate. I'm kinda close to them. Honestly I'm always lazy to go there because it's "late", but I always go out content and happy. 

What else, we input workshop for Halloween on Monday and Saturday. The Saturday one was a debate of course because...who wants to work a Saturday when we are use to not work. I didn't, expect for rare cases. Instead I led the one from Monday. The first idea was doing theatre, for kids. But in Camprovin there is 3 kids, that don't want to participate. Anyway don't wanna go in the details but for me it was useless. Then we tried crafting workshop, it was nice, Mary-Grace helped me. But after 2 sessions, almost nobody came. Motivation gone. But, there is always a good outcome. The all idea of this workshops was preparing a rota performative, a performance for Halloween. After many conversation with the girls, we realised that Basic Halloween wasn't interesting and that we had real fear from the real world. Moreover October is also the pink October so we wanted to link this performance with that. At the end Marta directed a beautiful performance about: Depression and Suicide in the youth, domestic psychological violence, breast cancer, the lost of a dear one (Annika did a magical danse and performance it was beautiful). My participation in all of this was writing poems for each stations. Best thing ever, It was awesome to have the task of writing poems. And also, to gather testimony of people that were close to someone or had breast cancer. Very hard but beautiful and personally helpful. 

Social life

I love spending time with the girls. This month we did dinner, and it was awesome. Also MG left for Italy, that was saaad, but hey she's coming back in December. There were fiestas in Camprovin but I didn't go, I stayed at home and it was great. 

I thinks that's all for October. 

Ps: I forgot the Kermes, I helped with the self portrait station really funny. And also the international Comida.  

  

November: 

Honestly right now I'm a bit lazy to write about November as I'm writing this the 4th of December lol. 

No but for real, November was an average month. Work was fine, we did cool performances, musical, really nice, lots of fun. Winter is coming we can feel it, it's cold but nice. We had some nice and funny dinner. 

well, ok...  the end of this project is coming, AHAHAAHA, it's sad, let's say the truth, BUT, it's the beginning of something new and the following of what came this year, and I'm a drama queen I have 2 months left here in Camprovin. Tho I'm gonna come back because YA know... life here people love projects eheheh. 

Alright goodbye, let's see each other on the 15 of January when I'll write my December blog. 😘

Décembre: 

Happy new year !! 

Calm month, cold, work was really fine, vacaciones great, I don't have much to say about this month, it was really nice. I have a month left here, let's try not to cry, but I'm so grateful for this year. 

January / February 

Well, it's the end. 

I cannot realise it already been a year. 

So much change in 365 days. Mostly yourself. Your ideas. 

I grew a lot, I feel changed and honestly, I'm still adjusting to this new self, new rules, new boundaries, more freedom. Some of my fears are still here, but at least I know they don't rule my life. 

This month went slowly, as every January. Arsido performed, as always they did a great job. this time I did the sounds for both shows. One mindful theatre workshop created by Yanis, super interesting. 

I also had the opportunity to lead a T&B workshop, very nice, not easy of course, but I really like teenager, I mean, it's a love hate relationship. They are dump with some of their behaviour (like everybody) but also starting to be very awake. 

This month, Marta, Chiara and Zazou left. It's only Annika and I now. I'm  very happy to have cross their path. They are incredible women. Love them. Maybe we'll meet again. I hope so a lot. I think this experience, or life, is more human than professional. I was inspired and learned from each of them. 

I don't really know what to write. 

This experience is ending but a new chapter of my life is starting. I have new projects, big plans, by my side my lover. 

I'm gonna come back to Camprovin, very soon, common, right now, I feel that I belong here. 

I think I'm just gonna write my messy thoughts because... who gives a fuck. 

Oh ! I finished my personal project, my poetry book. "La Teoría de la Destrucción Creativa" you can see some of my poem on my IG account Im nobody what are you I'm gonna present it to Camprovin in a few days. It's not a book about Camprovin. It's more indirect. I wrote poem about my feelings emotions blablabla, thanks to being here in Camprovin, because it was very therapeutic. Some of my poem are kindddaaaa dark, kinda a lot, but like, normal, I think it's important because some people might relate. Sometime it's not easy to walk lost in life, though we always end up finding our ways. 

I'm not gonna tell you about what are the competences and all this boring stuff. This year was great. Hard but great. 

I found more myself, I found amazing human being, love,  I found art, I found my art, and there are more to come. I'm so grateful. 

Thank you. Gracias. Merci. Gracie. Paldies. Danke.  

This is my last word in here.Go see.  Adios. See you never alligator. (so dramatic) 

EL.VIAJE.SIEMPRE.SIGUE