Introduction

Hi there!

Before I'm going to write about my EVS project in Poland, please let me introduce myself. My full name is Wendy Adriana Cornelia Broos, but you can call me Wendy. As far as I know all my roots are situated in the 'lower countries' - the Netherlands and Belgium - so although I have an English name I'm almost as Dutch as can be.

I grew up in a small village in the south of the Netherlands, and when I was almost 19 I moved to Amsterdam - or to a town almost surrounded by Amsterdam, called Diemen, to be more precise - in order to study Linguistics. After I got a Bachelor's degree, I continued studying 'Dutch as a Second Language', because of a developed interest in second (or foreign) language learning and teaching. Especially the idea of creating lesson materials appealed to me, since I love to write. So when I got the opportunity to work for a publisher, I decided to put my study on low heat in order to get some hands-on, practical experience instead. But after a while - two years later than planned - I managed to write a thesis as well and in July 2014 I became a Master of Arts.

For some reason I've always been very interested in other countries and cultures, and as I grew older I got more and more opportunities to explore those. In lower and high school I just read a lot of books and magazines about faraway places. Later on, I became a volunteer for Vluchtelingenwerk Bergen op Zoom, teaching Dutch to refugees and immigrants. Amsterdam, being the most multicultural city in the world, turned out to be the ideal place for me to study. And yet, in my final year of university I felt the need to go even further. I booked a train ticket, made reservations in several hostels, and in 22 days I saw eight different cities in five central-european countries - four of which I hadn't been to before. Poland was one of those countries, and although I enjoyed the whole journey, it was this country that impressed me the most.

So now you know one reason why I live in Poland nowadays. After my graduation, I started looking for EVS projects in this country and eventually I found one that really matched my interests: Semper Avanti's Multicultural Language Cafe in Wrocław. My project started in May 2015 and it lasts nine months, which means I have less than two months ahead of me. Hopefully that will be enough time to - in my next articles - give you an idea of what it's like to be an EVS volunteer in Poland.

Na razie! (See you later!)

Wendy