I came to Maribor as a part of the ESC program and will be volunteering in Pekarna Magdalenske Mreže. I got a room in the city center and I have 2 flatmates. As soon as I unpacked my stuff I started to explore the city on a bike my hosting organization gave me and immediately I fell in love with the city. It looks like my hometown, but it is more advanced. Days passed by at lightning speed while I was learning about how to live in a new environment.
After 1. week we had the Stop Motion animation festival- StopTrik. It lasted for 5 days and in that time I met a lot of new people and watched about 100 short stop-motion movies from all around the world. My part of the organization was to prepare the cinema hall for movie projections and to prepare stage parties after projections. The best part of the festival was that viewers could choose which movie was the best and which movie would win the prize. I had a few favorite movies, but the movie Madeliene by Raquel Sancinetti was my favorite and it took the prize for the best movie voted by viewers.
Some of the other activities we had were introducing ourselves to the ESC program and Pekarna to high schoolers in a few different schools. We also had to prepare gallery to be ready for opening 2 different gallery shows. Maribors cultural scene is alive with energy. I have been to few concerts, some of them I wanted to go, but for some I just randomly showed up. Besides that, I have visited most of the city's sites like the Maribor Art Gallery, Hill Piramida, Aquarium, and Terrarium. I also found a basketball court near me that always has some players on it.
Next week he had on-arrival training in Čatež near Brežice. Those 5 days felt like a bubble full of positive energy and during that time we met about 40 volunteers who are part of the ESC program as well. Besides workshops that were held by our coordinators, we had a lot of free time to explore the endless hallways of the Terme hotel and spa center within the hotel.
Overall, the past month was a blast! Everything is new, everything is beautiful, I hope my optimism will be at the same level in the following months.
