Christmas is just around the corner, and our trips back home are getting closer and closer. So to say our goodbyes in a proper manner we held our Oscar Award Ceremony, organized by our lovely office staff and even more lovely EVS volunteers.
An evening filled with laughter and joy was exactly what everybody needed. Seeing all volunteers and friends was definitely a nice experience.
After weeks of planning and working on the ceremony we finally held it on the 8th of December. All of us gathered in a nice Caf? and everybody was in a good mood. We had a *journalist* (non professional me) and a cameraman to make everybody feel like a star, and who doesn’t want to stand in the spotlight from time to time?
After everybody settled in we started with the actual ceremony and Oscars (delicious gingerbread *Thanks to Ania*) were handed out to the winners of numerous categories. At the end everybody could bring home a prize and a small gift. It was a nice, relaxed evening that everybody will cherish for a long time.
After that we gathered in the volunteers’ flat to have a Goodbye celebration for one of our own: Piotrek, a Polish volunteer, completed his EVS and returned to his home country.
It definitely was an emotional evening. Nevertheless my mind is filled with fond memories of that weekend.
After that the week was filled with Christmas lessons and preparations, at least mine was. And it finally started to snow; therefore everybody is getting infected with the Christmas spirit, Christmas songs are blasting through the apartment, the smell of cookies and gingerbread is filling the air and everybody is a little more social than usually.
In January new volunteers will join our small family and all of us are quite eager to meet them and welcome them to Donetsk and to our project. In the last three months we became a second family and expanding it with six new members will be definitely a challenge. But it will be one we are not afraid to face, but excited and happy.
But for now we will be splattered all over Europe since we rejoin our families for our own Christmas madness. And to be completely upfront with you I will miss my roommates and my work. I grew quite fond of my life here in Donetsk and I am a little upset to have to leave it all behind, even though it’s only for three weeks. Since we all grew so attached to each other over the last couple of months we all leave with a tear in one eye and a smile in the other.
Let’s hope that the New Year will bring just as many exciting adventures and will be just as fun, interesting and awesome as my last year. Sure, it will bring changes and new experiences but the key is to embrace those new opportunities and enjoy them .
Since I am getting mushy and emotional now (yes Christmas is definitely around the corner) , and it’s pretty much just rambling on from that point on, I am saying goodbye now: I wish you from the bottom of my heart a merry, merry Christmas, filled with laughter and joy, and a happy new year, filled with exciting adventures and amazing people.
With all my love,
Maggie