O testemunho No. 2 do Victorien (SPIN)

 Here’s Victorien from France and this my second testimony. 

“Time is running”, a random quote that takes absolutely all it sense here in Lisbon. It has been already eight months that I arrived from France and I barely can’t realize it. 

First of all, everything has changed when I decided to move to another flat from the one that my hosting organisation proposed me. I had really good time in the first one and met some of my close friends of now on. However, this change helps me to meet new people and new group of friends that I have here. I really created close relation that I was looking for. 

Obviously the second lockdown from mid-January until the end of march had a hug impact on my volunteering experience. First of all, some tasks that gave me SPIN were stopped and globally the tasks were really few, meanwhile my personal life was pretty quiet. To face this difficult situation, I went to the south of Portugal in Algarve, doing a workaway experience and keep on working with SPIN at the same time. It has been the best idea I had since I arrived in Portugal. I loved the experience, the place and the people which are my friends from now on. It really helps me to enjoy fully my experience here in Portugal. The following weeks has been better along the sanitary situation was getting better as well. The volunteer group came closer to each other and we start create friendly relation between all of us. This feeling is definitely the best one and I am so glad to have been able to make it and being part of it. The following months after the lockdown has been amazing, intensely full of life and activities. We were visiting different side of Portugal every week-end and socializing a lot during our days here in Lisbon. 

On the side, I used all this free time to focus on a musical project that starts having some results. I could play for the very first time in a kind of club in Lisbon in may and I have some shows planned for this summer. Its has been a really long process, starting from the scratch and I am fully glad to see all these efforts starting being rewarded along that seeing my skills improving in music. 

Regarding the volunteering experience with my organisation, beside the quiet months of the beginning of 2021, I am super excited to see that the organisation is working well and see my tasks going as well as new tasks coming over the months. It is such a pleasure to see my proposition accepted by the team and that I can work comfortably. The team is adorable and really open minded regarding the conditions of work, which allows me to travel a lot while working. 

To conclude, I can just say that my expectations were so high before to come that makes me a bit afraid to not live it at 100% but somehow, the reality has been forward the expectations and satisfied me in a way I couldn’t imagine before. 

See you soon for the third and last testimony.