"Everything here already feels like home": Raquel, first 5 months of EVS in France

My experience in Nîmes so far

It’s been already five months since I arrived in Nîmes, in the South of France, to start a new adventure as a volunteer and to live a lot of new experiences, with hundreds of objectives in mind. The time has passed unbelievably fast since then, and everything here already feels like home. Both the coordinating organization and the high school where I do my volunteering have received me with their arms open since the first day, and I feel accompanied and helped in every step I take.

No day is the same here, one day I can be in a Spanish class and the next one in a cultural excursion with the students, or maybe organizing an event with other volunteers like me. Every day I have new and different challenges to face, I learn and teach something new, and that is what makes this experience so fruitful.

Even though living abroad and being immersed in a different culture can sometimes be an arduous path, I am learning a lot about myself and about life, and the people I have met here makes everything easier and more enjoyable. I feel so grateful to have the opportunity to be part of the small family we are creating here, and I can’t wait for what is coming next. I am pretty sure that my time in France will always seem too short to me!