Hipster town, cold weather and first impressions — GreenEST
This post is part of the volunteering project GreenEST blog series. Check out the series here.
At AIESEC, we educate people on pressing matters and develop their leadership. One way we do that is by creating projects for young people to volunteer in new places around the world.
This year, we set our sights on climate action — educating the children of today on what they can do to save our environment and make the Earth still habitable for their kids in the future.
The first week of the GreenEST project has flown by really quickly, which is what happens when you’re surrounded by such amazing young people from countries all over the world. The experience so far has been fun, amusing, but also challenging — the right combination for an AIESEC project to make it the 6 weeks you’ll remember for the rest of your life.
A busy week of events
So much has happened since the project started. Volunteers got to know Tartu. We went on a city tour, which included swinging on a traditional Estonian village swing and seeing places like The Widget Factory and Karlova. After that volunteers agreed that Tartu is kind of a “hipster place”. For us, organizers, it was fun to see Tartu from a different perspective.
But we also had other exciting stuff planned for volunteers. We had a movie night and a board game night, a welcoming party and the volunteers had a chance to meet AIESEC in Tallinn’s Global Village which was jolly fun. So we wondered what did volunteers enjoy the best so far?
„[The best moment so far] was the Tallinn’s Global Village, because there I could learn many things about the life in my buddies’ countries, about their food, their traditions and their way of thinking,“ said Antonio, who came here from Spain. Anano from Georgia also agreed that it was amazing, especially the barbeque they had after the Global Village, but her favorite moment is from the welcoming party.
The welcoming party and the Global Village were real hits, all the volunteers had some good memories to share from those nights. “Even though it was not our project, AIESEC in Tallinn was kind enough to invite us, so we could represent our culture. The curious expression on people’s faces made me really glad that I went to the event,” says Nihan from Turkey.
The curious expression on people’s faces made me really glad that I went to the event[Global Village],” says Nihan from Turkey.
First impressions of Estonia
Every volunteer has a different cultural background, which makes holding events like Global Village fun and educational. You get to learn about each other’s different backgrounds, traditions, and food! So, of course, we were curious to find out what volunteers thought about Estonia.
Nihan also didn’t expect the cold weather and was shocked at first, but other than that has liked it here. Nihan thinks that Estonian people are the sweetest and helpful — that’s at least all the AIESECers she has met — and she believes that coming here for the GreenEST project was her best decision ever.
Nihan thinks that Estonian people are the sweetest and helpful — that’s at least all the AIESECers she has met — and she believes that coming here for the GreenEST project was her best decision ever.
Antonio also noticed the weather first; indeed, it was cloudy and cold on the day the volunteers got here. The architectural style reminds him of Germany or Norway and he thinks the people here are nice.
Daniel, who comes from the US, really quickly noticed the contrast between people in Estonia and people in the US — Estonians are generally colder and not that friendly. It was weird for him that people don’t come up to you to say hello. “Also, everyone here is blonde and attractive, it’s not fair,” Daniel jokes.
“Also, everyone here is blonde and attractive, it’s not fair,” Daniel jokes.
Zeynep, who came here from Turkey as well, says that her first impression was that Estonia is very clean and people care about following the rules. Zeynep also went to the Song Festival and thought it was huge and impressive.
Zeynep also went to the Song Festival and thought it was huge and impressive.
Anano got her first impression of Estonia while she was on the bus to Tartu. She thought that Estonia is very peaceful, clean, and everything is in order — the houses, villages and even the trees. It’s weird for her that it gets dark so late in Estonia, but she’s getting used to that. Overall she thinks she’s in the right place!
We cannot wait to see what will happen next! The volunteers have 5 weeks to organize 2 camps for kids and an environmental event.
Want to be part of the event? There are some spots left for the kids. Find more information here and here.
The GreenEST project has been sponsored by Lange Motokeskus, Eesti Loodus, Eesti Leivatööstus, Tere and created by AIESEC in Tartu in collaboration with Tartu loodusmaja.
