Hola familia Tudanzas! I don't actually know where to start but I'll let it go with the flow. So, I arrived the city on last Monday. On my last days in Turkiye, I was quite nervous. Cause, even though It was one of my goals to see Barcelona for so long and I had travelled abroad so many times, I had say good bye to my loved ones, at least for a while. I decided to attend this project cause I just had graduated from college and didn't know what to do. Maybe, I was at my lowest. I didn't just want to travel abroad or have a vacation. I also, wanted to do something meaningful and do my part as a world's citizen, so it was when I first met Tudanzas. When I saw the announcement I hesitated a bit, not gonna lie but I had my reasons. However, day by day I get used to the city and my friends here. I still have many challenges but, I am sure I'll overcome every single one of them by time with the support of Tudanzas family. Adios por ahora!

Hola a todos! Time's started to move a little fast. I guess it means I started to fit in. Huh? So, it's been two weeks here and even though I still have too much to get used to, I don't feel as foreign and alone as I've first arrived. Apart from the project I've been having a good time with the other volunteers and I've even made some other international friends out of tudanzas. About my process of learning Spanish, even tough I couldn't spare much time for it, I've picked up a couple phrases. Reactions I get by locals when I try to speak Spanish is wonderful and encourages me a lot to learn even more. Lastly, I wish I had been here during summer cause, while Barcelona being one of the most beautiful cities od europe wheater conditions doesn't help much when it comes to going out to discover city. However, it cannot hold me back for long. This weekend, I planing to visit a couple of landmarks. Hasta luego semana. Adios!

Hooh! To be honest, week has been challenging in many aspects. First of all I had to say goodbye to one of my friends and another one is leaving next week. So, I am concerned about being alone in the office. Cause, in my opinion what makes a place worth living is the people around, rather than the place itself. Anyways, I am now, constantly going to this language exchange events. Maybe I'll make new friends there. One more challenge is that even tough Barcelona is one of the nicest cities in Europe, damn it expensive. There are many places to see and maybe a lot to do but even, visiting the landmarks costs a lot. But luckily, I've met some locals and gave me some tips on this. A couple special places to see and ways to visit them for free. So, I'm planing to do that on this  weekend.  I also had some problems regarding the work, but hopefully will get used to workflow araound here soon. However, I am having a lot of fun at the sewing workshop and about to finish my Ponço soon. Actually, Berta is the one who has been doing all the work but you know.. See you in the next one.

So, where were we? Yeah I have almost completed half of the program now. How do I feel? A little bit homesick to be honest. And one of my co-workers has left Barcelona too. So, we are now just to volunteers. Office is getting more silent day by day but luckyly there will be new volunteers joining us soon as I heard. This week I was swamped with office work which I am not a big fan of. So couldn't find much time to socialize. However I've learned many new things that I can get use of in my professional carrer maybe. Apart from work, I went to see Labyrinth of Horta last weekend and it was very cool.  Yeah Barcelona is not the best city when it comes to explore with almost no money but as I make local friends, I find many things to do.  Also, I've made a new Turkish friend and planing to meet her this weekend. Even though I love living in an international environment, sometimes it's nice to see someone form your nation. I don't know about you but my people makes me feel at home no matter where I am. Anyways, that's pretty much all I had to say. See you next week.

I don't know what to say or where to start. On monday, 6th of February, Turkiye was hit by brutal earthquakes which had magnitudes od 7.8 and 7.6. Consequences of hits are way beyond my comprehension. Over 20.000 people were reported dead and what's even worse is that these numbers are just the ones teams have found and took under the ruble. Even though it's been almost five days, rescue teams could only interfered with few percentage of rubble. So, estimations of casualties are way high. For one thing, our sources are not enough for sure to deal with the disaster but I don't know if there is any source at all to cope with the destruction. About 10 citiest were effected. Which means 13 millon people had to leave their houses if they still have. Disaster almost wiped out everything in Hatay, Adıyaman and Kahramanmaraş. At this point, all I can say is that at least my family is safe. However, I wish I could be there to help my people. Thankfully my supervisors agreed to share donation campaign on Tudanzas's social. It's the least I can do to help my people now. 

Last time I was here I was't doing great due to the updates in Turkiye. Even though it is gonna take us a lot longer to recover from effect of the disaster, somehow we have to find a way to cope with it and get on with our lives.  Anyways, i didn't have the motivation to go out or party in any sense, but I've found another way to meditate.  I have always found it intimidating to cook, but also, it sometimes helps me to get rid off from stress as well. So, I had been spending a lot of time in the kitchen and it kinda paid off lately. As you might know, valentines day was a couple days ago and my girlfriend and I had this online date to celebrate. Since she is in Turkiye it made sense. I wish we were together and spent the day together but this was best we could do. So, I made this romantic dinner, with the candles and stuff and we  enjoyed our time together even though we are miles away. Everything in a nutshell, there is always a way to make to most of the situation you are in. You don't have to like it in your current status or anything but it's not gonna help you if you just whine about it instead of seeing the half full part of the glass.

Hola a todos! Today I have many mixed feelings. For one thing today is my birthday. I usually am tend to feel emotional rather than excited on my birthdays. I mean it was  fun when I was younger but now I just feel like I am getting old. (24 for now) Also, I does not help, my firends and family being thousands of miles away. However they all gave me a call so it cheered me up. It is always nice to see you have people who cares for you especially during tough times. And I'm getting closer to the end of my project. I missed my family and girlfriend a lot  but I was just getting used to it here, so it's gonna be a little emotional to leave. By the way, I have been giving this workshop about long-exposure. Forgot to mention it last week. We have less participants then I expected but it is still fun to do it. Last week, we got out of the trail with Mavi and tried something new. Even though it's kinda my profession, I still learn many things and never get bored of it. Anyways I added a collage of pics we took, so this is how it looks. Cool isn't it? See you in the next one.

Like it or not time passes way to quick and that's not even the worst part. It's the fact that we don't realize it until they are far behind. So it's important to be aware and appriciate our lives. I wanna quote a character from one of my favorite tv shows:"I wish there was a way to know that you are in the good old days before you actually left them".  I also know that it's not something easy cause even though I know that I sometimes forget it and even focus on the half empty part of the glass. What I mean is that, after a while I have arrived here, there were sometimes that I wanted to quit and go back. Because, I am little tend to give up but on the other hand, luckily I  have people supporting me. So, overall even tough I had many challenges here, I was definetely worth it, and I would do it again. I wanted to mention these cause I don't know I'll be here next week, wrtiting on the blog. So, my thanks to Barcelona and everyone involved in Tudanzas. Adios!

So, I had a couple days to go through this week and today is literally my last offical day at Tudanzas. I have a couple more days in Barcelona and we still have this documentary project so I'll pass by but as an ESC volunteer I have come to and end. It is was challenging sometimes but even now I feel like I'm gonna miss these days. Before I leave, I got to meet the new volunteers who are gonna take over. They seem like lovely people but we only had a couple days together. Anyways I wish them, and rest of the Tudanzas team all the best. I wouldn't wanna leave unless I missed my girlfriend and familiy a lot. And I also, have to pack up for a new adventure in Malta. It's gonna be tough to be far away from them for such a long time but I believe we'll figure it out. So, my thanks to Barcelona, and Tudanzas team for this opportunity. I hope I'll see you guys in the future! Adios. (And I finally took the pirate pic -->)