It seems like it’s been four months since I arrived here. As time flies and the weather changes as quickly as the weather in England, I have completed my 121st day. I have grown with new experiences day after day. I was young on my first day in North Macedonia. Now I feel like I grew older, and when I complete my project, I will be even older. “Living” life and “experiencing life” are two different terms. One can live without experience, but one cannot experience life without living. Living is the prerequisite for experience. Yes, in this respect, I am already living by taking a simple breath. Experience is not nearly as easy as living. I’ve had my life’s experience here. I have met people. I’ve experienced a different climate than Istanbul. I am 750 km away from home. While leaving my home with my suitcase, I was thinking about what I was going to face in a different country. What challenges am I going to have? What culture am I going to meet? People? Food? OMG! Too many questions… Briefly, when I set off on my journey, my suitcase was full of clothes and my mind was full of questions.

From the first day of my arrival, I started receiving replies to these questions. On my way to Bitola from Skopje, I encountered the heartwarming, friendly side of this culture. On the bus, I was curious about the place where I was, and I asked a passenger who was not speaking English but tried to help me by using his body language as he was pointing the place out and saying, “Bitola, Bitola.” That moment was a very heartwarming moment for me to see here on my first day in North Macedonia. That time was the signal for future events.

And in my arrival at Bitola, I met the staff members of the organization; I felt comforted when I saw their friendly behavior towards me. We have become such a family with my organization. They are so friendly that they even invited us to their houses. I attended the other volunteer’s mentor’s birthday party, which took place in her house. I met her family, and we all had fun together. Then, I went to my president’s house for his father’s “name day.” People in the SFERA organization are so kind that they want us to be a part of all events.

I spent my 121 days doing some activities such as teaching the Turkish language to local people, translating a project from the Turkish language into English, designing posters and flyers for events, helping organize the Art Attack event, and being a participant in Youth Exchange programs. Besides working, I have also traveled to Ohrid, Matka, and Albania.

While teaching the Turkish language, I have learned that we have many common words such as chakmak, chanta, chorap, kapı, bacanak, baldız, cezve, gevrek, and so on. Catching some common words in a conversation helps me guess the subject of the conversation, which is spoken in the Macedonian language. I have also been learning Macedonian from my Turkish language student, Viktoria, who is a Macedonian teacher.

I have also been helping my organization with translation. I have recently translated a project about refugees. I have also designed posters for my Turkish language class and a charity event, and I will continue designing posters as needed. My organization carried out youth exchange programs. I was participating in these programs to help my organization, which was in need.

I have also experienced Christmas here. We all had Christmas dinner together in the hotel Sumski Feneri. We ate, drank, and enjoyed it all together. I also experienced Вртење Мазник on the 13th of January; I felt like I had that luck to find the coin to have that chance during the year but не, немав среќа.

On the 19th of January, there was a holiday called Водици. I went to Ohrid for this holiday. I went there with my friends Alisija (Macedonian), Ezgi (Turkish), and Patricia (Romanian). We took our place at the lake of Ohrid to see the event. For the first time, I experienced this event. When the cross was thrown into the lake, people jumped into the freezing water to get it. I was amazed at how people could do that in the freezing weather. Whoever finds the cross will be lucky for the rest of the year.

Until now, I have met many volunteers in my organization, such as Nikola (Croatian), Busra (Turkish), Borja (Spanish), Santi (Spanish), Claudia (Romanian), and Patricia (Romanian). We had lots of fun together.

People here in Bitola are so social and friendly. Sometimes we went for a coffee, drank something, or ate something together.

As a result, I am glad about what I have done so far here. I have only two months left. Half of my heart will stay here; the other part will carry all the memories that I have had here into the future with me. All the experiences that I have had here will be part of my EVS memoirs that I will never forget.