On Arrival Training in Benicàssim

While I was expecting November to be a quiet month — somewhere in between the chaos of Halloween and the start of Christmas activities — it actually turned out to be a lot more eventful than I thought. The month was packed with so many things that it honestly just flew by.

The first two weeks started off as normal at TOLA, similar to the previous months. I assisted in different classes and joined fun Ocio activities, like going to the arcade. However, something new this month was the Formación de Llegada (on-arrival training) for ESC in Benicàssim.

Together with about 40 other volunteers, I travelled to Benicàssim for the training. It was an intense week with a very full schedule: Spanish classes, group bonding activities, cultural awareness sessions, reflections, and lots of practical information. The best part was meeting everyone who is currently volunteering across the Comunidad Valenciana — meaning everyone lives relatively close. I definitely made some new friends that I’ll be meeting up with again soon.

Looking back, it was really interesting to connect with new people and talk about our shared experiences. Still, previous volunteers had told me much better stories about how the training usually goes. We barely had any free time — most evenings didn’t end until 23:00 — so we were all too exhausted to hang out afterwards, and we didn’t have the chance to explore the town at all. Let’s just say there are some room for improvements for the host organisation. 

Once the training was over, I came back to Silla and continued my usual schedule at the centre. One fun activity we did that weekend was a visit to Bioparc, a zoo in Valencia mainly focused on African fauna. On Saturday morning, we walked around with a group of usuarios, taking in all the amazing animals. It was adorable to see their excitement — wanting to take photos of every unique animal they saw.