My name is Maribel, I´m from Málaga, Spain, and I took part in the program “Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs”, living the experience in FuturoDigitale, Italy. I arrived at Terranova da Sibari, the village where the association has the office, at the beginning of September. My main aim was to learn how to write European projects, and also to participate in the cultural and educative activities that the association uses to do.
During my whole stay I had the opportunity to join several European projects, as a participant and also as part of the staff. To live the real atmosphere in the project was so rewarding and, thanks to it, the task of write my project was much easier. Those projects helped me so much in a professional way, due to I learnt so many useful practical knowledge about concepts that I ignored.
I would like to emphasize other activity that we did in the schools of the area about the European Week of the Programming. I participated in the creation of the activities for the kids and helped at FuturoDigitale during the event. In addition, in the office I collaborated in the writing of other local educative projects and translating some documents.
The relationship with FuturoDigitale´s team was incredible. Everyone in the office were always available to me and, although we were from different fields, they were involved in solve my doubts. I had the opportunity to work closely with Chiara most part of the time, due to she is the project manager and our task were linked. She was a big support to write my project, helping me too much in all possible aspects and being available at any time of the day. At the beginning Chiara was my Italian teacher and it was less hard to learn the language.
Despite I didn’t work too much with Antonio, the president, he always tried to involved me in the activities and including me in other tasks. As Chiara, Antonio was a big support and he was always worried about if I felt comfortable there and if he could do something to improve it. I would like to say that he was the “taxi driver” for the Erasmus Students and, in my case, he picked me up so many times, being totally available for us.
Same thing happened with Liberale and Ferdinando, due to they work with Antonio, we didn’t cooperate together too much but the relationship was good. It was nice to have people of my same age in the office to share and to talk about common topics.
As I said, the atmosphere in the office made you feel comfortable to talk and to share your doubts or opinions about any topic. The relationship with them started in a professional way but it finished as a great friendship.
I stayed 6 months in a family and I could say that, since the beginning, they treated me as a part of them. The family was great, they were always asking if I felt good or if I needed something, and also they tried to make me feel comfortable with them. When I was sick they offered me some pills to recover and they were so worry about my health until I felt better. During the Christmas period I was in Italy and they included me in their family dinner. To be far from your family in those days is complicated but they made me feel one more of them. Thanks to I spent too much time with them talking, I understood the language and at the end I learnt how to talk in a basis level.
The whole experience was great and I had a lot of fun during my stay there. Of course there were some problems, especially with the language or not know none at the beginning, but the good ones were much important. Thanks to all the moments that I lived, every person that I met and everyplace I visited, I have grown as a person.