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A38: When did you arrive to the A38 ship in Budapest?

Mateja: I arrived to Budapest a bit earlier and I started the work in the beginning of October 2008 till March 2009.

A38: How did you get the EVS place?

Mateja: That was quite some work, first to find out who is the concerned in the matter, and then to send all the mails to everybody to those responsible on the Ship and at the coordinating organization. I worked in Ljubljana in a TEH place so at the end my sending organization Metelkova Mreža helped me. Natasa who is responsible for the project there called Gabi, who was the responsible from the side of the Ship. Through her I got the opportunity to make a kind of "volunteer interview" and i could successfully persuade them to take me finally.

A38: What were your tasks here exactly?

Mateja: My tasks consisted of filming the concerts, different events, the life on the boat and to create short videos as well as a weekly program announcement for the internet promotion.

I also helped with the correspondence in English with artists that already played at the club, regarding the legal rights of the video recordings made of their concerts. I helped the staff in the studio editing, copying and providing the video material for the artists.

My work was quite flexible so I helped the stuff where ever I was needed. With my mentor we changed/added tasks depending on the upcoming projects.

A38 is part of the Trans European Halls network. In May one of the regular international meetings took place at the ship in Budapest. I was helping with the organization of the meeting, assisting the stuff during the meeting and guiding the participants when needed. Beside its work within the frames of the country borders A38 organizes festivals in different capitals of Europe. In June 2010 its My city festival took place in Ljubljana so I was given the opportunity to help with the organization, because of my knowledge of the local cultural/music scene and I also accompanied the staff during the time of the festival in Ljubljana.

A38: What kind of preparation was offered to you before departure?

Mateja: I didn’t take part in a pre-departure training. My coordinator at Metelkova Mreža helped me a lot with the paper work and with getting into contact with the club as Mreža and A38 both are at present members of the TEH network and the staff responsible for EVS projects already had previous contact with them. In that way I could visit them before my application to discuss the possibility of volunteering there.

A38: Please describe what support the host organizations provided to you?

Mateja: I got really good support from the Artemisszió Alapítvány, my coordinating host organization. My coordinator Edina Tarjan took care of the language course and they also integrated me in a lot of programs they were organizing for their Leonardo participants. At the A38 they provided me also with a co-mentor who wasn’t part of the stuff. Although I almost didn’t need him at all I think it was a good idea. Both my mentors who were working at A38 Gabriella Mora and Adrien Nagy (my mentor changed in the middle of the project) provided me a big help with my integration in the club.

A38: Could you integrate in the local community easily?

Mateja: As I had already visited the city many times before I already had some contacts. They helped me to meet a lot of new people and the club with all its employees and visitors is a quite popular meeting point too. On one side I tried to spend more time with local people also to improve my language skills and on the other the EVS trainings were a good possibility to meet people having similar experiences at the same time.