ESC 2020/2021

9 months ago I did know just two things about Cyprus: that it was really small and that it was somewhere close to Malta. Spoiler: one of my two knowledges was definitely wrong. In my defense, I almost had never heard about this country in my life. When I discovered I would have left, I started to collect information and paying more attention when I heard people or radio talking about it. In this way, I began to be more conscious about the place where I was about to live for 1 year: the language, the correct geographical position, the political situation...Still, I was not able to keep expectations.  Then I arrived, and I almost immediately fell in love, before with Lefkosia, then, as soon as I had the chance to travel a little bit, with Cyprus.  

Last summer, while staying at home in a difficult period affected by the Coronavirus restrictions, I was looking for some job opportunities abroad and I came across the European Solidarity Corps (ESC) programme. I didn’t know a lot about it, so I started to...

Change is never simple. You leave behind all that is easy and comfortable to embark in a new adventure into the unknown. However, when you decide to board that plane and start a new page of your life, you want to live this new...

This past year and a half has been a year of profound change for me. Once back from my Universal Civil Service in Ecuador I went through a moment of disorientation. What would I have done? How to use the knowledge acquired and the...

Although the public perception appears to have changed, there exists a negative mentality towards the widerange of urban visual expressions such as murals, graffiti, tagging, street art and even urban defacement. These diverse aesthetic forms of expression straddle the line between contemporary art and...

Halloumi (χαλλούμι) is maybe the most known cypriot food. It is a white, semi-hard cheese, traditionally made with goat’s and sheep’s milk, even if, as demand grew, cow’s milk was used too, to make it more delicate and suitable for every palate.You...

In Cyprus, locals eat A LOT of meat. Really, a lot. At mezes restaurants, you will always find yourself not knowing anymore how many types of meat dishes you ate, or how they were cooked, or what kinds of meat you ate. But you...

Global environmental change, such as climate change, is a topic that engages scientists, politicians, activists as well as artists working with many art forms. Specific features of art, such as its ability to evoke emotions1, differentiate this form of communication from standard climate change communication...

I have always thought of the words as essential, in everyday life: even more than gestures, even more than glances, words have always been everything to me. Letter by letter, to form entire speeches. How can you communicate without a common language? How can...

The everyday’s life in the neighborhood I’m living in is made up by different forms of experiences involving all five senses. Days and nights are marked by the adhan, the muezzin’s calling for the believers, whose voice reaches both our apartment and the shelter...