New year, new volunteer!

If you are a skater and you came to Kulturfabrikken in December, you probably would see me hanging around doing some laundries and helping at the cafe, or just vibing to pop-punk songs I dare to play on the cafe speakers (luckily no one has ever complained about them, at least for now).

Buuuut here I am to introduce myself the right way: I´m Deborah, the new volunteer and yeah, I´m Italian, just like Marie and Alessandro! Now let me tell you something about the crazy experiences I had the chance to do during my first period in Denmark.

I´ll start with my favorite thing, skateboarding: well, W O W. I´ve been wishing to be in a place like this ever since, and even if I´ve always been pretty scared of jumping on a skate and going around among such other great skaters (and I still am), working here actually helps a lot in being brave and just “go with the flow” - even more now that the young skaters lent me one of their skateboards! And I also have my angel Guna here for me: she introduces me to every skater coming here telling them “Hey you, have you met Deborah? She wants to learn how to kickflip, maybe you can help her!” … And yeah, that´s true, I came here ALSO because I want to learn as much as I can from these mad teenager skaters! (I’m not telling the skaters that I already can stand on a skateboard, move forward and turning little bit – so please, keep the secret so I can make a good impression hehe)

Speaking of Guna, I feel lucky because she ALWAYS has my back: she is there for me no matter what, and I feel like I could even call her in the middle of the night if I need something – but hopefully I´m not going to need that, poor girl :´) but to be honest, if I had to choose someone to give him/her my whole life here in Denmark, it would be for sure Guna. She has already become a friend, and I´ve been here just for a month!

Last month I also became “nurse” and “cook” (two of the jobs I never considered were for me lol), even if just for a day: I put a band aid on one of the skaters´ finger that was bleeding, and I baked some Italian biscuits and appetizers for the Jul på Fabrikken – and I´m still surprised because people actually liked them, that’s cool hahaha. The same day I also helped Guna with her photo workshop, something we´ve been discussing and preparing for two weeks before the event, and it was a success!

In December Alessandro and I hung up the Christmas lights in the cafe hall. I´m one of those people who love Christmas lights and has them everywhere in their house at any time of the year! That’s why I was really sad when some days ago I went to KF for a cafe shift and saw Ronni taking them off :( I just think that they create such a cozy atmosphere, even more in a skatepark, but yeah you know sometimes we must suffer to be happy again… (jk!)

Another level of this “Denmark game” that I completed is driving a car, a task that I kept for January after coming back to Italy to spend Christmas with my family and friends. I was (and I´m still) SO scared of bikes, because in Italy we don´t have so many bike lanes in the streets, but I managed to drive to Mette´s house and back – and also more than once.

Mette indeed offered me and Guna the possibility to stay at her house in the countryside and close to the sea for some days, while she is on vacation. It was such a heartwarming experience; I feel I don’t know how to put my feelings into words! Waking up surrounded by the trees in this cozy house that really felt like home, listening to the silence, sharing thoughts and art with Guna in front of the fireplace, going for a walk in the cold wind through the woods, looking for amber on the beach, watching silly tv shows and listening to music 24/7… I loved sharing this incredible opportunity with her. We connected even more, and we had so much fun, too. I truly feel extremely grateful! And as you can guess by my excitement we are planning to go back as soon as possible.

Guna and I are also preparing a workshop for the Winter holidays in February: she´s thinking about a creative reinvention of clothes and fabrics, maybe tote bags or T-shirts, to give them a new life in order to recycle materials and raise awareness about climate change topics – which, spoiler, we want to be the main theme of the whole event. We´re going to thrift shops together to see what we can find, and I´m thrilled about this idea: I love going thrift shopping, and maybe we will also ask to the skaters if some of them want to come, to bring people into the process from the very beginning.

Maybe it will be a rush because Guna is going back to Latvia at the end of January and I´m attending a concert in Italy in the beginning of February: we will not be able to see each other for quite a long time, and we´re both going to be back right for the event so we need everything ready before she leaves.

The concerts are also starting soon: I’ll be working on the 21^st at a kids concert and on February 4^th at a jazz concert, but I must confess that I’m more excited for the metal ones! I’ll be taking care of pictures and videos or maybe of serving beers, my tasks aren’t yet decided (but if I can choose, I’ll go for the social media!).

Ok guys, I think I already talked too much, so for now that’s all from me! I’ll come back to you with news on this ESC blog, but let’s keep in touch.

You can follow me on Instagram (deborahtodescato) or add me on Snapchat (blucorallo) if you want more frequent updates or want to share something with me! :)

- Deb