Introducing....Veggie Bourger!

Hi, I’m Valerie, the artist formerly known as Kosher Waffle, and I’ve just moved to Luxembourg. This has been a journey in the making and is certainly an adventure to come. Over two-and-a-half years ago I moved to Belgium to volunteer at a community for people with special needs and started this blog as a way of keeping my friends informed of what I was up to and ensuring that my story was shared without the alterations of creative storytelling (Mom). Now I am blogging for different reasons, which only makes sense as I am a different person. A lot has changed since I left America in July 2009. I have had eight incredible months in Belgium with marvelous people and exciting exploits. I had two back surgeries and am still recovering. I earned my Master’s degree in Public Health Policy in Edinburgh, Scotland, where I have just left after the best year-and-a-half I could have imagined. I have also been blessed to travel around and live in Europe quite a bit. My outlook on life is different, my goals are different, and even my friends are different; in 2009 they were mostly American, now they are mostly European.

So with this new volunteering experience comes a new blog. My readership will be different not only because of the changed (potential) readership over the past two years, but also because I am a part of the European Voluntary Service (EVS). The organizations that sponsor and organize EVS like their volunteers to have blogs so that they can both keep track of how the volunteers’ experiences are going and show prospective volunteers what it’s like to be an EVSer. It is merely an added bonus that my mother doesn’t get to put her own spin on things.

You may skip this paragraph if you have already heard all about EVS and what I’m doing in Luxembourg. The European Voluntary Service is a European Commission program that sponsors youth to volunteer in different countries. Similar to when I was in Belgium, I will have a sending organization, Xchange Scotland, and a hosting organization where I will work, Croix Rouge Luxembourgoise (CRL), or Red Cross Luxembourg. While working at CRL, all my expenses will be paid, including housing, food, transport to/from work, training(s), health insurance, and language courses. I will spend 1 year, working 37 hours/week and getting the beautiful 30+ paid vacation days (not including sick days)* with the Red Cross. Working for them is an absolute dream come true for me, and I cannot wait to learn all about how the organization works and get experience in this incredible humanitarian organization. I am so proud and so excited to be with CRL, that I’m honestly quite nervous!

Disclaimer: I haven’t been a grown up in nearly three years. Monday I will start again at a 9-5 (ish) job, wear real-people clothes and have designated lunch hours. I will remember what a ‘weekend’ is, plan things for ‘after work,’ and forsake my beloved jeans. This may be even more daunting than working in French! From my understanding, I’ll be in the Communications Department working on a variety of projects, from domestic to international. I will have more details next week, along with some anecdotes of the terribly awkward and/or faux pas situations in which I’ve managed to get myself.

I’m a bit rusty on blogging, so please forgive me if this isn’t as charming or witty as you expected or if it doesn’t stack up to Kosher Waffle. I can’t promise it will improve much, but I can promise that the more absurd my life gets (which is usually a pretty good guarantee), the more absurd the documentation shall get. Please let me know if you have any suggestions, questions, etc, and thank you so much for reading and taking an interest in my new adventure.

Lots of Love,

Veggie Bourger

*now you know why I stay in Europe