{"id":971,"date":"2021-08-03T13:10:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-03T13:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/habibicenter.org\/alena-russia\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T12:37:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T12:37:21","slug":"alena-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/habibicenter.org\/?p=971","title":{"rendered":"ALENA (RUSSIA)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignfull has-background has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized has-custom-border aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/habibicenter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ALENA-RUSSIA-768x1024.webp\" alt=\"ALENA-RUSSIA.\" class=\"wp-image-67\" style=\"border-radius:50%;object-fit:cover;width:300px;height:300px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/habibicenter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ALENA-RUSSIA-768x1024.webp 768w, https:\/\/habibicenter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ALENA-RUSSIA-225x300.webp 225w, https:\/\/habibicenter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ALENA-RUSSIA-1152x1536.webp 1152w, https:\/\/habibicenter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ALENA-RUSSIA.webp 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center has-large-font-size\">ALENA (RUSSIA)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center has-medium-font-size\">Volunteered From AUGUST 2021 TO OCTOBER 2021<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">2021  I had been looking for a place to volunteer as a teacher for a short period of time. I didn\u2019t plan on spending my time in Greece, but then I found the Habibi Center, and it felt like it was the right place. I stayed there for 8 weeks. At first, I thought that it\u2019d be a long time, but now I wish it had lasted longer. To be honest, I didn\u2019t know what to expect and what was waiting for me there, I just wanted to teach. What I found at the Habibi Center was so much more than just a teaching experience. I found a little family. I started off by teaching three classes and I was nervous about it. I thought I wouldn\u2019t be able to handle 4,5 hours of teaching per day, I doubted I\u2019d have enough energy for that. After my first day teaching, however, all my fears disappeared, as I got to teach the most incredible students. Every day they\u2019d give me tons of positive emotions, their motivation to study sparked my motivation to teach. And no matter how hard my day was, my students would always light it up for me. It wasn\u2019t always easy, but it was worth it. Sometimes we\u2019d stay and chat after the classes, talking about everything in the world. I got to learn more about their cultures, I even tried several national dishes my wonderful students cooked for me. I\u2019m so thankful to my students for everything I\u2019ve learned from them. Not only the student, but also the teachers are extraordinary people. We\u2019ve done so much together; I can definitely say I\u2019ve learned a lot from them. Stephanie, Alex, Camille, Matthew, Steven, Gladys, Emily and Al, thank you for all the support and comfort you gave me, for the incredible days I got to share with you and unforgettable experiences. I hope to get back one day and hear my students calling me \u201cteacher\u201d again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ALENA (RUSSIA) Volunteered From AUGUST 2021 TO OCTOBER 2021 2021 I had been looking for a place to volunteer as a teacher for a short period of time. I didn\u2019t plan on spending my time in Greece, but then I found the Habibi Center, and it felt like it was the right place. I stayed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-teachers"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/habibicenter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ALENA-RUSSIA.webp","author_info":{"display_name":"juliandeblock@gmail.com","author_link":"https:\/\/habibicenter.org\/?author=1"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>ALENA (RUSSIA) - Habibi Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/habibicenter.org\/?p=971\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ALENA (RUSSIA) - Habibi Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ALENA (RUSSIA) Volunteered From AUGUST 2021 TO OCTOBER 2021 2021 I had been looking for a place to volunteer as a teacher for a short period of time. I didn\u2019t plan on spending my time in Greece, but then I found the Habibi Center, and it felt like it was the right place. 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