Hello everyone, Agata here. As some of you might already know, I have been volunteering in 2018 Pyeongchang winter Olympics and this is why I was less active online last month.

Personally, I have a long volunteering history both, back as home in Lithuania and also in Korea as well, so becoming a volunteer was not something new to me. Therefore, the reality did not come up to my expectations. This video is just me talking about that.

In my opinion, if you are volunteering, you are doing the job at your own will, not expecting anything in return, so the only things you get in experience and lifetime memories. Therefore, not every volunteer can be lucky enough to get those as well.

When I was applying for the Olympics, I really expected it to be a similar experience to those I have had before – doing volunteer work, making new friends and learning a lot not only about the Olympic games, but also about yourself as a human being. I don’t know why, but somehow I did not really experience any of those. Maybe it is because I was assigned to work in a hotel, maybe it is because I am getting older, maybe because we did not bond with other team members.

Even though I am satisfied with my volunteering experience in a sense, I feel like many things could have been handled better. But when you think about Korea’s political situation and how late the preparations have started, it is quite understandable. Some Koreans, after watching my video, were saying that I am just complaining and whining a lot because I am a westerner. They also spoke about some kind, in my eyes non-existent cultural differences to make me feel worse for speaking out. But I think that if everything were so great, more than 2000 volunteers, mostly Korean citizens, would have not quit their volunteering positions in the first week.

I hope, that you would not misunderstand this video. I am not saying I did not like the Olympics, I am just saying that some things might have been handled better.

Did you go to the Olympics? Or maybe you volunteered? Leave me. Comment down below