A surprise from our wonderful volunteers

Our latest group of volunteers delighted us with a wonderful surprise, by listing all the things they are going to miss of their experience here at the European Union pavilion. Some comments are moving, some are really fun and some others are punchy and witty. See this wonderful gift!

Thank you all. You really are our strength and hope for the future. Bring your experience with you!

Hello everybody,

a few days ago we decided to collect some memories of the fantastic experience that we all shared in the European Union pavilion at Expo Milano 2015 by writing something that we are still missing. Then, we decided to send you all the thoughts from our group of volunteers, to be thankful for the opportunity that you gave us!

"I miss the moment when everyone said nothing and stayed quiet at the check in when the DOM would ask "pre – show?".

"I miss coming out of my room, looking to the right, seeing Guy run out of his room, tablet in hand, upbeat music playing, headbanging, making a not-so-graceful pirouette, and running back into his room. Repeatedly".

"I miss the visitors' reactions and facial expressions when the rain falls down during the main show".

"I miss the children's smile and happiness when they do the sandwich game or when they get a pin".

"I miss the looks of disapproval on timid people's faces when you shove the frame in their face (gently)".

"I miss when in the welcome desk i had to explain that Norway and Switzerland are not members of the EU".

"I miss how the pavilion turned into a home for us and our friendships felt like a family bonds".

"I miss the moments when visitors told us to bring them tons of posters".

"I miss the feel of “Expo” as something that connects people, minds and nations. I miss the positivity that working in the pre-show of our pavilion gave me and maybe, also, I miss the feeling of being ignorant while all my colleagues were listing all the world nations’ capital cities. But in the end, what I REALLY miss are all the people I became close to during those two very intense weeks".

"I miss visitors taking pictures of me while I was promoting because they didn't understand that the heart for taking pictures was for them!".

"I miss the feeling when I put my camera around my neck and everyone thought that I am a photographer".

"I miss the book from the pre-show 3 - "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" ".

"I miss the Nobel Peace Prize".

"I miss the annoying music in preshow"

"I miss when, during the promotion, visitors didn't want to take a picture with Alex,Sylvia and me because they were sure that they had to pay me".

"I miss texting Alice to bring me some cookies during the shift "

"Ahahah Francesco and I miss you messing up by sending visitors who pretended to be the delegation from Belgium"

"I miss our sleepy faces in the morning after we stayed up too long in the previous night (every time!) and sing national anthems on the terrace".

"I miss having a look at the counter to see how many people visited the Pavilion".

"I miss saying "oi oi saveloy".

"I miss those everyday moments when the tree of life was performing its show, with those special songs that after few days became a familiar sound accompanying us during the shift..making you feel part of a great experience..that feeling still gives me a wonderful emotion".

"I miss missing the last metro of the day ".

"I miss the very first time we met at the meeting in Palazzo delle stelline".

"I miss the ultimatums from the second shift (third shift was always late)".

"I miss belgian beer...or better, i miss drinking with you".

"I miss the effort of some people in the interior welcome desk, desperately trying to guess which flags corredponded to which country, especially the one who believed there was the Canadian flag among the European ones :') ".

"I miss going for a coffee after the check out".

"I miss playing with the sandwich screen".

"I miss asking guests on the first days: "italiano?", and when they answer "yes!", just smile and say "eehehe, buongiornooo!".

"I miss the evenings on the terrace".

"I miss seeing the spetacollo del'albero 3 times every evening, I miss our evenings at the Tracce, I miss our shift, I miss our morning breakfasts with Alice Tomassini and Luigi Limone, I miss arriving early and always seeing Francesco Cimino doing promotion, and most of all I miss going out with you all and spending time together!"

"I miss my feet hurting once arrived at home at night, the more they hurted, more things we were able to do together that day! I miss going around the site asking for gifts from the pavilions. I miss talking with you. I miss the work and talking with the visitors, the smiles of the people and kids in the content room after watching the show and interacting with the screens. I miss feeling part of something bigger like EU, unlike everyday life where all that seems to be important is our own small problems. I miss the sounds, the smells, the colours, the tastes and everything!".

"I miss oi oi saveloy, the spanish guy, happy hour in polish pavilion, etihad pavilion, uae pavilion, our conversations, Nikola and è uno spettacolo multisensoriale, Guy and the bananas".

"I miss the kids dregging parents to the pavilion after hearing "4d animatiom movie", and the parents faces"

"I miss dancing to the tree of life songs while promoting/queuing. I miss the "jumpy" chairs"

"Honestly, I miss all the SUPPORT I got from all you guys! Cause you were always encouraging me that I can do the pre-show and speak with people in Italian. I miss you teaching me to speak in Italian and I miss having the chance to speak Italian and convincing people in Italian to come to our pavilion".

"I miss you all, because you are too nice and funny and I miss doing promotion and photos at random with people!".

"I miss waking up everyday thinking about which country i was going to see that day, i miss dancing tarantella in the content centre, and seeing you every single day; there are too many things i miss of this exp(o)erience".

"I miss Osama knocking at my door while I was having a shower".

"I miss your faces when you were tasting pálinka. I miss doing the survey, having fun at the content centre but foremost you guys, the expo family"

"I strangely miss changing the train to reach Expo but, over all, I miss my interior queue/welcome desk, the Tree of Life as a clock for the shift, French people correcting my French and also that lobotomizing video "Sehr Deutsch, sehr lecker Pretzel"/"Vanočka"/"Tere tulemast paviljoni Euroopa Liidu " .

" miss my room(soul) mate".

"I miss going around asking the people where they were from hoping someone would talk any of the languages I speak".

"I miss my beautiful pre show speech and most of all Renga and Jovanotti's songs".

"And I miss Daniela, the "security" of our pavilion. She was always so cute with all of us"

"I miss the Lebanon pavilion cause it made me realize that what I lost is worth nothing compared with what I found in all of you guys".

"I miss our dancing nights (well our 30 minutes dancing nights) all dressed up in the same light blue t-shirt, conquering the dancehall and leaving the desert behind us if the music was bad and we decided to change pavilion "

"So above all i miss my super teamleader Alice who helped me to get along with you Italian people i miss our lunch time at tracce, I miss my favorite dancing music of the eu pavilion, I miss shaking my ass for Mery, I miss picking the ugly Giulia, I miss you guys singing dragon ball in Italian and Daniela singing along, I miss Michael who invited us in his little expo car, I miss that night at the terrace and the run to the disco, I miss my Indian friend, I miss saying “cazzate” with Luigi "oh my God", i miss Francesco and his accent wich took me time to understand, I miss the content Center, I miss my expo family"

"I miss it when the pavilion's music stars and everybody hates it in the morning shift "

"I miss visitors insulting me just because i was wearing the European Union uniform. They said that we were wasting their money "

"Guys you make me want to cry! I miss the videos running in the queue! Oi oi savaloy - tere tulamas europe littu - bienvenidos a la union europea! Sometimes I say these sentences out loud and my friends think I'm crazy"

...I miss all of you and I am so happy that you are sharing your memories with me.

Thank you so much!

Group of volunteers 31/07-13/08