From the ongoing paperwork process for foreigners who move to Denmark to the twist and turns brought by working in the Communication department in Badminton Europe, it has not been a monotonous month of May.

If there is one thing that all foreigners in Denmark are acquainted with, it’s how tedious the process to sort all the paperwork needed to live in the country is. I innocently though that since I had lived in Denmark before, it would be easier for me to sort everything out, but I was wrong.

It was more of a waiting game, but plenty of patience is required for this one. It is difficult to get appointments early on to request the residence permit and then, eventually, the famous yellow card — it’s simply a national health insurance card, but really important to get by —. It was a relief when a month later I had my personal number and the physical card, but there were more issues ahead.

Luckily, I was not completely alone in the process. I had the help of my mentor and other people from Badminton Europe assisting me with setting up a bank account and figuring out how to set up my tax card. Finally, after two months, I can say I am done with the lengthy paperwork process, and I could not be happier about it.

There were some EU paperwork to be filled in and signed too, but it was easier for me as a volunteer as my mentor did most of the work and we worked together to have it ready. June is also the month in which I will have my week-long ESC/EVS On Arrival Training. I’m very much looking forward to hearing what the trainers have to share with us and to share experiences with the other volunteers in Denmark.

There were some tournaments that had to be cancelled in the last month, as Covid-19 is still making it difficult for certain events to happen. Still, there were tournaments to cover and they are always a reason to celebrate, no matter how small they are. However, badminton is not just about the tournaments, the medals to be won and ranking points to fight for, but also about the players themselves.

There were many big news this month. One of them was the proposal to change the scoring system, with many people voicing their opinions for and against. It was interesting as a volunteer in the Communication department to see how the process developed.

Yet, it would not an overstatement if I were to say that I have witnessed important moments in the history of badminton, just in the span of one month. We first had the announcement of Gabby and Chris Adcock retiring. The famous duo had now decided to announce that they were stepping away from the game. Then, we also had to rapidly deal with the news of Carolina Marín suffering an important injury that could potentially prevent her from earning yet another Olympic medal, and days after she confirmed the dreaded news.

This has been a valuable lesson for me in terms of how to deal with breaking news. The Communication team has to move as fast as possible, and here is where the word "team" plays a central role. The whole group has to help each other, each taking a task — one working on the text, the other looking for photos, and then, publishing on all platforms —. It was nerve-wracking in a way but satisfying to see the good result.

Despite everything that I have experienced so far, there is, of course, so much for me to learn. A great way to do this is to have feedback sessions of our written pieces. We write many different types of texts, such as match reports, player profiles, or general announcements. As someone who has just got started in the world of journalistic texts, getting comments and guidance is an extremely important part of the process.

It was also interesting to see how different the dynamics are from the Spanish work system in general to the Danish one, and the feedback session was one of them. It was not merely about getting comments on the things I had done wrong, but rather a meeting in which I received advice while also sharing my experience with the manager and fellow co-worker. I think sharing is the key word in the dynamics of the session, as opposed to just receiving comments.

Thanks to this session I now know what to focus on in the following weeks, that is, looking for what exactly is the story that I want to tell before writing the article and focusing on that main point. Also, I now know that “short is good”, especially when it comes to match reports, since I tend to write lengthy pieces and I need to adapt the length and content to the different type of texts I work on. I’m looking forward to see what the next weeks in Badminton Europe and the Danish summer have in store for me in the following month.