Ok, so here I am one month after that non-formal learning wich gathered us around in the small town of Curtea the Arges…yes, I am talking about “United Symbols of Europe” wich we had the honor to organize. Although it was my fourth exchange I can tell you that this one made me look thinks in a different way. Why am I saying that? Because I know how much we worked to organize this exchange…I am not complaining from only one reason…because the project was awesome in every way(and here I am talking about people, activities, the way we organized it, etc.). It’s amazing how a simple idea that Iulia had turned into this great way of spending our holyday and meeting new people or seeing old friends and discovering things that we didn’t knew about other countries.
I have this opinion about the exchange thanks to the workshops, their leaders, the activities (energizers, ice-breaking games, treasure hunt – wich, btw, I am so happy that turned out to be a success, the trekking wich I hope you all enjoyed, and specially the TB games).
In U.S.E. took part, as you already know, 4 countries: Latvia, Poland, Turkey and Romania. Those 4 nations brought, each, in my opinion, 6 of their best youngsters. They were all smart and with a lot of sense of humor, young people that know how to live their lives…that’s why we didn’t had any problems, or even difficult situations…thanks to those people. I think I will stop here writing because I can’t really find the appropriate words to describe this exchange…I think that I have only words that can’t be spoken about it, because I am so trilled that I took part in this magnificent activity wich we call “United Symbols of Europe” or the already well known name U.S.E.
luni, 12 octombrie 2009
At the beginning I thought it would be very hard for me , because it was my first youth international exchange, but I can say that it wasn’t like that. Besides the fact that I’ve really liked this exchange, I mean I liked its thematic about symbols and cultures, I am very glad that I had the chance to meet civilized people.
First of all we started to know each other, we played ice-breaking games and energizers and we talked about European citizenship, about tolerance, about ourselves and all during the exchange we tried to know our values an our defects (for tolerate them). For me, it was a great experience to organize and participate on this exchange, I can tell you that it changed something on me, made me fell more free in everything I do and in everything I think and say.
We have tried to understand that we are different, indeed, but still sowing, and our discussions have confirmed that to us.
During the exchange we had a lot of activities like: visiting Curtea de Arges‘s symbols, trekking +middle evaluation, treasure hunt, workshops, Brasov town, team building etc.
Nico
First of all we started to know each other, we played ice-breaking games and energizers and we talked about European citizenship, about tolerance, about ourselves and all during the exchange we tried to know our values an our defects (for tolerate them). For me, it was a great experience to organize and participate on this exchange, I can tell you that it changed something on me, made me fell more free in everything I do and in everything I think and say.
We have tried to understand that we are different, indeed, but still sowing, and our discussions have confirmed that to us.
During the exchange we had a lot of activities like: visiting Curtea de Arges‘s symbols, trekking +middle evaluation, treasure hunt, workshops, Brasov town, team building etc.
Nico
duminică, 11 octombrie 2009
After
There is always an after… that’s because all the things come to an end some day and what is sad is that nice things end up earlier. That is what happened to our exchange, United Symbols of Europe, too which end up approximately one month ago. I am sure we all miss those days that passed so fast from our points of view.
And like in most of the “after periods”, we start to analyze and to think about what we have done and what we have learned during the period itself.
For me, “United symbols of Europe” was not just another exchange that I took part in. I didn’t just participate, but I had the chance to learn some things about how this kind of project has to be organized. There is a lot of work to do, but after you manage to accomplish all the things that you wanted, you stop thinking about the work you did to get to the aim and you only see the results and the enthusiasm caused by them.
So, after some weeks of preparing and trying to make everything go properly, the project started on 6th of September. We met the other participants and by saying “we met”, I mean we barely could remember each other's names. That was only in the first day, of course, before starting to interact, to talk about ourselves, our cultures, our issues which were more or less similar for all of us. We found similarities and differences among us: similarities brought us closer to each other and differences… (Not what you probably think)… differences made us curious, made us want to know more interesting things about the others.
We talked about many issues and we shared information about Europe, this way being able to express our opinions, to identify the issues and finally to find the solutions.
What I liked the most about this exchange…hmmm…hard to decide. I will choose the workshop because it was really pleasant to work with my team, to discuss, to find together interesting ideas and to practice them. As a leader of the Romanian Workshop, I can say that I was very happy to see Polish, Latvian and Turkish people wearing traditional costumes, to see them happy of learning a Romanian song, enthusiastic of acting the character of Hagi, curious to learn Romanian dances and nervous before the “European Fair” because they wanted everything to go well. It was great to work with such people!
At the same time, of course, we had a lot of fun! The energizers, the ice-breaking games, the parties and the times spent together in our breaks gave us the opportunity to know each other better and to get to nice friendships among us!
In conclusion, I want another U.S.E!
And like in most of the “after periods”, we start to analyze and to think about what we have done and what we have learned during the period itself.
For me, “United symbols of Europe” was not just another exchange that I took part in. I didn’t just participate, but I had the chance to learn some things about how this kind of project has to be organized. There is a lot of work to do, but after you manage to accomplish all the things that you wanted, you stop thinking about the work you did to get to the aim and you only see the results and the enthusiasm caused by them.
So, after some weeks of preparing and trying to make everything go properly, the project started on 6th of September. We met the other participants and by saying “we met”, I mean we barely could remember each other's names. That was only in the first day, of course, before starting to interact, to talk about ourselves, our cultures, our issues which were more or less similar for all of us. We found similarities and differences among us: similarities brought us closer to each other and differences… (Not what you probably think)… differences made us curious, made us want to know more interesting things about the others.
We talked about many issues and we shared information about Europe, this way being able to express our opinions, to identify the issues and finally to find the solutions.
What I liked the most about this exchange…hmmm…hard to decide. I will choose the workshop because it was really pleasant to work with my team, to discuss, to find together interesting ideas and to practice them. As a leader of the Romanian Workshop, I can say that I was very happy to see Polish, Latvian and Turkish people wearing traditional costumes, to see them happy of learning a Romanian song, enthusiastic of acting the character of Hagi, curious to learn Romanian dances and nervous before the “European Fair” because they wanted everything to go well. It was great to work with such people!
At the same time, of course, we had a lot of fun! The energizers, the ice-breaking games, the parties and the times spent together in our breaks gave us the opportunity to know each other better and to get to nice friendships among us!
In conclusion, I want another U.S.E!
miercuri, 7 octombrie 2009
Mustafa says:
WE CAN LİVE TOGETHER
By the process of globalization nationalist motivated events caused a lot of problems, even wars. Moreover after the Cold War some experts, one of them being Samuel P. Huntington, predicted that the fundamental source of conflict will be cultural.
“The fault line between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.”
Those kinds of predictions are really dangerous in our times because the differences between cultures don’t cause conflict but those kinds of ideas and predictions can cause them. Main solution of the problems is to learn about each others, because by this way we can get rid of our prejudices and the best way of learning about cultures are learning their symbols and the meaning of those symbols
For that kind of purpose we, 26 youngsters from 4 different countries, gathered in Curtea de Argeş, a small lovely Romanian town. The aim was to learn the symbols of the countries. In this way we didn’t learn only about the symbols of the countries we also learned about their cultures, their cultural symbols, their way of life. Gradually we were knowing each other, we were chatting and we saw that we can get on well, no matter we belong to different cultures. Our hotel was like a laboratory for social scientist, we were like test subjects, the question of study was “Can people from different cultures live together?”
After those kind of activities, (exchanges) we should think that what this exchange added us, what is our benefit? To answer this question we must compare our first and last day in exchange. In the first day maybe some of us had some prejudices against other cultures but in the last day this prejudices have gradually melted. We can live together, we can get on well, we can be friends and we can prevent the “clash of civilizations”.
Mustafa Demir
Leader of Turkish Group.
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