United Symbols of Europe

Warm greetings

2010-01-05T05:58:00.000-08:00

Quite long time since we met warm Romania.
Hope your New Year started well, main has started excellent and I believe it`s gonna be colerful and exiting.

Warm greetings to everyone from cold and snowy Latvia :)

ILze

Greetings from Zane

2009-12-30T05:15:00.000-08:00

Some time has passed since the project took place, but the feeling and joy still is not lost. When e meet other project participants we remember funny jokes and funny events that we recall from our new friends and realize that we miss them. Romania lacks the warm air, high mountains and good natured people. Most I remember are many discussions in witch everyone had to defend their point of views and had to listen to others , it was not easy. One of the most interesting activities was the treasure hunt. The contest was very interesting and well thought challenges. The tasks were different and also varietd the level of difficulty, it was very good. The greatest tension I felt exactly when had the last task to be resolved - the pyramid. Were unable to resolve it for a long time, but in the end to we did it togather. Project games were very interesting.We've taught them to our friends, they also liked them very much.Of course the most popular was "baby shark". The project leader and all of the participants in the project were really nice and interesting. I certainly would like to meet you all and even if only once again go to Rumania. Projekts was fantastic.

Thenk you very much!

Zane

From Sandija after a while

2009-12-23T05:35:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since we were in Rumania, but we still have good memories from the time we spent there. Most interesting is that for all of us it seams that only yesterday we left Rumania. It seems that only yesterday we were hiking feeling totally exhausted, but we did not give up. It seams just yesterday we were on a treasure hunt, looking for clues...

We arrived, had a great time and left, bringing home tons of memories to share with family and friends. Now all of us would like to go back to meet all the wonderful that took part in this life changing project. This project will always remain in my memory the fact that I met so many nice people and learned other national symbols and culture. Most, of course, I learned about Turkey, which I would like to visit as soon as I can and see everything Turkish told me about and showed me. I enjoyed making these Workshop presentations in each country’s group because they were completely different and it was also fun. It’s a pity that now, after a while, I can’t keep in touch with everyone. I loved energizers, which were taught in Romania, and now are often used as a good way to spend time with my friends. Most striking thing left in my memory from Romania is the common sports games, in which we got divided into groups so that only 1 person from each country, I enjoyed the treasure hunt so much, in which we had to cooperate with each other for the challenge to succeed. And of course within in memory will stay nice people who took part in the project and were always helpful and friendly. I gained a lot of English language skills and conversational development, because I had to speak English every day. I loved Romania itself as a country and I enjoyed the beautiful mountains and nature. Waking up every morning and seeing that magnificent view of the mountains was really great. There are much smaller hills in Latvia so I found it nice. Looking at pictures, or reading a letter with intention to turn the time back and stay there. But I hope that a similar opportunity will be given to me and I will see you all and share some more time.

At the beginning it was very difficult to return back to school. Strange feeling with no people from the project, no shared meals, activities, conversation, good time together. Even after a week got back home at night, my dad rung and asked whether I'm home, I was asleep so I began speaking English because I was used to speak English all the time. Leavening Romania was really hard but the memories will remain forever.

Best wishes to every one of you!

Merry Christmas :)
Sandija

Remembering...

2009-11-23T09:16:00.000-08:00

It was my first international project and I can say that it was very intresting for me
and I'm glad because I was and I am in this nice project.
I met some people
with different ideas of life, different culture and not least different style and I learned
more thinghs about Turkey, Poland and Latvia and you, my friends, made me a very good
impression about your culture and your contry.
I really liked that days, and I hope to meet
you all again.Greetings from Curtea de Arges! See you my friends!

After U.S.E. -> memories and good friends

2009-10-12T13:53:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-10-12T13:07:00.000-07:00

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

After

2009-10-11T11:03:00.000-07:00

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!

Mustafa says:

2009-10-07T11:45:00.000-07:00

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.

USE in couples of words

2009-09-23T12:40:00.001-07:00

CUrtea de Arges
TostiNg machine
ActIvity room
Great Teams :)
Energizers
Crazy Dogs in the streets

Sketches in the forest

ca cYn cy ca ca cyncy ca ca cyncycaca!!!!! =D
RoManian people
Babe shark :)
POles
Latvian people
TurkS

"It's Okay" :)

What's the Fuck?" :)

Evaluations
Final ProdUct
FRogs on the reception
WOrkshops
"Peace on the world"
FarEwell time :((

And towsends of other things which are unexpressable!!!!!!!!!!!

Greetings and hugs from Poland

Karolla says - part2

2009-09-10T23:52:00.000-07:00

„Piece of Us in Romania, or piece of Romania in Us ?”

Curtea de Arges- that's a beautiful Romanian town which is hosting Us at the project ''United Symbols of Europe”'.
Exactly in this town, our Romanian friends with a great openness are making closer and closer their culture. Together we’re: working at the project's workshops, we're sight seeing, having fun and learning-about ourselves and our cultures.
We are here only 4 days, but because of the intensive and cheerful work, we have already have prepared Our final presentations.
In the last days we have seen The Monastery, The Ethnography House and Brasov city- which we've already come back amazed because of the charm of the old city and the Black Church
The road to Brasov-beside it was long and curvy - made Us able to see the larger part of the Romanian Country, and reflect about the attitude of their citizens (I mean our Romanian friends).
Exactly they are telling us with proud about their history, and show to us their patriotism.
It's really important for young people to think about their national individuality as a advantage.
I know that because of the people like Us ( I mean equally Turks, Latvians, Romanians and Poles) globalization won't be able to get lost our cultures ( especially symbols like - traditional: dances, songs, wearing).
And for sure it can’t do it, during this exchange - for which symbols and cultures are in the first place...

Karolla says

2009-09-10T23:47:00.000-07:00

„What do You think is a symbol ?”

Curtea de Arges- that's a beatiful Romanian town which was a capital of /..../

Exacly this town, now hosting Us at the project '' United Symbols of Europe ”'.

Here in in historycal town our Romanian friends with a great openess are making closer and closer their culture. What to You think symboling now Your town if it was a capitol?

Exacly here - together we're : working at the project's workshops, we're sight seeing,havi'n fun and learning-about ourselves and our cultures.

We are here only 4 days,but because of the intensive and cheerful work, we have already have prepeared Our final presentations.

In the last days we have seen The Monastery, The Etnography House and Brasov city- which we've already come back amazed because of the charm of the old city and the Black Church

The road to Brasov-beside it was long and curvy - made Us able to see the larger part of the Romanian Country, and reflcet about the attitude of their citiziensi (I mean our Romanian friends).

Exacly they are telling us with proud about their history, and show to us their patriothysm.

It's really immportant for young people to think about their national individuality as a advantage.

I am sure that because of the people like Us ( I mean equally Turks, Latvians, Romanians and Poles) globalisation won't be able to get lost our cultures ( especially symbols like - traditional: dances, songs, wearings).

And for sure it cant do it, during this exchange - for which symbols and cultures are in the first place ...

During USE

2009-09-09T01:29:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

In a break of 10 minutes I am uploading some pictures describing our activities so far.

USE is going well in my opinion, today the workshops are starting the hard work:)
Soon, we will have some news from the groups;)
All the best and keep smiling!

tanananaaaaa

2009-09-05T06:20:00.000-07:00

This is a part of what our group and another volunteer (btw thanks Alex) did today:)

So, tomorrow we meet the Polish & Turkish groups and tonight we are waiting for the Latvian group. I'm almost on my way to Bucharest...
Few hours left, prepare yourself for this challenge:)

All the best
Keep smiling;)

Karolla (Polish group) says:

2009-09-04T13:18:00.000-07:00

Hiii

We'll meet soon
I know that U have prepared fantastic exchange
I fear just a little tresherhunting :P couse on the last exchange i was in the same team with Lau, and that was the only reason why we won this game :P

Can w8 to see your smiling faces !!
see U on Sunday!

Ooo!!! and i wanna say sorry !!! Couse i haven't improved my English
:[
but my body language is cool - like always :))

Hugs, Kisses and see U soon!

Turkish group says:

2009-09-04T11:44:00.000-07:00

Hi Everybody,

We are Turkish group. We want to send a picture; however, we are not together, living in different cities. In fact, we are ,all, symbolizing the different parts of Turkey, we, all, come from different regions, east, west, north, south,…Therefore, we are actually ’symbols’ of mosaic of Turkey. Therefore, I hope, we will present our symbols in a good way. Moreover, we are so excited to learn you and your symbols, through symbols, of course, your cultures. Thus we are looking forward to see and meet you. By the way, the other reason why we are so excited is the fact that it is our first Exchange…

Let’s learn a few things about us:

Mustafa, leader…no response :)

Nazlı, workshop leader, likes to learn different cultures and fond of literature, hates darkness…

Umit, likes questioning, hates to be questioned :)

Fatma, panic, anxiety, likes to collect books…

Kutay funny, self-confident, likes to travel to different countries…………..

Sara, friendly, likes to take responsibility, hates to be interrupted.

We hope to have great time with you, see you on Sunday: D

Kisses from Turkey !!!

Stefan says:

2009-09-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

Some words about Treasure Hunt:

The TH looks very easy to make, but we can guarantee that it isn’t so... We started to work at it 4 days ago and we didn’t finished. First day we just made the plan, saw the place and made jokes! Second day our team came with tasks, saw the route, and made the way of a team, another two ways we made next day when all of us were happy that we finished, but we woke up fast, when Iulia said: “ tomorrow will come here again”.We are glad because it is almost done, and our work will delight you, at least we hope so!

All the best!

Romanian Team...

2009-09-01T02:33:00.000-07:00

In fact, a part of it. The picture was taken during the Team Building that took part in the mountains. Great weekend, great weather, mountains, no snakes, no bears \:d/, nice landscapes, laughter everywhere, good jokes, a lot of food, standing till late around the fire, trying to sleep, snore :D, waking up, discussing details, cleaning, taking the final photo, leaving, Cipa driving fast, us wondering, Iulia trying to drive "the amazing car" properly, us singing in the car.

2009-08-31T13:37:00.002-07:00

Hello everyone!
How are you?
Me???I am fine ,thanks for asking!;)):P
I will tell you something about our team building...well...it was so beautiful,but ended rather quickly.
But,in fact all things have an end ,right?...a veeery happy end...
So...besides the fact that we settled all things about our great project,we enjoyed the beauty of days.
It was great!Breathing the bracing air of the mountains,we went to a real trip to the clouds.We thought it would be a shame not to take the advantage of sunshine,so we chose a mountain route that we enjoy.We got up close to 2100 m altitude where only find quiet and freedom.Of course you can be disturbed by the murmur of sources and sometimes the voice of marmots:),but it can only cheer you up;)
What wonderful days...but i think there is little time, a few days and will folow other equally wonderful days when the exchange will start:)
All the best:)

hello:d

2009-08-30T13:07:00.000-07:00

Hello Polish group...nice to hear something about you(even if we already know Ola and Karola).we have only one more week until we'll see again or meet,and we'd like to say to all of you that we have almost everything ready for this exchange.our team building just ended, we established all the things and we are now waiting for you(all of you) to come and take part in this exchange :d.see you;)

Polish group says:

2009-08-30T11:45:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

We're people Formaly Known As Polish Group,
and we just wanted to present ourselves in a few words.

Our team build:
Karolla-2nd exchange
''I don't like disliking,I am afraid of adders.I like smelling''
Klaudia-1st exchange
„I hate raisins!I like disliking,drinks with umbrellas,Moomins cartoon”
(Do not touch her head,she hates this...”)
Ania-1st exchange
„I like turquoise. I dont like obstruction and havi'n sore throat...”
Maciek-1st exchange
He didnt give any comment....
Ola-4th exchange
„I dont like ladybirds and nylon stockings.I like starfishes and having a lot of pencils”
Szymon-3rd exchange
„I like molten cheese and beer.I dont like this question”

We hope,to get to know soon the rest of the exchange's participans,and their likings :)
Greetings!

Romanian team:)

2009-08-25T02:11:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!:)

I do hope everything's going fine with all of you and also the preparations within the groups. Don't forget about the sketch with the joke. We want to laugh out loud in your national days:)

I want to introduce the Romanian great team, so:

1. Andreea - leader of the Romanian workshop, she knows the stuff, you can count on her(as on all of them),
2. Lau - Treasure Hunt, administrative stuff, entertaining and fun responsible,
3. Nico - first exchange, already noticed she can handle the pressure, visits&games responsible,
4. Alex- IT, projector, banner, poster, leaflets responsible, 2nd exchange; (we all hope) a positive thinker soon:)
5. Alexandra aka Safat - already involved in several exchanges, trips, bills and invoices responsible and she also knows the stuff;)
6. Stefan - young and quiet, 1st exchange, I'm sure he will make a great job there
7. Iani - already experienced with youth exchanges, no responsibilities yet (how come???:)
8. Me, Iulia, trying to lead the whole "event" which I promise to be the best exchange;)

Then we have some other cheerful Romanians who will be there but not 100%:
- Bogdan - we are considering the tasks now;
- Cipa - curly, sponsors' responsible, administrative issues;
- Anca - smiling responsible;
- Cristina - she's the artist! singer and arhitect to be:)
and Ducu, genuine artist as well, who is helping us a lot.

So, this is the group welcoming you in Curtea de Arges!
We don't know each other too much so this weekend we are going for a team building in the mountains. Pictures coming next week;)

Here's the website of the place we shall have the accommodation: http://www.confarg.ro/hotel-confarg.html
All the best!

Preparations:d

2009-08-24T12:04:00.000-07:00

So, like you all know, we have only 2 more weeks until our exchange will start...and what are we going to do in those 2 week? well, we will work and try to do everything in time for you and for us...we already have decided most of the things and we have started to gather our ideas in order to give birth to some funny and also serious activities, but i won't say more now, you will just have to wait! I wish you a great....waiting!

Prologue to U.S.E.

2009-08-18T14:29:00.000-07:00

Hello, people!
Our project is about to start and we are trying to make it work properly. We still have some problems, but we hope to solve them as soon as possible. Our optimistic attitude will definitely help! We had some meetings, we discussed and we decided about the place where we are going to stay during the period of the exchange, we finished the schedule and some other details which, in my opinion, are very important.
We are planing to make a team building in the mountains during two days where we are going to discus more and we will start to create the beginning of an exchange atmosphere, so we will be able to receive you with joy and spontaneity.
We are still open to suggestions and ideas, so whenever you want to add something, don't hesitate to contact us!
Can't wait for it to start and I'm waiting for your ideas, anything that comes into your minds when you think about United Symbols of Europe!