ERASMUS+, Key Action 1: youth exchange
Dates: 29 October—8 November 2022
Venue: Sarata Monteoru, Buzau, Romania
Czech team: Barbora Ježková, Jonáš Müller, Martin Novotný, Jakub El Samman, Václav Šebela
Please read the info-pack & daily programme.
Participating countries: Czech Republic, Spain, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia
Hosting organisation: Buzau Youth Foundation
Project report:
First of all, we were lucky to ‘accidentally’ arrive in Bucharest a day earlier, so we got an extra day to explore this interesting city (a Paris wannabe). But we couldn’t wait to meet the other participants in Monteoru the day after. Our home for the following 11 days was a cozy spa hotel called Casa cu tei.
We spent the beginning of our stay doing get-to-know-each-other activities. But beside that, the main goal of the project was to enhance our upcycling skills (to upcycle means to increase the value of an object, often a single-use one, that we would otherwise throw away). The idea was that if we learn to upcycle, we will decrease our carbon footprint, which means our lifestyle will become more sustainable. Sustainability is a huge topic these days, so we were quite privileged to participate in this project and to learn more about this alarming issue. One of the best final products was for example a set of chess made of plastic lids and cardboard (with the help of plasticine). It’s fascinating to see the big impact that we can make by small actions.
A fun part of our stay were the intercultural nights, where we got to taste traditional foods and drinks from the other participating countries. Participants brought their favourite snacks and everyone had a blast singing, dancing and of course drinking!
The second half of the project was dedicated to the preparation of the final show. Scenes from various artistic fields were introduced, such as dance, theatre, singing, acrobatics and even fashion. I must say that the alternative outfits were an accurate representation of actual, real-life fashion shows – and it was hilarious to watch.
But there was of course a lot more to the project than just learning and working. Most importantly, we had the privilege to meet fabulous people from all over Europe, to learn about their stories and culture and obviously some (bad) words from everyone’s languages! We made amazing new friends that we’re going to miss a lot. But hopefully we will meet up again some day (we’ve already been invited back to Romania and to Málaga for example).
Long story short, we took advantage of an amazing opportunity and it was totally worth it. Thank you, EYCB, for making this possible for us!
Barbora Ježková
