Programme & action: ERASMUS+, Key Action 1: youth exchange
Youth exchange venue: Sabadell, Spain
APV venue: Sabadell, Spain
Youth exchange dates: 15 – 23 July 2016
Participants: Monika Ngo-Le, Gabriela Papajová, Radka Kočvarová, Tomáš Kučera, Lukáš Kindermann
Group leader: Nikol Škorpíková
Participating countries: Greece, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Spain, Italy
Hosting organisation: TALLER D’ART, CULTURA I CREACIÓ
Project report:
To be or not to be online? That was the question of our youth exchange in Sabadell.
When I arrived to the meeting point on Placa Espanya in Barcelona on Friday 15, there were so many beautiful faces from Greece, Italy, Spain and of course from the Czech Republic. We went together by train to Sabadell and then to the hostel, where we were divided into gender and nationality mixed rooms. I really appreciate this idea because it erased the unimportant differences between us and we were all equal.
The program started already that evening with ice breaking games and we continued with them the next day. Every morning we started with an energizer, then we had some time to work on our Youth passes in national groupes and after that we worked in mixed groupes and discussed about using smartphones through generations in different countries, we made up together some advantages and disadvantages of using smart devices. And of course it would not be a real one hundred percent Spanish project, if we did not have two hours of typical Spanish siesta every day after lunch.
If I write about Spanish traditions and culture I can not forgot to mention the delicious food. Every meal was an amazing experience and I need to say a big thanks to the cook Lola. As a bonus, at the end of every day, we had an intercultural night and we had an opportunity to taste a bit of Greek, Spanish, Italian and Czech cuisin and learn something interesting about other cultures.
The goal of the project was to make an performance on Sabadell’s square. We worked on that the whole week through variate activities. We teached Spanish seniors how to use smartphones, we got an opportunity to talk with a professional app maker and spent some time in Estruch, which is an Sabadell centre for artists.
When the day of the performance finally came, it was unfortunatelly rainy weather. However it could not stop us, so we arranged an small photo exhibiton of the photos from the project and materials we made and a short performance warning about coltan (a mineral which is used in electronic devices) mining and its influence on civil wars and children’s work and showing the smartphones’ generation, which is experiencing every moment of their lives through the phone display. We were really proud of ourselves and the weather could not ruin our good mood.
When I arrived to Placa Espanya on Friday 15 and saw all those beautiful faces, I had no idea, with how many great memories and new friendships I will leave Spain on Saturday 23. I also had no idea, that those beautiful faces are even more beautiful inside. The departure was the hardest part of the whole youth exchange and saying goodbye was too hard. But the Erasmus+ youth exchanges teached me one important thing; “goodbye” is too depressing and “see you soon” works better. So, see you soon, Spain and beautiful people!
Monika Ngo-Le
