Even though I believed that I never have a change to write the following blog post . . . life surprised me. It proofs that if you are a good person, amazing thing are going to happen with you. Training course "You and M&E" in Estonia actually was two parted. Seminar was about to be held in Wales in September. At the first place I shouldn't go there because Estonian participants places were already occupied but thanks to wonderful Billy I was able to participate as well. The hardest part of that was the fact it all was a secret. I usually don't have serious problems with keeping secrets because I'll forget them. But with this one I struggeled a bit. I met Karolina many times and had to lie her about how boring my life would be until she is in Wales. 04.09. My travelling day started really early. I had a change to practice my driving skills in an empty Tallinn 😆 From Tallinn I went to Oslo and from Oslo to Dublin. There I had about 5 hours to spend in the city center. I got off the airport bus in front of the Oscar Wilde house. I was totally shocked because recently I started to read once again "The Picture of Dorian Gray" to recall all the deeper emotions that this books hides. Anyway it was a great coincidence and from there I went directly to the National Gallery. I was amazed by their collection. Had so many WOW moments seeing great artists work's. Then I visited archaeology museum and ended up in Trinity College. I finally got a real university experience, the real university community is way more interesting than just uni with main building and no extra curricular attractions in it. Dublin's old town is amazing and interesting as well. In the airport I met Bulgarian and Czech team. It was great to have a chat with familiar people but at that point I was totally exhausted. Late at night we arrived to Cardiff. After a short ride to our Lavernock home Billy showed us our houses. And guess what? In our chalet was already a party going on. Well, didn't have too much time to think about that because we were in a hurry to pick up Karolina and Kristi from the bus station. They couldn't suspect anything until the moment when they literally saw me standing in the bus. Karolina took it quite calmly, but at some point Kristi started shouting 😄 05.09. We should have gone out discovering Wales in the morning, but because many people arrived pretty late we got more time to stay in Lavernock. Meeting with Heleri was funny. She saw me and Karolina through the window. But her brain just refused to identify me. She just thought that girl next to Karolina is someone really similar to me. But when I went directly to Heleri, she was perplexed. It was still hard to believe what I was doing there. Because Wales blessed us with a sunny day we went on a tracking path to breath fresh ocean air. Because tide favoured us we wanted to go down to the beach. But somehow we missed the right path and finally ended up in a village (edge of the Cardiff). On our way back we finally discovered a road to the beach. Other were already there. Beach was covered by rocks and it was really inconvenient to walk there. Ocean water was cold as expected. Because our way was full of blackberries, it was kind of impossible not to eat them. In the afternoon we went to the Big Pit coalmine. Somehow we were late, even though we had extra hours in the morning. Mine was now opened as a museum. Our guide was really charming guy who guided us in the dark and cold roads underground. After gathering information about Welsh history we tried to go to the Roman Town. But unfortunately on our way there we discovered that it is already closed for that day. So, we turned around and enjoyed traffic jams around Cardiff. At first it was planned to have a national cooking night, but because people were exhausted we decided to postpone this event. Instead of that we had juts great time in the pub. There were various ways how to have fun. 06.09. We spent the whole day at youth club. We started with slight meeting games. Of course we managed to reveal to public our funniest wishes with Karolina. So, if you have a rich single friend, take a contact with me. I'll arrange a meeting with Karo and her future rich husband 😆 After meeting games we had to present our work done with evaluation and monitoring. Even though we had a time limit per presentation. The session itself took very long time. Best part of session was Mihaela's task to capture the moment after every presentation with selfie stick. During the break time we enjoyed Welsh bakeries work eating sandwiches. Because near Lavernock accommodation place we didn't have a grocery store, we used a change to visit a shopping mall. Unfortunately it took a bit too long and we were late with a bunch of people to the session. At least it was a great shopping experience, though everything is expensive there! After full day in Cardiff we started cooking for our cultural night in lovely Lavernock. We decided to make minced meat sauce with boiled potatoes. It is ordinary and easy-to-prepare meal. It's nothing extraordinary and fancy. It is just a dish that tastes good and you can consider it as an Estonian food. Because people always ask what is the traditional Estonian food. I always struggle what I should answer because traditional food here is pretty nasty 🤪 As usual Estonians were the first ones who were ready. So, we started to eat our own food until other's arrived as well. My personal favourite food was offered by Bulgarians. My quilty pleasure banitsa and shopska salad were presented. Because there was so much food and you wanted to taste everything you ended up feeling totally full. 07.09.
Huuh, this was a day full of insane activities. Gorge Walk was the event I was afraid of the most. Water and jumping into profound indefiniteness is totally not my cup of tea. Moreover. it was an extremely cold day. Never have I ever been so cold than I was during the hike. Every ray of sunshine was a total blessing. Fortunately the instructors were funny and helpful. It wasn't really pleasant journey but it was totally worth it. Facing your fears is never a bad idea. Billy was especially brave capturing us during the hike. We had wetsuits on, but he just walked through the water crossing the river. But it was great that he did the whole way with us because now we have amazing video and photo material. I am totally in love with the place itself. I love waterfalls and green nature around it. If I had time beside focusing my surviving I just admired the nature around me and I felt inner peace that after few weeks I'll be visiting place with similar nature. I would totally hike there without getting wet 👍 After Gorge Walk I was certain that I will be sick because freezing more than an hour seemed to be harmful. My second worry was my hair colour. Just a day before coming to Wales my friend made miracles with my hair and gave them purple ombre look. But this hair colour was semi-permanent and after soaking my hair hours in the water I was sure that there is no pigment left. But for my surprise I didn't get sick and my hair still had a pinkish shine. In the evening we had another culture evening. This time we were just presenting our snacks with national symbolism. Because my presence had to be a secret for Estonians I had to figure out products that they are not going to bring in Wales and them by myself. It worked out, because we had variety of sweets. On Saturday it was Blanka's birthday and we started to celebrate it as soon as clock reached midnight.
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07.07. It was a day to discover more about Estonia. It was planned to visit Maarja küla, Taevaskoja and Tartu. Because I am local I was already aware of those places and prefered to spend a day with my countryside. After allnighter it was a blessing to sleep one extra hour after breakfast before my parents picked me up. It was a warm sunny day and I used it properly. I know that you are all curious about my day I spent at home. First of all, I went to the potato field and picked Colorado beetles. Fortunately I found only one, on previous years we have had bigger problems with those bastards. Then I decided to relax a bit and sunbath with my cat :) Then I went back to work and picked raspberries, it was more pleasant work than monitoring my potato field. Among eating berries I found time to help my father with tractor repairing as well. But after couple of hours of work I gave up and went to sleep. I had sweet 4-5 hours of sleep but football match and empty stomach made me wake up. My grandpa had made barbeque and I even saw first half of England vs Croatia match. Then I drove back to Kivi talu. I don't know, did I speed up way too much, but the distance seemed so short. For Evelin I brought my cat with me. Muffin was afraid of this environment but she handled the situation nicely. Usually she becomes a true devil on a strange environment. My dad and cat went back home and I saw additional time + penalties of the soccer game. It was intriguing game with Croatian citizens with us. Actually I was surprised when I returned and saw people working on their videos. It took so much time from them and I really felt sorry about their lack of sleep. I mean, it is okey if it caused from your own will to enjoy the company but not because of compulsory task. For most of the people it was still a change to recharge their batteries at least because our team "let's stay up all night long" was smaller than usual. At least we learned from each other more. For example, Kaan is a true criminal XD 08.07. In the morning session we watched those brilliant videos. Unfortunately they are not online yet. Then we received more information about Photo Voice method. Behind that method is so succinct idea that you start thinking why you haven't heard about that before. Because I dealt with berries a day earlier I brought them with me to project as well. Heleri gave us also strawberries. So, coffee breaks were filled in with fresh snacks. We used our human resource to make "Seiklejate Vennaskonna suvepäevad" advertisment. Velislav and Kaan were great and helpful models for us. We also appreciate Zenaida's and Mihaela's help. After lunch we were divided by different target groups. I was in a domestic violence group. We put on a paper ideas how to Photo Voice should work on within this target group. It is more difficult than you can imagine, it is not easy to guess what other people are thinking and how to they react on different situations. Exciting part of the day was sauna. Totally exotic experience for most of the people. Sauna itself maybe is not anything special but cold lake afterwards make the experience memorable. It is funny to see people from south suffering in sauna, they always have more struggles than people from central Europe. People were shocked that Billy decided to go to the sauna on a traditional way. Kaan was totally surprised of the scene. After sauna was time for social games again, this time we had moved even level higher with the tasks. 09.07. On the last day we had a last activity with Andreea. We had to analyse a text and make a conclusion of it. After lunch we had more flexible schedule but our very last activity was really sweet. It was time for a last shopping trip to Ramsi A&O. Because Cristina had a birthday on a next day we had to make preparations. We made a ritual with black tea and water. If you poured tea into the bowl, it represented negative things you wanted to mention and pure water represented positive aspects. It was really emotional ceremony and the best conclusion for a project that I have ever had. After dinner was time for a last photoshoot. We walked with Karolina, Kristi, Kaan and Velislav to a bigger lake. On a sunny day it has really beautiful light blue colour. Even during the twilight water seemed pretty blue. Because there were local youth hanging out we didn't hesitate to interrupt them at the first place. So we went to the grass field to feed mosquitos. To be honest, most of the time I don't even notice them flying around but I totally understand how big problem they are for foreigners. Because Estonian younger generation didn't want to leave the place we just joined their party and made super-cool photoshoot while in the background they were swimming. Moreover, we used their JBL speaker and enjoyed their their music taste XD I am pretty sure that on a way back walking with my bikinis and wet towel I got cold (even though Karolina doesn't believe in it) Anyway, we tried to organize Cristina's birthday surprise secretly but I am convinced that she knew that we are preparing something. Her birthday arrived with a cake, candles and sangria. What else one Spanish girl can wish? :D Finally we had a proper night to dance like mads. I was afraid that this night would never arrive. Because I can truly live myself out only on the dance floor. On that evening I understood again how confusing person I am. I wish I could know myself as well what I want from life. 10.07. At the first place I had to go to the job interview on that day but I am glad that they cancelled it a day earlier. It would have been a hard task to do. I also wished that itinerary would have been longer because 2 hours of sleep in the bus wasn't definitely enough. In the airport we had to make our first goodbye round. Most of the people still came back to the city center but they put their luggage on the airport lockers. It took plenty of time for waiting for them there. And Goran surprised us all with his wideness to do check-in and avoid lockers at all :D Back in the city center most of the people followed me to my university to leave our luggage there. Then we started walking tour in Tallinn. I have somehow found a working route to follow with tourists. Firstly, Rotermanni Kvartal, then, Linnahall and Telliskivi Loomelinnak and of course Tallinn old town and panorama spot. In Telliskivi we went for eating. While sitting there we received new that most of the flights were delayed. We tried to figure out the reason but just couldn't. Participants even had time to explore Balti Jaama Turg but after that we headed directly (with some stops in front of souvenir shops) to tram stop. And it was time for a second round goodbyes. Now, only Bulgarians and Carlos were left. But because Carlos had an Estonian host they had to transport his luggage to her flat. Then we were hanging out with Bulgarians in the old town. Our famous seagull was also on his position and ready to receive all the attention. Thanks to Karolina's father we were able to move our luggage from university to Bulgarians Air B&B host. Then we went to a shisha place. Planka and Zenaida joined us as well because they didn't want to wait for their delayed flights in the airport. We were totally tired because we were just lying on the sofas. When Plaka and Zenaida left we started exploring Bulgarian and Estonian music. It was so weird feeling, after two years I finally have proper Bulgarian friends. Best thing is that Bili sent me sirene cheese and filo dough. I am eternally thankful for this gift. I had an amazing culinary experience when I went back home. For dinner we went to Kompressor to enjoy best pancakes in the town. Then Maria told us about her dream she had. I believe in this kind of predictions, so most probably Maria will move to Estonia (Y) On the freedom square we met Carlos once again because he was watching football there. But we headed to Bulgarians apartment. It was a tiring week and intense day and we were exhausted. That's why I rushed to the last bus to go back home. I definitely didn't expect this kind of project but I am grateful I was part of it. This training course seemed more like youth exchange to me. And best part was the fact that I had an opportunity to go home and recharge myself a bit. And of course the fact that I gave all my useless things to my parents, it made my luggage way more lighter. Even though I tried to avoid those bacterial sharing games I enjoyed being part of them. Even though I didn't set high expectations to the project it was one of the best. I am glad that I met all these people. And once again, I am super happy about Bili's gift. Homemade banitsa made my life even better. I am glad that most of the people can see each other in Wales again - UPDATED me as well :) 03.07. It was another rainy day. In the afternoon I had my driving lesson and somehow I arrived one hour earlier to the spot than I supposed to be. So, I used that time to transport my bag to my university main house. Thank god that it has a perfect location in the city center. After driving lesson it was time for shopping because city was full of sales. Moreover, we had to buy stuff for cultural night and coffee breaks with Karolina. Then we headed together to my uni. There are only few months left until I can enjoy beauty of this building. When we arrived in front of the Russian Culture center only Mihaela with her baby and mother-in-law where there. We were afraid that others do not show-up on time but fortunately they arrived alltogether to the meeting place. Our next stop was in airport. We had some parking problems and in total we waited for missing participants more than we supposed to do. After picking up all Bulgarians as well, we were ready to start our journey to Kivi talu. In two hours we spoke practically about every topic you can imagine. We totally took an advantage of speaking Estonian all that time. After dinner we did a first meeting round to get to know each other more. To be honest during the first nights I wasn’t the most active on society point of view. I had totally different expectations about the project because I have had already too many projects during the year and I didn’t want to add one more on the list. My aim was more like to manage the project a bit more. To learn how to handle a project on my own. Because now I am in a stadium where I felt that I should contribute a bit more to the community and write a project on my own. Because I had that mentality that I am not one of the participants I was at first inactive during the free time activities as well. 04.07. We started our project with proper meeting games. For example we had to fill in our paper version Facebook page and find new friends according to it. We had to retell the facts what we picked up while having those meet & greet conversations. Everything went quite ordinary until Billy told us a secret that someone is pregnant. And in the end of the project we had to figure out who she should be. After intriguing secrets we got basic knowledge about Erasmus+ by watching the videos and having a discussion about youth pass 8 key competences. Do you see a connection between Hawaii islands and youthpass key competences? Both of them have 8 different üksust. So, with paper boats participants had to travel around those islands. Before dinner we had to solve mission impossible. It was the hardest one I have ever playes. There were so many extra rules and tasks were also unusual. There were plenty of ways how to fill in free time. By playing ping-pong, jenga, darts games, badminton etc. This evening we had our first reflection group. We shared our thought about the day. After that I showed surrounding to Elif and Velislav. And again, I went to bed super early. We discussed with Kristi that we are already too old for this project things XD 05.07. On the next day it was time for profound understanding of the topic as well. In general, what is evaluation and monitoring. And what methods to use to improve learning process. Weather in Vardi changes always quickly but fortunately we caught a right moment during lunch break to pick some wild strawberries. Right after our photoshoot by the lake it started raining. So, we were quite lucky. And Karolina was double lucky, because she almost fell into the water. Fortunately Kristi saved her on a last second. Best part of that sad accident is the fact that I captured the moment when it all happened. Even though it seems to be pointless situation it was a big thing for Karo, she mentioned that incident in her reflection group as well. Probably everyone knows that negotiation is not easy part of collaboration. To submit that participants had to make a play where they had different roles in orange trading situation. It was educating task but for me it didn’t involve all the group members. If only one person is going to represent your group following all the plot might become boring. I was late for my reflection group because I went for a running and discovered forest nearby. But when I returned I discovered a change on our group work. From now on we had to draw our position on the Blob tree to represent our learning progress etc. 06.07
We had more practical work to do and learn. Like what is the input and outcome of all the monitoring and evaluation progress. I liked the storytelling part when we imagined that we have to keep up a bonfire to survive in Estonian woods. Even though it was a training course we had active games and energizers all the time. Helena had recovered from her illness and Heleri was finally with us as well. Now we had two babies in the project. A total blessing. In the evening we had intercultural night. Bad thing about that was the fact that we had 13 different countries. We tried to put a time limit for a country presentation but in the end it all took way too much time and we finished with presentation about midnight. Estonian team is fault of long "time to shine" moment as well. Karolina and Kristi had a great idea how to integrate people to our culture by making tasks for them. And then we had culinary part as well. Was it caused by exotic snack and drinks but somehow we started playing weird Turkish game. We gathered together the younger generation of the project and had so much fun. Even Billy was surprised while seeing us. Zeinaida's application made the night last forever. It is really hard to explain that but nobody from us didn’t want to go to sleep. Okey, at some point we lost Turkish girls but in general we were duff. We even enjoyed first morning hours by the lake screaming out loud some weird Portuguese phrases. It was so cool night. I consider it to the best night I have ever had during the Erasmus+ project. |
AuthorMy connection with Erasmus+ projects. Youth exchanges and training courses. Archives
January 2020
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