Gizem shared her thoughts about one Youth Exchange which we had a pleasure to organise <3
“Yes! We just came back from Erasmus+ Project “Motion for Life”. I am Gizem Furuncu from Turkey and I want to share my experience.
In June 26, all participants met in Cathedral Square and took the road towards Trakai. When we reached venue, we were welcomed with the baloons and music. We were happy and excited, everyone was warm and of course we were ready to become a family !
In next days we had diffferent tasks and I had to interview other participants about their expectations, fears and what they could add to this project. I had fear about speeches in public but after 10 days I had more courage about presentations. If you are afraid of lack of English, don’t you ever ever ever be afraid! Because in such projects you will improve your English, and will see so many great people who will listen to you with patient, without any judgment.
We tried to learn salsa, bachata and zumba. Even the learning process was incredible funny. We left lots of hugs, laughs and beautiful memories in Lithuania.
We had a night hike which lasted 6 hours- it was also an important moment to emphasize moving together. Because we had to protect each other in the dark not to get lost, move as a team, read maps to find the real ways, help each other even to change our wet socks after raining. Yes, it was funny moments! Even we felt tired but with the power and support giving to each other, we completed our travel successfully. Of course it was unforgettable experience for us.
We also had trip to Trakai and Kaunas. We took lots of pictures, seeing Trakai castle and most of historical places in Kaunas. Also we made traditional evenings. Every country brought with them special foods and told us about most popular things in their country. We also made a good representation of Turkey.
We were informed about how we could make projects with Erasmus plus and watched some videos about this. Wıth most events we learned the importance of moving together, even if we had different cultures we got the awareness of being one.
Noone could realize how fast the time passed because we were making lots on things in a day. And this always helped to improve us in some way. For example, it was asked to choose a buddy that we had no opportunity to talk until this time. And we made eye contact with chosen person for three minutes. This activity helped us to strengthen our bounds. Also we had a chance to talk about our dads and moms to this buddy. It was a sad moment for some of us. Each of us listened different life stories. I experienced how we were supporting each other despite our nations, religions, races, how we succeeded- it was a proud moment for me as human being.
30 people from 6 different countries shared glorious moments together and had fun, learned each nation’s cultures, traveled beautiful places in Lithuania, made lots of friends and experienced new things. I am thankful to Innovative Generation to gave us this chance, it will never be forgotten! The Project took place in Trakai, Lithuania and lasted 10 days between 26 June and 5 July, 2017.”