Wake Up Europe, Erasmus+ in Slovenia

Day 1  

Before we were travelling to Hodos by train, I assumed that it wouldn’t be as good experience as my previous Erasmus was because that was wonderful. During all train tour we were listening Ákos’s experiences with Kungfu (yes during more than 2 hours, it was long😊). When we (Laura, Bori, Lili, Villő, Ákos and me Sisó) arrived at the station in Hodos we met with the Slovakians than we were waiting for Brina who drove us to the accommodation.  

When we were driven to the camp, I felt weird because Ákos had known a lot of people there however fortunately I started to get to know people as well immediately. First, I met with Félix who was my roommate than the Hungarians went to discover The Lake with two Lithuanian girls (our expedition was not successful). After the tour we played frisbee where we almost learnt everyone’s name and of course we had a great time. The arrival day ended with a little group chatting/introduction. I can say that it was a pretty good first (based on my opinion first days usually are more awkward) day because we had some interaction despite, we didn’t have any obligatory programs or tasks.   

 Day 2   

On the first day we woke up in a wonderful place. The birds were singing, the air was fresh, the sun was warm, and there was no one else around, only the nature. We were just there for each other. Everyone smiled and said good morning, and we felt that this is the most peaceful place in the whole world.  

After breakfast we played a name learning energizer together. Than we watched a video and a presentation about this Erasmus project for exaple what will we do, how will we help and where will we go. Before lunch we shared to each other our fears, hopes and contributions about the Erasmus. In the afternoon we spend our freetime together, and we were playing with frisbee. After that, we started two games, the secret friend and the hug killer. We got two papers with two names who we should kill with a hug and who we should give gifts, than we played a game called Mission is possible. We had 1 hour for a lot of tasks we should do. We draw posters, wrote a song, took photos, learned new words from each other. Finally we passed all the tasks in 1 hour! We were a bit tired and the weather was also hot. So we sat in the shadow under the trees and we, the hungarians did a presentation about Portugal. Because in the next task every country got an other country and without useing the internet we had to do a poster about that country, just with our knowledge. After the presentations we told each other how was our first day with the evaluation shark. We ate a great dinner, but we didn’t eat too much because in the evening we made the Cuisine market. It means every country brought some national food, and we could taste them.  

 Day 3  

We woke up a bit tired because the cuisine market was really great last night, and we didn’t want to go to bed.:D After breakfast and the energizer, where we played ninja and HA HA HA, every country presented how is the volunteering in our school and country. It was really interesting but a bit long, and we became very hungry. Fortunately the lunch was lasagne:) After that we played chinese football and dodgeball. The afternoon workshop was about the minorites. Our group made a poster about the roma people. It was really exciting, and that was great, we were in mixed groups, so we got to know each other better. Before the dinner, we had the evaluation shark circle. And the program for the evening was the Slovenian night. We were dancing and singing and there was a presentation about Slovenia. We really enjoyed the whole day and night.  

 Day 4  

On our third full day, we got up early, and for the first time we left our accomodation, and went to a homeless shelter in Murska Sobota. We got to see the shelter from the inside as well. Then we had to do the energizers ourselfes. After a great lunch we had some free time, so we decided to eat ice-cream. In the afternoon we visited a roman village, and a help center. There we made some bracelets, and played games outside. We then walked around the neighbourhood, to see how they live there. When we went home, we had the evaluation shark in the garden. After dinner we had our national evening, where we presented about our country and Budapest as well. Portugal had their national evening as well, which was also lovely. After everything we decided, that we just danced till we went to sleep.  

 Day 5   

On the 5th day we started off with an energizer from Estonia. After we got into mixed groups, and had to make a poster about a certain enviromental topic, like waste, plastic…  

After lunch it was time for the slovak energizer, so we got to dance a national slovak dance. This afternoon’s workshop was called people in the box, where we had to answer some difficult and deep questions about ourselfes. We then had the evaluation shark. After dinner we had a little time, so they showed us a good, but annoying game, called pen game. We closed the day with the slovakian and estonian national evenings.  

 Day 6  

On the sixth day of the program for the first activity we had  apacked schedule: we started the day in Rakican, in a retirement home. Our task was to help elderly people play bingo. On our way there, we tried talking to them. It wasn’t easy because most of them didn’t speak English, so we had to find a way to communicate. Most of us managed to talk to the grannies and grandpas and it was really nice to see how happy it makes them to be able to talk to new people. The bingo game was exciting, maybe we were even more competitive than the elderly. But of course, the main thing was being there for them and making a connection. It was difficult to say goodbye to them, some tears were shed as well. It was a very emotional experience, many of us were reminded of our own grandparents. 

In the afternoon, we had a different kind of task that also helps the local community: a cleaning action. We went to Sobota lake, which was a beautiful place, and we picked up some trash on our way to the lake. To be honest, most of us were surprised how clean the area was, we didn’t collect that much trash. When we got to the lake, we could see some more garbage that we could clean up. After the hard work, we earned our free time: we hang out near the lake. We found a really cool place with a swing and we took turns swinging. It was amazing! We took many pictures and videos, it was such a great spot. 

We ended the day with the evaluation shark. It was interesting to hear how many of us were afraid of the visit in the retirement home because of our biases against old people, and how we overcame this and found out that we can actually communicate with the elderly and we’re not as different as we think we are… 

When we returned, everyone was really tired, so we relaxed a bit. Of course, the wasn’t over yet – we had the Romanian and Lithuanian national evenings. The Romanian group did such an amazing job, they danced and sang and made us feel like dancing too! It was really great, we applauded so much that our hands hurt at the end. The Lithuanian team did a great job as well, they included a really fun game and sang a song too. We learnt lots of new things about these two countries. 

Day 7  

On the seventh day of the programme, we had to split into three groups. 

The first group you could choose involved painting the walls of the organizations soon to be youth center. People here let their creativity run wild and they did a wonderful job doing so. Their work was beaming with fun, and joy and the team had a great time as well.  

The second group went to the crisis center where they planted trees, talked, and played with the kids. Through their conversations they have heard a lot of stories and found out how life can be so different for people while cheering them up with games and donations to the center. 

Last but not least the third (my) group. In this group we helped an elderly couple how were doing renovations and we helped them get rid of the debris. This wasn’t in the slightest easy work but luckily as one of the organizers said we had some “strong young men” on our team. Although the works was tiring, I can’t deny how much I loved the part when we could break the too big pieces into smaller ones. 

After this we had a great lunch and then some free time. During this time was when we discovered a place, I would call an entertainment center in a shopping mall. Here we played the best laser tag game of our lives so far.  

In the afternoon we helped with the renovation of some furniture at the local intergenerational house. This is a place where trough workshops young and elderly people teach each other and bond. We carefully sanded all the furniture and gave every piece a new coat of paint which turned out to be quite nice. 

Day 8  

On the eighth day we visited the beautiful capital of Slovenia: Ljubljana. We spent our entire day here first visiting the House of Europe where we had a talk about the EU itself along with its benefits. After that we had a quiz made up of 5 different topics about the EU and we had to answer three questions about each of them. 

When we finished in the House of Europe, we got our lunch and started the city run game. This was basically a treasure hunt game where we visited all the important points of the city like the Cathedral and the Castle in the center of Ljubljana. We were separated into groups and then we got a paper with lots of tasks. After completing all the tasks, we went shopping for souvenirs. (we bought a bag labeled Ljubljana) This city was very beautiful! And then we went to Slovenia’s famous giant donut bakery! The donut was very delicious! And after the donuts we went home.  The Slovenian team organized the Eurovision Song Contest. Every country had to prepare a singing/dancing performance to which the 3 main judges, the team leaders, and the campers gave points to declare the winner. For which we had already prepared in the previous days and performed on this day. It was very funny. In the end, unfortunately, we didn’t win, the Slovenian team did. But we still had a lot of fun. Then we danced a lot. It was a really great day!  

Day 9   

In the morning we had an energizer, and then we started the last group of work. I was in the creative group, but there was also photo, video, leader and journalism group. One of my friends and I wrote a text for Let it be. (about Erasmus+) in the afternoon everyone showed what they did. (The photo group selected the best pictures, the video group made a video, the leader group organized the 10 days, and the journalism group was made a article. Then at the end there was a party which went very well. Everyone danced and sang. We had a lot of fun.   

Day 10  

Of course, the final day was the most emotional and saddest period during the youth exchange. First, I slept one and half hour because we were chatting all night. We just didn’t want to leave that place. Unfortunately, after breakfast almost everyone left so we had to say goodbye for everyone, it was just hard. Finally, the Slovakians and us left as well.   

After all I can say that it was my summer’s best ten days, and it was one of my best experiences from my all life. Accordingly, I have to say that my assumption was absolutely wrong because this was so much better Erasmus than my previous one.