Youth
exchange - wtf ?! ... that's came up my mind when I first heard it.
So really, what are those mysterious "youth exchanges" all
about?
No,
parents don't change their children for a week... but they may enjoy
a week without them (or worrying about their kids being in a foreign
country all alone, maybe getting lost, as mine did...)
Young
people from various nations come together for one week and work on a
specific topic. Moreover, they share their cultures and build up
valuable friendships.
From
my point of view taking part in a YE is a great experience and huge
opportunity to explore the world! There is so much you can learn from
each other, that's just unbelievable. By now I had the fortune to be
part of two very different YEs.
How to use sports to diminish homophobia?
...was
the topic of my first exchange which took
part in 2012, in Budapest,
Hungary. With only 17 years of age I've been by far the youngest
participant (The average age was between 22 and 25) At first I was afraid about planning a journey to a country where I don't understand
the language at all and where I've never been before. If that wasn't
enough I had to find the place of stay on my own too. With only the
street name (which I wasn't able to pronounce) it seemed impossible.
It took me about 3 hours for a way that would take 20 minutes if only
I knew the language or the way before... Finally being there, I was
relieved but that didn't last long. When I met the other participants
and the organizers I felt lost and lonely again - as the only one I
didn't know anybody and I had the feeling that due to my age no one
will take me for serious.
Luckily
all my fear was for no reason :) I never made friends that fast and
easy as on my first YE. And I even had the honour to be a speaker at a conference! That feeling was amazing!
We developed a video fitting the topic and
nearly everybody burst into tears when we had to say good-bye, leave
and separately go back to our countries.
Look
at this awesome “Behind the scenes” video, we had so much fun,
even when it was hard work (hot 43°C didn't make it easier... ) to
create a video within only five days.
Live
as European Citizen
...was the main aspect we focused on the second YE I took part in.
One
week before my finals at high school I passed at Lignano, Italy with
29 people (all my age) from 7 countries (Austria,
Czech Republic, Lithuania, Slovenia, Germany, Italy, Croatia)
At
the beginning it was hard to find a level of English that everybody
was able to understand but after the first evening of getting to know
each other I think everybody could follow and
some people translated
for their compatriots.
In the mornings experts presented various topics to us, which we
discussed in the afternoon. In between we were free to go swimming,
shopping or whatever. In the evenings (we had 7 of them), every
country prepared a “cultural evening” where they presented their
nation. Additionally, groups where chosen to make videos about the
topic of the day, one group did this everyday.
Have a look : )
Have a look : )
In
this youth exchanges the participants built up deep friendships that
still last over the distance, improved their language skills and
learned a lot for themselves.
Actually
for me it was a last-minute decision to go there (we left on Sunday,
I've been asked on Saturday evening if I want to go), but I don't
regret it at all! On the contrary, it was the best week I ever had!
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