Hallo, merhaba, bonjour!
It is Winter Holidays in Pułtusk and therefore, we decided to organise a language café at the Pub/Restauracja Magdalenka last Monday. And this time, it was open not just to students, but to anyone who was interested in languages, cultures and games.
We promoted it in Pułtusk through posters and advertised it on social networks as well. It is always hard to know in advance how many people will come and we had to be ready to adapt our activities, depending on the number of participants. We were a bit worried that we will only get a few ones but from 4pm, Tuğçe, Marie, Saskia, Sylwia and I were happy to see a nice group of twelve people join us for this language café.
We started by getting to know each other through the game “Find someone who… We had to go around the room to find people who fitted the criteria we gave: someone who has a brother and a sister, who has never seen the movie “Home Alone”, who has lived in three countries, who broke a bone and so on. And the three fastest to find someone for each box won a price (sweets of course, you know us!).
We then decided to make people discover a bit more about the Turkish, Belgian and French cultures through a quiz on traditions, customs and gestures. For instance, did you know that shaking your hand in front of your eyes means that someone is crazy in the German-speaking part of Belgium? Or that in Turkey, the groom has to drink a coffee with salt, prepared by the bride, to show his love? Or again that in France, pulling the bottom of your eye with your index means that you don’t believe the person? We had a lot of customs and gestures to share and it was also the occasion for us to learn more about the Polish culture, as most questions could be applied to Poland. So it really was about exchanging and we learned as much as our participants did!
Afterwards, Tuğçe went on teaching us a Turkish dance, traditionally danced at weddings. We did not have much space but we managed it and we are now ready to attend a wedding in Turkey. Or a prom ball in Poland! Thus, the Polish participants decided to teach us the prom dance, an important tradition in Poland. Dziękuję bardzo!
Finally, our language café ended with games and we played Jungle Speed and Dobble - both rapidity games - that had us shouting and laughing.
It was a really fun evening, which was all about sharing. We taught people about our cultures, as we planned, but we also learned so much about other cultures and I think that it is the purpose of our language cafés: a mutual exchange. So thank you to everyone who came and we hope to organize another event like this one very soon!
Na razie,
Julia
Sylwia, our coordinator, has just returned from the 1st working meeting in Czadca, Slovakia. The meeting, 16-19 February, was a part of a project "Innovative and Creative Youth Empowerment" between KERIC from Slovakia, Maailmanvaihto from Finland and us, which is co-financed by Erasmus+.
During the meeting the organisations talked about their local EVS partners and possible ways of supporting them better. In conclusion the next step was planned: to run a survey among the local EVS partners about good practices, challenges and needs in cooperation with volunteers. To have a better view of the situation 2 local partners from Finland and us were invited. The group also visited 2 local host organisations: nursing home for the elderly and a foundation supporting disabled people in developing independence.
The project is co-funded by Erasmus+.
Cześć,
We are very happy to announce you that a new volunteer joined the FIYE team on the Erasmus + volunteering adventure! 😃
Saskia arrived from Belgium a week ago and just started her EVS project called “Read, learn and have fun” at the Public Library of Pomiechówek, a small town close to Warsaw. She will volunteer there for the next seven months, until the end of August 2017.
This is the first time the library welcomes an EVS volunteer and for having previously met the workers, I can tell that they were all very enthusiastic about welcoming Saskia on her first day!
We will tell you more about her project in a future article but in the meantime, let her introduce herself:
Hello,
My name is Saskia and I'm coming from Eupen (East Belgium). I was born on 11 December 1995 and I have two younger siblings. In June 2016 I made my A-Level. My mother tongue is German and in school I studied also French, Dutch and English.
Since 2006, I'm playing theater with different groups and wrote an important part of a new theater play, which will have their Premiere in May 2017.
Besides the theater I've been writing short stories, poems and even song lyrics since my childhood. At the moment I'm trying to write a book, which I want to publish after it is finish.
Because I'm a huge Nirvana and Foo Fighters Fan I started to play guitar in October 2016. Music is generally a very important part of my life and I can't live without it.
After my time in Poland with EVS I will try to go to the USA, because I've been dreaming about emigrating to California my whole life. And of course I will study something, maybe creative writing or history or English.
*****************
Tuğçe, Marie and I also had the pleasure to welcome Saskia in Pułtusk last Friday to show her our workplaces and daily lives, before having a Polish lunch and her first EVS volunteer meeting with our coordinator Sylwia.
We took this opportunity to discuss our progress in the various competences EVS brings and for Saskia, it was the occasion to think about what she expects of her project. During the weekend, we also celebrated all together the French pancake day, “la Chandeleur” ...
... by eating of course a lot of crêpes!
Stay tuned to hear more about Saskia's project and see you soon,
Julia
