Kicevo

      After having seen and enjoyed the beauty of the Macedonian Ohrid lake, we had the chance of exploring the inner territory of the country which had also a lot to offer. The day on which we went in Kichevo was rainy and it contributed to the magnificence and the freshness of the nature that we experienced.

      The first object that we visited in our Kichevo village    adventure was an authentic church in the middle of the forest where the nun told us the story of the monastery. She treated us with Turkish coffee and sweets and that was the first occasion we could meet the Macedonians’ hospitability. Later she took us to a secluded mountain spring where we could fill up the bottles we were given with holy water.

       As a next step in our program we were taken to a Modern Art House where we had some nice time chilling out, drinking coffee and enjoying the Arts’ surroundings.

       In the end we went to the town of Kichevo, small mountainous town that charms with its calmness and idyllic scenery.

       On the whole, we had a wonderful time visiting the town of Kichevo, everyone seemed to be enjoying it and everyone was pleased that we had the opportunity to spend some time in the beautiful Macedonian countryside.

After this day spent amidst the beautiful Macedonian nature we had the chance to get to know more about two participants’ countries- Ukraine and Serbia. We got acquainted with their customs and traditions and we had a great party night.

07.06.2012

Today we were in a very beautiful old village in Macedonia named Vevcani. We've never been before in such places abroad. So it was a great experience. First of all we were near waterfalls. Nature was awesome and weather was nice as every day. We liked old native beautiful houses and narrow streets. Some of us went to the mountains and got lost on the way coming back. We had lunch at a very cozy local place. Traditional meal there was very tasty. Tired but relaxed and exited we came back to Struga :)  Vevcani is really beautiful.  It was great to explore Macedonian village and to go deep into local culture. We were part of nature of local community. We hope the pictures we’ve made will help us to keep this good and positive feelings in our mind for many years =) Thank you, organizers!

                                                                                                                 The team from Russia

The Third day (Report)

The day started with a wonderful coffee. Then we had a workshop on the topic “How to make a professional photo”. It was very interesting and informative because it was held by a member of the Ukrainian team Ira who is a professional photographer. She told about main rules of making good shots, common mistakes and some other interesting information in order we can make nice pictures in Ohrid.

Ohrid is a great city with a wonderful spirit, nice galleries, magnificent and authentic churches, narrow streets, flowers of different colors. We practiced our skills in taking pictures. We enjoyed visiting  the gallery shop where they make handmade paper.

We started from St. Kliment square where we started to fulfill our tasks. We were going dowm the streets to the Antic Amphitheatre, beautiful Macedonian churches, then we explored the fortress and went down to the Panteleimon church that is standing in a magnificent shore of Ohrid. There we decided to take a boat from Kaneo to Kadmo beach.It was really amazing to see the whole city from the water. All group felt excited about that small trip. 

Second Day in Struga.

                      Sunny morning. Strangers all around. The beginning - let's get to know each other! Starting with the names games. These activities helped to know all participants from eight countries: Lithuania, Russia, Estonia, Romania, Macedonia, Ukraine, Serbia, Bulgaria. After that organizers introduced the main rules of the project. The hardest one was to be on time (in Macedonian time). Other rules were not to sit next to the person form your own country, forget the word "tired", to keep the smile with You and respect others.

                      The day started with "Struga" game. International teams got the list of 10 places in Struga city. Great thing about this game was that it introduced us to the city in Macedonia next to Ohrid lake. We discovered  two sides of Struga. First one was nice city center, lots of coffers, cheap ice cream, fabulous green river, helpful people and beautiful nature. Another side of the city was a bit of trash in smaller streets and lots of homeless dogs.

                      While we were playing this game one group met musician of the city who was speaking perfect in English and offered his help to show all the town, to find the places that we were looking for and told lots of interesting stories not about Struga, famous poets but also about all Macedonia and its incredible Ohrid lake. Others group had tasks that were far away from each other so they were walking along the Ohrid lake searching for the church or beach. Besides the fact that they had a long way to get there, everybody was satisfied with the results of the tasks and the destinations that they reached. At the end of the game we printed nice pictures from our visited places and posted them. It was so interesting to check photos from other groups, in this way we had a possibility to know Struga better.

                      It only remains to add that "Struga" game helped us to work in a team, to make decisions together that we all agreed on and we learnt to cooperate in order to achieve the goal of the game. Also during this game we knew about each other and the countries that we came from.

                      Evening caught our attention. The first intercultural night was for hosts Macedonia and crazy Lithuanian team. Conclusion for the evening: nobody was thirsty and hungry, Macedonia creatively presented their "library",  Lithuanians showed creative movie that they made. Everybody went to sleep with huge smiles and good mood!

First Day

First Day

After twelve hours of traveling thought almost all Serbia and Macedonia we arrived to Struga ready to explore new experience and intercultural learning.  Unlike the rainy and urban Belgrade in Struga we found the sun, songs on every corner and easy going lifestyle. All addressed to a different working atmosphere and excellent enjoyment.

For most of us this project was the first experience in Macedonia and we were very motivated to explore it, but also to discover something new about the countries that participate in this youth exchange. We were very excited when  found a groups from Bulgaria, Estonia and Lithuania in hotel. This was our first meeting with people from these countries. Together with them we waited for the other participants.

Our day passed in walking along the Ohrid Lake, visiting the center and taking coffee on the banks of the River Drim. We experienced town as very alive and we found a very hospitable people who are willing to host us. We were surprised with tourist presentation of Struga and gained the impression that the city has a Mediterranean soul. One of the interesting details was a monument of smiley on the bank of river Drim.

After a pleasant welcome and walk through town time past so fast that we didn’t realize that time for official meeting has started.  After official meeting and representing project we continue with name games and relaxing for long night till all participants were not been welcomed. 

Fourth day evaluation

The fourth day of our project in Struga, Macedonia, started with a very nice breakfast that we enjoyed in the hotel restaurant. The food was very good and fresh. We were very happy to keep getting to know all our new friends, especially during the energizers. Everything was peachy and we we’re having fun together doing the energizers, organised by the Russian and Serbian team. We played some of the most interesting energizers of the whole project. One of it was about a Princess, a Hunter and a Dragon, all of them being characters that were to be played by each of the teams. After we filled ourselves with positive energy from the energizers, we had a coffee break during which we had the chance to find out more interesting things about each other. We then had lunch, and a 15 minute break.

               In the afternoon we held a workshop about design and photo editing. It was a very interesting experience because every participant had the opportunity to learn how to edit photos in Adobe Photoshop, on a basic level. The team who prepared was made up of Uliana, Radina, Nina, Vika and Robert.  And they did a very good job, by showing us simple tutorials about how to edit photos. After we saw all the photos, and discussed them in detail, we had a coffee break. We took the occasion to enjoy the beautiful weather, and after this we proceeded in the conference room for the Important Dates Workshop. The team for this workshop was made up of Savina, Robert and Krasen. They talked about the most important dates in Europe, and gave us the task to choose one important period like the Ancient times, or the Renaissance and find more historically significant dates.

               After we finished and presented the tasks, we had dinner, and then one hour of free time, before the Romanian and Russian cultural night. The first to present their country were the Romanians. The four participating girls, Raisa, Elena, Alina and Anamaria, were dressed in traditional Romanian cloths, while the male participant, Robert, was disguised as Dracula. After they showed us some traditional dances, we ate some of their food (e.g. polenta, cozonac etc.) .

The Russian team, presented their wonderful food and their very famous national drink, the vodka. They also showed us a traditional dance, a funny presentation movie about Russia, and they ended the night with a recital from their greatest poet, Puskin.

Evaluation of 6th of June

6^th of June

This day started with a leaders meeting to discuss different topics and the main purpose of youth exchange – creating calendar. To wake all the people up Lithuanian team had made funny, hard and active energizer. Here we could see real teamwork as well as people’s being interested in this action.

 As we had exciting and unforgettable journey to Kichevo the day before, on 6^th of June we were all day long busy with different and very useful workshops. The first one was blogging. Each person was included in some group with special tasks, like describing energizers, making quiz and others. By the end of this we made beautiful, full of information blog, which we can visit any time we want to revise these wonderful memories. It is important to say that every participant was concentrated on the work the team should have made and was trying to contribute as much as could.

Then we started to work on calendar creating – choosing and voting for the best pictures, also for the ones we brought from our countries. Each group received 2 months and showed its creativity in different ways, making months bright and also adding the important dates. Eventually the main aim of this youth exchange was reached, we have created amazing calendar, which symbolizes different topics, like economic development, social inclusion, ecology and other important stuff.

During this week we had a lot of discussions on volunteerism topic, and in afternoon we had a great opportunity to show what we have learned. All together we gathered, took bags for garbage, gloves and started cleaning beach of very beautiful lake – Ohrid. We were divided into 3 teams collecting different rubbish. Everyone was focused not only on cleaning beach and taking care of environment, but also on promoting volunteerism. Our group was suggesting local people to join and explaining what we were doing. It was interesting to see the reaction of people, who was passing or sunbathing on the beach. We gathered several bags of rubbish and returned to the hotel. It was great experience for every person, who was volunteering and hopefully that wish will exist when we will come back home.

 In the evening we had the Eurovision.  According to the blog this was the funniest moment during the youth exchange, especially the Ukrainian team with its performance. Every national group received different songs in different languages, for example, Macedonian team was supposed to sing in Lithuanian language and it was unforgettable. This day was one of the most useful, we have made great work, everyone was included with 100% - it shows that this youth exchange created a real team, consisting of open-minded, kind and friendly people. Now we are all ready to spread this idea in our countries and come back to discuss the result.