I am enthusiastic...we became friends (podcast)

My Erasmus+ experience happened to be in Costinesti, Romania.

Lovely place for projects, especially if the weather is good! 

The project was about an intercultural exchange with the help of origami activities. The coordinators challenged us to be creative and to contribute as much as we wanted to the project. That helped some initiatives to arise, and a unique project had been created. 

I am enthusiastic about meeting people with different personalities with whom we became friends as we had been involved in many memorable circumstances. 

Also, having fun, interacting with the local community, creating workshops, and learning about other countries' cultures are some additional aspects that empower this experience!

Link to my podcast: here

Nikos Psomadopoulos

Discover different cultures

Diseminarea mea a constat in prezentarea proiectului la care am participat, atat in randul colegilor mei profesori, cat si in randul copiilor. 

In urma povestilor si a prezentarii, colegii mei au fost incantati si au venit cu propunerea ca sa cream in cadrul scolii un eveniment asemanator; astfel, am inclus ideea de multiculturalitate, origami, festival    intr-un eveniment al scolii. 

Le-am prezentat inclusiv conceptul de seara culturala, asa ca, ne-am folosit de acest instrument pentru a ajuta copiii sa descopere diverse culturi. 

Elevii au avut de facut un proiect ce consta in:

- confectionarea de haine, cu ajutorul materialelor reutilizabile, origami, mancare, obiceiuri pentru a prezenta tara aleasa. 

Multumesc mult!

Cu stima,

Denisa Dascal

I highly encourage you to participate in one of the many Erasmus+ projects

Hello dear friends! 

How are you?

I wanted to tell you that recently I was in an Erasmus+ project in Costinesti, Romania. The "Nice to meet you" project is an intercultural and inclusive opportunity to get to know new cultures and places. Through different dynamics we got to know a part of the culture of Costinesti, the Romanian town where we were staying, it's beautiful! As well as we also got to know other parts of Romania, like Constanta.

I highly encourage you to participate in one of the many Erasmus+ projects, aimed at alleviating marginalization and social exclusion, and promoting interculturality and cooperation. These projects are fully funded by the European Union, and will provide you with new social, linguistic and professional skills and competencies.

Miriam Cabrera Ruiz

A bright memory for a long time

My first youth exchange Erasmus+ mobility took place in Romania, Costinesti, on 20 to 30 of October 2022. I had never tried any kind of such mobility before and I am grateful that my first experience was through ODESA (Romania) and HYP (Greece) organisations. These 10 days of the " Nice to meet you! " program were something unreal. We got together with people from 5 different countries and we bonded extremely well and really fast, only to find out how interconnected one culture is with the other. We shared common food and drinks, but with different names and small variances, we got inspired by new ideas of everyday life and for me especially it was a groundbreaking experience on how easily it actually is to really connect with others. Through origami, the folding paper art, I found moments of relaxation and creativity, which I was more than happy to share with children at our final exhibition one day before we departed. Hugging with the local people on that day, how they trusted us their children to take part in our event and to let us teach them how to make origami, is going to be a bright memory for a long time.

Link: here

Live unique experiences

(ENGLISH)

Hello, I am sending you this informative email about the project in Costinesti (Romania), a project subsidised by the European Union, from the Erasmus + programme. These projects are a great opportunity for young people like you, between 18 and 30 years old, to meet other young people from different countries and exchange cultures, make new friends...

The project I did in particular was called "Nice to meet you", the aim of the project is to increase the level of social and intercultural competences, to raise awareness of the need for intercultural dialogue in the current European context, sharing customs, traditions, knowledge and national values, in this project there were 6 participating countries (Romania, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, Greece and Turkey), in order to put an end to activities that can lead to discrimination and social exclusion.

In the "Nice to meet you" project we made different representative objects about the different participating cultures, using Origami, a Japanese art. With the origami made by the participants from the participating countries we made a cultural fair, where we exhibited our art. We also filmed a video explaining how to make the symbol chosen by the countries to be shown at the fair and to teach the local people how to make origami. For example: a symbol of Spanish culture is the bull or the flamenco fan, Turkey: the tulip. Greece: boat Romania: Bison, Dracula. Italy: Pizza, Gelatto and Bulgaria: The rose.

Apart from this cultural fair, we carry out multiple activities of communication and teamwork with the different participants from the participating countries. I encourage you to sign up for these projects, to live unique experiences and to meet wonderful people in order to exchange cultures and break stereotypes.

Hugs,

Sheila Alhambra Vinuesa

It was an incredible experience!

Hello everyone! 

We are Maria and Elia from the Greek team! 

We were selected as participants for the ‘Nice to meet you’ project in Costinesti-Romania. We would like to share our experience with you.

During the first days we got to know each other through some interesting activities. The point of the activities was to communicate with people outside of our national group and team building in general.

The next days were about the main concept of the project, which was origami. We learned how to fold papers by experts and also each country made a workshop about their traditional symbol. We presented these workshops to the local community of Costinesti, especially children and it was an amazing experience!

The greek team chose a boat as our national symbol.

At the end of every day we had intercultural nights, where every country presented their traditions (music, dances, food, facts).

Additionally we got to visit the town of Constanta, learned and explored the city through fun activities.

The organisation ’Odesa ngo’ was very helpful and the accommodation-food was very good quality.

All in all it was an incredible experience, and we would love to take part in more Erasmus+ projects in the future!

With love from Greece! 

Learning by doing in a fun and engaging manner

Hello there,

The idea of the presentation was - learning by doing in a fun and engaging manner.

Me (Alex) and Tsvetozar presented the information to the participants which was based on our experience in the project. I showed them what we learned and told them the stories we experienced.

The location of the event was in Sofia, Bulgaria and it took about half an hour for the origami and about another half an hour to finish the presentation. 

Best regards,

Aleksandar and Tsvetozar

A way to relieve stress

Hello,

This is the dissemination from Blagovest (Bobo). 

The idea of the presentation was to present origami as a way to relieve stress and concentrate learners' attention in a corporate environment.

The location was Sofia, Bulgaria. The duration of the session was 45 minutes.

Due to company restrictions I am unable to send the full power point presentation displayed to my colleagues nor upload these photos in social media.

I have 3 colleagues and my direct supervisor participating in the event.

The result is that if opportunity presents itself we can include the technique in our on site training.

Best regards,

Blagovest

Dissemination event on Romanian National Day

Event Date: Romanian National Day 1 December

Event place: Kastamonu University, Kastamonu, Turkey

Participants: 75 people

Description: I have share to the public my Romanian experience from the "Nice to meet you!" youth exchange. I gave them informations about Erasmus+, about Gaziantep Local Youth Group (my sending organisation), about ODESA (our hosting organisation) and I showed them photos from the project.

It was a wonderful experience!

Greetings from Turkey

Mehmet

Talk about the Erasmus+ opportunities

The talk was given by myself, Cristina Alonso Moya, at the high school "IES Orden de Santiago" in Horcajo de Santiago (Cuenca, Spain) on Wednesday 30th November 2022.

There, I performed two talks, one of them for students of "1st baccalaureate" (16 years old) and a second one for students of "2nd baccalaureate" (17 years old). Each talk lasted for 55 min, a total of 1h 50min. In the first class (16 years old), there were 43 participants, while in the second class (17 years old), there were 32 participants.

Each talk contained the exact same information. There, I first presented my experiences in the Erasmus+ Programme I have taken part in and after, I talked to them about the criteria and ways to apply for some Erasmus+ opportunities.

Link: here

 

I also created a facebook post talking about this: here

Best,

Cristina

A project to be remembered

Costinesti, the village of youth, party life and carelessness. Being back here brought back so many memories of happy, worry-less life. This place definitely holds its magic, even though it resembles a ghost town at this time of year. I feel the group of our project during the week was the spark the town needed. Nice To Meet You (NMY) was a project full of energy, positiveness and important life lessons. The mix of the Romanian, Italian, Greek, Bulgarian, Turkish and Spanish cultures made us whole a unity, we left behind the fact that we had just met, we were truly friends.

The days were filled with engaging activities who would never allow us to get bored and the nights unveiled their magic with the cultural nights. Through these activities we got to directly engage with the local people, who were really helpful and warm, happy to be part of the process. We started with simple games, which helped break the ice, helping us become more and more comfortable with each other and opening our eyes to other cultures. Origami truly represents a tool, encasing vital qualities like patience, attention to detail and unity. All the participants in this project had their patience tested when it came to this little piece of paper causing so much hustle. But by the end of it, our little paper game turned into something so much more meaningful. Every fold of paper was a decision,and the final product of our life plan. It’s amazing how a piece of paper can convey so much meaning and emotion, through it all of us managed to depict our cultures, values and ideals.

The Culture Fair that we organized at the end of our project truly put into perspective the lessons and fruit of our work, we brought joy to children and adults alike though our pieces depicting important symbols of our cultures. 

Hence, all the adventures that we passed through these 10 days have helped become a better version of ourselves, richer in culture, patience and of course…origami :). We experienced together the beautiful sights of this small but mighty place, the sunken ship, the beach and the obelisk. I believe this place will hold a special place in all the participant’s hearts.

Hope we will see eachother soon, friends! :) Wish you all the best!

by Theona [RO]

I totally recommend you to live the experience!

Hi guys!

I want to share my experience in Costinesti, Romania. I had so much fun and I learnt a lot. We did some cool activities:

- Origami Workshop,
- Cultural nights (we were given some information about a country, danced typical dances and ate typical food of an specific country),
- Visited Constanza and Costinesti,
- Made some bonds with peole from other countries through activities which were focused on getting to know each other!

Moreover, I send you a video with some photos of my experience! I hope you enjoy it! I totally recommend you to live the experience! <3

I explain to my friends

Hi,

I’m Letizia Puddu and in October I went to Romania for the project “Nice to meet you”.

These photos represent how I explained the project to my friends and how I taught them how to do origami.

They too dream of being able to have such a wonderful experience.

Thank you!

See you,

Letizia.

Link: here

It was an experience that everyone should try

- Public Event on Antalya beach, Turkey

- Date: 26/11/2022

- Time: 2-3 hours

- Target group:15-20 people (because I focused on University students).

I specifically targeted young people on the Antalya coast and tried to convey my experiences to people.

I explained what we did and what we learned in the 'Nice to meet you' project, as well as what the Erasmus+ Programme contributed to people. 

I conveyed that I especially enjoyed being in Romania, it was an experience that everyone should try. 

I distributed the flyers we made while in Romania. It was very fun for me, what I know and it was just as fun to share my experiences.

by Osman [TR]

My experience....

 

link: here

by Julia [IT]

Nice to meet you! - Come with us in Erasmus+

Dissemination of the project "Nice to meet you!" that took place between 20-30 October at Costinești, Constanta, Romania was presented by Grădinaru Andreea Eliana and Ciupitu Cristina Emanuela at Liceu Teoretic "Marin Preda", Turnu Măgurele to a group of 60 students between the 16-19 age old.

The dissemination consisted in the presentation of the 9 days of activities, cultural evenings and organized parties. 

We presented the students what we learned in this project and advised them to participate in as many projects as possible.