Online citizens
Online citizens
On Monday, September 5th, our unforgettable adventure began. By adventure, we mean the flight of young people to Burgas, ready to learn. When we arrived at Hotel Amaris, on Sunny Beach, everything was shrouded in darkness, and we stood before a week of the unknown. Each of us received a room with someone of a different nationality, so we could meet new people.
The next day was dedicated to welcoming and getting to know each other. I think we clicked immediately. Slovaks, Portuguese, Greeks, Croats, and, of course, Bulgarians participated in the project. Naturally, on this day, we also managed to see the beach. It was really beautiful, and we spent most of our free time there. The sea was absolutely wild – huge waves. But that didn't bother us. We enjoyed jumping and being carried away by each wave. Some days it was calmer – we could even swim.
Wednesday was all about politics. We watched educational videos and expressed our opinions on various political orientations. The discussions were lively and very interesting. The evening was calmer – in small groups, we answered questions about life. Candles created a cozy atmosphere for us.
On Thursday, our group task was to create a project about involving young people in politics and social life. The ideas were brilliant. They included creating applications, websites, and accounts on various platforms. And since this was an Erasmus+ project with people from diverse backgrounds and nationalities, we had two “Cultural nights” – each nationality presented their country, national dishes, drinks… This evening, Slovaks, Greeks, and Portuguese introduced themselves.
Friday's topic was fake news, and right in the morning, a creative task awaited us – creating a short video about fake news or different types of scams – again in groups. Essentially, we worked in groups for almost the entire project. We believe it's very important to develop this skill. Filming videos was a lot of fun! A quite different task was in the afternoon. We read a short story and had to rank the characters according to each of their antagonisms. Then we had to find a compromise in the order with another participant and later with a group of people with different moral compasses. In the evening, the second “Cultural night” took place. This time, Croats and the local Bulgarians presented.
On Saturday, we had a “City game”. We were divided into groups and given a list of simple tasks to complete. For example, dancing in public, a photo with ice cream, or presenting our project to local young people. We could complete the tasks either on Sunny Beach or in Nessebar – an old coastal town full of small houses and souvenir shops.
On Sunday, we had organized debates. We formed teams and divided into a pro group and an anti group. Each team was given a topic for which they had to prepare arguments. Topics included, for example, the death penalty, abortion, or mandatory vaccination. Debating with precise rules was a great experience.
On Monday, we continued with debates on five more topics. For example, wealth tax, the green deal, animal testing, etc. Immediately after, each nationality presented their sending organization.
Tuesday was the last day of the project. In youth exchanges, like this one, it usually means presenting and summarizing the entire Erasmus+ program. We learned useful information about volunteering (ESC), youth exchanges (YE), or training courses (TC). We also had nice activities, such as writing small messages to other participants.
Most people left on Wednesday. It wasn't easy to hug everyone and say goodbye, knowing that we might never meet again. We will miss it all. The project taught us a lot. It created new friendships that we value immensely. We hope it will remain in our hearts and that we will forever remember the crazy week full of adventure on Sunny Beach.
