How did suitcases from all over the world end up in hostel Bovec? Who, when, how and where and with what purpose did the participants participate in a project Write a project, improve your competences in Bovec for ten days? How to play a game No Bob, why is it fun and interesting also for you? Erasmus+ is a new EU programme for cooperating on fields of education, youth education and sports. This kind of project happened in Bovec. We learned how to write a project. More about this and impressions will be revealed in this interview. Let's meet Roberto, Dominika, Fabio and Maja present their memories, describe how Erasmus+ project works, what they learned and what life experience they took with them.
1. Who are you and where do you come from? How old are you?
ROBERTO: I am 35 years old and I live in a town close to Rome, called Ardea.
DOMINIKA: I'm a youth worker. I'm from Poland and I was born in a small, but lovely town called Lezajsk.
MAJA: I am from Poland and I’m 28 years old.
FABIO: I'm the president of the association Sfera Italy and a volunteer at Youth4youth. I'm from Monte di Procida, Italy and I'm 27.
2. How did you arrive in Bovec? How was your trip and did you have any problems on the way?
ROBERTO: I drove by car to train station Roma Termini. Then I took a high speed train to Venice and then I took a shuttle bus that took me directly to Bovec. The trip with the shuttle bus was really amazing: I have been in Slovenia a lot of times, but this time the route was different. We passed the border in Uccea in the middle of Natural Reserve of Prealpi Giulie. We had a chance to admire fantastic views and in 30 minutes we didn't meet any vehicles in that street!
MAJA: I took a bus from Ljubljana airport to Bovec. I didn't have any problems except the fact that the road is really full of turns so my motion sickness was hard to handle. But the beautiful views, which I admired on the way are absolutely worth it.
FABIO: I took a plane from Naples to Trieste. GoOpti Minibus was waiting for me there and thanks to them, I reached Ljubljana. After a few hours in the city, I took a bus with other participants to Bovec. Last part was really, really long, a lot of stops but the strong motivation to join the project helped me.
3. What do you think about the transport connections in Slovenia? Are you satisfied with them?
ROBERTO: I cannot say much about it. I used public transport a couple of times – I took a train from Ljubliana to Maribor and back. I am Italian and our trains and stations are in very bad conditions so I can use only positive words to describe my experience with Slovenian trains. They were on time, the trains were clean, so were the stations.
MAJA: Public transport is really good. Also people are really hospitable and help you on the way, which makes travelling in Slovenia even easier. The only thing that surprised me were the prices of public transport in Slovenia – I expected them to be lower (by that I mean similar to Polish prices rather than Italian).
FABIO: There are different buses to connect Italy and Slovenia but timing didn't help me to choose cheapest one. So GoOpti was the only solution to be in Ljubljana in time to take the bus to Bovec. I was also surprised that Italian border was so close to Bovec but the only way to go there was through Ljubljana and because of this, the trip was quite expensive.
4. Why did you come in Bovec? Were your expectations met?
ROBERTO: I came in Bovec because of European project within the Erasmus+ frame network. It was my first time there. I spent 9 days in the village and it was nice. It is a classic mountain village, so different from Rome and the place where I live, close to the seaside. Most of the people in Bovec have a smile on their faces and the life seems to be quiet and I like it. No stress, no traffic, clean air, wonderful view. I imagined something similar before arriving and was satisfied.
DOMINIKA: My main purpose was to learn how to write a successful project. And yes, I managed not only to learn it, but to put my knowledge into practice by writing a project with friends I made during the training.
MAJA: I came for Erasmus+ training so the place wasn't planned by me but it was absolutely worth it to come.
FABIO: My purpose was to improve my skills in all the fields, related to a training course, in this case to improve my competences in
project writing. Thanks to the organization team I learned also a lot about the managing of a project and how to implement it.
5. Tell us about the project. What did you do?
ROBERTO: During the days we were creating activities, around 2 different activities each day, using the non-formal education and it means that we have actively participated in each activity. For the most part of the project we worked in a culturally mixes group. The topic of the project, a training course, was how to improve the writing of a European project, especially those, related with the
Erasmus+.
FABIO: We spent the first days in different sessions about team building and this helped us a lot to start to work as a group. Then, day by day, we approached every steps of the application form in detail, so at the end we had some project proposals almost ready.
6. What did you find the most interesting?
ROBERTO: I liked debating and discussing about new ideas and opinions and during the project there have been opportunities to do so.
DOMINIKA: To me, the most interesting part was one of the trust-building games when I was blindfolded and my guide had a very difficult task of steering me through many obstacles. I had a picture of the room in my mind and was trying to figure out my position and my directions but it was impossible. I was completely lost in the space. Fortunately, my guide was a very good one and I trusted her so we finished the course without any bruises or injuries.
MAJA: Every training had a lot of beautiful moments, times of reflections and friendships and it is really hard to choose one. For me the whole training was amazing. I really enjoyed evaluation session for personal reasons.
7. Which didactical games did you find the most interesting?
ROBERTO: I liked all the activities about the team building and group cohesion, especially the dragon activity and the situations in which the partner literally had to rely on the others. I also liked the Abigail's activity and all the intercultural nights.
MAJA: Albatros, bridge, Abigail story, building the tower… My favourite from this list is Abigail story. This time I couldn't get the same feelings as I was getting the first time, but I have really enjoyed observing and listening to the people who were playing for the first time. Reading the story, which has no clear good and bad characters is a really good idea for people to see that not all of us are looking with the same perspective at the things that are obvious for us.
FABIO: During a session we had a kind of brain storming where all the participants, especially the youngest and the one with less experience were motivated to share their project idea, what they would like to do in their community, using creativity and fantasy. Then it was very interesting to develop project proposal starting from that ideas, where we worked in 5 groups, developing each of our competences.
8. Who was No Bob? Explain and describe your experiences with him.
MAJA: No Bob was a jar closing tap which was used as a bad luck gift for the people which answered „ no“ for the question of person which had it in the moment. The person who had it in the morning had to make some punishment task like dancing, singing the song and so on. It was fun but made people a bit paranoid.
FABIO: Very interesting and funny game. A tap of a can was representing the No Bob, and the goal at the end of the day was to not have it with you. The only way to give it to the others was asking them something and hoping to have a NO as answer. So we were there trying to be free from it as soon as possible, but for some participants was easy to receive it and difficult to give it to someone else. For me it is always a funny experience because you are motivated to engage and communicate with others, joke with them and understand their way to communicate.
9. Describe your experience with the participants.
ROBERTO: Mainly the group was good. Of course, in every project there are people with whom you feel close more than others. It's normal.
MAJA: Participants were amazing. I had the time of my life.
FABIO: The group dynamic started to be good very soon, thanks to the trainers, the location and the open minded people participating. Some of them were very young but ready to learn from more experienced ones. So I think we had great results at the end of the project, thanks to the team work we did every day.
10. Would you say that you have learned something new in this project? What is it and how will you apply this knowledge in use? Will you share on this knowledge? How?
ROBERTO: In every project you learn something new or something different, this is perhaps the most positive aspect of these
Erasmus+ projects. In particular, here, I developed my knowledge regarding writing a project and better understanding of the material that we had to use. It will be useful in the early future for my work in my organization to plan and to develop new ideas in the Erasmus+ frame network. It was also another opportunity to visit our beautiful neighbour country and to always appreciate new things I learned about this small, but always interesting nation.
DOMINIKA: I learnt a whole lot of new things. I got to know not only how to write a project but some tips to ensure it will be successfully approved. And I won't hesitate to use this knowledge while writing future projects. What is more, I discovered new team building games and energizers and I found out that Slovenia is a very beautiful country!
When it comes to sharing... I share all my experiences and knowledge with my co-workers and my friends every day.
MAJA: I’ve got a lot of useful information how to
write a project, I’ve learnt something about Slovenian culture and by accidental trip after the project, I learned also something about ice hockey. I’ve learnt a lot from other participants about a lot of things just by talking every day. I will be sharing this knowledge every day while writing projects, I will tell what I learned to the young and I will be promoting Slovenia everywhere.
11. What can you say about the owner of the hostel Bovec? What do you think about your accommodation in Bovec? How did you feel?
ROBERTO: The owner was amazing and I had fun with him. I like to see people who love their work. In Italy it is rare to see this. The accommodation was nice, there were some logistic problems the first day (not the owner’s fault) but we quickly fixed it.
MAJA: The owner was amazing! As was the accommodation – there’s nothing bad to say.
12. How would you describe all ten days of the project in Bovec in one word?
ROBERTO: Belli.
DOMINIKA: Experience.
MAJA: ENERGY.
If you think that you can improve your knowledge and capabilities, meet new people and share new experience, visit a new destination, I recommend you to apply on Erasmus+ project. Maybe we will meet on the next project. Until then, be happy.
Bojana Bukovec
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
