Germany

I got the opportunity to travel together with some students of our school to Germany. During four days I had chance to visit Berlin, Bremen, Heidepark and Serengeti Park.

We started in the night with the Bus from Siauliai to Poland. It was a pretty long drive but the students were very active and so the time went by quite fast :).
We played some games, talked about everything, listened to music, made several stops, ate a lot of sweets and as you see in the end there was even not a lot of time left to sleep. Because of that I went to bed as early as possible when we arrived in our wonderful hotel in Poland. We just went to a small, reaaaally small store to buy some food and then I went to bed. Of course the students enjoyed their first evening of the trip and so they were a little bit more quiet when we continued our journey to Berlin the next day.

Berlin
We made a short stop at the "Berliner Mauer" to take some pictures before we finally went to the center of Berlin to start our sightseeing tour. :)
Thanks to the History teacher the students got always some information about the different sights and thanks to some students, who were willing to translate for me, I also could learn something. Well the language was again a kind of challenge for me. Not just because I was the only one out of nearly 50 people who can not speak Lithuanian but also because I could speak German again and I realized again how much easier life can be when you can communicate with people as you wish.
For example in Berlin I met one of my friends form Austria who is working in Berlin at the moment. During our break we went together to a restaurant and we had a nice conversation with a couple next to us. Absolutely nothing special but for me it was so nice that I was able again to just join a conversation easily.
So simple as it sounds but for me this experience and hour together with my friend was the highlight of Berlin.

For the students of course it was the amazing city itself. We have seen the Parliament, the TV tower, the "Brandenburger Tor" and so on. Hundreds of pictures where made, some nice moments I could also catch.

After sightseeing we went to Hanover where we stayed in a Motel.

Bremen and Serengeti Park
On Tuesday the 31.3 we started early in the morning our travel to Serengeti Park where we explored "the jungle". With a bus we drove through the different areas of the park and our bus driver told us a bit about the animals we could see. The man could just speak German and so it was my turn to translate. It was a really special experience for me and I enjoyed the tour a lot. We had the chance to see so many awesome animals from normal goats and pony, over Elephants and Giraffes up to Lions and Tigers. Very impressive was for me the white Tigers which are very rare. Our bus driver told me that he had raised one of this unique creatures at home some years ago. He said it happens often that someone from the park had to raise a animal at home. He also had already a Giraffe and at the moment one college has a monkey at home. For me it sounded very interesting but like a huge challenge

After the Serengeti Park we went to Bremen to walk through the city. Sadly we had really bad weather and we were all wet and so happy when we reached the bus again to go back to Hanover to our Motel.
Nevertheless Bremen is a really nice City and really enjoyed the bell song and the cute narrow street "Schnorrstrasse". 

Heidepark
Bad weather and storm warning- not really the best conditions to go to a fun park like Heidepark. We were thinking and discussing long but finally we decided to give it a try and we were lucky. It did not rain a lot and a lot of roller costar were working. I think for the students it was a special and memorable day. I could not join them riding the coaster but still it was nice to walk through the park and see happy faces everywhere.
Not as funny as the park was the bus drive after it because a lot of students felt sick. Fortunately soon everybody felt better and was ready for the long journey back to Poland, where we stayed one night before we continued driving to Lithuania.

Foreigners in Šiauliai

As you maybe know, there are always a lot of Erasmus students in Šiauliai. At the moment I think they are around 50 foreigners.

Czech Republic, France, Turkey, Germany, Spain, Italy, Georgia, India, Colombia, Korea, and so on - People form really all over the world are here and thanks to the library we have the opportunity to learn more about those interesting countries.

As you know we started the foreigner evening in the library and already had several nice evenings together.  Annesophie made the first one about French Literature. Then it was my turn with Tradition in Austria.

Followed by Liudvikas about Politics.
He compared different political topics from Mexico and Spain with Lithuania. He talked about the corruption in Mexico, the monarchy of Spain and Patriotism in Lithuania. In a very good way he showed us with several comparisons the different advantages and disadvantages. 

On 11.February Jungo presented Japanese sports like sumo.
At this time I was in Austria and I couldn’t participate but as I heard from the other people it was again an enjoyable evening with a lot of new interesting stories. 

Czech Folklore on the 25.February

Three girls from Czech Republic – Barbara, Karolina, Nikola and Jana- presented their country and traditional folklore dance. Moreover we saw the traditional costumes in the different regions, listen to the music and saw different special events.
For me it was really nice to learn more about my neighbor country and now I know that I really have to go there one day. 

Sightseeing in Colombia
Yesterday evening Sebastian showed us his country and a lot of places we should visit. Everybody was so impressed by the beauty of this country. Every picture was so special and unique that you should just see it on your own. 

• Sierra Nevada - Sea on the one side, Mountain with snow on the other. 
• Caño Cristales - A 5 color river.
• Millions of lights in the Christmas time. 
• Flowers “walking” in the streets
  
  
  
  
  

Next presentation will be on 18.March about her region Brittany.
So if you would like to meet new lovely people and learn more about other countries, now you know where you can go.

Mid term training

Last week the waiting was finally over and it was time for our Mid Term Training.
On Tuesday the 27.February we traveled to Vilnius to the national agency where we met the other volunteers. We had time to talk until everybody came. All together we were around 20 volunteers and the training took place in a wonderful house in Moletai. It was our new home for five days and I think everybody felt very welcoming in this lovely place. When we arrived there with the bus the sun was shining and the atmosphere was full of energy and happiness. 

During the training we talked about our projects, feelings and experiences. Moreover we were „climbing“ and played other games to trust each other blindly. For some of us it was really difficult to be not able to control everything and give „your life in other hands“. 
It was sometimes a challenge but we all enjoyed it I think.

On the first evening we had to go together in groups to create our own More. Our trainers brought a lot of second hand clothes, straw, balloons, tape, and other things with them and we could be really creative. Finally we burned our More and said goodbye not only to the winter but also to all the negative things whose stress us. From bad experiences with some people, over to bad thoughts in the daily life, up to few different problems in different projects– we burned everything what came to our mind. For me this exercise was really nice because I could say goodbye to some feelings I had, to some mistakes I made, and I got the chance to clean my head and start from new.  

My personal highlight of the training was the international dinner on the last evening. We all should cook one of our traditional foods of our country. 20 volunteers together in a small kitchen, trying to cook 8 different dishes was a mess but at the same time so funny and enjoyable. Everybody tried to help the other nation when he had nothing to do or had to wait for place to cook his dish. 

Finally we had German Potatoes salad and Wiener Schnitzel, Rumanian Chicken Rolls, Hungarian paprika soup, Serbian spicy sauce, Spanish Potatoes Tortilla, and as dessert Austrian Kaiserschmarren and French Apple Pie.
Everything smelled so tasty and delicious that we ate all even when it was far too much.

Everybody of us lived this training differently. In this training we were free to choose between different topics and activities. For me both trainings (on arrival and mid term training) were really nice. Nevertheless I enjoyed the first training a bit more because it was a bit more adventure to meet all new people and places.
Also Liudvikas associate more positive things with the on arrival training, but this maybe also because he was not 100 % healthy and had a hard week before (he had his exams in London and therefore a lot of stress).
However for some others this training was the best until now. For example Annesophie had so many nice experiences in this training about which she can tell:

Annesophie: 

"I would like to speak about two events which happened during the training. Two events which touched me because of their human dimension.

First one, it was when we walked through the lake to join our meeting with an old couple.  Actually, during one of the first on-arrival training (I was not there), a group of volunteers had a task which was to walk in the forest and find a house where people could welcome them for a tea or a coffee. An old couple welcomed them so, and they had a great moment. These nice persons asked the volunteers to send by post the group picture they took, but the volunteer who was in charge to do it lost the address…

So, our mission during this training was, with one of this volunteer, to find the couple and ask once more their address. After some adventures on the lake and a great moment to walk in the frozen forest, we met the couple. They were so happy to meet the volunteers! It was really amazing! They remembered Maxime, the French volunteer they met the first time, and they were really glad to meet others German, Hungarian and French volunteers. We had really a good time with these persons, who, in few minutes, proposed us tea, coffee, chocolate, cookies,…

The man even proposed us a concert of harmonica! During one hour, this old couple shared with us their home, their food and their hobbies. A very nice and memorable moment. 

The second moment was much crazier. We decided, with Liudvikas and Maxime, a French volunteer, to go for an evening walk on the frozen lake. After we went across the lake, it was really too dark, too windy and too sliding to continue to walk on the lake. And in additional, we were lost.

So, we decided finally to join the forest, where we found near the border of the lake, a private propriety. We decided to knock on the door, and the woman, when she saw us by the windows, was a little bit afraid. Finally, she opened her door, spoke in Lithuanian with our trainers, proposed us some cookies and drive us back on the main road with a car to clean the snow,…. This woman was a really good person… And I think, if it was an adventure for us, it was the same for her ! I think it’s not so often when she has to help three foreigners volunteers, lost on the lake, during the night…

Really, these two adventures, more or less crazy, reinforce my opinion about Lithuanian people. When I heard some volunteers who were saying that Lithuanian people are stupid, I think it’s just because these persons are not really open-minded. Because, maybe they don’t smile so much in the street, but when you need them, they always have a big heart to help you, even in the craziest situation. Of course, I didn’t wait to see that Lithuanian people are really helpful, but during this training, I really had the opportunity to confirm what I think, and especially, to show to some others volunteers that they should be more tolerant and open-minded."