Youth exchange in Barcelona

The first thing that comes to everyone’s mind when the discussion comes to Barcelona is an endless party! And they are right. Barcelona is a city that never sleeps, an endless non-stop party place, where thousands of people get together having fun. But it’s also something more than this. It is a cultural place where different artistic perspectives mix up, giving the visitors the opportunity to experience a whole different artistic point of view, comparing to other European cities. From the Cathedral to Gaudi’s buildings, from Barri Gotic to Sagrada Familia and the modern skyscrapers, Barcelona defines itself through all these contradictions, in a strange but so attractive way.

But we were there for work (OK, figure of speech). Participating in a Youth Exchange Program, teenagers from Spain, Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, United Kingdom and Greece were asked to find a way out from this financial crisis we experience these last years. The outcome was really interesting, judging from the conversations we had and the level of our experience over this issue. Same as Barcelona, we had an interesting mix of different cultures, a mix of contradictions and stereotypes, lots of reasons to open our minds and live together for eight days.

I really enjoyed the stereotype game (Cheers mates! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…), the two intercultural nights, the cake that Zed prepared (sorry Zed, I don’t remember the name!), the “whatever” cocktail made by Ben, Nija’s reaction in Sagrada Familia (wow! wow! WOW!), Monica Tontita’s vote for the 1^st video that was made for crisis (yeah, she didn’t vote for her group’s video), Alberto’s help and patience when I was looking for green peppers and average sized tomatoes and of course my chocolate lovers (Greek group – thumbs up!). I want to thank Daya for her patience and caring over the problems that came up – we were lucky to have her as Master Leader, so as Alberto and Julian – and my apologies to Jivaan and Andreas for waking them up with my alarm every morning! Finally, I want to thank all of you for all these memories that make me forget the strange loss of my shoes during the last night! Untill our next meeting, cheers toplads!