HOW TO PREPARE & OTHER LOGISTICS

THE TRIP

The trip will be organized by project coordinators. It means project coordinator will plan the route, find and buy tickets (if you travel by plane/bus/train) or order private bus. You understood correct – you won’t have to pay for tickets yourself and wait for reimbursement. You will receive information related to traveling from project coordinator and your group leader.

ACCOMMODATION

During the 10 days of activities and travel days, you will be living in the accommodation together with other participants. Accommodation is paid by project coordinator. You will be living in the rooms of 2-4 people. There will be conference room where we hold sessions. Food will be provided – 3 meals a day and 2 coffee/tea breaks with snacks. Allergies or eating preferences will be taken into account, you just need to inform project coordinator about that.

Usually accommodation is next to the lake, sea, mountains or forest, so don’t forget to pack swimming suit or take warmer clothes and shoes. But you can read more about packing in the next question.

HOW TO PACK

In general, information about packing and what to take will be provided by project coordinator as it highly depends on the location where you’re going – either it is seaside or mountains. But there are few guidelines good to follow:

– Take swimming suit, flip flops and towel (even if you stay in mountain area, there might be sauna to enjoy after day of sessions)

– Take comfortable shoes you can walk long distances. Most likely we will have study visit, hike or walk planned so good shoes are good to have.

– Take comfortable and warm clothes – convenience over beauty.

– Take toiletries for yourself.

– Depending on project topic, you may be advised to take a notebook. Again, the coordinator will inform you. And no worries if you don’t have one – we will have spare notebooks to borrow.

– Take things to represent your country as there will be intercultural night. It can be food, beverages, clothes, souvenirs, etc. It’s not obligatory but nice to have.

There might not be a shop anywhere close, so pack things for 10 days considering you won’t have access to buy stuff. As mentioned above, food will be provided so you don’t have to worry about that.

WHAT TO PREPARE IN ADVANCE

During preparation stage, you will have preparatory meetings with your group leaders where you will learn everything you need to prepare. It might be that you will be asked to find some statistics or data about your country, prepare some traditional games, etc. Don’t worry too much in advance about preparation, as the time comes you will get information from group leaders who will guide and help you.

You will be asked to prepare for intercultural night. During youth exchange mobility we will have few evenings where participants present their countries, traditions, habits, songs, games, etc. Keep this in mind and maybe bring some traditional clothes, a flag, local music instrument, etc. – creativity to represent your country is yours.

SESSIONS & FREE TIME DURING YOUTH EXCHANGE

During learning mobility you will have sessions during the day and free time in the evening. Usually there is 3-4 sessions per day with 2 coffee breaks and lunch. The content of the sessions depend on the project topic but they all have one thing in common – non-formal education. It is education that occurs outside the formal school system and uses different methods and tools to facilitate learning process. In a nutshell, you and other participants will be the ones designing and implementing your own learning path. There will be more experienced participants/facilitators to guide and support you. Learning process will start with icebreaking and team building activities progressing to project topic itself. There will be time for evaluations, reflections and adjustments.

In the evenings you will have your free time. Most likely there will be common activities organized, like talent night or intercultural night, but participation and extent of involvement is voluntarily.