“Once upon a time there was a youth exchange from 5th to 13th of August in the Norwegian forest. The project brought together five different countries (and a lot more nationalities): Estonia, Spain, Denmark, Romania and Norway. As the main topic was sustainability and how we could contribute to it, the participants learnt about different problems each country has to face, how to reduce their own carbon footprints and also the true meaning of team work.
During the project the participants were always together (whether it was in workshops learning about sustainability or on free time making wooden spoons) and we got close to each other. I myself had a wonderful time learning from all of these great people with different backgrounds and life experiences. The project pushed our limits and we now know a lot more about ourselves as well. In my opinion, this youth exchange was a complete success and I feel thankful for this opportunity.”
Kai Budrikas
“This was not an ordinary Youth Exchange. We started our trip early in the morning from Tallinn and then slowly slowly we were taken into a totally different world. First we came to Oslo, then to a smaller town in Norway: Trisyl, from there we went to Femundmarka National park and then, after spending a night in cabins, we reached our destination in the middle of forest, where the river meets the lake and mountains are watching you from the other side of the lake, our outdoor camp was established.
It was a total switch off from our normal routine life, back to nature. I felt like back in childhood when I used to spent summers in my grandparents Village house. No gadgets, no phones or internet (although some people still managed to stay connected somehow with no electricity avaliable), just some young enthusiastic people around and you get to learn something from everybody and all together you have to create ways to entertain yourselves (and protect each other from mosquitos! They are not getting our precious blood!). Organisers and group leaders did a really great job, they managed to combine learning and fun in our sessions, and they also managed to make it interesting to everybody, although there was a different level of knowledge and experience whithin our goup.
I realised that I can share my own experience and share skills with some people. What is common to know for people in our country was totally new for others, so I even got to make a small master class of “How to pick an edible mushroom“ during our open session day (hopefully everybody learned their lesson well and I wont receive any feedback that somebody ate a halluzinogenic mushroom accidentally). Overall there was a lot of positive emotions and cool people and new things I found out about other countries (even my own country prepared some surprises for me that I learned from other Estonian participants) , and of course I learned some things about myself. Coming back to our city life was a bit sad and then again all this everyday life started swirling like tornado, but some things and new habits came back with me from this outdoor “Get Out“ project and I am really glad I had a chance to be a part of it thanks to Erasmus + and of course Shokkin Group! Thank you for this great experience!!
Aljona Zueva
“To begin with, I was chosen to be group leader in Estonia team during this outdoor youth exchange in Norway, and it became the most extreme in my life. Firstly, Norway weather during summer is even more unpredictable than in Estonia, so for organizers and team leaders it was quite challenging task to make schedule work. We had tried to create many scenarios of each day discussing questions what will we do if it is rainy and cold tomorrow, what if it is sunny… In the end, we were prepared almost for everything, except amazing sunsets.
Secondly, participants had different level of outdoor skills: some of participants were even nature guides or scout’s leaders and others have slept in tent for the first time and had first date with mosquitos. All these people were supposed to be involved to exchange process and that was our job. To make it happen we tried to combine simple outdoor sessions like open air presentations and cooking with advanced sessions like canoeing and hiking trips. In conclusion, I would like to thank Erasmus+ program and Shokkin for his useful experience which has made me stronger in many aspects: I got basic knowledge of program creating and became a more confident leader.”
Maxim Zuev
“I enjoyed it very much. First of all, I have switched for 1 week my office building and daily routine by going out of city and spending time in the nature. It helped me much to feel the nature and understand how should we treat it in the proper way. Second of all, I met a lot active and inspiring people who shared their knowledge and ideas with me. I believe that such type of education is very efficient and cool. And lastly, I learned a lot about suitability topic and problems related to the environment. Organization, organizers and team leader were very-well prepared, the schedule, activities were engaging and interesting.
What I brought home: decided to pay more attention how I manage my garbage (will try to use garbage baskets in a proper way) and minimize the usage of water in home. Huge thanks once again for giving me a chance to take part in this project.”
Dmytro Luchyk
“The activities I liked the most were Open Space and the activity where we relatively measured how big our carbon footprint was. I also really enjoyed debate where we had to decide if we agree with a statement or not. One evening all of us went to a forest for half an hour, just to think their own thoughts and so. It was a unique experience to me. One person was left in the forest, so when she woke up it was night already.
I liked camping and how everybody got out of their comfort zone. I have never been so thankful before that I have for example bed and other stuff in my house. When we were at nature, we did not have these comforts. I also enjoyed that I could not spend my time on phone very much.
The people were the best. All of them were very friendly. I got a good practice of the English language and met so many cool people.
I liked intercultural evening, because I could taste meals I had never tried before. Also our chefs were very professional, the meals we ate were very tasty. I really liked that chores were divided and everyone could choose what they wanted to do: cooking, cleaning etc. Norway’s nature is wonderful and I climbed a mountain for the first time in my life.”
Katre Uibo
