17th – 31st of March 2018
Gießübel, Germany
Youth Exchange
On the 17th of March 2018 five Cypriots among other 17 participants coming from Germany, Estonia, Turkey and Hungary gathered together in the dreamy Gießübel. Gießübel is a small village in the Thuringian Forest located approximately an hour away from Erfurt, a beautiful city of Germany.
The youth exchange lasted for two weeks. The first week we were accommodated in naturefriendhouse and had a pleasant and comfortable time. The house was in an idyllic location with the forest all around us. We were lucky and during our stay there was snow almost everyday so we had the chance to walk around and enjoy the nature.
Every day a different country was responsible for the meals so we had the chance to taste food from places that we wouldn’t try otherwise. When the team from Cyprus cooked the other participants could try Cypriot souvlaki, halloumi, pitta, tzatziki and traditional salad. Staying in a big house all together played an important role in bringing people together and help us feel like a family.
The topic of the project was traditions. We analyzed what traditions mean for us and wrote down our own definitions. We discussed about our personal traditions (e.g someone may do meditation every day) as well as about the traditions of our country. Sometimes we were working as country teams and other times we were separated and worked with people from the other countries. Towards the end of the first week, we were asked to prepare a short theater play based on a Cyprus tradition. We chose to prepare the Cyprus traditional wedding. In just a few hours we prepared costumes from blankets and coats, gave roles, found the music and presented the show. Everybody was excited!
The second week we moved to a youth hostel in Erfurt. In order to get to know the area we played team games across the city. At the very last days we created our own “traditional” song by combining lyrics taken from traditional songs of all the 5 countries.
Through this project we had the chance to gain new experiences, broaden our horizons and meet beautiful people! We want to thank the organization team for their work and help and also “PlanBe, Plan it Be it”- for its support and for giving us the great opportunity to participate to the project.
