Departure Day

"The first time during the project I get to wake up after 8.30 in the morning. Luckily nobody is leaving early so we get to sleep in and have a breakfast together. The ones who are leaving later are heading to the city, the others are packing their suitcases and saying the last "Goodbye's" and "See you's".

Even though there is still a lot of work to be done, I feel somehow empty inside. It was in 2014 in the summer, that the first project - "Babel" Youth Exchange in Finland took place. Back then the participants were asking for a follow-up. After months of thinking about how and where to organize it, the "Carpe Diem" project was submitted to the Estonian National Agency in Februar 2015. Almost a year-long preperation and the 9 days passed so fast. Even too fast. Still, I'm so happy about the result and so proud of the performance the participants managed to held. Yesterday I was asked if a the third project will be organized. After the 9 days I can only say one thing - of course! 

Hereby I would like to say a big-big thank you to all of the participants, the wonderful Kesklinna Youth Center team, teachers(Grete Gross - drama and clowning, Mari-Liis Eskusson - dance, Kadri Erlenheim - music), partner organizations - Youth Association Droni, Magistru and Cantiere Giovani, Estonian NA and of course Erasmus+ programme for making "Carpe Diem" possible!"

Renate from Estonia

7th day!

"So … it is the last day. I am already feeling the bittersweet sadness of saying goodbye to my good friends. But no thinking about that, we still have a wonderful day ahead of us: the day of the performance. I am really excited and nervous at the same time. After breakfast we rush to the Hopner House to run through the scenes and go over details. Do I remember everything correctly? I don’t even have time to think about it properly, because we go out to the streets to sing, dance, fool around and, most importantly, invite people to see our show. Time flies and already it is quarter to 1 and we have to go back and start letting the audience in. We gather around for the last energy circle and after a proper energizer we all go to our places. 

I have to hide in a bench, so the next 20 minutes I am lying on the ground, under a bench, trying not to make any noise. I hear people gathering and mumbling. Someone has chosen to sit on the bench I am hiding under. I start to laugh: they have no idea that someone is giggling under their chair. What a surprise they are going to have! I am even more excited now. Then Renate starts to introduce us, the audience remains quiet and the performance can start. I hear the first mosquitos buzzing, and then the others, they buzz around for some time and then it is my time to shine. I knock heavily and feel the surprise of the audience, when the mosquitos come and help another one out from a bench people are sitting on. 

The next 20 minutes pass quickly: the clowns do ridiculous things and joke around, the dancers perform their routines and amaze people with their grace, the singers sing with their heart, closing their eyes and enjoying every note. Everything goes so quickly and already it is time for the last song where we all go to the stage, dance and sing altogether as a proper team. I feel good, see that everyone is enjoying themselves and smile as much I can. It is done! We have put on an amazing performance! We get really good feedback which makes it even better: we were able to make people smile and give them something to remember. 

Now it is time to eat our Subway sandwiches, shower and rest for a bit. At 5 p.m. we gather for the final evaluation. I know this will be a sad one. Firstly, we take a seat somewhere comfortable and close our eyes. Renate puts on some music and with her soothing voice tells us about the week and all the activities we have done together. I go back in time and think about the week myself. It has been a busy one. Oh how busy! We have done so much together: starting from the first day of introduction and name games to today’s performance. In between I have had so much fun, 17 strangers from different countries have become my good friends with whom I have shared a lot of my life and ideas. It is weird to think that a week ago I didn’t even know their names and now I am sitting here and feeling sad about leaving them tomorrow. 

Renate stops, we come back to the present and gather around for the last circle. Everyone thanks the others for this wonderful project. I also want to thank everyone, especially Renate, because without her we would not be here. I have definitely grown as a person and learned something from each of them. 

Then it is time to go out for our last dinner together. We dress up and go to Lendav Taldrik in Telliskivi. The food is good and the people are even better. As we are tired, we go home quite soon after trying to find a place to dance. But it is a Sunday and we all must pack our things. So the last evening is a quiet one, where we share photos, tell our last stories to each other and try to get some rest for the next day. Even I must rest, although I live close to the youth center. But saying goodbye needs energy. When I lie on my bed before sleep, I once more think about the day and the other participants and how thankful I am for this experience. Amazing!"

Liisi from Estonia

6th Day

Saturday – one of the most interesting and nicest days.

I woke up at 9 o’clock to have breakfast and start packing my sporty clothes because I knew that we were going to spend the whole day preparing for the final performance at Hopneri Maja. There were three groups: clowning, contemporary dance and singing. I was in the dancing group which was the most attractive one in this project for me. I had never tried contemporary dance before so that’s why it was a big challenge for me that I overcame quite well.

It’s true that I and my group members weren’t professionals but our trainers: Mari-Liis Eskusson (contemporary dance choreograph), Grete Gross (circus artist and clowning trainer), Kadri Erlenheim (musician and song trainer) were masters at their job. They always gave me positive energy which helped me to be more open-minded, confident and free.

 The day started very energetic, we had a perfect breakfast as usual and after this we started a hard preparation for the final performance. The first part of the preparation took place in the youth center where we had all of our lessons, but in the afternoon we went the actual venue of the final performance in the Tallinn old town.

The most amusing and funny thing that happened was when we started walking back to the youth center after the rehearsals.  We were sharing the invention cards of the performance on the street. I was a clown and making funny things to get people’s attention. Some of us were dancing, the others singing, taking photos and videos. Everybody was looking at us and taking pictures with us. I will really never forget this day.

The ending of the day was really surprising. We had the most delicious pizza that evening and after this we had sauna.

When we thought that it was time to go to bed, our organizer Renate told us that there was something in the kitchen, we entered the kitchen and…..

 Finally, I want to say that it is a really short description of the day. I can’t say how cool it was in details. I would like to thank all of the participants and organizers for the day!

Barbare from Georgia

5th Day

"If I had to describe Friday, I’d probably say unusual, hard, different, and

strange. And that’s not because I had to do some hard work I have never done before. I just had to wear someone else’s shoes...

Everything started monotonous. I started my morning by taking my breakfast and thinking about what I had to do that day. I was trying to remember our schedule but it wasn’t helpful. I did not take this day so serious. But what happened changed my life. It was 9.30 when we started our music lessons. I spend some interesting time there, considering the fact that we already chosen our songs. After the music lessons the day critically changed. 

We had a special guest in our youth center. It was special to me because this person did something many of us would be afraid to do. His main aim was to console and help gay people in Estonia. He is working for an organization that protects LGTB rights and tries to find social acceptance for people who love “different”. During the time spent with this person, we had some debate about different topics and also we tried to find answers to our question. Strangely enough I found some answers for some hard questions of mine. In despite of what he was doing, he was happy, open to us and tried to make us understand the love, which we consider to be strange.

I believed our day was over. But everything was about to begin. Our “field trip” was a total surprise for me. I call it surprise not because I did not know about it, it surprised me because it changed my life and my point of view. We visited a center for people with disabilities. It sounds easy. But what we actually had to do was to “put ourselves in their shoes”. At the beginning we had an introduction about the center and every organization that was hosted there. To be honest it was kind of boring to listen to someone who talks about disabled people and their role in our society. It didn’t take too long for me to start regretting that. For the first time in my life I was offered the chance to be in a wheelchair, to “see” how blind people “see” the world, how a person uses signs to communicate and how it feels to have no hands. I believe it was a “dramatic” experience for every one of us. It was psychologically hard for us to take this experience. As hard as it was for us to deal with all that pressure, we managed to get the main idea of what we were doing there. We understood how it was to be ignored and isolated, to have no help. I concluded that most of people need this kind of experience to be more tolerant and to accept people the way they are and not to run after perfection. 

After getting back from our field trip, my mind was constantly on how we could help more disabled people and how we could involve them more in the society. It was a unique experience and a hard lesson for us to teach, but was worth it.”

Vasile from Moldova

4th Day

"After three days of interesting and funny activities, it is time to take a deeper look at the city. Today we have a four hour bike tour across the city and I am excited to visit the artistic side and the park.

At 9.30 we move from the youth center to reach the heart of Tallinn and meet our tour guides. It is a sunny day, we can feel the summer and it is time to discover this nice city.

We are all excited and for me this will be the first experience to ride a bike on the street: I should not ride too fast to avoid my kneek starts hurting but I am sure that everything will be fine! 

The bike rental shop is a nice place with many young people. They quickly give us the bikes and soon we are ready to go! I am in the group with two Estonian guys and it is nice for me because they are like extra referees as they know the city. Across the street people respect traffic lights and, in spite of the tram rails, riding is comfortable. 

Our first stop is near the main station, at the ʺRussian Marketʺ where it is possible find everything from fresh fruit and vegetables up to old cameras, clothes and other stuff. It is full of people and you can feel a mixed smell of onions, spices and other things I can not recognize. I love markets, going through the stands and looking what people buy, the colors all around and the voices.

One of my favorite stops is Telliskivi: there are restaurants and clubs in buildings that before were factories and on the walls it is possible to take a look at wonderful paintings and graffiti. We are all wondered about all there is in front of us. 

After a lot of pictures and few minutes on the road we arrive in Kalamaja to take a look at the wooden buildings and the abandoned factories. One of those has an open door and we decide to enter. The sight in front of us is amazing: the perfect scene of an industrial music concert! Now it is time to take a little break and rest ourselves in a nice park: there are not many people and  is very quite, someone wearing swimsuit is on the grass relaxing in the sun.

Our guide Katrin is very nice and clear, her voice is a good soundtrack for all these amazing sights! The view of the ex prison on the beach and the funny faces of people sit at the bar are an interesting combination. In the last part of the tour Katrin take us to Linnahall, in a place with a sort of open theatre location and some artistic installations. 

At the end of the tour we thank and say goodbye to our guide to have lunch in the park near the Viru Gates and then me, Cris and Danilo decide to spend a couple of hours in the center looking for souvenirs. There are a lot of nice shops (the clerks often are not so friendly).

Finally the dinner at Dereku Burger is the best way to recharge batteries and start a nice evening with special friends hanging around and joining the wonderful sunset of Tallinn through buildings and trees."

Antonella from Italy

3rd Day

"The third day of the project started with a clowning workshop where we were taught different principles of performing on a stage and acting as a clown. At first clowning might seem like fooling around in a random manner but in reality there are rules according to which a person can transform into a semi-professional clown. We went through exercises and games based on repetitive movements and sequences in order to find the synergy among the group of people who would play clowns in the performance at the end of the project. For me the most important exercise was the easiest one: we had to stand in a circle, say out loud our name and slowly look each person deep in the eyes. This gave me lots of self confidence - looking someone in the eye for a long period of time was much more difficult for me earlier but after the workshop it´s not a problem at all. 
Having had practise for a live performance there was the follow up for the workshops that took place on Tuesday and concentrated on different stereotypes commonly spread in the participants´ home countries: we interviewed random people on the streets of Tallinn to find out their veiws on immigration, rights of minorities and common social problems in Estonia. This was followed by a discussion to further develop the participants´understanding on the named issues. 
After having lunch in a nearby Italian restaurant called Cotta we continued in 2 groups: one group debated on whether disabled people are full members of the society or not using the British parliament debating model and the other practised choir singing. 
Later on the singers also had the debate and the first group had a workshop on contemporary dance. Since I don´t have a good voice to sing with I took part in the dance practise. I haven´t done any dancing before but the workshop was very interesting. Our trainer made us realise the dance potential we all carried. In the end of the workshop we had to perform an improvised dance sequence with a partner. At first I thought I wouldn´ t be able to properly dance in front of all the people in the workshop but once the beat started we all got so lost in music we were totally unaware of time and space. It was a really liberating activity. 
We ate dinner in a vegan restaurant called The Inspiration Cafe and once again it got proven that vegan foood can be as tasty as food containing meat. 
We finished the day with an Estonian movie called Kertu. I think it was a great activity that brought the group closer together."

Martin from Estonia

2nd Day

"The second day begins with discussion about stereotypes. We have already written down the stereotypes that we have towards each other’s countries during the intercultural evening. Most of them sound funny and we all take them with a sense of humor until Renate adds

more offensive and aggressive stereotypes of our countries to the flip charts and asks us how we feel about them.

Some of us feel sad and others angry. It’s interesting to reach a deeper awareness of how stereotypes affect us and how we are perceived by others.

In the afternoon we play a  game that reflects on our values and is similar to Monopoly – the auction of values. It’s an interesting game because it makes you become aware of the values that are important for you and for the other participants. We understood that not all the values are equally important for all of us, but there are some more universal ones that all of us value.

After the theater workshop a dinner at Kompressor (a pancake restaurant in the old town) and visiting of an actual theater play followed. We went to see a performance that was part of a theater festival SAAL Biennaal. It was amazing! It was a strange kind of theater but I like it very much!

After theater we went to Protest and then to bed.

It was another beautiful day in Tallinn and I don ́t want to go home anymore!"

Claudia from Italy

1st Day

"The first day has arrived!

We have breakfast at 9:30, the floor is really crowded and the toilet is always busy but at the end the breakfast the whole chaos of the very first morning pays off. Juice, corn flakes, cheese and tomato...

Reunited in a big room of the hosting building, we have started activities with a funny energizer.

We do a cyrcle and now is time to break the ice with our team mates and to get to know each other through funny games. Although the beginning was terrible, we soon started to remember the others names.

At the 1:00 PM we have a Lunch.  We walked just a few minutes to reach the Cotta Restaurant, a cute Estonian place where to eat, with wooden table and sack attached on the roof.

After lunch, the afternoon begins with a game of team building, devided in two groups. Renate, hosting organization mentor, gave us a goal to reach. It sounded easy, but in reality it was not. At first our strategy to reach the goal was wrong, the difficulty during the game was that we could not talk each other and before the game started we weren´t organized well in the communication. Each group was divided in smaller groups, many people were talking and not listening plus we didn´t realize immediatelly the difficulty of the game and the importance of the strategy.

The evening went on with the Intercultural evening, devided in national groups, each one explained the stereotypes the others had about the countries and cultures. We also showed the others videos of our countries and cities. Then we ate typical food of each others countries that the participants brought from their countries."

Chris from Italy

16th of August

The Arrival Day

"Our trip began in the bus in Chisinau heading towards Kiev. We were very excited about the trip as we already knew that it is going to bring us unforgettable moments. On the arrival to Kiev some of our Ukrainian friends met us and showed us this beautiful city. Even though we were tired from walking it was definitely worth it and we were in a very good mood. In the limited time we had in Kiev we've managed to visit Maidan square and " Andreevsky Spusk". We absolutely loved spending a bit of time in Kiev and can say for sure that it is indeed an extremely beautiful city. Our final destination of the trip was Tallinn. Therefore, we had to take the plane to Estonia. As we have never been to Estonia before we were a bit worried about the arrival, the accommodation and the weather. However, on the arrival we realized that we didn't have to worry. From the moment we arrived to Kiev and then to Estonia we have met a lot of interesting and active young people. Even in the plane to Estonia we have met some Ukrainian guys who were also going to a similar youth project. On the arrival to Tallinn we took the bus to the city center, but we were a bit stressed not to miss the right bus station. Nevertheless, all went good and we were met by Martin (another participant of this project) at the station. Then, at the youth center we met Renate and other guys from the project. We had a warm and pleasant meeting and we found the youth center extremely modern and comfortable. However, after the long trip everything we wanted was a shower and some food. Straight after our arrival we went all together to have the dinner at the "Vapiano" restaurant. The food was very delicious, especially the Caesar salad. After that we wanted to take a shower, but in the middle of the process the water stopped for no specific reason. It was still fun and we had to wait a bit until the problem was solved. In the end, after meeting some of the participants, eating the delicious dinner and having the much-expected shower we were happy to be in Tallinn. We are looking forward to see all the activities, other members and represent our country as best as we can. "

Alina & Ana from Moldova
15th of August