SMILE 2017

This is an essay about my last two Erasmus+ projects which were both held in Hungary. The first project which I participated in took place in Pákozd (Hungary, Fejér County) and its name was „SMILE 2017 – My Intercultural Learning Experience". The project was given from 4th to 12th September and the participators were from the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Italy and Spain. I was in the Czech group with Týna, Ruth, Laura, Míra, Jindra and the leader Denisa. We arrived in the afternoon on 4th September by a privat bus to the place of our project - Ingókő Vendégház Pákozd. The participators got to know one another by „smiling" and we introduced ourselves. Everybody was very tired that evening, but I was still playing The City of Palermo with the Italians and Spaniards. Then I fell asleep. The next day we were also getting to know one another because the Poles arrived a bit later. After the lunch I walked to the centre of Pákozd for the first time and in the afternoon we walked together up to the Ingókövek. The first intercultural evening had Spain. On the third day we were presenting about jokes in our countries and in the afternoon we were trying to walk on slacklines. The national night had Bulgaria also in the frame of their national holiday because on 6th September (1885) was the unification of Bulgaria with Eastern Rumelia. On 7th September we were presentations and discutions about migration and acces of a single country to migrants or refugees. And in the afternoon we were creating some pictures, scenes, presentations with the topic „Thinking". Especially Monika from Poland had very great work. And in the evening was the Czech national night. Everybody brought some food, national symbols, we had also a short presentation, the game of Riskuj!, show the national dance Polka and we had got a big plaudit. The next day in the middle of the project we were having some clown scenes and also trying to make up our flash-mob which should have taken place tomorrow in the city of Székesfehérvár, the capital of Fejér County which is situated next to Pákozd. Luckily, we had Mariam from Armenia who was the leader of the Italian group and she taught us the choreography of the dancing at flash mob + the lyrics: „Erasmus plus, come dance with us, just think and smile, we are as one!" And in the afternoon the group of the project was invited to Sukoró, a neighboring village on the coast of the Velencei Lake (Velencei-tó). First, we were playing a football tournament with local Hungarians from Sukoró. After the football we had a guided-tour in the village and visited the Kalvinist Church – we could listen to beautiful tones of Christian music by a local organist Dani. For the evening we closed our visit in the Ethnografical House (Néprajzi ház). I really enjoyed this evening as one of my best in this year because the hospitality and williness of local Hungarians was indescribable. We learned traditional Hungarian dances, listened to folk music and also got lángos for the dinner. The 9th September was also very loaded day – we had a trip to Székesfehérvár, the second capital of the Hungarian Kingdom. At 11 o´clock we performed the flash-mob near the Statue of Orp (Országalma). Then we played the city-rally and I was trying to complete all the 15 tasks. Thanks to that I could visit or walk around almost every monument of Székesfehérvár and this city has plenty of them. I enjoyed the visit of Székesfehérvár very much. The national night had Poland. On 10th September we started with canoeing on Velencei-tó which is the third biggest lake of Hungary. It was a big experience for everybody. After the lunch we were discussing about media. The penultimate intercultural evening was the Italian. The 11th of September was the last day of the project so we were evaluating the whole week with some works (before the lunch) like drawing, writing or singing. And in the afternoon we were writing messages to our mates in the project. As usual I have written the messages for everybody. In the afternoon we had the YouthPass ceremony, everybody gave a YouthPass for someone + said some compliments about his/her friend. After the dinner I sang national anthems for other nations such as Armenia, Italy, Spain or Poland. And the last national night in the project had Hungary. They introduced us their culture, information and also a quiz on Kahoot. In my opinion, the Hungarian night was the best one but Italy had also very delicious food. The day of the departure was on Wednesday 12th September. Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to one another. First to the Poles because they departed with their private bus, the Hungarians mostly stayed in Pákozd because they were departing to the western part of Hungary instead of Budapest. At my last journey to Budapest I was sitting in the bus with Rebecca from Italy, had very nice conversation with her and I was very sad that we had to say goodbye to each other. As the other Italians, Spaniards and also Bulgarians. I stayed with the Czech team in Budapest and Laura, Míra and Jindra left me, Týna and Ruth at 15:25, they were departed home by train. I conducted the girls around monuments in Budapest and we departed at 23:15 by bus back to the Czech Republic. I arrived in Čelákovice at 7:20 and went to school one hour later. :D The normal life had begun again.

Daniel Paál, participant

Fotogalerie