This
year spring comes twice, I thought when we stepped out of the plane
in Bucharest. With these sweet thoughts our mobility in Romania
started and we had a whole week of adventures ahead of us!
When
we reached the airport in Bucharest, families were already there to
welcome us. It was so nice of them to come and pick us up from there.
Going with the families was so easy, because we had had a video call
before and we had written to each other as well! No worries at all!
At
school
The
reception was huge – they had arranged a mini concert and tour in
school for us. What I noticed was that 1st
graders
already calculated using unknown x in their calculations. Oh My God,
it is so hard:( What was surprising that lunch was served in
disposable packaging and there was a lot of white bread, I mean A LOT
:)
We
also had a big party where all the hosting families had prepared
traditional homemade food and it was delicious! Later we took part in
traditional dances and we taught them our traditional dances, too. At
the and of the party there was disco. I must say, Romanians love to
dance :)
Workshops
We
had many interesting workshops. We had to construct a bridge out of
spaghetti, drinking straws and wooden tiles. There was a workshop for
painting ceramic plates and calligraphy. We dealt with Ozobots and
Spheros. The workshops were very creative and made us work in teams,
which sometimes was really difficult because we are used to work
alone!
Trips
All
the participants of this project had the opportunity to try mounting
climbing in indoor hall. To achieve your goal a lot of courage was
needed, luckily we had our security cables attached.
Another
trip was to Transilvania. We visited Peles castle in the Carpathian
mountains which was
constructed for King Carol. This buiIding was magnificent and
breathtakingly beautiful. The last place was something we all
had expected to visit – Dracula’s Castle! Ok, it is referred to
as Dracula’s castle but actually it is Bran Castle. The mystery
around this castle is because of the Irish writer Bram Stoker and his
well-known caracter Dracula, prrrrrrr… There is, however, no
evidence that Stoker knew anything about this castle, he was just
inspired by Vlad the Impaler. So the mystery solved :)
In
Bucharest we visited this historical Romanian Anthenaeum, which is a
concert hall. This hall dates back to 1888 and is a symbol of
Romanian history. We were really lucky, because Clara’s father, who
plays in the orchestra, was so nice and played the violin for us. It
was our private concert and it made us feel so proud!
Families
Our
house was a small modern private house with a tiny garden.
Most
of the time, when we were with families, we spent outside of the
house. We went for a walk in the park, played softball, visited
museum of optical illusions, pancake cafeteria, escape room and took
part in our host girl’s Milena’s hip-hop training.
What
was good, we did many things together with other host families. In
the evenings, when we had time, Milena taught us some Romanian and we
taught her some Estonian words. Some words we learnt were "la
revedere" which means good by, "Bună"-hello,
"Pisica"-cat.
Saying
Good Byes
In
the morning we bached our things and went to old town of Bucharest.
We saw many interesting buildings, streets and shops :) And then it
was time to leave… There were lots of tears, because we had got
close with our family and Clara, and Sofia who were hosting other
Estonians. We had to leave, tears in our eyes but warmth in our heart
and what’s more important – memories, tons of memories!
Until
new adventures Clara, Sofia and Milena
Nele-Liis
Kõllamaa, Estonia
