LTTA C4 students` meeting in Romania

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