Marlena, Poland
My Erasmus+ journey started 2 years ago when I suddenly approached an info pack about the Youth Exchange in Lithuania. There were 30 people from six different countries discussing topics related to entrepreneurship, in the end we created some boarding games related to the topic, but what is the most important thing – we created friendships. These people quickly become my soulmates, with some of them I am still in touch and we do our best to meet somewhere on the road. This experience helped me open my mind, see differences between cultures and believe in myself. Because of these people, I could look at myself from another perspective and it made me think about who I want to be. After this, I couldn’t resist myself and took part in three more projects. I find each of them very educational and I try to implement my experience from them to my life.
What is more, I also took part in ESC (before if was called EVS) in Kalamata, Greece. I was responsible for the podcast about different opportunities for young people that I had created from scratch. In addition, I was helping with social media and with the general promotion of the NGO. Other volunteers were working in the dog shelter, in the office or in the horse therapy center. This experience also taught me how to deal with different issued such as language barrier, lack of proper preparation and how to improve my communication skills in general.