Euromedia newspaper

Youth Media Monday, 20 February 2012

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The Eyes of Europe By Paolo Nestola

aving had the opportunity to make this

experience at Oxford, be able to live with

young people from different parts of

Europe with different traditions and different

habits, confirms what I thought before taking part

in this experience and that is that, young people

want to learn as much as possible and to know

themselves too, without limits! Stimulated by the

possibility of participating in various workshops

and recreation, along with the awareness that every

culture and tradition must be known and developed

through dialogue and mutual exchange of ideas, we

have established a climate of dialogue and

participation.

During the street interviews in Oxford, I could see

the desire in each of us, trying to build a common

project; we worked together on the basis of "skills"

acquired during the previous workshop. Through

photography, we described how people from

different countries may coexist in the same place

despite a different way of living their life! Using a

camera, our presence and availability of people, we

have shown and demonstrated that the

overwhelming majority of interviewees were aware

of the traditions and cultures of other European

Union countries, which, in fact, shows that we can

be united not only on paper or on the same

currency, but also through knowledge of the

differences in customs, in full respect for the other

people! I wanted to ask them what they thought

about an active participation in the European

system; how much this is important for the coming

generations, creating a line between past and

present, erasing the boundaries of thought that still

exist in some of us!

Euro Quizzz By Claire Thuet

t was difficult to find

people interested to the

quiz. Some people might

have been afraid of us, they must

have thought why would strangers

want to ask me questions about

Europe. Besides most of them had

to go back to work as it was rush

hour.

However, people who accepted to

participate in the quiz were really

nice. For instance one guy, who

was collecting money for a

charity, noticed that people did not

want to make the quiz, so he

approached us and said that he

would like to do it. But when it

was finished he asked us for some

money for his charity -

Answers were really funny, for

example people said that Estonia

does not exist - really?! Someone

said that Estonia exists but that it

was situated in South

America!!!!! Someone else

thought that it was in Central

Europe near Spain. Well, almost

there, just a bit further north. A

boy answered that Portugal is an

island. Where have you been guys

during the geography lessons?????

All English participants answered

that French are famous for eating

frogs – do we? But most of them

choose the correct answers. I was

proud that people know things

about my country but I preferred

when people choose the wrong

answers. It is funnier.

In France, most people would

refuse to do the quiz. We often

think that French people are

sociable, but they don`t pay

attention to each other in the

underground, the bus. Now, on the

other hand, English people seem

more sociable than French, who

clearly are miss something, as we

had so much fun with people who

accepted to do it.

We were working in couples, there

was one interviewer and one

cameraman. We had the same

reactions: we were irritated when

people refused to do the quiz, glad

when they accepted to, and we

laughed when they had the wrong

answer. Well at least I learned

something: French eat frogs every-

day, I’m sure my mom will be

happy to hear that.

H

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Columns

30 bulls attacking

England from overseas

By Édua Kocsis (Eddie)

ometimes I tend to be really superstitious,

judging people based on their looks, age,

where they come from and their degree of

education. All of my stories start out this way. This

was sort of the same. 5 of us got the chance to

participate in a Youth exchange organized by the

TOGETHER “group”. Only this time, not like the previous ones, it took place in Oxford, England.

Great chance for a Hungarian girl living as a

minority in Slovakia. That is how me and 4 of my

friends got on the plane,

and off we went to the

great unknown, to the

country that 3 out of five

had not ever been to

before. The topic of the

training was Media. Five

countries of the EU: Estonia, Check Republic,

Slovakia, Italy and

Portugal. They will be

the participant countries.

Sounded pretty

interesting.

We did a little research at

home. after getting through passport control

we knew where we were

heading. Victoria Station.

Downtown London.

Took an hour and a half

bus drive, half an hour

spent on the train and

another 40 minutes

underground trip to get

us there. By that time we

were really hungry. The most appealing restaurant

was Mc Donalds. It’s sad, but true. London is full

of franchises and it was kind of difficult to find a

restaurant which sells English specialities. So we

ended up with fast food.

Tummies full. Sooo- where is the bus that will take

us to Oxford? 5 pair of eyes searching for the sign:

Oxford Tube Bus. We were lucky. Found it fast and we managed to get a front seat at the top of the

double decker. We were happy to have a little

sightseeing. After five minutes it started to rain and

we were no longer able to nothing but the drops at

the windscreen. Such as life. In Oxford a car came

to pick us up at the station and to take us to our final destination. The only thing I wanted was a

bed.

Sometimes I tend to be really superstitious. I participated in youth exchanges before. They were

all really good, great trainers and organizers, the

people who were there grew extremely fond of

each other. When I got into the common room and

I looked at the people I started to be afraid. 30

people…too much...way too much. The main

organizer girl is 18 years old. I got to catch a world

with the trainers: none had ever done a workshop

before. The participants were all logged in to their

facebook and chatting with friends from home. I

tend to be really superstitious. So I went

to sleep as fast as I could.

The first day of the

exchange was long. Same

pattern all the time.

Rules, Youth Pass,

blablabla. I was still

tired. So I went to sleep.

During the second day

we split up into groups:

photoshop, video, and

jounalism (that was my

group). Then trainers of

each group explained a

little about the goals, the final project and how

they imagine that we will

work. I was surprised

myself on the fact that I

liked it. I actually found

it really interesting. The

whole point was to

prepare a newspaper, to

teach us how to make

interviews, writing

articles, columns. The group where they were

photoshoping enjoyed themselves too. They kept rushing in and out all with cameras hanging in their

hands, taking pictures like Japanese tourists. We

were preparing questions for the interview for the

following day in oxford. I had fun. The 18 year old

organizer girl turned out to be tough herself who

can keep everything perfectly arranged. After

dinner I did not go to sleep as fast as at the previous

day. We were up until 2 AM playing and talking.

By then, I finally memorized all the names. We

were laughing and having a great time.

S


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We started the day with a 30 minute walk down to the bus station. It was worth it! Oxford is beautiful.

Our tourist guide showed us the city from inside

out. It was like a fairy tale. Harry Potter coming

alive. Large pockets of green including spacious

parks and landscaped gardens where the grass is the

type of green which you can only see in movies.

Buildings to which you look at, history starts to

speak and you feel back in the 16th century again.

The main street is full of crowds. All rushing in

different directions. I am not even sure they knew where they were aiming.

Let’s start out mission! Interviewing! Cameras

ready. Questions all set. The only problem we had,

that nobody wanted to stop at the beginning. Pity. It

was time to change strategy from trying to act

professional to just ask if they would be kind

enough to help an EU project. They stopped than.

Some did not know the answers, some answered before we finished the questions and some did not

care for the answers, just started talking off topic.

We recorded 6 hours of video footage including an

interview with the street performer and took all

together

The city was full of street performers playing with

fire and singing and doing different tricks. It is not

the thing, that you can meet any day, especially not where I come from. It was exciting to experience it.

We got 2 hours of free time, and from the shopping

bags and because the next day we almost all had an

oxford university sweatshirt, I could tell everybody

went souvenir shopping. 8 in the evening we all

jumped into the bus and off we went. 30 minute

walk, this time uphill. Everybody laughing. We were tired, but we did

Here I am writing a story of the previous 3 days

and the only thing I can think about is that I do not

want to go home in 4 days. Now I see the 30 people

working together as a team. Sometimes I tend to be

really superstitious. But every time I realize, that it

is just something I have to overcome because

people are nice, and even though we come from different countries, are different in age and have

different customs, we all are just humans. Raising

knowledge of differences by actual experience is

the most effective. It’s not books or pictures. You

ask, they answer. And most importantly, they

explain. Books can never do the same. I am glad I

came and I hope I will have the chance to do it

again.

Richness By Joao Pedro Saraiva Maia da Silva

t’s 8 a.m. and we are leaving our hometown. As it

could be predicted, we were late! After all, we are

Portuguese aren’t we? But we have an excuse. We

got late because when one of us went to pick up

“Quilhoezinhos de S. Goncalo” (I will explain this

word later), there was no one at the bakery. Hence, we

were late because another Portuguese was. I know this

is not the best “business-card” to give, but Portugal has

many beautiful things to offer, believe me… We made

it and just at the last minute, the owner appeared and

we could bring our traditional cake to Oxford- YAY!

We were glad, because when you take a cake, that has

a phallic shape, to a youth exchange, the jokes are

guaranteed! At the last minute we arrived at the airport,

dropped the luggage and everything was fine. Yeah,

living in Portugal is like being in a James Bond film all

the time. Because we have the MI-6? Of course not!

Because everything happens at that last minute when

you pray that seconds to run slower so you can make it!

And usually, you can.

I

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When we arrived at Gatwick airport, the cosmopolitan

life entered instantly

through our eyes. We

took the bus to Oxford

and when we arrived, we

went for a walk while

waiting for someone

from the organisation to

pick us up and guess

what we found. A

Portuguese restaurant

that had at the door one

symbol of our country,

the Barcelo’s cock. We

couldn’t resist, entered

and took something to

drink, while laughing of

what we’ve just found.

Then, when Jirka picked

us up, he was with some

really nice Estonian girls

with whom we were

going to share this great

experience in the youth

exchange. We met

Dominica and Katka

from Czech Republic and

Bea our nuestra hermana

-as we would say in

Portugal- at Youlbury

Scout Centre who

showed our room. And

then, wave after wave, the other country’s teams

arrived. It was really nice to see all those people

entering through the door, while everyone would go to

greet each other. When the Italian team arrived, me and

one of my Portuguese friends, Barbara, looked at each

other and said with joy in our words “These are the

Italians for sure!”. Maybe we and them have something

in common that makes it really easy to find out where

do we come from. Maybe it’s the Latin blood that runs

in our veins.

It might seem really easy for people of Latin

descendent to get together, yet it was also so easy to

interact with other people from other countries like

Slovakia, Czech Republic and Estonia, for instance,

learning to a simple word like “Previet” with Ira and

Zina, the two girls from Estonia who taught me my

first Russian word, Hello. In one of the international

evening, I’ve learned a Czech tongue-twister, and was

able to realize how hard

it was for me to process

languages from some

countries like those

from the East of

Europe. Something that

I wouldn’t expect. I felt

like an clown in the

middle of a circus,

when the two girls from

Czech Republic were

teaching me the tongue-

twister trick, holding a

camera that was

recording my clumsy

words coming out of

my mouth. It was quite

funny actually!

In the evening, when

each country had the

opportunity to show and

share their traditional

dishes, my tongue and

belly had a pleasure

balsam! From the

Italian taraddhri,

passing through French

chocolate, Slovakian

cheese, Estonian kama

drink, each European

taste, just like each one

of us, was unique and interesting. Is it a cliché? No, not

in this case. And let me tell you: our codfish dish was a

real success.

In one of the mornings, I teamed-up with Gabriele

(from Italy) and Nika (from Slovakia) to create an

advert and it was so good to work with them. This was

the concrete example that diversity is richness. They

had so many good ideas that intertwined in such a

flowing and respectful manner…

And at last but not least, I loved to be in Oxford,

getting to know some of the famous colleges and had

the opportunity to do several street interviews. And

these streets that were filled with such a mix of

nationalities and looks… you could see cultural

difference coexisting with ease.

So, this week made me believe that Europa can be

united. We can be united. Get Together!


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Blond chick

travels to

England!

was in a snowboarding trip last week, when I got a

call from my friend who just said: „on Monday we´re

going to England and you will come with us...“ It

happened on Friday... So I finished my trip in the

mountains and went home. I told to my parents what was

going to happen. They were surprised and on the other

side afraid of the whole trip. I just knew when was our

plane taking off, so they didn´t want to let me go here. I

calmed them down: don´t be afraid, worst case scenario: I

will sleep under the bridge.

Me and my friends met each other at the airport. The

beginning was funny... you know... a blond hair girl is

going to a trip and she packed million clothes to the

suitcase... I had to put some of my clothes to my friend´s

bag, because mine was so heavy. The flight was amazing,

my stomach was moving like a roller coaster and the

people sitting next to me could only hope, that I´m not

going to vomit.

We arrived to London... We took a bus, train then another

bus then another one and another one...It was my longest

journey I´ve ever travelled in one city like London... I

didn´t believe it, that we must have travelled 5 hours to

get off the city... It was incredible.

As long last we arrived to the camp and the adventures

continued on.

Enikő Beke (Nika)

y trip to come here was a nightmare. I had to

take one train and one bus in Italy and, after that,

an airplane to come to London

Stansted. Then, I took two busses to

come to Oxford. The trip started at 7

o’clock in morning and concluded at

10 o’clock in the evening. It was not

such a simple trip, but I was happy

because I was coming here. When I

arrived, there were three types of

pizza, but none of them was good! I

didn’t know that I was going to have

to eat that kind of food every day.

The only exception was the

intercultural dinner where I could

eat different type of food, for sure, it

was better than English food. Another strange thing is the

fact that it is not easy to have a shower, because there is

only one shower, near my building,

for a lot people. But I ask myself,

“Did the organizer not know that we

are in winter??”

During these days, I have met

people of different parts of Europe,

with different cultures, different

traditions and different languages.

Thanks to these differences, I have

learned new things about the other

countries of Europe and I have seen

what they eat or how they dress.

Paolo Nestola

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uring my time here, I understood several things

about different European

cultures and saw different

stereotypes.

It is my first time in England, so when

we came and sat in the bus to Oxford,

it was a surprise for me to hear such a

big variety of languages. My first

expression was that England is a

European center of different nationalities and cultures.

Unfortunately there are two things that

I really miss in England compared to

Estonia:

1) Wifi-internet. In England it very

slow and they don’t have a lot of free

Wifi places.

2) The food…you know…the good

one. The food which was offered to us

in the camp was “stomach-exploding”.

When we had a trip to Oxford we

planed to check out a typical British

Fish and Chips eatery. Two of my

friends and I after long searches

finally found it on the High street and

the name of the place was CornMax

Fish and Chips. We passed a long corridor and entered a place witch

reminded me a basement. The light

there was like in a cheap toilet at the

train-station, by the way there were no

toilets, and behind the stand was

staying an Indian man who

immediately said to us: “Hello ladies,

three Fish and Chips plates for three

ladies!!!”. He did not even gave us a

chance to look at the menu and prices.

Somehow Indian hypnotized us and

forced to buy his product. Under the influence of the Indian guy we sat

down and started to wait for our

meals. By the way the temperature

was quite low. Finally he prepared our

dishes. The meal looked like it stayed

in the kitchen for one week and

thousands of flies attacked it. The fish

was not fried enough and the same

thing I can say about the chips.

But if you think that it is it, you are

deeply wrong, because I had a complete cultural shock when we

discovered that for all eatery there are

only two forks and one of my friends

had to eat with a toothpick.

That “luxurious” lunch cost for us 10

pounds, but I can truly say you that

we had a big moral harm for rest of

the day.

And for the dessert. It is hard to

believe, but beans are really popular in the United Kingdom

and British people eat them for

breakfast, lunch and dinner. I just

can’t understand how they can eat

them so much and don’t have any

bad surrounding smell. When I

asked our cooker( native British )

WHY, why beans, she answered in

a flash: “Beans are good for heart,

when you more fart.”

For all that I will always

appreciate in British people –

lovely sense of humor.

Xena Vassiljeva

Emotions speak

TOGETHER!

hat I think about this

intriguing experience? I

don’t think! I live it day

by day, hour by hour, minute by

minute, second by second…I could

go if only I knew better than to

split my time. Share our time with

the time of the others is perhaps

the only really important thing for

our freedom, in fact, from first day

to now I feel free! Taking part in this project means sharing your

freedom, culture, art, your personal

joys and fears…Simply, open your

mind to the world and “give a

smile to your emotions”. It’s nice

to see that despite talking different

languages our emotions play the

same song sheet! What’s

“TOGETHER”? I’ll answer with a

tear on my face and then you have

the answer to your question.

Gabriele Ciccarese

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t’s my fourth time in

England.. However I’m not

yet used to English food. I’m

always thick when I’m in

England. I’m not used to English

style too. I see for the first time a 60 years old man who wore a

dress with pink nail lack.

But what I like the most was free

time when I spoke to other

people, learning things about

their countries. I really enjoy

Gabriel ‘s massage, the Italians

are gifted.

Claire Thuet

am a college student from

Slovakia. One from the lazy

kind. One that leaves herself

no time to retake the exams. This

is, how I ended up taking a test to

pass a class on the 9th of

Febuary. Last termine. I passed.

One of my friend has family in

London. An EU youth exchange,

organized by TOGETHER

England started on the 13th of

Febuary, 2012 with the topic of

Media.

After the examination period of

the first semester, they instantly

started the second one. Ususally

the first two weeks are not

important. I figured, I could

easily go to the training. Hmm. If

I was already going to England, I

wanted to visit London too.

Lightbulb. One of my friend has

family in London. If THE friend

went to visit her sister, I could go

along too. I convinced him to

come with me. But not only to

London, but to the youth

exchange too. It was the 9th. OK.

No problem. We will go

tomorow. TOMOROW?

Fast preparation from 9PM till 11

PM. Getting in the car after 4

hours of sleep. Taking off.

Landing. Of course we almost

missed our taking off part, since

we were really smart and

decieded to have a cofee in the

duty free area.

We arrived to London, got

through customs and grabbed our

bag. The sister picked us up at the

airport and drove us home. We

spent 3 days visiting, hanging out

and having fun.

My friend decided to take me to

visit a particular market, to which

I have decided not to ever go

again. I went there with no

currency that could possibly be

used in England. However, I had

$42 in my pocket, which for the

merchants meant no problem.

They were just as happy with

dollars as they would have been

with anything else. They

willingly take whatever you got.

A resaleor stopped me. Wanted to

sell me a leather jacket. I did not

like it. Was not long enough, was

big at the back. No problem. He

showed me another 40 jackets,

until he found one that I actually

liked myself. When I found a

jacket that I really fell in love

with, I reminded him, that there is

an other obsticle, I had no cash.

At that instant he pulled out a

terminal, literally, of his back

pocket. I was shocked. Visa,

Master Cast, credit, debit – all

was accepted. They were

prepared for everything. This is

how I ended up buying 4 earrings

and my first leather jacket.

After the market, we went home,

had lunch played video games. It

was our last night in London. We

knew that the following day we

had to pick up the other 3

participants at the airport.

One adventure had just ended. At

the same time another was about

to start. Life goes on.

Goodbyes are always hard. But

they are necessary. Every person

just flows in life like ships on the

sea. Sometimes they end up in a

harbour for a while, sometimes

they flounce on the ocean.

Usually they all go by themselves

but sometimes they meet. Maybe

in a harbour, maybe on the sea in

the middle of the storm.

Goodbyes are always hard. But

its good to have somebody by

your side, even if just for a little

while.

Édua Kocsis (Eddie)

I

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Games

P R A G U E S D H R M Y

K A Y P U A M J J H F F

G B E E W G D T R T E F H L D L J P O X F O R D

T S B D L M R D T R B C

A T M R D A J J F U X B R M C H A M P A G N E T

A D S T R T R C D R C I

D H X A K B I T L M H E D C W L F R B S F T D K

H U E L G R C T L R U R R T L I S B O N A A F Y

I S S N D R Y K E T V R

A L E P R E C H A U N A

PRAGUE

CHAMPAGNE

PAELLA

TALLIN

TARADDHRI

LISBONA

OXFORD

BRATISLAVA

LEPRECHAUN

TORUN


10

MILAN

GUIMARAES

BULL

EIFFEL

VENCESLAO

KAMA

NITRA

GULASH

DANUBE

BEATLES

K G U I M A R A E S Y N

E A M D G R G J V E N I

I E I F Ñ T B U L L H T

F T L K E I Ñ T L T F R

F K A M A N O K O A K A

E Y N F D A N U B E S J

L Q T V I Q I I Y B B H

Ñ V E N C E S L A O Ñ D

L W I Ñ I F P O J A J K


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