Youth Exchange Blog: "Palette of emotions" in Osijek, Croatia by Artur

I finished my mandatory military service two weeks prior to the project and really wanted to find out something new, explore places and make new connections with people, as I had spent 11 months mostly locked at one place with the same people all the time. Erasmus+ project “Palette of Emotions” in Osijek, Croatia looked as a great opportunity for that.

Before and during the project I contributed by taking the role of Estonian team leader. It meant making sure my fellow Estonians make it to the activities, being the intermediary between Estonian group and project organisers/facilitators, helping them with anything they need or have issues with. Additional tasks were participating in leaders meetings and trying to keep the spirit of my team up.

During the youth exchange I improved my skills of communicating in English and with people of different cultures. I acquired knowledge about day-to-day life and culture of Romanians, Croatians, Finns, Italians and Czechs. However, the most important part was improving emotional intelligence and learning to understand and see our emotions better. It definitely worked for me, because I have noticed that I can now label my emotions (to a small extent), that I couldn’t really do that well prior to the project. We were also given skills on how to foster similar activities back in our home country.

As there were two Erasmus+ projects going on at one time, our time schedule was not fixed and made on the go. I like to plan things in advance and keep to the plan, so I would have liked more to have a clear timetable for two incoming days. However, it didn’t really bother me, as I was enjoying the activities and the group a lot. What other project hosting organisations could learn from “Palette of Emotions'' hosts is being serious about participation in the activities and being on time. Being late or skipping activities needs to be addressed seriously and actions must be taken to not allow that to happen. Croatian hosts were doing it well. Accommodation was also great.

The most memorable event for me was getting to know some people who will definitely stay in my heart for a long time as they have beautiful souls. After that would follow time spent with the group, especially activity where we had to divide into two first human tribes, change our looks accordingly and create a language. The activity then was about respectfully resolving situations, where we need to make compromises. Third thing I will remember for a long time is also an activity. It involved making pieces of art in mixed groups and then at the end one member would get the task to rip it apart in front of the group without other ones knowing why and out of the blue. Lucky me got to be the one ripping it. I was seriously considering ignoring the task, because my group really worked hard on the art piece. However, I played along, because that was the whole point of the activity and I wanted to see what we will do next. When all the groups gathered, the vibe and energy was sooooo low. Goal of the activity was to see how we react to bad events, what we feel and how the emotions pass.

I would no doubt recommend this kind of exchanges to my peers and friends, as it is probably the best way to connect with peers from other cultures, learn from them, teach them something you know and explore the world together. At the start ice needs to be broken, participants feel shy and confused. By the end strong bonds are created and tears are common part of the saying last goodbye.