November 6th – November 15th 2015 in Rakičan, Slovenia
My Passion – My Profession is a youth exchange project developed through the Erasmus+: Youth in action program. The project took place in Rakičan, Slovenia and lasted for ten days (November 6th – November 15th 2015). On the night of arrival we got to get acquainted with other participants, altogether 44, from F.Y.R. Macedonia, Greece, Sweden, Slovenia and Poland. Accommodation was incredibly nice, we stayed in old castle Rakičan. The legend says a ghost of the countess Helena, who lived there, still wanders in the castle tower. On the first day, we played introduction games so we could find out more about each other. Also we played The city game, which was constructed in a way to introduce the participants with the local surroundings, the history and lifestyle of Murska Sobota, a town nearby.
All days began with interesting energizers, such as Baby Shark, Hunter, My Name Is John, My Little Pony, Banana, Ping-Pong Ball etc., to shake us up and prepare for some serious work. Our demonstrator prepared a presentation about the Labor market, as well as some interesting and instructive workshops. For example, in Being creative workshop the task was to sell completely useless products through top marketing presentations. We also had guest participants on the project – Slovenian high school students, who also shared their passions with us in the What is my passion? workshop. Here we discussed about our hobbies and dream jobs, what we can do to achieve success and turn our passions into our professions.
Beside guest participants, we had guest demonstrators, young entrepreneurs, who started their businesses with low budget and, with big patience, turned their ideas into great success. We learned a lot about the Canvas model, and realized all the steps we need to keep in mind while creating a business.
Although the main topic of the project was entrepreneurship, the Marshmallow contest thought us a lot about teamwork and made us realize our own advantages and disadvantages in functioning in a group. It made us understand each other better and how to be more sensitive towards people. I would say we learned most from each other on this project. In the end we had introduction with the Youth pass certificate, because there were some participants who were on a YE for the first time and needed a little bit of help in filling the Youth pass.
But…it wasn’t all work, we also had a lot of fun in Slovenia! We had International evenings,which are typical for youth exchanges. Each national team makes a presentation about their country and prepares a little, so to say, feast, which includes custom foods and drinks. We also had a costumed Halloween party, Mafia game nights, we went horse riding, and thanks to our very own Branimir Suk, we had a Capoueira workshop, which helped us relieve the body and mind. We visited the St. Martin’s wine festival in Murska Sobota. There they served different dishes, fine Slovenian wine and a fantastic local rock band held a concert, which we got to be a part of. Also, a field trip to Pomurje was arranged. We visited the Tropical garden by a tractor train and went to the viewing tower in Lendava, from which you can see Croatian, Hungarian and Austrian borders.
Written by Marija, volunteer in Ocean of Knowledge