Christmas traditions

It's strange for me since it's only the very first week of December, but it feels like Christmas already. In Spain, the holidays are rather late comparing to the rest of Europe, since we start on the 24th for Christmas Eve and then it takes until the 6th of January, the morning when the Magic Three Kings come to visit us for the presents. In some families, like mine, there are gifts both for Christmas and for the Three Kings -dividing the presents harvesting in two days for paternal and maternal families -I'm a lucky one!

However, I've been noticing that people here have different traditions. Already two weekends ago the Christmas Market -or Vianoce trhy- was launched, which implies lots of people visiting in the evening looking for some hot wine -hot red wine with spices-, or some punch -fruit juices together with some pieces and, of course, rum or some other liquor.

Anyway, hot alcoholic beverages is not the only attractive thing in these places. A quite suggestive smell spreads from the small stands, coming from both salty and sweet meals. Very typical are the ciganska -kind of a hamburger with cooked onions- and tdrlnik -a bakery roll with sugar ans sweet spices. We went last Tuesday, after a promo-team meeting, Sarah, Olga and me to try out some hot wine and made some friends -quite quickly, haha.

I've been making some research with my colleagues and they explained me that tonight St. Mikulas  is coming -that's why tomorrow we're going to Integra and Presporkovo to give some gifts-, and then on the 24th it is Jezisko who is bringing more gifts. Jezisko, if you translate it literally, would be kind of a new-born Jesus, bringing gifts -aha, makes a lot of sense. I guess depending on the family you'll have one or the other or both. Also my colleagues warned me about cleaning today my shoes, since Mikulas will put sweet in there if I've been a good girl or onions, for example, if I've misbehaved.

In any case, it's cold, the shopping centres and Christmas markets -that we don't have in Spain, btw- are full and it could start snowing in any moment -it would be good to see some snow before coming back to Spain, but you know, not too much :D

Coming back to the International Day of Volunteering that will soon conclude in Korean Tea-Meeting.

More hugs^^

After summer - Youthpass draft

Looking back at my productive summer, I've decided to make an attempt to write down what have I learnt -in order to afterwards fill my Youthpass in. Now, being honest, I'm not really fond of the structure of the Youthpass, that forces you to classified your learning in 8 different key competences (Communication in the mother tongue, Communication in foreign languages, Mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology, Digital competence, Learning to learn, Social and civic competence, Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, Cultural awareness and expression) -you can take a closer look by clicking on them.

In any case, I'll specifically write now about the outcome of my camp-leader and exchange coordinator roles. See? It's quite different to talk about group management than to actualy manage them, and theory without practice it's not a complete cycle of learning. Ok, now few ideas I will retake in the future:

WORKCAMPS

- I've realised the great importance of previous preparation of these kind of projects. First contact with the local partner, the place you are going to stay, the facilities there, the food arrangements, getting to know the participants, provide proper information on how to get there and what to expect... The more prepared you are in advance, the less you'll have to worry once you arrive to the workcamp place.

- The communication is also quite significance. I learnt how to communicate with my co-leader (which relation should be stable and pleasent for a more efficient managing), with the local partner (for technical details of lodging, transportation, work...) and of course with the volunteers. There is a must to be clear and firm when you need to command them some tasks, but also you have to know how to be listening and reliable in case they would have to tell you anything they may need.

- The flow of communication can also be directly from local partner to volunteers. This will give the volunteers a wider perspective of the purpose of the work they'ld be doing, and perhaps it will also make them feel closer to the local community. As for the local partner, probably nobody else knows better the aim of the organization than him/her, but it's important to ask them in advance to prepare something and suggest them to be concrete and short -we want to motivate the volunteers, who may not have a very good level of English.

- I've learnt to prioritize and delegate tasks together with my colleague. There are many things to take care and you need to identify the urgent ones, divide tasks and check on the group from time to time. Therefore, you need to make sure you have all things covered, and if you have time join the group in the work.

- When working together with the group you need to behave like an example for them. If you don't just ask them to work but you start working yourself first they will probably follow you afterwards. This is easier to do the first days but later you have to ration your energy, so for example a good tip will be to inform the volunteers when you are going back to work and they can see you -it's more efficient than just working by yourself with nobody joining you.

- I've learnt to change attitude when needed. During working hours you should keep an eye on everyone but during the free time I was happy to just relax and enjoy games or talks with the group.

- I've taken in the fact about listening to feedback without being critical or storming out from the comments. I've also learnt to give it being objective, but I think I still have to work on it -because sometimes I'm afraid about the other's people reaction and stay in silence.

EXCHANGE

- To be flexible with the organization of the agenda, trying to make it pleasant for everybody -even when this sometimes means changing something planned within hours.

- To mediate and encourage everybody to share their opinion, restraining when needed to the great talkers to give voice to the shier ones.

- To understand the richness of the diversity of people's opinion, knowing that no option is better or worse than the other -but just different.

- To realize about how creative participants can be and also to be more aware of how I am also a creative person.

OVERALL

- To enjoy being in a group of people very diverse because of individual and cultural differences and don't stress because of the leading role assigned.  To find solutions calmly and efficiently in order to create a relaxed atmosphere -so everybody feels comfortable and willing to share.

Yap, I think that's mainly all -besides the anecdotes of learning Greek malakies, or an Italian tong twister, or a sentence in Ch'ti. I had a great time and I'm mighty glad that I was learning this much in the meantime. I want to thank everybody that helped me out in this process, which is basically any person I found on my way.

Last weekend we were having Potaborka, a event for INEX camp-leaders to have a little evaluation on their workcamps. Unfortunately, I got quite sick after the exchange and I stayed home for this event, but I'm seriously considering photoshoping my face somewhere in this very nice group of people. Oh, yes, also I have a nationwide certificate as a youth worker in international backgrounds, sweet :D

That's all for today, folks, see you in next post!

About Youth Exchange, Finding yourself in Europe

I can't believe summer it's over, and also September! This means that I've already been in Slovakia for 8 months and that there's only 3 to go, unbelievable!

I think this summer has been the most productive for me in a long time. After leading two workcamps (and a little bit of a third one), finally the last project arrived: the Youth Exchange. I write it like that on purpose, since being there from beginning with the brainstorming of the idea until making it something concrete in time and space made me gain a new perspective on how much effort and time invested need this kind of projects -and therefore, enjoying it quite a lot when it was happening.

This is the most complete group picture we have, together with Sarah as INEX Messenger and Frea, the dog -belonging to Dada but behaving like one more participant :). Yeah, I know, we are pretty, hihi.

In very few words, during these days Slovaks, Belgians, Greeks and Italians met in Banska Stiavnica for sharing opinions and ideas about the topic of youth unemployment. Contrary to the mainstream,  we tried to see the financial crisis like an opportunity to develop the most inner interests of each person, connect them with a profession -encouraging creation if it's needed- and explore different possibilities within the European Union's framework. As you can see in our agenda, there were three dimensions we explored: personal, professional and European -dedicating some sessions to approach each of them.

I was pleased with the group. Comparing it with the workcamp groups, I feel a small lack of cultural diversity but also I can say I get a greater point of view of the lifestyle of a specific country. Anyway, whatever you may miss in cultural differences you can find in personal ones, since every individual is a little universe in itself. And the mix of us all turn out to be a wonderful galaxy :D

Ok, now seriously. I can not really evaluate what is the overall outcome from this exchange, but me myself I was learning everyday something new because of them. Again comparing it to workcamps, I think in conversation you reach deeper topics since one of the main aims is just to share your point of view. Understanding how different and similar we are at the same time it's always a nice discovery for me.

Regarding my leading role, this time I felt much more relaxed than in the workcamps. Maybe it's because workcamps had demanded from me quite a lot of physical energy and it's also different when you need to command people to make something physical rather than mental, but for me in general it's been easier and calmer. Then again, the fact that we counted with other 4 national leaders -Matiss and I were coordinators-, resulted in a comfortable supported feeling and the sensation that we were creating something altogether -double nice!

Few pictures and below two links for original sources:

Sarah's album from her visit (includes Greek and Italian night, visit to Kalvaria in Banska Stiavnica and some sessions leaded by Matiss and me): https://plus.google.com/photos/118233661673923862820/albums/5927505662505304113

Album with a compilation of all the flipcharts we used during the project: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/104455390605694644335/albums/5929730723811354049

Thank you everyone for making this project possible :)

Dishes from Eastern Europe

As you could checked in the previous post, I enjoyed my workcamp in Jasenov (for everything but specially) for the food. I learnt many new recipes (most of them with sweet taste) and I would like to write them down to make sure that I won't forget them -and to share them with you, in case you want to try.

Sweet pasta
Well, this may not seem very innovative for some of you, but for me it was. You cook the pasta like always, then when is in your dish you add butter and cocoa powder, it's tasty! Jarka, the Czech girl of my workcamp, told me it's a very popular dish for students since it's easy and cheap to prepare -she took it like vegetarian alternative to bolognese sauce.

Anyway, I think a good tip will be to use good cocoa powder brands, because I prepared last Monday and it wasn't so good like on workcamp. She used Granko -which is pretty famous in Czech and Slovakia-, but for Spanish people I guess ColaCao would be the best analog choice.

Rice with milk (Eastern style)
In Spain (and I remember also eating it in Portugal), we also prepare rice with milk and we take it as a dessert, with cinnamon on the top and perhaps some lemon or orange peel.

In Czech they prepare it other way and they eat it like a main dish (is that pict that look quite delicious of the previous post). You have to let the rice on water first so it absorbs it. Then you boil it with milk and you add raisins. Once is cooked you add some sugar and you mix it well. Afterwards you can add: Granko, cinnamon, butter, fruits' compot or natural fruits. I tried it with peach and Granko and I really liked it :)

Rice with apple (Russian style)
Another possibility for sweet rice is to cook it with apple. You don't need to cook the rice this time with milk, just with water. In the meantime it cooks you can take one saucepan and prepare the sauce at the same time. You need to use margarine (or maybe butter is ok), then add small pieces of apple prepared with a grater (rallador), and when it is more or less cooked you add a gentle amount of sugar.

When Jarka was going to prepare the previous dish on the workcamp, Alex from Ukraine wanted to also do it this way, but unfortunately we didn't have a proper grater. Anyway, when the workcamp was over he kept on travelling passing trough Bratislava, and he took advantage of my kitchen to prepare this tasty dish -he did it Monday evening and prepared so much I had it also as lunch yesterday and today, haha. Very tasty!

Kachamak (Serbian dish)
This is not particulary sweet dish. In fact is a little bit sour, but maybe changing a bit the ingredients you can also prepare it sweet (I need to check with Serbian girls). The basis of this dish is water and flour. You need around 40-50 minutes to properly cook the flour in a light fire, otherwise you will fill its texture and it's not good. After this first part of the process you take it out of the fire and add some cheese (cow cheese or feta cheese). Then you put it back to the fire again and cook it for 5 more minutes, until it's ready to serve. You can add some sugarless yogurt when eating it, it makes it much tastier -I had it for dinner and following day's breakfast, me like it a lot!

Even when is not particulary similar, when I tried this dish reminded me of a sour version of Spanish 'leche frita', that I need to learn from my grandma though I asked her for the recipe so many times -I keep losing it!

Paprikas (Serbian dish)
This is a kind of chicken soup tyical from Serbia. Around there (also in Hungary, it's like their national vegeteable), there are many paprikas and so they have this soup. You have to first fried some onions in oil, then add water and boil it for like an hour with the following ingredients: chicken meat (in small pieces), paprikas, tomatoes, carrots and potatoes. Don't you forget to add a lot of the spice of sweet paprika. It is also very tasty, even when on workcamp it was paprikas without paprikas :D

Potatoes (Russian style)
The Russian guys prepared potatoes twice: once for us and once for the feast of cultures. We ate them in the workcamp just boiled and with a side dish with oil and salt where you could dip the potatoe. In the same meal we had salad made out of fresh onions, cucumber and tomatoes and with different dressings: oil and salt or kind of yogurt-cream sauce.

In the event for the locals they prepared a kind of potatoe salad close to the version we have in Spanish of 'ensaladilla rusa'. I don't remember if it was the Armenian or the group from Azerbaijan but they also prepared in an exchange I was something similar, and they call it 'Capital salad'. The one of wormcap had potatoes, boiled eggs, pickles, peas and a good quantity of mayonnaise -but I think everybody knows about other things you can add to the basis of patatoes and mayo, I personally like it with sashimi (palitos de cangrejo).

I think I ran out of recipes. Of course Achille, our Italian guy, prepared pasta for us and it was very good, but that's not so Eastern -is it? I need to check with Alejandro this fish soup he prepared because I wasn't present in the cooking and I don't know how it's done, so maybe I'll add it later.

I hope you are brave enough to cook one of these, I'm pretty sure you'll be glad you tried -and if not please tell me why, haha :D. See you in the next post, probably after Slatinka.

Big hugs,
Alicia

PS: shame on me, I still don't know how to make gulash, really need to ask some Slovaks!