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With the help of the program Youth in action and the support of EU, Zveza ŠKIS organized in international exchange.
The international exchange program took place in cities Novo mesto and Ljubljana in Slovenia from 12th to 18th of March 2010. The theme of the exchange was “The importance of healthy nutrition among students”. The overall aim of the training was to empower, motivate and give practical skills to youth initiators to develop their own projects that would promote healthy nutrition in their countries.
The exchange lasted seven days and we will have 23 participants from three different countries: Slovenia, Turkey and Poland. We enriched our knowledge on healthy nutrition by sharing our experiences about eating habits and problems in our countries, we organized different workshops where we were dealing with healthy nutrition in general, vegetarians, sport nutrition, planning meals... We tested our cooking skills, every day we did different sport activities, we planed our own projects and with some promotional material and organizing energetic breakfast in student campus also promoted healthy nutrition among Slovenian students.
Below you have some flashes written by one of the participants - Frederik De Feyter.
Days of healthy nutrition
Introduction
In the framework of the Youth in Action programme, ŠKIS organised a youth exchange in Novo Mesto and Ljubljana on the topic of healthy nutrition. The project was led by Jerneja and Bostjan, and had participants from Turkey, Poland and Slovenia. What follows is an overview of events during the week.
Acclimate to Slovenia
The first day of the youth exchange was one of coming to Novo Mesto, getting settled in the hostel, resting out from the long journey and the little sleep … and getting to know each other of course.
On the left: Anna, Monika, Ewa, Ewelina, Pawel, Kamil and Luk from Poland. On the right: the Turkish delegation: Merve, Melike, Sergan, Cemil, Abdullah, Ahmet and Fatih.
Aqua aerobics
Aqua-aerobics might have the reputation of being an old women’s activity, but once the participants to this exchange stretch their arms, it turns into a holy circus. Not only the girls, but also the boys contributed to the show. The pinnacle was, without any doubt, Pawel from Poland assisting the aerobics instructor with showing the right movements (no pictures available unfortunately).
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Beer (English) – Pivo (Slovene) – Piwo (Polish) – Bira (Turkish)
vs 
If there was one burning topic during the first day of this exchange, it was without any doubt the rivalry between Slovenia’s two beer brands. In this group, there is a tendency to support Lasko, but if this judgment is based on taste rather than healthiness is not so clear.
Killing game
Here is a short presentation of every participant at the youth exchange. In the short description, you are able to read the fate of the participant in the so-called killing game we played during the week. Every participant privately received one name + assignment he/she had to make his/her victim carry out, the victim being unaware of the content of the assignment and the killer. The killer inconspicuously has to try to influence his/her victim to make him/her carry out the assignment written on the paper. Once the victim carries out the assignment, he/she dies and gives his/her paper to the killer.
The Turkish team
Cemil was killed by Fatih by shouting “I am Antonio Banderas!”.
Sergan was killed by Fatih by running around in the hostel.
Fatih is still alive.
Abdullah was killed by Mateja by singing like a bird.
Melike is still alive.
Merve is still alive.
Ahmet was killed by Pawel, by showing his third nipple to the receptionist of the hostel in Novo Mesto.
The Polish team
Ewa was killed by Fatih by saying “I love you” to Anna
Monika was killed by Lukasz by drinking two shots.
Kamil was killed by Mojca by carrying Mojca up the stairs in his arms.
Ewelina is still alive.
Lukasz is still alive.
Pawel is still alive.
Anna was killed by Fred by giving Fred a massage.
The Slovenian team
Jasmina was killed by Fatih by singing a Britney Spears song.
Gal was killed by Melike by dancing the macarena while carrying Melike on his shoulders.
Anja was killed by Pawel by giving a kiss to Jasmina.
Mojca was killed by Fatih eating candy.
Jerneja was killed by Abdullah by drinking two shots.
Fred was killed by Lukasz by doing ten push-ups.
Aljaz was killed by Sergan by rolling a cigarette in less than 30 seconds.
Bostjan was killed by Mojca by standing on his head.
Mateja was killed by Sergan by putting her hand on Ahmet’s bottom.
Indoor cycling
After the rather relaxing aqua-aerobics and swimming at the spa, the indoor cycling on Saturday morning was a bit of a harder challenge. Led by instructor Simon, it was especially the Slovenes who managed to keep up with the pace and thereby confirmed their status as a bike-friendly country. The Polish on the other hand must have thought the instructor was a bit of a sadist (no offense!).
Funny words
Where different nationalities meet, there are different language backgrounds. This often results in funny situations, words having a different meaning one language to another. A small overview of the hilarious situations we found ourselves into due to this phenomenon:
Workshops
On Saturday and Sunday, Andrej and Mojca made us aware of how we should eat and what we should avoid. They talked about food pyramids, additives, macrobiotic diets, vitamins, etc. and answered all our questions. Using all this information as a basis, we worked in groups on other possible projects to enlighten a larger public about healthy food.
Cultural evenings
Traditional food, music and dances, and some promotion films about the participating countries: this was the recipe of the cultural evenings. A great atmosphere, which was maybe not always appreciated by the neighbours, brought us closer together and gave us insight into Polish, Turkish and Slovenian life.
Cooking
On Monday afternoon, it was time to roll up the sleeves. We made eight different dishes, ranging from salads and soups over spaghetti and rice dishes to bread and dessert. And the best thing was that we could taste a bit of all of the eight dishes, which tasted delicious thanks to Davor, the main cook, and his assistants. At the same time, many of the participants discovered the joy of cooking in a group.
Aerobics
The aerobics on Monday morning were very welcome to digest the Polish night preceding it. The professional instructor showed us leg, back and abdomen exercises and some basic aerobic moves. A very effective waking up method which was appreciated by everyone.
Ljubljana
After four days in Novo Mesto, our group went to Ljubljana. This is only a tiny city compared to the 16 million people that live in Istanbul, but the group was excited to see the beautiful prison rooms in the hostel and to pay a visit to the neighbouring Metelkova. The group helped promoting a healthy breakfast in the Rozna cafeteria and enjoyed a vegetarian meal.
Head injuries
A recurrent phenomenon during this exchange were head injuries. During the Turkish evening, Pawel was thrown against the ceiling by the celebrating Turks but escaped without any brain damage. Mojca jumped against the ceiling herself while running down from the stairs. And Kamil always had to watch out when going to the toilet in his room in Hostel Celica, were the ceiling in the smallest room was only 1m60.
Goodbye
Laughs and tears mixed when the participants had to say goodbye to each other. The thought that this group would never see its complete form again was eased by all the funny memories of events during this week. See you!
The future
…
Acclimate to Slovenia
The first day of the youth exchange was one of coming to Novo Mesto, getting settled in the hostel, resting out from the long journey and the little sleep … and getting to know each other of course.
Aqua aerobics
Aqua-aerobics might have the reputation of being an old women’s activity, but once the participants to this exchange stretch their arms, it turns into a holy circus. Not only the girls, but also the boys contributed to the show. The pinnacle was, without any doubt, Pawel from Poland assisting the aerobics instructor with showing the right movements (no pictures available unfortunately).
Beer (English) – Pivo (Slovene) – Piwo (Polish) – Bira (Turkish)
vs If there was one burning topic during the first day of this exchange, it was without any doubt the rivalry between Slovenia’s two beer brands. In this group, there is a tendency to support Lasko, but if this judgment is based on taste rather than healthiness is not so clear.
Killing game
Here is a short presentation of every participant at the youth exchange. In the short description, you are able to read the fate of the participant in the so-called killing game we played during the week. Every participant privately received one name + assignment he/she had to make his/her victim carry out, the victim being unaware of the content of the assignment and the killer. The killer inconspicuously has to try to influence his/her victim to make him/her carry out the assignment written on the paper. Once the victim carries out the assignment, he/she dies and gives his/her paper to the killer.
The Turkish team
Cemil was killed by Fatih by shouting “I am Antonio Banderas!”.
Sergan was killed by Fatih by running around in the hostel.
Fatih is still alive.
Abdullah was killed by Mateja by singing like a bird.
Melike is still alive.
Merve is still alive.
Ahmet was killed by Pawel, by showing his third nipple to the receptionist of the hostel in Novo Mesto.
The Polish team
Ewa was killed by Fatih by saying “I love you” to Anna
Monika was killed by Lukasz by drinking two shots.
Kamil was killed by Mojca by carrying Mojca up the stairs in his arms.
Ewelina is still alive.
Lukasz is still alive.
Pawel is still alive.
Anna was killed by Fred by giving Fred a massage.
The Slovenian team
Jasmina was killed by Fatih by singing a Britney Spears song.
Gal was killed by Melike by dancing the macarena while carrying Melike on his shoulders.
Anja was killed by Pawel by giving a kiss to Jasmina.
Mojca was killed by Fatih eating candy.
Jerneja was killed by Abdullah by drinking two shots.
Fred was killed by Lukasz by doing ten push-ups.
Aljaz was killed by Sergan by rolling a cigarette in less than 30 seconds.
Bostjan was killed by Mojca by standing on his head.
Mateja was killed by Sergan by putting her hand on Ahmet’s bottom.
Indoor cycling
After the rather relaxing aqua-aerobics and swimming at the spa, the indoor cycling on Saturday morning was a bit of a harder challenge. Led by instructor Simon, it was especially the Slovenes who managed to keep up with the pace and thereby confirmed their status as a bike-friendly country. The Polish on the other hand must have thought the instructor was a bit of a sadist (no offense!).
Funny words
Where different nationalities meet, there are different language backgrounds. This often results in funny situations, words having a different meaning one language to another. A small overview of the hilarious situations we found ourselves into due to this phenomenon:
- Anna’s surname is Orzechowska, but we quickly changed it into Orescek, which is Slovene for nut.
- Ewelina’s sirname is Koza, or goat in Slovene.
- Cvickarija, a yearly festival taking place in Slovenia has a very special meaning in Turkish: to poo on a woman’s head. 0.0
- Aljaz is Turkish for drunken man.
Workshops
On Saturday and Sunday, Andrej and Mojca made us aware of how we should eat and what we should avoid. They talked about food pyramids, additives, macrobiotic diets, vitamins, etc. and answered all our questions. Using all this information as a basis, we worked in groups on other possible projects to enlighten a larger public about healthy food.
Cultural evenings
Traditional food, music and dances, and some promotion films about the participating countries: this was the recipe of the cultural evenings. A great atmosphere, which was maybe not always appreciated by the neighbours, brought us closer together and gave us insight into Polish, Turkish and Slovenian life.
Cooking
On Monday afternoon, it was time to roll up the sleeves. We made eight different dishes, ranging from salads and soups over spaghetti and rice dishes to bread and dessert. And the best thing was that we could taste a bit of all of the eight dishes, which tasted delicious thanks to Davor, the main cook, and his assistants. At the same time, many of the participants discovered the joy of cooking in a group.
Aerobics
The aerobics on Monday morning were very welcome to digest the Polish night preceding it. The professional instructor showed us leg, back and abdomen exercises and some basic aerobic moves. A very effective waking up method which was appreciated by everyone.
Ljubljana
After four days in Novo Mesto, our group went to Ljubljana. This is only a tiny city compared to the 16 million people that live in Istanbul, but the group was excited to see the beautiful prison rooms in the hostel and to pay a visit to the neighbouring Metelkova. The group helped promoting a healthy breakfast in the Rozna cafeteria and enjoyed a vegetarian meal.
Head injuries
A recurrent phenomenon during this exchange were head injuries. During the Turkish evening, Pawel was thrown against the ceiling by the celebrating Turks but escaped without any brain damage. Mojca jumped against the ceiling herself while running down from the stairs. And Kamil always had to watch out when going to the toilet in his room in Hostel Celica, were the ceiling in the smallest room was only 1m60.
Goodbye
Laughs and tears mixed when the participants had to say goodbye to each other. The thought that this group would never see its complete form again was eased by all the funny memories of events during this week. See you!
The future
…
