II TC in Stip..report from Coventry

I am officially in England! To be more precise I am writing from Coventry where MoE has its main office.

After a beautiful week spent once again in Stip, Macedonia for a TC, I have set in Coventry in order to help Jarek, one of my trainers I got to know at the first TC I have been to in Stip, in organizing a Conference about European Citizenship which is taking place in Coventry at the end of the month.

So..I will try to explain what happened as much clearly as I can..

After my documents from Italy arrived in Osijek I sent them to Brussels and then I was ready to leave for Macedonia, in order to join a training about Intercultural learning.

First I left Osijek to reach Zagreb where I took a flight for London..it sounds quite funny but I spent only Friday night in Coventry to meet Max, another of my trainers, get to know some people whom I would work with back from Macedonia and then, at 3.30 am on Saturday I went back to London to take another flight for Skopje!

Finally, after 2 days around Europe, I reached Stip and a beautiful week working on intercultural learning started!

At first I was a little bit worried cuz people looked quite shy and unexperienced but after a couple of days, even though the group was not like the one I found in April, we started having a very good time!

It's been an interesting chance to debunk some stereotypes..for example I got to know two interesting guys from Lithuania..we in Italy usually have the stereotype for people from the northern countries to be very cold and detached..but they weren't! I really had a great time with them and I felt like being with some of my closest Italian friends!

But the best thing in Stip, what really made the TC different was my favourite trainer ever..Max!!!! he is such a great person! he is from Poland but works and study in England. I got to know him last time I was in Macedonia and we soon got along very well! I have already talked about him some posts ago, but I cannot avoid adding some other nice things!

It was him who helped me in finding this place while I am waiting for my new resident permit for Croatia, so that I won't waste my time in Italy but I will have the chance to see how MoE works, to experience life in Coventry and help Jarek with this interesting Conference about Europe for Citizens.

So..thank you very much Max!!!!

As regards the training on a whole, as I said at the beginning, even though people were less creative and active than at the previous TC, we had interesting activities.

Starting from the Intercultural evening as usual, where anybody has the chance to get to know some unknown aspects of any country which participates in the TC but above all to taste some food! And this time I was representing Italy with some sopressa and grana cheese from Padova!

It was really nice! Although my table was still poor compared to others I was happy to have taken with me something from Italy..just in case I thought..and it worked!!!

Moreover moving to the real activities related with our TC , I really enjoyed once again going around Stip in order to fulfill some tasks while getting to know the town and its population, or when we did an interesting game called "Step forward".

In this game we got a small piece of paper where it was written who we were (for instance I was an homosexual teacher who was teaching in a Primary School). We were altogether standing in a line and we had to make a "step forward" whenever we could answer "yes" to some questions our facilitators made to us. In this way we had the chance both to experience how other people feel in our society, cuz of some formal and informal rules, prejudices and stereotypes, and also discuss this experience in two small groups at the end of the game.

I really liked it!

So all in all I had a good time. I always love to participate to this kind of activities cuz it's a way to study and get information about topics and problems we face in our life and in our society at the present time and also cuz it's a fantastic way to get to know new people and their cultures! And, believe me, it's never enough! I have been only to 4 TC and everytime they were different from one another.

I also do like to participate as I would like to become a trainer in the future..I think it's a role which could be suitable for me! (Even though when we had the chance to organize our own workshop in small groups we were quite ridiculous..ops! ok, ok, I still have a lot and a lot to learn!!!).