Photo Insight !

As promised, here are some photos :

Below are several photos of the Forum I talked about yesterday:

A game to play with young people to learn more about Europe

Other volunteers having fun whilst practicing for the "Flash Mob"

Sat down for food n quiz :-)

Yves giving a speech about the answer to one of the questions

Eszter (long-term volunteer from Hungary) also doing the same thing

The formation of the CRIJ logo at the end of the Flash Mob

My 3 words for Europe, what Franco-Belge means to me and my representation of Europe in a picture !!!

Presenting my board on camera (in French)

Learning the moves for the Flash Mob

 Some more photos of my English workshops :

The advanced English group walking around town learning new vocabulary :-)

Playing "Who Am I?" ... Can you believe they gave me Mickey Mouse hahaha, I lost !!!

And finally some photos of Elshan's Azerbaijan evening and some social nights with volunteers:

 

Having fun one evening !!!

Une soirée avec des volontaires qui vont partir en Irlande le 5 Novembre :-)

Preparing Azerbaijani food

Elshan demonstrating the traditional dancing

Discussing traditions in Azerbaijan... You can see the flag on the left :-)

I hope you enjoyed this little selection selection of photos !!! My parents are now in Lille (woooo) So I shall be back online in a week or so. Bye bye for now !

Full Steam Ahead

Time is flying by so quick I just can’t believe it !!! I just can’t believe that there is now only 35 days left of my project ooooo …. It feels weird that it now seems there are few enough days to count down in days, not just weeks (5 weeks today I’m leaving however, if you’re interested hehehe).  When I leave, I’m going to miss people here in Lille so much, because I’ve met some amazing people who will always be special to me (bring out the violins!).  At the same time I’m really looking forward to catching up with friends and family who I haven’t seen in a while, and I guess the prospect of starting a new chapter of my life.

In terms of my project, on the 12th of October there was a forum event all day for professionals from organisations that support young people (18 to 30 years old) with any problems they may have and generally.  The forum was focused on information about Europe for the organisations and there were over 100 people who attended.  To start the day, there were speeches to give thanks to those that had helped organise the day (you know the type of speech ;-) ) and afterwards there were stands to attend speeches at.  Everyone had been divided into groups so that not everyone would go to the same speech at the same time (very cleverly done!).

The speeches were about varying projects and materials that could be used by the professionals or with the young people regarding discovering more about Europe or mobility within Europe.  For example, there were games and books that were available to buy.  As we rotated around the stands, there were two that involved learning a dance and then practising the formation outside …. I’ve got you wondering right ??? Hehe.  Well this is the thing … The organisers decided we would do a “Flash Mob” enactment !!! With half hour preparation and over 100 people!!!  I’ll explain more in a bit …

After the stands and before the "Flash Mob", we had the “Diner Quiz” … All the attendees were divided into tables of around 7 people and we had a quiz … But not just any normal quiz … Whilst taking part we were treated to “Carbonade Flamande”, a Flemish French traditional dish including beef marinated in a type of sauce including beer (!) which is apparently traditionally very Flemish, accompanied with chips (fries, not crisps, to those french people reading).  Yummy!  Furthermore, through the quiz we had dessert (in fact more choice than you could imagine).  The organisers had basically told everyone to bring along traditional desserts that would be shared after and OH MY GOSH .. It was amazing… Desserts ranging from all over ! I have a SLIGHT obsession with good food …. In fact I’m constantly eating in the office.  I think the only reason I stay this size is because I constantly eat little bits but never big meals … It’s the only reason I can think of ! (And the dancing and scooter maybe).

After this meal and quiz, we headed outside for the “Flash Mob” … We had colour coded t-shirts and we knew what we had to do and when … It started with us pretending to be listening to a speech about European Mobility, which was interesting the first time round but not after 4 or 5 takes haha.  Near the end of the speech, the music suddenly boomed on the speakers and we started dancing ! Very fun ! At the end of the dance, we had all made our way into position to form the symbol for the “Centre Régional d’Information Jeunesse” (Regional Centre of Information for Young People).  There was a camera on the roof looking down on us and then cameras walking among us on different takes to get different angles (very show-biz)… J’ai hâte de voir le vidéo (I can’t wait to see the video) !!!

At the end of the week after the forum, I had a couple of English workshops which went really well.  I also had some last week with a few EVS volunteers who may have projects in February and all the Leonardo volunteers who are due to leave on the 5^th and 12^th November.  I have built up really good relationships with them and it’s a shame some are leaving so soon (although to be fair, I will be leaving shortly afterwards).  It’s great fun running English workshops with people who are genuinely motivated to learn.  I’ve found more and more I deviate from my lesson plans and am able to adapt easily to situations… For example, due to the workshops being based mainly on speaking practice to prepare for projects, when I say we will have a debate I try and let them chose the topic.  The best debate to date was with the advanced group who chose to debate “Men are better than Women” … It got rather heated and very funny !! Of course it wasn’t true opinions but there were some outrageous reasons given, such as Jesus and other religious figures are all men, therefore men are obviously better hahaha.  In fact here are a few photos of that particular situation : (notice guys one side, girls the other :P)

Me with 5 Leonardo and 2 EVS Volunteers

Guys team arguing that "Men are better than Women"

Heated debate ;-)

Girls Team ... obviously "Women are better than Men" LOL

Apart from the project, I have also been very active in the past couple of weeks.  As well as dancing salsaaaa I have also visited the UK for 3 days ! I went to Nottingham to visit family for the day the Saturday, which was so great.  Then the Saturday night I was back to London, partied Saturday night, and then Sunday went for a full English breakfast (had to be done!) and then went to the World Bboy (Breakdancing) Championships at Brixton O2 Arena and finally visited a couple of close friends on the Sunday.  Booyyyyy that was worth the money !!! Incredible performances throughout the Sunday night and amazing time spent with great people … WOW !

This Tuesday night (25/10/11), Elshan, the long term volunteer from Azerbaijan, had a party at 2 other volunteers' apartment.  He wanted to cook for us all as he is due to leave the first week in November.  It was a great night, with traditional food, meeting new people and then we all went together to a bar and danced Salsa, Bachata and Merengué … It was the first time most of the people had danced latino style dances and they really seemed to enjoy it :-)

At this moment in time, I’m really thinking about job applications, because when I arrive in the UK the 30th November, I do not want to be unemployed.  I have always been either in employment or studying and now on this project … Although I do have my TEFL course that I need to finish by the 1^st January… That will keep me busy for a while when I get back (as well as skiing… Oh yes I will be straight back into France 2 weeks after I get home, but the Alps this time!).  But oh my gosh … sooner or later I will actually have to be an adult with a full-time job … scary !! So hey, may as well start a 2 year masters next September (avoid the inevitable a little longer)! 

I’m heading off now … I will upload some more photos here tomorrow as I don’t have them all here now in the office, so hope you look forward to that ;-)  My parents are due to arrive in Lille in 1 hour from now ! Exciting stuff; Dad’s first time in France and Mum’s first time driving on the right hand side hehehe.  Gonna be a good week !!! Bye for nowwww.

7 Weeks To Go – HOW ?!?!

Me and Biljana, a Serbian long-term volunteer

So once again I managed to leave it 3 weeks in between posts … apparently I’m not the greatest at keeping on top of this blog malarkey !!! Hahaha… But yeah … It feels like lots has happened in those 3 weeks and I’ve had a lot on my mind.  It’s quite strange really… I’ve changed my mind about my next steps after this project around a million times and I seem to keep changing it.  I’m slowly building longer term ideas in my head, but in the short term … Pick a country !? As my mum said yesterday; “Rebekah, it feels like you want to travel and Au Pair to avoid full-time working life and settling down” … Heck yes !!! Abso-blooming-lutely! After further reflection, she then went on to say “But then again, if you don’t do it now whilst you’re young, then you may never” … My point exactly :-D Now is the time to discover new countries and cultures, meet new people, broaden my horizons … I can’t say enough positive things about how “Youth in Action” has really helped me start in this process!  But regardless of this, I have finally decided to go back to England at the end of November to decide what I truly want to do.  No harm in giving myself that little bit of time !!!

Apparently, this very confused phase is normal for volunteers.  I have found that I’ve become very attached to Lille and have been fighting between my head or heart about whether I want to stay here after my project or go home.  It has meant that I have had to do a lot of thinking, but it has made me realise that I have a lot more opportunities in my life than I did 4 and a half months ago.

Yves had a good dance at the Turkish night !

There has been plenty to do here in Lille in the past 3 weeks.  For example, 2 weeks ago 2 Turkish short term volunteers with “Service Civique Internationale” (another local organisation that hosts and sends volunteers with EVS) hosted a Turkish evening (fr: une soirée).  Me and the Boss Yves went along and it was great fun.  We all talked, watched presentations about Turkey, ate a feast (!) of Turkish food, drank Turkish spirits and finally did Turkish line dancing.  I certainly slept well that night ! It’s making me hungry thinking about it.

 

Some Turkish Line Dancing !!!

Everyone at the Turkish evening chatting and eating

Presentations about Turkey

Turkish volunteers giving speeches (basically saying thank you)

As well as parties like this one, I also went to a small soul concert last Friday where there was a live bands with musicians and a singer … It was such a nice evening with a good bit of dancing too (and a few beers…).  And of course you can’t forget the dancing Salsa that I do fairly regularly … I may even try a new type of dancing this week hehe … Gotta love dancing !

One of the soul bands

Last week I also started my French evening classes to try and brush up a bit more.  I was so surprised in the advanced class that the teacher said I use a lot of familiar slang language, which is fine for communicating but not so much for exams … Oh well eh, I don’t plan on doing exams too soon ;-) I found that the intermediate class wasn’t a challenge at all but I will give it another go this week and see whether or not I can benefit from it.

With Eszter, a Hungarian Long Term volunteer

I have also recently started English workshops in my project with a whole new group of young people (I don’t know if I mentioned that in my last blog).  I now have in action 3 different workshops, for beginner, intermediate and advanced, which is great.  All the activities I am doing are mainly based on conversation practise and some listening (usually in the form of gap fills in song lyrics or watching scenes from programmes or movies).  I had a great class with the entire group of Leonardo volunteers last week who are due to leave the 5^th November for projects in Italy and Ireland. 

During the class we were discussing stereotypes and there were definitely certain stereotypes that arose regarding differences between England and France.  One of the true or false statements was “The British are not very passionate lovers”. LOL.  Well that started an interesting conversation.  I was asked questions about this statement and I explained from my experience that British are not so demonstrative of intimacy in public as the French (who I have seen on top of each other embracing .. fully clothed… in the park on many an occasion).  I explained that British are probably less likely to full-on snog (!) in public, to which one of the guys in the group replied “Ohhh so they are just hotter in their own homes” repeated a few times… It went from bad to worse, with a lot of laughs and my BRIGHT RED face hahaha.  They were then very interested to have my take on this statement hehe. Can I just reiterate, everyone in my workshops is around my age so we relate well to each other !

I actually just had a workshop for the intermediates yesterday afternoon, but unfortunately only one person turned up.  She is due to leave for a long term EVS project in February and it was great to have a one on one session actually.  At the first workshop she was very quiet with little confidence to speak up.  After an hour and a half today, she was really starting to make an effort to express herself in English and had shown great progress so I’m very happy!

Fun in the park last weekend (I didn't know these guys haha)

Me in the zoo ... I'd planned on doing exercise ;-)

Now I’m gonna head off … It's Tuesday morning and we have preparation today for a forum tomorrow.  I also have 3 more 2 hour workshops this week, which I need to ensure I'm fully prepared for.  I’ve got a lot to look forward to during my final few weeks on my project.  As well as within the project where I will be helping prepare the new group of volunteers as well as possibly helping on the project to open a Facebook page, I will go to London next weekend to see friends and family.  After that I have my only remaining free weekend when I may go to Belgium.  My weekends are then accupied by my parents coming to Lille, Noel visiting, going to Paris, Amie visiting and voilà … C’est fini !!! How time flies when you’re having fun !!!