The last day felt different from other project days. On the same day students had a chance not to just learn some historical facts, but also had a wonderful time during the closing ceremony.
The fifth day started in the Vilnius City center. Students from different areas of Europe had an excursion in “Palace of Grand Dukes” .They had a chance to get in touch with the most famous, exciting Lithuanian heritage. It was time-consuming , but at the same time interesting excursion for all the students.
After the lunch, students went to the “Genocide victims” museum. They got lots of information, which is sure to be useful in the future in their schools. As half of the day passed, the students got some free time to prepare for the closing ceremony, which was held in the “Belmontas” restaurant. There came Lithuanian students with their friends from the project countries(Italy, Turkey, Bulgaria, Macedonia).
The closing ceremony was started from the speech of our school principal Virginija Emilija Navickienė. She wanted to thank for all the participants and their teachers. Later on, the coordinator of the project Ieva Ivanauskaitė, also had a chance to give a speech. Gintarė Daubarienė, our school psychologist and the coordinator of the project “Erasmus+“, gave certificate for all the participants for attending this project. Afterwards, students and their teachers had an unforgettable dinner, where Lithuanian traditional food was served.
As it was our last day of the project, we wanted to get some feedback from the foreign students and we asked them a few questions about the trip to Lithuania.
Stefanija form Bulgaria said that doesn’t see a big difference between Lithuania and Bulgaria. Stefanija assured that she definitely would like to visit Lithuania again, especially Vilnius. She is impressed about Vilnius Užupis gymnasium students and her Lithuanian family.
Bojana from Macedonia said that she really liked the museums, which we visited throughout this week. Bojana also mentioned that she had tried to taste one of the Lithuanian traditional food- ,,šaltibarščiai”. She was impressed that it not only looked appetizing, but it tasted that way too.
Simona from Bulgaria enjoyed spending her free time with her Lithuanian family and other friends. Simona liked the picnic, which she and her friends organized. She’s delighted to make so many good friends during this time.
Jovana from Macedonia said that she was impressed about Lithuanian traditional food, especially about ,,kibinai”, as we had a chance to not only eat them, but also we could bake it ourselves. Jovana would love to make them for her family in Macedonia. She also enjoyed the trips to Trakai and Anykščiai.
After the interview, our IT teacher, another of our important coordinators of this project, Andrius Chmieliauskas prepared music for the dances. Spontaneously , each of the country showed and taught others their traditional dances. It was invaluable opportunity to learn Italian, Bulgarian, Lithuanian, Macedonian and Turkish dances.
For sure, this week passed extremely fast. It was an unbelievable experience for each of us. Everyone had learned something useful, which you don’t learn in your normal classes. We expect to see each other again, because the past week has changed us. We can bravely say that over this week we became one huge family. We will be impatiently anticipating for the trips to Bulgaria and Italy, because the ‘’Erasmus +” project won’t end. We won’t say “goodbye”, though we will “see you soon”!
P.S. Thank you every single interviewee, who willingly answered our questions not just on Friday, but on Tuesday as well! If you want to share your experience about coming to Lithuania and we didn’t take an interview from you, you can share it in the comment section of this blog post!