A very first day in Köln

02.11.2010
Köln

I have to say that writing a blog is a very exciting and frightening idea. To report on a day that so many lived but experienced in a different perspective is kinda brave- like Bushra brave :D

So with almost all participants present, we woke up, or at least we tried to come back to life around 7:00 something so we would be ready at 8:15 (in an ideal world of course!). We were all very tired and completely in a zombie state (speaking for myself).

In this other body of ours we tried to keep up the schedule of being ready at 08:15, but of course we were late, but there has to be some forgiveness by the part of the organizers - it was the first day and we all were still very exhausted.

We left the hostel in two groups - the late and the non-late and headed to a school where already the first group (a.k.a. the non-late group) was waiting. At this school we all got reunited: organizers and the participants/ zombies.

When we all arrived, to loosen up the mood and to get to know each other a little bit better, we started some name and physical games. After waking up more 15% we went inside the school and went to the last floor- bad idea! some of us took like 5 minutes to arrive upstairs to realize that there was an elevator right at the side of the stairs where 40 people fit.

We arrived and we entered a room where it was already prepared to receive us with chairs, boards and posters. We started to sit down as the morning begun we started to write our expectations for this project, our fears and our added value.

After discussing all of this important issues, we had a xxl coffee break because we were waiting for the speaker of the day: Mr. Jensen- a University Professor that came to us to talk about European politics and the how and the why Europe was built.

After absorbing all of this amazing information we had a session of questions and answers with Mr. Jensen, that because of plan schedule we couldn't prolong that much.

After Mr. Jensen's lecture we went to have lunch at the Music and Dance University.

After lunch we returned to the school and heard a lecture about emigration and everything that it implies. After the lecture we had another coffee break but this one in a normal period of time and then we went of the city to have a guided tour through Müllheim in Köln- the Emigrant part of the city. Instead of being the all-same boring "show and explain buildings" story we actually went inside a Mosque and a church that also celebrates parties and Theater with young people from this area of the city of köln. A way to attract young people to the church is through music, because the pastor feels that young people don't have the predisposition to go through a whole church service as boring as it is normally.

After this city tour we went to a very restaurant crowded street, and had dinner in a Turkish restaurant.

After dinner we came back to the hostel and did some evaluation of the day dividing ourselves into three groups and analyzing what we liked and what we didn't like from the day.

As the evaluation finished, some of us went to have drinks in the city as others worked on their zombie status and went to bed as soon as they could. The very first day in Köln and I have to say I liked it very much :)

Second day in Europe

02.11.2010
Köln

We woke up in the morning at 7 o'clock but some of us ... woke up so late

so they didn't have any time for taking a shower or eating breakfast.

After leaving the hostel, we went to some school playground, so those who were late didn't have sport practice. And many other activities that Ramon made were very nice and everybody  was active and good, then we had a lecture with a professor from the university and he was so informative and cooperative.

He explained us how the European Union began and who built it. He told us many things about German history and some facts about the Germans.

The bad thing was that he arrived late so everybody was very bored and after the professor's lecture we went to a university to eat our lunch and it was delicious; we ate together and we were chatting.

Then we went back to school to have a lecture about emigration where we all talked and shared our ideas then we went to a tour with a city guide and he told us a lot of things about the city history and realities that we needed to know, then we went to a Turkish restaurant to have dinner then we went back to the hostel and did a days reflection dividing into 3 groups, then some of us went out for drinks and others stayed at the hostel to write this blog.