C1 - mobility in Brussels (05/2022)

9th - 13th May 2022

This mobility substitutes the first mobility in Spain which was cancelled due to the fact that the Spanish partner withdrew from the project at its beginning.

This live meeting will be the culmination of previous virtual collaboration on Twinspace and other online tools where students worked on the topics of Environment and Sustainability. They will have a chance to present their work live during the mobility, practise their presentation and communication skills as well as their knowledge of English as the project communication language. At the end of the mobility students will work on a collaborative Newsletter published online on Twinspace. It will contain their experiences, photos, impressions, comments. They will also fill-in online questionnaire whose results will be published onTwinspace.

Participants - both students and teachers - will get familiar with the European institutions, meet in person their representative who will talk about issues connected with the objective of our project - ecology. For some students it will be a unique possibility to spend some time in a foreign country far away from home on their own because sometimes they are from socially poor backgrounds and cannot afford to travel without the support of such grants. So they will be able to get to know different culture, language, customs and traditions and thus break possible prejudices. Pupils will learn how to interact with their peers, learn some new facts about the project topic, share ideas and practise their presentation skills.

Programme of the mobility in Brussels:

Friday 6th May - Sunday 8th May 2022

arrival of the participants
accommodation in Sleep Well hostel

Sunday 8th May 2022

train trip to Brugge and Gent

Monday 9th May 2022

train trip to Antwerpen

Tuesday 10th May 2022

10:00 - 12:00 visit to the European Committe of the Regions
Mr. Stefano Panozzo, Administrator in Directorate B, will have the pleasure of welcoming our group in English.
12:00 visit to the European Economic and Social Committee - in the same room. Speech by Mr. Jüri Soosaar
lunch in the local canteen after 13:30. Responsible person: Renata Sikora.

Wednesday 11th May 2022

10:00 visit to European Commission speech given by EU promoter Mr. Mesut DEMIR, responsible person: Stéphane VERHOEVEN.

The European Union - What it is and what it does.pdf

Links to 5 short movies from the EU and Me campaign.docx

14:00 visit to European Council speech by the Press and Communication Administrator Ana Belen ROBLES GARCIA. Supported by: Alicia FERNANDEZ GARCIA.

Presentation Council and Green Deal-Waves Project.pdf

Thursday 12th May 2022

09:20 House of European History
13:00 visit to European Parliament.
We will be met by the CZ Member of the European Parliament Mr. Mikuláš Peksa who is responsible for the topic of environment. His assistant Samuel Vanco is organizing our visit.
16:30 visit to Parlamentarium.

Friday 13th May 2022

9:30 Mini Europe
11:00 Atomium

Saturday 14th May - Sunday 15th May 2022

departure of participants (RO team visiting Brugge and Gent)

The originally planned mobility in Spain was replaced by a mobility in Brussels where we will visit the EU institutions connected to the topic of our project – ecology, environment protection and sustainable development. On the way we can admire Comic Book Route with amazing paintings on the buildings. During the five-day programme we will visit:

European Commission Visitors Centre to see how European Commission works. Then we have a chance to see the European Council Visitors Centre where the students will find out how the Council takes part in creating the future of Europe, to see the building where the leaders of EU sit. A great place to study the EU evolution is in Parlamentarium. It can be experienced in any of the European Union’s 24 official languages. The Parlamentarium has plenty to offer for all ages. Visits are self-directed, with the average visit taking around 90 minutes.

European Parliament in Brussels with its Hemicycle is the vibrant heart of European democracy, where Members of the European Parliament gather during plenary sessions to hold the largest and most important debates. Combined visits to several facilities: Please mention if you want to combine your visit to the Hemicycle with the Parlamentarium and/or the House of Europe History when filling in the reservation request. Advance notice will ensure a smooth visit.

European Social nad Economic Committee in Brussels and Committee of the Regions in Brussels are also worth seeing.

Video prepared by SK team:

Newsletter (edit HERE):

Photo gallery from the mobility is HERE.

Questionnaire results:

What was the BEST experience this week for you?

Probably Atomium. I'm scared of heights and didn't want to go there but I'm glad I did - there were amazing views and I bought myself a waffle as a reward when I got back down.

Gent and European parliament with Mikuláš Peksa

the atonomium

Probably visiting Gent and European Council.

I understood the fact that different language is not an obstacle

Visiting cities such as Gent Brugge Antwerp

Visiting Brugge and (especially) Gent - that boat trip with English and French (I love it) spoken word was just fantastic. I enjoyed visiting European instituitions, now, I can deeper understand their jobs. Random walks throughout the town with friends, Mannekin Piss, dinner with our team, waffles and late night talks :)

Finding best people who I hope I will see again, we had so much fun

Everything was special.

spending time with our friends and visiting EU buildings

Free time with friends from other teams

Beautiful cities and good churros and waffles

Atomium

Visiting Brugge

The whole week was my best experience.

The nicest part of this week was meeting new people and visiting the European Parlamentarium, where I learnt a lot about how this institution works.

Monday, when we visited Antwerp.

The best experience for me was visiting the Atomium

The fact that the European institutions, I have sat on the same seats as the most influential people in world.

For me,all the activities that we had were all very special for me,and i learned something new from each one,but the most interesting was the House of European History.

The best experience this week for me was when we went to the mini Europe museum and to the Atonium museum.

Boat trip in Gent, stories about the castle Gravensteen, European house of history (we could have spent more time there), belgian parks, time spent with other students, admiring the beauty of Brugges (the most)

What was the WORST experience this week for you?

The anxiety attack I had from all the travelling related stress. That wasn't really pleasant.

Nothing, everything was good

the parlamentarium

Sometimes it was very tiring.

European Commity of Regions canteen

Those price tags everywhere 😭

Visitng Plaza de Espana. I was so dissapointed.

(Also I was really surprised that someone with very strong accent, exchanging some words from Italian with English can be on that high position. We understood maybe half of the speech).

Somerimes program was boring and we had to wake up too early

No comments

lack of organization

Saying goodbye, the last day in Belgium

So much walking to places we didn't even had in our plan, no dinners

none

15 hours in a bus

The worst thing this week was missing home.

I haven't had a bad experience, in fact, I've solely had positive moments during this week.

There were not any bad experiences during this week.

I didn't have any bad experience this week

I DIDN'T HAVE SUCH A THING

To be honest,I enjoyed every activity we had so i don t have any bad experience.

I haven't had a bad experience because all the plans were well planed and had a lot of fun learning new things.

Visiting two beautiful belgian cities in one day. Both Brugges and Gent deserved more time to be explored. On the other hand, I know visiting european institutions had to be on the schedule, but I would prefer if those visits could be fit in two days max. There are more interesting things to do in Belgium, but sitting for more than one hour and listening to workers with hardly understandable english accent definitely was not one of them.

What would you prefer to do during the next meeting? What would you change?

To be honest I don't really know but I wouldn't change anything.

Seeing some new places. I wouldn't change anything.

nothing

Maybe visit more historical buildings and taste some typical food.

I would prefer to make one day free of programme, students should have been able to find the most interesting places of Brusseles on their own

I’d like to visit more places and towns, try local food, etc…

I am not going to Poland and I was so dissapointed when I found out that this was my last Erasmus exchange week - due to fact the project is ending. It was only my second time, but I would definitely love to continue in it! I have one more year in high school, so maybe if one more exchange trip is possible, I would be so grateful :)

Less boring speaches and more teambuilding activities

Nothing

shorter program of the day = a little bit more free time to integrate

More free time

See famous cities like in Belgium, had more activities to get to know eachother

I wouldn’t change a single thing

More integration time/organised party

Everything was wonderful I would not change anything.

I wouldn't change anything.

I would like to taste more traditional food.

I would change nothing l. For me, everything was perfect

nothing, it was perfect

In my opinion,I would not change anything because all activities were on my taste.

I can't see a reason to change to process of making the plan because it was really good.

Give attenders more time to explore belgian cities better. Perhaps go see the Royal Greenhouses of Laaken. Three days out of seven spent in european institutions is a little too much.
I think it would be better if we got more time to spend in the European house of history. There were many things we could learn, but nearly one to two hours is not enough time to explore it all.

What do you think is the most attractive thing about your work in this stage of the project?

I get to meet people from different coutries and meet up with them even after the project ends.

meeting new people and places

getting to keep working with my international friends that i got to meet along the way

You can learn a lot about European union.

Well my unofficial task during the mobility was to cover those awkward gaps, when the politicians were asking, if there's any questions

The cooperation and getting to know other foreign students is one of the main reasons i am in this project

Meeting new people and getting to know more about the environment.
Also in EU institutions they told us some very interesting facts and aims that they want to achieve in this area.

Learning more about European Union but also getting to know different options for the topics

Meetings with such amazing people and working with them.

I've learned a lot about EU and other important things

developing English speaking skills

Getting to see my friends once a while

I find all my work attractive.

The fact that I'm given the privilege to experience a small part of what the actual adult world means.

The fact that I was given the chance to visit some of the most important buildings in the whole world.

I think the most attractive thing about my work was my dedication and my attitude. I collaborated with new people, saw new places and toghether we did a good job.

The fact that even though I didn't expect it, my colleagues from the other countries treated us as if we were a family and we knew each other for a lifetime. Because of this, I got rid of the fear of making a mistake or misunderstanding, and I learned new things while having fun.

Learning new things from new people,making new friendships,improving my english speaking skills.

To be able to see different institution and be able to interact with different kind of people

I try to write articles in my own creative way. I want them to be entertaining - just like my article about the Brussels mobility.

Add any comment you think might help the coordinators to improve in their work on the project.

No idea, sorry.

Nothing, everything was awesome

nothing to add :)

Thank you everybody for this amazing oportunity.

I truly regret that I didn't attend previous mobilities in Romania and Slovakia. That was a huge mistake and if I had a chance to turn back time, I would have attended those mobilities

Nothing :)

You are all doing wonderful job and we are so thankful to you. Dali the boss is fantastic.
Maybe teachers should be more informed about what we are going to do, when and so on, not just Dali.

If someone continued in this Erasmus project, everyone would be pleased :)
Thank you for the wonderful experience.

You are doing great ❤️

No comments because everything was great.

keep going

Be more organized, inform about changes in plans

Everything is all right

Taking people that want to make new friends or see the old friends and integrate with others

I don't have any advice for teachers yet.

I don't believe the organizers need to do anything better because they performed a great job.

I don't think there is anything that needs to be improved.

Everything was perfect! Keep going!

I don t now, maybey more single free time?

Keep up the good work.

I don't have any comments about how to improve the coordinators their work.

Buying cheaper flight tickets (it was possible for the slovak team), so there would be more money to cover our food and some of the trips.

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