Europa

Okey….I’m sorry I just can’t write every week…as you might have noticed!
While I’m writing this, I know that tomorrow I’ll be @ home! No not because our program ended, but because our cast is visiting The Netherlands and I have the opportunity to stay @ home! So as you can imagine I’m really exited!
But before I’ll tell you about my home coming I’ll tell you about the last few weeks! As I told in my last story Milan was GREAT! Seeing the Duomo again, going to the bar for the first time in 3 months! Etc.
On Monday we’ve left Milan to go to Luzerne in Switzerland! It was a short travel day since we only had a 3 hour drive to go! So we’ve planed a travel stop in Lugano! Yes the town on the Lugano-lake really cool!
After our travel-stop we arrived in Luzerne! What a beautiful town. If you ever want to visit Swiss….go to Luzerne! This week I stayed together with Linn from Sweden (this was the 3rd time we were roomed together) and we had a Dutch hostmom! Colette, originally from Enschede! But she lives in Switzerland for many years now! It was a lot of fun speaking Dutch and watching Gooise vrouwen! So cool! This week I did a lot of work for my internship (I was the education intern until yesterday 27th of October) and had vocal workshops. So no volunteering for me this week! But what was really cool was our expression session! An evening were you could perform for the group, whatever you wanted to do! So al the interns imitated there coordinators and yes al the coordinators (staff) imitated the cast on a show day! Elke from Belgium showed her hidden talent and sang a song from Krezip, Jeremy from the USA sang (I don’t know the title….but it was the song about) Delilah…beautiful! Johan from Sweden sang one of his songs! He is so talented and writes the best songs ever! Hahaha the guys imitated one of our show songs where normally only the girls participate because it’s a Japanese song about a girl losing her love on the 11th of September and that there is hope after tragedy! They wanted to do this for such a long time and the result was perfect! And what I absolutely didn’t expect was that our cast manager Jörn from Germany eat fire!!! Scary! But really cool!
What we also did this week…visiting Mount Pilatus where our hostmom was the tour guide! She sells the mountain on other continents (an interesting job) We sad in the steepest train in the world! And together with Mallory I hiked down the mountain for a few hours! That was beautiful! We had diner (raclet…I don’t know if you spell it like this??!!) with some of our staff-members (Joke, Patrick, Scott and Ellen) because our hostmom invited them! It was a lot of fun and very good food! Of course we’ve preformed a show that week and on our hostfamilyday we met up with good friends from Colette, a Swedish Dutch couple with 2 kids! So that was perfect. Linn could speak Swedish and I could speak more Dutch! We went to Gruyere, yep the place were the cheese comes from! A cute town up on a hill with an castle!
And Monday, travel day again! From Luzerne to Zell am Harmersbach also a short trip!
We had a travel stop in Freiburg (Switzerland) a really cute little town with an enormous church. And on Monday there was a cute little market… And yesss finally some time to do some shopping, although I didn’t fined anything to buy! ;)
In Zell Sophie, Lysan and Leo were waiting for us! They were doing the advance work. So planning the city, taking care of hostfamilies etc. They planned a great city! Well Zell is not that big but still!
That week we did some very special things! For the volunteering I went to a house were terminal patients were living with cancer and or aids. In the morning we did some gardening work and had lunch with some of the patients. After that we had coffee with them and some others and preformed a small part of our show! And if you see that there were some people that had a hard time eating there lunch and moving around etc. and you see those people clapping, dancing and crying because your dancing and singing a song, the feeling you get than is so incredible! This is and was one of the most beautiful and thankful volunteering jobs I did until now!
What was also very cool this week was the exhausting 2 hour steep hiking trip to an old farm where we had some typical food from the area, visiting an old castle, having several boots on the weekly market with international music, food, games etc. And last but not least our workshop about poverty! Where our cast was divided according to the numbers of the real life poverty. 15% of the world is living a rich and wealthy life, 35% of the world is living in the middle class and 50% of the world is living in the poorest circumstances of the world! A few people were sitting on a perfectly prepared table with plates, forks and knives, drinks and were eating 3 or 4 courses. This group got there food first and were served by our staff members. An other group (the middle group, were I was in) got rice and beans on a plastic plate and had plastic forks and were sitting on a chair, but without a table. And half of us were the poorest and were sitting on the floor eating rice with there hands!
This was a reality shock for everybody! Since almost everybody of us is normally on the perfect prepared table! And now seeing that there are so many people not having it as good as we have it…It’s a sad, but real fact! One of the most impactful workshops this far! By the way, the people sitting on this perfectly prepared table were very uncomfortable when they saw what the rest was eating and how they were able to eat there food!

Okey a jump…from Zell am Harmersbach (South of Germany) to Prenzlau! 1,5 hours above Berlin!
Yes the eastern part of Germany! This is were I’m writing this!
A stressful beginning of the week! The last week of my internship…and yes our (Alecs and my) final workshop for our internship! This took place on Tuesday, in the morning we had 5 guest speakers talking about immigration, Polish and German students and the problems for several immigration issues! Very interesting! After this we had lunch and fitness (although Alecs and I didn’t participate on fitness since we needed to prepare our workshop!...last time I participate on fitness my knee hurting for 3 weeks ;) ) But okey our workshop! Woehoe! It was about Ethical leadership! Because as a leader you have to make a lot of choices and since UWP also a program is about leadership…we learn about leadership! We did an exercise with choosing about peoples lives, told something about leaders in the past and had a discussion about an advertisement the Swiss party that won the elections created to get votes! Maybe you saw it or heard about it. 3 White sheep’s on the Swiss flag kicking the black sheep of the flag. This was a very interesting discussion, because this is a very hot topic for everybody in the cast! And This day totally fit together…the guest speakers in the morning, the workshop in the afternoon and that day before the elections for the Swiss elections were announced. And Alecs and I didn’t know anything about these other activities and facts that happened, so that was very convenient for us!
After the workshop Aimee and me also presented stuff about The Netherlands! In a total different context from a very serious workshop to a let loose presentation…hahaha a funny transaction, but it was great! I’M LOVING IT! After a long existing day I was happy to go to bed!
On Wednesday I did some volunteering! We (9 girls) made a mosaic for an international youth hostel! Really cool! On Thursday I had vocal lessons and in the evening the advance team organized a surprise party for us! WOEHOE! That was fun! With a German folksinger and a performance of a belly dancer! Fun fun fun! On Friday we had a regional learning day and went to Berlin! Woehoe I LOVE THAT CITY! With some staff members and al the interns we did a walking tour trough out Berlin! Jörn the castmanager has a friend who is a tour guide in Berlin, so he showed us al the great places in Berlin! Pfff the holocaust memorial place is so intense and overwhelming. Not if you see it from a distance, not if you see the pictures, they don’t say anything, you must walk trough it and live it. A very impactful and frightening place! It sounds strange but it was the best and most impactful peace of art I’ve ever seen!

Okey now I’m writing again and it’s a week later! So I’ve been @ home …well I slept @ home this last week!
But yep Berlin was impressive! Prenzlau was a great place to bee! A very good city to visit! And now this week in The Netherlands was also very great! Not only because of our activities with UWP, but also seeing my friends and family again!
This week was al about the immigration issues in The Netherlands and also in the rest of the world! So I’ve been to the AZC in Dronten and we learned more about the immigration process from arriving in this country until your citizenship. Very interesting!

I hoped that I had some time this week to write to my old hostfamilies, but it was just to busy even @ home! So old hostfamilies….I’m sorry if I haven’t send you an e-mail, postcard or contact you in an other way! As soon as I get home, really home I’ll have more time to contact you all! I hope everybody is doing great!

Tomorrow I’m leaving for Leuven our last city in Europe and than for 4 weeks to the Philippines and than my big UWP adventure is over…That thought makes me sad, because this experience is so unbelievable and so unique! The people you meet in your host family, the people you work with on Community Impact days etc. etc. And of course our wonderful cast! The 70 people I don’t want to miss! But this Saturday I took a day of and not seeing everybody made me really miss them!

The next few weeks it might be hard for me to go on the internet and write on my blog again…so please forgive me if I write again when I get back in The Netherlands! So in 5 weeks!

Thanxx for reading!