Forever in love with music

[taniajoy-blog1]

City of Youthopia

Hey everyone! I was away for a while. The good part is I have a lot of new impressions and experiences to share :) I’ve been away for a youth exchange “City of Youthopia” in Maribor, Slovenia. For 8 days representatives from Slovenia, Latvia, Italy, Romania and Portugal worked together to come up with simple practical solutions on how to reduce human footprint, be sustainable, use resources smartly and leave less/zero waste. We created our ideal “ Youthopiacal” city with zero waste and sustainable practices.

Youth exchange is another short-term Erasmus+ program. Participants of youth exchange can receive Youthpass afterwards to track their learning process.

This was my first ever youth exchange. I enjoyed it so much!!! I’ve met the most wonderful passionate people! I worked on an important and interesting topic. I’ve got to learn from those amazing people. I’ve got to share my own experience and knowledge. We’ve got to cook and eat together food from each country and so many more!  I’m glad I had such an opportunity. I’m glad I said yes to such an amazing opportunity :)

I will write about sLOVEnia in another post.

[taniajoy-blog1]

Hi from Vilnius everyone :) I went there with my Portuguese friend. I wanted to share about the magic of our EVS network. I actually didn’t believe that it would work. Before coming to Vilnius I texted in the EVS group to ask for a host there. I barely believed that someone would reply to this request. However, I was lucky enough :) Couple of volunteers replied and I found us a host. Moreover, we’ve got to hang out with cool girls from Georgia and Armenia. Yes, EVS network really works and that’s amazing!!

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My next post was going to be about on-arrival training. However, since I just came back from my mid-term training, I will mess a bit with chronological order. 

Erasmus+ organizes 2 trainings for EVS volunteers during the project. One happens at the begining of a project. Second one is in the middle of a project. My mid-term training took place in a wonderful guest house near Ogre, Latvia. 14 volunteers from different countries and 2 trainers gathered together in one place to work in a non-formal way on our EVS projects. EVS has brought so many wonderful people into my life! That’s the best about international exchanges. People that I meet make my life better. I don’t want to write long boring post about the training. Believe me! We had a lot of fun! We worked together, we ate together, we played games together, we walked together. But mainly, all of us are going through the same experience. We all understand each other like no one else does. I feel like those wonderful volunteers are my  family :) They’re indeed!!!!

Many more amazing days to come on this EVS journey.

P.S. After discovering the magic of non-formal education, I would never come back to formal education. It’s too boring. 

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After Tallin my next destination was Helsinki, Finland. First of all, I would like to say that before coming to Latvia, I haven’t been abroad for 3 or something years. So when I came to Helsinki I was starving for sightseeing! That day I walked around 40 !!! km. No kidding! Don’t repeat this after me, since my feet hurt a lot afterwards. However, I do not regret about doing this. I was happy to  explore the city properly! Helsinki surprised me with its beauty. The cith I visited before were beautiful usually only in the centers. However, Helsinki was amazing even far from the center. 

P.S. For anyone who is going to Helsinki, I would definitely advice you to leave the time to see Sibelius monument! 

[taniajoy-blog1]

Trip to Tallinn

Hey guys.

I decided to share a bit about my trip to Tallinn, Estonia. In June I decided that it’s time to discover new horizons. I planned my trip to Tallinn and Helsinki. It’s really cheap to go to Helsinki from Tallinn by ferry. However, I will cover Helsinki in another post.

Tallinn is breathtaking beautiful city. For me the Old Town of Tallinn was more impressive that Riga’s Old Town. But, of course, in the city center there were lots of tourists. Oh well.

In Tallinn I couch surfed for the first time. I stayed with a Ukrainian guy from my university (that we found out only when met in person). Yes. We were studying in the same university and never met. And I must say that my university doesn’t have a lot of students. Back than it was around 3500 students. So, pretty much you know by faces all the students. And what were the odds that our paths never crossed in Ukraine, but we met in Estonia? That’s cosmos! That's nice story hopefully I will be telling my grandchildren one day.

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Next posts will be about my past experiences, since I was residing in Latvia for couple months now. To continue, just after a couple of days after I arrived to Jelgava, there was another trip waiting for me. We made a study visit with Junda youngsters to Tartu, Estonia. Our first stop was Youth Center in Tartu. Next we went to Science Centre AHHAA.

Now really seriously! I think that everyone has to visit AHHAA Center!!!!!!! It’s amazing place where you can observe and also do cool stuff. AHHAA Center aims to encourage young people to learn and study while discovering interesting things. AHHAA proves that science does not have to be boring. 

We didn’t have much time to see the city. I only walked around city center. However, from what I observed, Tartu is a beautiful place to visit.

[taniajoy-blog1]

Sveiki everyone!

It’s been already 5 months since I moved to Latvia to do my EVS. There are a lot of wonderful things that I got to experience here. I have a lot of reflections about EVS, Latvia, local people, other volunteers and simply myself. Latvia is influencing me in a best possible way! I feel like I want to share something with the world.

For those who haven’t heard about EVS a little explanation is below ⬇️

European Voluntary Service (EVS) is international program funded by European Commission. It enables young people aged 18-30 to provide a volunteer service abroad for a period of 2 to 12 month. A volunteer can carry his service at NGO or Youth centers. One can do EVS ONLY in non for profit organization. EVS is a program fully funded by European Commission, so everyone has a chance to become a volunteer. EVS allows you to learn about different cultures, gain new knowledge and skills, make international friends, travel and so much more. EVS is happening within the framework of European Union values. For a volunteer to go abroad there is a cooperation between a sending organization, receiving organization and a volunteer himself. When volunteer arrives to the destination place, he/she has a mentor from locals. Mentor supervises volunteer during his all stay in a foreign country. For more information go to link: https://europeanvoluntaryservice.org/whatis-evs/

I encourage everyone to do EVS. So far it is the best experience and best time in my life! I would never switch Latvia for any other country.

I’m doing my EVS at “Children and Youth Centre Junda” in Jelgava, Latvia. Junda provides afterschool activities for kids and teenagers. Here you can find 3D printer, auto constructive modalism, Lego robotics, wood engineering, theatre improvisation, art class, singing, dancing, computer workshops and so many more!!! I think this place is a heaven for kids. Kids in Jelgava can learn so much in Junda. I wish I had these I’m also really lucky to work with a team I’m working with in Junda !!!

Do you know that awkward feeling when you come to your new work place? You need some time to get used to in order to feel comfortable there. I had not this phase of adjustment here in Junda. I felt comfortable right from beginning J

In next posts I will share more about Latvia, Latvia culture and places I visited :)

[taniajoy-blog1]

Just a couple of words as a reminder for myself about tonight. First of all, I've never been a huge fan of Tom Odell. However, I knew who he was and even liked couple of his songs. I also considered him as a talented musician. So when my friend suggested to go to his concert I didn't hesitate. Now about a concert itself. Damn this guy can sing!! Damn he can masterly play piano!! He doesn't even need to sing. He could make entire concert just by playing piano! And Damn he can turn on the audience!!!! You could feel all the drive and energy he gave!! We were falling asleep during warming up session 😀. This boy tried to warm up the audience a bit but it was like he was singing for himself. And then Tom came on stage.... from the very first note he woke up everybody! That was amazing! I also must say that Tom and his band put there for 100 %. Now there is another artist I love 😀 It also is worth mentioning that Tom greeted us with Ukrainian "Pryvit. Yak vashi spravy? ". Not Russian, but Ukrainian!! I really appreciated that Tom 😊 Oh and kissing Ukrainian flag at the end... you just made it right to my heart 😉

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Divide

This has happened! The world and myself were waiting for this too long. 3d album of Ed Sheeran “Divide” has come out. Well, to start with I’ve been listening to Ed’s music for a while now. During the hardest period of my life it was his music that brought me back to life. And lately nothing’s much was going on in my life. So, new music was what I needed. I needed to experience emotions to feel alive again. I must say, “Divide” didn’t disappoint me at all. I also should mention that I’m writing this after couple of days after the album came out. So, my emotions and impression about 3d album aren’t that bright anymore. But, anyways... You probably know that couple of singles were released earlier. At first I didn’t like “Shape of You”. Although I enjoyed “Castle on the Hill”. I was kind of disappointed because in comparison to other songs “Shape of You” doesn’t have  depth. It’s similar to other cheap one-day hit pop songs. However I’ve changed my mind now. For me “Shape of You” is such a different Ed. Not every song has to have meaning. Okay, we’re clear about that. Now let’s get back to album. I selected couple favorite songs in the album. So, Dive, Galway Girl, Save Myself, Barcelona, What Do I Know and Supermarket Flowers are the best to me. I also was surprised when Ed said that Perfect is the one which will out stand Thinking Out Loud (almost everyone got married with this song :) ). To me Dive is best love song on the album. And it’s definitely better than TOL. But different people have different opinions. Supermarket Flowers will make you cry. It’s the most emotional song on the album. Anyways, “Divide” is many-sided album. There are slow romantic songs as well as dancing tracks. What is most important this album is all about love. I didn’t believe it till I heard the songs, but Ed found his only one :) You can hear it from the music.