Interview with Stijn Belmans, coordinator of the project

Do you want to know when started the idea of this international project?  Stijn Belmans, the coordinator of the exhange program tells us. Look at the video!!

Exploring Europe

Žiga (24) from Zagorje Ob Savi  graduated as a post technology engineer one year ago. He worked as a mailman for a while and wants to go into real estate later on. Beside these professional activities, he volunteers at their local youth club Mc Zos.

Žiga, how did you end up here?

All the Slovenian people that are here in Antwerp, are part of the same circle of friends that volunteer at the local youth club. One of them proposed to participate in this project a couple of months ago, so here we are! I have some free time in between two jobs right now, so the timing was perfect for a new experience.

A new experience? So this is the first time you participate in an international exchange program. What motivated you to take part in this project?

There are several reasons. It is a combination of having FUN, seeing a new country, getting to know the culture, meeting new people and improving my language skills. I really want to explore Europe.

Slovenia joined the EU in 2004. Have you noticed any changes in your country since then?

Yes, a lot of things have changed. We started using the euro as a currency on the first of January 2007. Since then the prices have doubled, but the wages remained the same. That is one of the downsides, but there are a lot of positive aspects as well. We have a lot more opportunities to travel now, since the borders are open. And that allows us to participate in projects like this one.

Have you made any new friends already?

I hope so! (Silence. Smiles dreamingly..) That is one of the best parts of cultural exchange programs such as this one: I can invite people I really connect with to Slovenia to guide them around – and I hope I will get the chance to visit some of the friends I made here in their country.

Ok. Good luck with that and have fun!

Discover the groove

As you could read below, the creativity group got a dance initiation a couple of days ago. For the occasion Formaat contacted Youssef, a member of the ‘Let’s Go Urban’ dance squad. This seventeen year old dancer helped everyone of the group to take the first steps on the dance floor. ‘Dancing is in my genes’, Youssef explained us. ‘My brother was a dancer as well and until I was five years old, I always joined him to all the events. This made me discover the groove in my body, heart and soul.’

Some of us had difficulties to discover the dance groove in their own body. Nevertheless, everyone did the best they could . The activity ended with a jam session: the entire group stood in a circle and one by one the participants were invited to show their best moves. Thanks for the encouragements Youssef!

Creative talent.

We caught Oliver playing around with photoshop around midnight. There is a workaholic in the creativity team! Have a look at some of his previous work ! Here you can find his personal website - and he also participated in the creation of the stopmotion movie below. Really curious what he will present us on Sunday, because this tastes like more.

To do or not to do...

It was a long day for the event management team. The weekend is coming and they still have to work hard...

For that reason the trainers decided to discuss with the team about the final event and to divide them in 4 groups (social equality and art, music/talent, games and "ecological hats"). 

They were working on the process, the logistic, de public relations and the financial issues, trying to build up a "to do list" and finding a team leader that is going to present the activities for the weekend. 

The trainers are really happy how things are going on. They have seen that they are trying to negociate the budget within their needs like a workteam in a successful way. There is still a lot to do, however: buy all the material, find a suitable band for... dancing and having fun, build up the stage, arrange the catering and... so on!!

Here, we have a picture of the event management team trainers. You can see their funny and happy faces. Do you think they will keep the smile after tomorrow??

From the left to the right we have... Anja Van den Durpel (Belgium), Nur Yamaç (Turkey), Peter Wood (England) and Chelsea Renehan (England).

Regen, regen en nog eens regen

Paola (Italy) seems to really love the Belgian weather.

Work in progress