Lithuania visit in Taurage - 27 nov/03 dec 2016

It seems that just a moment ago we were sitting in the first Lithuania’s team meeting, where we got to know what MAP (Migration analysis project) project is about, which countries will also be participating. At that time, in between the names of these countries written on a blackboard, visit to Lithuania looked like something that is way ahead in the future and there is no need to start worrying about it. Time passed by very fast, four various teams from Lithuania went to Erasmus+ project MAP meetings and the time has come for us to host one of these wonderful visits.

People, who came here for a week from five different countries, had loads of things to do and experience. Skipping the part that all of us had to work in workshops, for which all of the countries were responsible; Lithuanians prepared quite an intense programme for their visitors. We did everything we could to present our country in a way, so the foreign Erasmus+ students would like to come back here again and again. Meeting was opened the same day of the arrival. Some countries had time to meet their new families, others straight forwardly went from Vilnius airport to Versmė gymnasium in Tauragė, where a welcoming party was up. They had a chance to taste Lithuanian homemade snacks, listen to music, participate in activities, meet their hosts, moderators, teachers and, of course, gymnasium principal Albina Senkuvienė.

The second day we had a duty to do a school tour, introduce the guests to our casual environment, language, culture, what, estimating from all of their facial expressions and emotions, amazed them. We took them for a walk around the building, presented local area information, went to a dance lesson with our own folk dance group and wiped away some sweat there. All of this would be nothing if it wouldn’t have ended up with traditional/ national folk song for kids “Du gaideliai” in a flawless Lithuanian language. Then we had a session of news presentations about migration and book reviews from all of the countries. After this, we shortly discussed what would we be doing in workshops and had lunch. The pinnacle of this day was a visit to Tauragė’s District Municipality, where the guests met the mayor of our town Sigitas Mičiulis. There we saw a short movie presenting Tauragė and foreign visitors got some souvenirs. Even though it was a cold day, all of us went for a little tour in the town centre.

The following day we left for a trip to snowy Trakai and Vilnius. While separated into two groups we visited Trakai island castle and took a cooking course at the Old Kybyn Inn, where we had the courtesy to fold and plait Lithuanian dough while listening to a tale of the Karaite traditions and as a result to taste our own pastry - the kybyn. Looking through the bus window and amazed by forests heavily covered with snow, we left to Vilnius. There we filmed a few scenes for a MAP movie and went for a tour around the palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania and listen to a guided tour about Lithuanian history. Lastly, to end this cold, but interesting day we visited a few monuments and famous places, but most importantly - Christmas tree in Cathedral square.

The third day was dedicated to workshops, in which we done various tasks, made decisions and generated ideas for the last and upcoming visit/exhibition in Paris, France, intensively filmed scenes for movie and rehearsed for play which was played in our farewell party . After a long day of work, we all met for dinner.

The next day started with even more adventures. I probably wouldn’t be lying if I would state that the trip to Nida and Klaipėda was the most interesting one. Totally different architecture than we saw before and no snow at all - that’s how Lithuanian seaside welcomed us. We spent the first part of the day in Nida, to which we took a ferry. There we visited local museums, German writer Tom Mann’s memorial museum and Neringa History Museum and lastly, after a walk in the town, we got on the top of the stunning Parnidis dune with a sun clock. The second part of the day was meant for the guests to visit Klaipėda old town and to finish the day in a shopping centre Akropolis, which was unusual and different than the one at home for the Greek team.


No matter how hard we tried to ignore the fact that this week will have to end - it did. We spent the last day working in our groups and prepared to present the job we did throughout the visit. In the evening we presented the mentioned reports from: maps, Paris meeting, ‘MAPbook’, drama and movie workshops. We also had a wonderful chance to see our friends to act these plays and take a peek of the MAP movie. To conclude this evening we had an open mic session and did a great painting together, which at the moment hangs on a wall at our school. The painting contains many Lithuanian words learned by the guests, for example: „tobula“ (perfect), „aš jus myliu“ ( I love you), „labai gerai“ (very good/great), „labas“ (hello). Not to forget, it was the last MAP meeting for some of these students, which led to many emotional goodbyes and countless hug numbers.

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