Go to the playground of any school and I assure you that it is nothing compared to what it used to be. I remember that when I was an 11 year old girl, recess was the most sacred time of the day!🤸‍♂️🤸‍♀️ My friends and I could not wait to go into the playground and ask the teachers to let us borrow a ball, hula hoop, skipping rope… and sometime we needed nothing more than our imagination.

However, nowadays most kids fail to even recognise some of the games that we dearly remember as being part of our childhood. Luckily you can spot a few guys playing football, but the rest just sit around with their phones and chit-chat. When did recess time become so boring? 😱 This is why I decided it would be a good idea to show 5th graders some of the most memorable games played by Spanish children during recess at school and in their free time with friends. Games that have been played all over Spain for more than five decades! 🧒👩🧓

Believe it or not, a piece of chalk, an elastic and a skipping rope can turn out to be very entertaining pastimes. I am very happy to say that the games we played managed to catch the attention of most kids at the Liceul Teoretic Petőfi Sándor Elméleti and the Liceul Tehnologic, nr. 1 Cadea.😊 It was a memorable experience that I cannot wait to repeat this month of April with other classes (SPOILER❗️).

The fact that a lot of the kids did not know how to play any of these games has made me realise how important it is to keep traditions rolling so that they are not lost. ⏰ But above all, we should all be open-minded and respectful towards other cultures, approaching them with curiosity and excitement like all of these kids have done. 😍🤗

P.S.: With every new blogpost I upload, there will be a song to accompany it! 🎶 Because of this cool summery weather I cannot stop listening September Song by JP Cooper! Woop woop!🌊☀️

Most of you might already know about the so called gastronomic event that we celebrated two weeks ago at the museum 🍲🇪🇸. Even though I had planned a few events before, they were nothing compared to what happened this time. I have always enjoyed cooking and making food for myself but I am not a fan of putting my culinary skills to judgement. However, this event made me get out of my comfort zone by allowing at least 30 people to taste the food that I prepared together with Alba and Orsi. I would like to thank Májercsik Tünde for allowing us to use her kitchen facilities at the Szathmayer restaurant to cook the paella. It really would not have been the same without her help!

It is true that a few things could have been improved during the preparation process of the event, and we are all working hard to overcome these difficulties so that we improve the quality of the cultural events. Just be patient and bear with us in these uncertain times we are living 💪!

Seeing the amount of people that kept coming through the door of the museum made me feel extremely excited and grateful. It never crossed my mind that so many locals would be interested in coming over, but giving it a second thought, who does not like free food?

I need to confess that, for me, the highlight of the night occurred when my coordinator told me that the “Paspas arrugadas con mojo” was voted by many people the best dish of the night! I am still in shock and a bit overwhelmed, but very pleased to know that the effort and love I put into making this dish was recognised by our guests 😭😍.

Coming soon: sometime during the two upcoming weeks, I will be going to two of Săcueni’s schools. Cannot wait to see how kids react to a special surprise I have prepared for them! Keep tuned for further updates through the Ér Hagja facebook page!

P.S.: Happy belated International Women’s Day!!! 😊🌷💐❤️🧡💚

Szia mindenkinek! 

I am sure everybody is wondering, what has this girl been doing in Bucharest? Well, it is a pretty long story so I might start from the very beginning. It was Saturday the 2nd of February when my friend Alba and I embarked on a 14-hour train journey to Bucharest as part of our EVS on arrival training. 

I had never before been on a train for such a long time and, as the hours passed, I started feeling more and more tired. We bought a lot of food supplies for the journey, took two or three books to read and downloaded a few movies in an attempt to make time move faster. You would be surprised to know all of the random things that happen during the night in a train 😓. 

We finally arrived the next morning and went straight to the Ibis hotel 🏨. The idea of sleeping seemed tempting but we knew that we would not have a lot of opportunities to visit Bucharest and its surrounding. Our touristic visit of the city included the Palace of Parliament and both the National museums of art and history, before we started wondering around the city and enjoying whatever it had to offer.  

During the next few days I had the pleasure to meet amazing people who were just like me volunteering with other associations in Rumania. From 10:00 to 19:00 we would have the training sessions where we learned everything that we needed to know about the EVS formalities, how to deal with emotional problems, ways to approach our respective projects… 

However, I was not expecting at all to create such a strong bond with all volunteers in only a week. There were a lot of people coming from different parts of Europe, and it was astonishing for me to see how the EVS had also reached countries such as Turkey and Egypt! 🌍 Despite being all extremely different, we all shared the same common values and had a lot of fun getting to know each other’s culture.

The international cultural night was another of the highlight of this trip. Every country that was participating at the time in the training had to make a creative presentation to demonstrate president Trump that if “America comes first”, then their country comes second. For me Germany and Georgia were the ones who stood up the most! It seems that for Germans drinking beer is like having a religious experience and thus, German volunteers decided that the best way to demonstrate that their country comes second was by putting some church music and start giving away free German beers for everyone to drink! I mean…. crazy, right? Meanwhile, the volunteer from Georgia decided it was better to switch off the room lights, put some Georgian typical music and start jumping around the room while talking in his mother tongue and drinking wine! The rest of us was surrounding him in a circle while laughing because of the confusing situation and trying to imitate his movements. 

Nobody slept for more than 5 hours per day that week because we usually went out after dinner to dance or have some drinks at someone’s room in the hotel. I was enjoying so much the moment that I felt as if time had stopped and that week was never going to end. Needless to say how happy I was for not having to cook nor clean my room.  

Now Rumania does not feel as empty and scary knowing that everywhere I go, I will have someone with whom to stay and create new and amazing memories. This is an experience that I will always have present in my memory and dearly close to my heart. Hopefully I will see them all again in the midterm EVS training! 🥰 

Szia mindenkinek!

Things keep rolling pretty good here in Săcueni. Last week I finally finished writing my second article which will be very soon online on the Ér Hangja Médiacsoport webpage. Highly recommend to read it if you are interested in listening to the experience of an elder woman from Săcueni who left through the Rumanian communist era. This was the first time I participated in an interview of such scale and, even though I was a little nervous for the outcome, listening to Marika Néni ended up being a heartwarming and extremely enriching life experience.

On the 30th of January I also had the pleasure to go for the first time to a Rumanian public school, specifically to the Liceul Tehnologic Nr.1 Cadea 🏫 My friend Alba and I designed a Spanish linguistic and cultural event for teenagers between the ages of fifteen and eighteen. This included a brief explanation of the overall Spanish culture and an interactive game that would help them learn simple dialogues and basic phrases 🗣. It was an amazing experience to see how curious, eager to learn and participative they all were throughout the process. 

A few days after, I had my first radio podcast recording ever. How exciting is that?! Even though they had previously told me that Csilla would ask me questions related to the EVS and some more personal information, I really did not know what to expect. It was a fun and unforgettable moment, but by the end of the session my perfectionist mindset came to live and I started to pinpoint all the things that I could have done better. If you want to listen to it visit International projects of Érhangja Association page in Facebook, and bear with me and my inexperience in this field 📻.

Also keep tune because a gastronomic event is coming very soon, together with a new post of my trip to Bucharest as part of the European Voluntary Service training! Such an amazing week with the most wonderful people 🧳.

Viszontlátásra!🤩

Szia mindenkinek!

I have never seen so much snow in all my life. Things here are very different to what I am used to, but little by little I am starting to appreciate the beauty of the everything that surrounds me. The idea of moving to a new place is always exciting, but we tend to forget about how challenging the adaptation process can be. It takes time to make yourself feel like at home! 🏡 

However, acclimatising to a new environment becomes somehow more bearable when the people that you interact with everyday reassure you that you are here for a good reason. I can say that Săcueni’s community has received all volunteers with open arms, and it has been a privilege getting to experience such an amazing and vibrant culture. Throughout these past three weeks I have had time to bond with my flatmates, go to my first ever wine tasting and karaoke night, interview a woman who lived thought Romania’s communist period, work on my articles, travel to Oradea, assist to the Săcuen’s annual charity ball…

Memories are already starting to be created, and it makes me so happy that I can be a part of them. I have discovered I do not like eating kidneys, and that my favourite place in Rumania so far is a little coffee shop with Cuban vibes situated on Str. Calea Republicii☕️. I might also have started to develop an interest in photography 📸 It took me three days to capture the exact moment I was looking for, but in the end it was all worth it when that feeling of accomplishment invaded me.

Remember to keep in tune with these blog posts and Ér Hangja Médiacsoport social media, because new linguisting and cultural events will be coming soon every months!

Viszontlátásra! 🥳

                    Alba, Jon, Orsi and me at the 11th edition of the Hungarian

culture’s day charity ball.

Szia mindenkinek!

My name is Andrea and I am a 22 year old graduate in Political Sciences and International Relations from the University of Strathclyde (Scotland). Even though I consider myself a citizen of the world, I hold dearly close to my heart the picturesque and enchanting island of Gran Canaria where I was born and raised. 

It was a few years ago when I decided that it was time to spread my wings and start fulfilling and accomplishing the ambitions and high goals that I had set up for myself. Nowadays I consider myself a nomad who loves travelling and experiencing new cultures 🌍, as well as a nature and animal lover 🌷🐝, passionate cinephile📽 yoga learner👣, feminism advocate👫 and hobby writer!✍🏼 

As for the latest one, ever since I was a little girl I have been inclined toward producing creative pieces of writing. This is not only the easiest way for me to express myself, but I have also recently come to acknowledge that writing can be a very powerful tool for change and awareness raising. At the risk of sounding too cheesy, I am always looking for new ways to have a positive impact on society. This is why I decided to study political sciences, and why I am so happy to volunteer as a journalist and cultural event organiser for an association which embodies all of the principles I stand for. 

Despite having travelled to a multitude of Northern and Southern European countries, this is the first time I set foot in Eastern Europe. Since I have only been 4 days in Săcueni, I have only been able to visit a few sightseeings and meet some lovely people from the association. The real work starts next week! I hope that by the end of this volunteering I am able to say I helped in the development and cultural preservation of this little town which has so much potential. 

Viszontlátásra! 🤗