Travel day:

We left Ljubljana for Zagreb, some very early around 4 in the morning, and the rest at 7. It was Tija’s first time traveling by plane, so we hung out with her a little before the flight itself. Of course, we had to give her a window seat, as she wanted a view of the surroundings. At the airport in Sofia, we all went together to the meeting point in the city by metro. Since our plane was delayed by more than an hour, of course we were late and as a result everyone else had to wait for us on the bus, which then took us to Dobrinishte in the Bulgarian hills. We drove for more than 3 hours and arrived at the hotel for dinner around 9 PM Bulgarian time (they are one hour ahead of us). After a short presentation of the basic rules, we went to bed very quickly, as we were very tired after a whole day’s travel.

Day 1: after the introductory energizer, we got to know the course of the program for the following days and got to know each other with games for getting to know names and agreed on the exchange rules (no alcohol, be on time, support and learning, here and now, respect others rest, resources and environment and confidentiality). After that we had a workshop about fears, expectations and contribution and also started a secret friend game. After lunch we went to the city where we had a mission impossible, which we successfully completed. Yupiiii. After dinner, we had an international evening, where we had to present our country in an innovative way without powerpoint or other electronic devices, so that we had to use a game, storytelling, etc. present their countries. This was followed by delicious tasting of food and sweets from other countries and dancing.

Day 2: like every day, we started the day with an energizer and an innovative and playful scene that showed the events of the previous day, which was a lot of fun. The first workshop showed us the difference between evaluation, interpretation and description, which was also an introduction to the workshops that will await us in the following days, shaking up our value system and setting up mirrors of our reactions, emotions, attitudes, etc. After lunch, we went on a short hike to a nearby hill, and had workshops during the breaks. The workshop was very interesting, where we learned about our reactions and strategies for solving problems. This workshop will help us a lot in analyzing where we are in our current situation and whether we are in the role of a victim or a solution. This was followed by daily evaluation of the day by international groups and reporting to all three responsible (Deiana, Nikola and Atanas). After dinner we had a Carneval which was a lot of fun. This is how we entered the next days of preparing for the Forum Theater.

Day 3: We started the day with a van transfer to the starting point for our hike under the highest Bulgarian mountain. But first, they were waiting for us: an energizer, and then we tried our hand at playing certain situations from our lives that we remember making us feel special (positive or negative). We played 4 scenes (stories) told by different volunteers and we chose the people who played them. The next exercise gave us an insight into our prejudices regarding a certain group of people, as we were divided into 3 groups and given instructions on how to behave and react to certain scenarios that we had written on the sheets of each group. This was followed by analysis and findings, as well as comments. Nikola surprised us with a challenge that had no scientific basis and we killed ourselves with different theories why we cross our fists with our left or right thumb, which again showed us how we can characterize the characteristics of a group of people without any tangible evidence. on the basis of some characteristics that we do not even know and glorify our own, which can lead to racism, discrimination, etc. The exercise was very vivid and instructive. Then we had lunch (barbeque). After a short break, we went on a hike and after 2 hours we reached a clearing in the middle of the forest, where we had our destination, and even earlier the bravest (stupid ones  ) bathed in the icy mountain river on the way to the top. We gathered wood for the fire and lit it. We had various workshops on how systems work, and how individuals work on them (simple, complicated, complex), how they work, and how consequences come with a delay, and how each individual is important in this system, what is the Butterfly effect and Atanas us presented an example from Borneo of how one ill-advised move can change a system (killing mosquitoes, extinction of cats, increased mouse population…). This was followed by dinner, which was brought to us and an evening by the fire, where we told each other inspiring stories from our lives. This was followed by a hike into the valley with flashlights on our heads in the dark, through the forest, which was a very special experience, ending with the arrival of tired bodies at the hotel around midnight and a very quick departure to rooms and beds.

Day 4: Kaja led the Slovenian energizer, which was very interesting, followed by the presentation of the previous day with a performance by 3 groups. Next was Nikola’s workshop, where we got labels on foreheads that we couldn’t see it and described our characteristics (lazy, sick, leader, smart, beautiful, affected, slow, commanding, smelly, alert,…). Our task was that in groups of 7 (7 different characteristics on the foreheads) we tried to behave in accordance with the other inscriptions and characteristics in the team work of making the Erasmus+ poster. This was followed by an evaluation and what we learned in the course of playing and determining the roles through the reactions of others. The exercise was a great mirror of our responses, strategies and behavior. This was followed by an excellent workshop on putting yourself in other shoes (roles) with the help of role-playing (giraffe, jackal). Someone told his story, what he is doing in life, and then observed with the help of 4 selected people 4 different perspectives and had to find himself in at least one, how he feels, parallel thoughts, etc.. and thus get a better view of the current situation and possible solutions through analysis. (The first role of the jackal was to blame others for his situation, the second role of the jackal was to blame himself, the first giraffe analyzed how the person felt (emotions), and the second giraffe why someone who influenced this person so reacted and tried to find a solution. The exercise was very deep and instructive. Lunch followed, and after lunch and a break we went on a hike, and during that we had a workshop led by Atanas on how they work, how they are created and how they affect on us, but above all how we can change our beliefs and replace them with more useful ones. Then we bathed under the waterfall, evaluated the day and on the way back talked about our negative and positive beliefs, which we symbolically threw into the river, and replaced them with new ones.Luckily that was it for the day as we were very tired emotionally and just wanted to socialize a bit playing board games after dinner.

Day 5: We started the day as usual with an energizer and a play scene showing yesterday’s day. Then we started preparing with various teambuilding exercises, for greater connection and the ability to cooperate and understand others, which will come in handy later in the day, when we will play the Forum theater shows. The blindfolded driving exercise was very interesting and there was a lot of laughter and fun. This was followed by individual and group mutual trust exercises. The purpose of all this was revealed later in the theater and preparations for performances. Before that, Nikola presented us with the theory of theater and its purpose. Uffff, we are in for a really difficult and emotionally exhausting carousel of everything. We divided into 3 groups according to the topic we want to perform. This was followed by lunch, rest and preparations for the show. The first shot, the second, the third,… uffffffff a flood of emotions, great acting, genuine emotions, drama, tension and everything that goes with it… protagonist, antagonist, other characters, plots, and again emotions, emotions and emotions… . tears… laughter… and then interventions and changes to the script, and again a new script with adjustments… and so on several times… and again emotions, memories, different perspectives, involvement of others from the audience, interventions and new role plays. .. crazy… carousels of emotions and finally cleansing, relaxation, analysis, evaluation of everything that was happening… I can say that after that we were all very tired and emotionally drained and grateful on the other side, because we learned a lot of new techniques and perspectives on solving bad situations.

Day 6: After energizers we had full day of emotions with two groups performing 2 different acts. First about environment and second about family conflict. It was really powerfull but also really emotional hard.

Day 7: We woke up really early and start our day to mountains at 5.50 in the morning. We took old museum train to mountains and hike for hole day, had lunch with us and done evaluation, closure of the proceses and went back to hotel. We are sad to say goodby to new people in one hand buut happy to go back home. But this is not end, we will meet again