We could not leave you without feedback about another Erasmus project that, this time, took place in Alicante, Spain.

The member of FRI, Yana Mosur, kindly shared with us her experience about the project of Associació Cultura Creativa.

What are your general impressions after the exchange?

I am pleasantly surprised. It was my first exchange, and I did not expect anything extraordinary. I was rather afraid before the project. And after all, it was literally “WOW”. I managed to find new communication approaches and see different blogging ways, which I will use in practice now. The most graceful thing is how I got the feel of Spain in general and Alicante, particularly through all that happened on the project.

How would you assess organizational policies (accommodation, nutrition, communication with organizers and participants of the training)?

The accommodation was comfortable. We lived in a big youth hostel which now focuses on coworking with project teams. The food was regular, delicious and solid. I found the priority of choosing a dish especially good, as well as frequent offers of fish plates.

Communication was also wonderful. It was easy to find out about important details from the Facebook group and Whatsapp chat. All the organizational issues were discussed clearly.

Was the topic disclosed?

As it was my first project, I was choosing the most suitable topic for me. Communication is what I am doing every day, being a doctor and, at the same time, a travel operator. That is why I did not have special expectations of getting brand new information. Nevertheless, the topic was disclosed enough and without cliches.

Did you have free time apart from studying? How did you use it?

We had plenty of free time. We were walking around the city or sleeping.

Did you manage to get on with other participants, or did the language barrier make the communication difficult?

Although I don’t have an advanced level of English and I was making efforts to speak, it was not a problem. We established warm connections. I was able to find out many interesting things about their background and culture, as well as to tell them more about Ukraine.

It is very interesting how the participants reacted to your stories. Was the topic of war sometimes discussed?

During the first several days, no one asked anything. 

This happened until the moment while drawing my “emotional state” (one of our tasks), I drew sketches of war because I wanted to talk about it. Then people started asking, and I understood that it was a certain barrier for them. It is also difficult for me to express sympathy to the people from the eastern regions who attend my appointments. I suspect that people from other countries who were with us on the same project felt the same way.

What exactly did you tell them about Ukraine?

I told how we learned to adapt to the realities of war. How in the most terrible situations, we find emotional release and how, in honour of the nuclear threat, we tell stories about Shchekavytsia.

I talked a lot about the war. They were shocked by the fact that Ukrainians could come to Spain during the war. Also, the interesting moment was when we were asked if we would be comfortable seeing fireworks during the celebration. We agreed because we had not heard real explosions and actually wanted to stay in the company. As a result, during the first fireworks, Yana and I flinched.

Estonians told us that the Crimean Bridge had exploded, and then a girl from Latvia congratulated us. During the project, the participants asked us how we felt about the war in our country. In general, I felt much sympathy from the participants.

What did you remember the most from the project?

Basically, Alicante and Spain. During my time there, I truly fell in love with the country. It did not happen at once: only having experienced all the events and emotions on the project, Alicante became a city that touched my soul. Moreover, the part of the program section about nonverbal communication was truly memorable. The topic was disclosed through practical tasks, which affected me and gave rise to my thoughts. 

For example, the exercise where you choose a partner and start off at a distance but gradually move nearer to each other until one of you feels uncomfortable and says ‘stop’. An important point: we were not talking, only staring at each other. Nevertheless, it was such an intense emotional connection for me that I even noticed how hard it was to get close to the people with whom I had a chance to connect.

One evening we went for a walk to the port and got to a party. We had a lot of fun there.

What did you not like about the project? What difficulties did you encounter during the training?

The language barrier really made communication less effective. Oddly enough, during personal communication, it did not seem so difficult. But during the training one can’t lose attention, as you will not understand important information.

How will you use acquired skills in the future?

In public activity, to expand and create interesting new programs for our educational projects.

Interview by Oleksandra Yazdanfar