From the 21st to the 26th of September the EU Junior Ambassadors, accompanied by Mag. Johanna Rauch and Mag. Anna-Maria Plautz, were lucky enough to go on an Erasmus+ trip to Lithuania to meet our partner school Erudito Lyceum to work on projects, attend workshops and, of course, make friends and memories.
We had been looking forward to going on this trip for an eternity and on Monday the 21st of September it was finally time. We arrived in Vilnius and were warmly welcomed by our partner students. After getting to meet our partner students we were given a quick tour of their school and had dinner at a lovely restaurant in the heart of the city. It was a great first day and had us looking forward to the entire week.
On day two we met up with our Lithuanian partner students again and got to work on our main topic for the week which was mental health. We divided ourselves into three groups and looked at “general mental health”, “how movement affects mental health” and “resilience/daily life”. In those groups we began to work on individual projects while also exploring Vilnius and getting to know each other even more. After, we looked even further into mental health in an active workshop about mental health and movement with Viktorija Syčiova, which was interesting and informative. To end the second day of our Lithuania trip we decided to go bowling with our partner students and enjoyed an evening full of fun and laughter.
On day three we added the final touches of our projects before gathering everyone to eat lunch together. In the evening, we attended a guided tour and wandered through the spooky walls of the Lukiškės prison which is over 100 years old and was only shut down in 2019 - frightening but exciting!!
On day four and today was the last day we spent with our partner students from Vilnius - we had an active workshop about anxiety in which we talked about different aspects of anxiety and practiced some breathing exercises before we went on with presenting our final projects on mental health together. In the afternoon we once again explored Vilnius but this time one the water as we took a boat ride on the Neris river before also seeing Vilnius from above as we visited the Gediminas tower.
Unfortunately, we have reached the last day of our Lithuania trip, we took a day trip to Kaunas to visit another part of our partner school Erudito Lyceum and meet the students there. We started off with a nice tour of the school and then attended language quiz together. After eating lunch, we were given a small tour of Kaunas and finally enjoyed a beautiful local market with many traditional Lithuanian souvenirs. Lithuania was an amazing experience and we’re glad to have made so many memories together, we can’t wait for our partner students to visit us soon!!
Text: Pauline Lerch
Ambassadors who have joined the trip:
Alina Bergmann, Alissa Drechsler, Alma Frincu, Barbara Jurleta, Elin Lucic, Emma-Sophie Kozlica, Hannah Schernthaner, Jana Kharat, Kai Pendl, Lena Kljajic, Lena Schulze-Boysen, Linda Rödiger, Nora Standl, Pauline Lerch, Sámuel Czigler, Sonja Toegel, Sophia Pohl, Theres Bernhart
