The week from November 19th to 25th was very eventful for students of the Bilingual Education Class. Instead of learning in class, one Monday afternoon we packed our bags, got on an international coach and thirteen hours later got off at the Lviv bus station to start our adventure: we acted as the ambassadors of Kaunas and represented our school, our city and our country in Ukraine. It was an unforgettable experience to meet with our peers, to get to know the beautiful city of Lviv and to invite our new friends to visit us in spring. Here is what some of the students of the BEC have to say about their trip.
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It is often said that people gain experience with age but we can all agree that experience may also come with time. Last week I had a great opportunity to spend a whole week in Lviv, Ukraine, in an exchange project. I would like to share my experience.
We arrived in Lviv on Tuesday, early in the morning. My host family picked me up, and the real journey started. The feeling of living in a randomly selected family was a bit scary, but my host family turned out to be very friendly and warmly welcomed me. The first two days were exciting – we had to attend a conference, which was set in the Ukrainian Catholic University. The conference was about human trafficking and forced labour, which are serious and important topics to discuss. Each delegate had to choose a country, which they had to represent concerning the topics. (I chose Lithuania). On Friday, we attended some lessons in the Lviv Linguistic Gymnasium. I was surprised how fluent in German the students were.
Our group was also taken to the most interesting parts of Lviv. The Old Town of Lviv is really beautiful and I really enjoyed spending my time there. I made some new friends, learned a bit about the Ukrainian culture, and I believe experience like this is obligatory if we want to become more globalized. The thing that I am grateful for the most is that the whole time we were there, the teachers or people in charge of the project did not treat us like kids – they treated us as if we were grownups, they let us think and take responsibility for ourselves. I am incredibly grateful for that since it really helped me to feel more independent. All in all, we really enjoyed our trip to Ukraine, it helped me to make new friends, become more independent, strengthen my speaking and critical thinking skills.
To sum up, I really enjoyed the trip. I have gained a lot of experience, formed a view on Ukraine as a country. I strongly believe that projects like these help young people to tear down the borders and destroy boundaries – it helps us to become more open to other cultures, to accept different peoples and lifestyles. I am very thankful for the teachers who gave me the opportunity to participate in this project.
(By Luka Tukanaitė I dk)
