The 5th Day

Day 5 started with a headache… Monika's and Filip's birthday party was excellent (with the exeption of a few sprained ankles in Latvian and Lithuanian team). Since the night was so lively, most of the people arrived a bit late for the first activity, which didn't make the hosts extremely happy. Consequently, we experienced the most interesting energizer in the past few days – cleaning the mess we made yesterday. After a coffee or two, we managed to wake up and start the activities. The morning and afternoon activities today required some acting and drawing skills. We became Tarzans, Barbies, bear hunters and many other interesting creatures for a day. Some people really accepted their new personalities, especially Gonzalo (or should we say Gonzalita? .) Through the activities we managed to select only 10 things that are essential in our lives and learned how to behave responsibly as consumers. The evening was very interesting, we had a lot of fun…  There was a Turkish Raki, Spanish Sangria, Lithuanian Pig Ears and Italian Pasta. We love intercultural nights 

Still waiting for Romanian night 

The Croatian Group

The 4th Day

Yo, yo, yo! The fourth day started with the most perfect energizer one can imagine. Yes, you’re not wrong — it’s thanks to Latvians (and some other nations) 

Inspired by the heavy shower outside, we all together tried to save the Rainforest. Divided into groups representing different interests, like the government, a tribe, companies with different social attitudes, and a group of world-savers, we tried to cooperate in order to meet their needs. It didn’t go as well as one would like to.

Chuck Norris is nothing in comparison to McGaver. And we are all McGavers!!! Or do you have any other better word to describe groups of people making UFOs out of balloons, sticks, tape, paper sheets, and a small string to protect an egg from falling of 5 m height?!

And then the discussions… We bet there’s hardly anyone left not thinking about such issues like nuclear power plants, fast food, brands, recycling. Different opinions, positions, attitudes, situations, and ideas were floating in the air, showing us that cultural, geographical, social, and all other kinds of diversities step back when it comes to that sort of issues.

This evening was special for several purposes, one being the Hobby Night, and the others — Monika’s and Filip’s birthday parties. While the night was still young, Lithuanian girls pleased us with some of the best Lithuanian and not-so-much Lithuanian songs, but later on Jose Maria took over by gathering citizens, wolves, witches, and some other creatures for a “battle”. And those who couldn’t fall asleep were obviously grateful to Kaktuss for his Book Readers’ Club — a once-in-life-time opportunity to speak about your favourite book whether it is Kama Sutra, Pinocchio, Twilight, Cat in Boots, and many more.

The Latvian Group 

The 3rd Day

Here we are, at our second, full day of activities! Soon after breakfast, we took our steps to reach great Urlatoarea Waterfalls in the surroundings. And up we went, all of us wearing the official green t-shirt of this “Shopping List” Exchange, as the pics can document!

After a short break to regain breath near Hotel Silva, and after peeping some curious souvenir shops, we kept on trekking on a quite slippery track among the trees until the beautiful waterfall surprised us all!

We took refreshing photos very close to the falling water and some of us also enjoyed local wild fruits, served in a very nice, wooden basket

In the afternoon, we went on deep into the topics of the Exchange, evaluating the average Ecological Footprint.

Then, each National team presented their own weekly diary, explaining their consumption according to food, beverage and services used during the week before coming to Romania… a pretty much comprehensive display of how eco-conscious we have been so far.

The evening couldn’t have been more intercultural: some countries presented other nations (e.g. Portugal presented Greece) and some others even wore traditional dresses (e.g. Latvian participants). The evening went on tasting typical food and drinks from Romania, Croatia, Greece, Latvia and Portugal; salty and sweet products satisfied (almost) any refined palate!

Then, traditional musics and songs started to play and opened lively demonstrations for each and every dancer!

The Italian Team

The 2nd Day

The second day started with sun. It was very shiny. Arda showed an energizer to participants. The energizer was from India and it was weird, but also funny. It was “MAZINGA”. After that we played some name games. Participants presented themselves individually. We prepared our gift boxes. We wrote our hopes and fears about projects on stickers and we sticked them on the wall. The hosts made house rules and safety measures clear. Then, we went to castle which was nice and great. When we come back, we prepared some panchos and wrote on them few things about our organizations. We presented it like a contest and it was very fun. We laughed a lot. At night, we sat on the benchs and sang a lot. It was a good opportunity to know each other, but we wouldn’t aware of danger about the noise...

The Turkish Group

The 1st Day

We arrived in Busteni on Sunday morning. Tolea was there to welcome us. The Lithuanian team had already arrived on Saturday. 

The first participants we met were the Spanish team. We decided to have a barbeque, so we went, all togheter, for a walk in the city centre to see the city for the first time and also to buy the supplies for the BBQ.

While preparing the BBQ we started to get to know each other and we were looking forward to meet the other teams.

We spent the evening drinking, talking and welcoming the new arrivals till late in the night.

The Greek Group