Second day

What were our expectations for this day?
One was definitely solving the mystery of yesterday’s task!
When the second conference session started, everyone was very curious whether the teamers would reveal the secret. So we were all very pleased when they indeed did! We finally understood the importance of this task.

After a small discussion, the teamers playfully introduced the main theme for the following sessions, which is democracy.
The project wants to deal with the question what democracy is, what it stands for and how we can get politically involved. Moreover, we discussed if school is a democratic system or if it just pretends to be one (fake democracy) with the teachers being dictators and the students their slaves.

After the discussion, we realized that democracy has to have laws or else it would be anarchy, but a too uptight system/government is defined as dictatorship. So Democracy must be balanced between the thin line of being too strict or to loose. 

The outcome of the second session was that: Democracy itself is about making compromises, question the system itself and the orders you get from it.
Organisation is one of the most important key issues in a democracy and of course you should always stand up for your beliefs.

When we finished the session we had lunch and some free time. Afterwards we compared the democratic steps from 1800 to 2016 and we tried to distinguish when the different nations started universal suffrage.

After coffee and tea we started the third session and we began with a questionnaire where we should answer if e.g. someone who was in prison in the past is allowed to take part in political decisions.
The opinions were divided but many students said that no one is allowed to vote when they have no idea of politics.
In addition, we discussed about political participation by handicapped persons. At last we all came to the conclusion that it is not so easy to say who is allowed to take part in political activities and who is not.

After the discussion we finally made a reflection where we should write down what made us thoughtful, what surprised us and what was worth to remember today. We did not talk about the things we wrote down because it was only for ourselves to think about memorable situations at this day.

In the evening we played some games, listened to music and talked to each other.

What does "..." mean?

The international dictionary for a better communication.
So no one can say "I don't understand you.."

What democracy is about

Brainstorming, considering, thinking.

Just a few words, but a clear statement.

What are your whishes, aims and fears for the conference?

Different nations, different expectations for the week!
But all in all, the group has similiar aims. Getting to know each other and meeting people from other countries and cultures seems to be the most important goal."Fun" is also one of the most written motives for taking part in the conference.
Having a look at the orange papers which represent fears and negative expectations shows the strong wish for communication and interaction.
Nevertheless, as it will be posted later, there is no lack of talking and having fun together.

The program of the week

Every day is full of group sessions consisting of seminars about building bricks of democracy. There is always space for discussions, stating their own opinions and getting to know more of each other. The students have to consider new ideas concerning political issues. Dreams and utopias are allowed as well as realistic ones. So every session is full of information, creativity and of course a lot of fun.

First Day

What kind of weather do you expect when you come to Germany in April? There won’t be only one right answer, every answer will be correct!
Arriving in Ernsthofen, the little village between fields and woods in the middle of nowhere in the German Odenwald, the first thing we mentioned was snow. Yes, it was snowing!
For German people like us this should be nothing special, because as it is said in a proverb “April, April, it does everything it will (wants)” the changing temperatures during spring are usual, but for our Israeli students it was more like a shock when they finally moved in. Leaving your home by 31°C and arriving by only 5, seems to be more than expected.
But the climate is not the only difference between Germany and the other participating countries, one of the fact we learned during the day when we got in touch with all the other students who would spend the following days with us.
Our international mixed group consists of 20 pupils from Germany, Italy, France, Hungary, Israel and Poland.
Many people from many countries and many cultures, means different preferences, different opinions, different ways of life.
For us in fact this meant a lot of talking and asking questions, while listening to music and playing card games.
After having a cup of coffee and muffins together and another free and arrival time, we had dinner, which practically was our first official meeting as the whole group.
Afterwards we had our first conference where our teamers for the following days began the week with a moreover funny evening program. After introducing themselves and ordering us to write down our expectations and goals for the conference, we played some games to get to know each other.
We also defined some rules for a better communication, for example only to talk English.
Then we got the task, just written in a few words and not explained more detailed, to create a rule for the next day during the following 15 minutes, which should be effective for every person in the room.
At first we did not really know how to handle with this situation, but after some arguing and considering about how and why working out that rule, we came together and found a way we finally agreed with.
At the end of the time limit we had the aim “that everyone has to talk to everyone and has to know something personal about everyone tomorrow…”

But why should we create a rule? What was the intention of our teamers, did we fulfilled our task?
As nice as teamers are they said nothing concerning our asking but left us alone with the promise of lifting the secret behind it in the next session. So we are very excited what we will be confronted with tomorrow.

What are building bricks of democracy?

Our future, our life, our society.
Who decides what our life is supposed to be? 

Who controls how our future will develop? 

Is it only the government or is it us who can make a change as well?

20 students from 6 different countries are discussing and learning about the importance of being involved in policy which gives us opportunities to influence our future.

From the 25^th to 29^th April we take part in the European Youth Conference in Ernsthofen.
Every day will be filled with exciting workshops and seminars where we expect to build up our own point of view to make decisions which maybe could change our world.

We are looking forward to the following days which hopefully will be very productive.