ERASMUS + SMART WASTE MANAGERS - JOURNAL ENTRIES by Slovenian students
Sunday, May 15
Our
starting point was Brnik airport at around quater to eight. After one hour
flight we arrived to Belgrade, where our driver Dejan had already been waiting
for us with his black van. Dejan told us many interesting stories while driving
and we had great time in the van. We needed almost seven hours to reach our
final destination - Story Hotel in Targu Jiu. We checked in and unpacked our bags.
Then it was high time for our dinner. We successfully used some app which translated
Romanian food menu for us, so we were able to order the best things possible. As
soon as we were full, we eagerly go back to our hotel where we took a shower
and went straight to bed. We are looking forward to meeting our friends
tomorrow and learning new things.
What
about our first impressions and thoughts? Although we spent almost seven hours
in the van, we still managed to observe certain things. For example, we noticed
that in Romania there were a lot of different houses. Some of them were in
extremely poor condition; however, some others were new and modern. What is
more, even cars on Romanian roads near Targu Jiu or in the city itself were
new, expensive; however, when you go a few kilometres away from the city, you
are able to see horse-drawn carriages. Overall, we got the impression that people who live in rural
areas also live in poverty.
Targu Jiu is a
beautiful city; however, while looking for a good restaurant, we noticed a lot
of abandoned buildings as well. This was not a good sign, since we didn't know
what to expect. Finally, our teachers found a good restaurant where we enjoyed
some delicious food.
After dinner our
teachers let us spend some quality tijme with our Spanish friends. We haven't
seen them since our last exchange in Poland.
A
special moment happened to us at Belgrade airport. We almost felt like stars
because there were many journalists and reporters with microphones and TV cameras
at our gate waiting for some unknown celebrity. Unfortunately, the reporters
were not waiting for us. We were told to go through the exit door as quickly as
possible. This was the moment we realized that we would not be on TV. Pitty!
Written
by: Ana Mali
MONDAY, MAY 16
On the first day of our staying in the
Story hotel we woke up at 7.30am. We had delicious breakfast at 8.30 and after
that we walked to the school with other students. It was very hot and the sun
was shining brightly. We presented short presentations about energy consumption
in our homes. We could see that the consumption of electricity in every
different country depends on the season. After that we went on a school tour to
see the classrooms. We soon realized that the school is very different from
ours. The school is attended by students who want to become successful auto mechanics. Today we had a delicious lunch in
the school canteen. Next, we walked back to the
hotel to rest a little. After 15 minutes we went to the city center where we
split into groups and went on a treasure hunt around the city. Later, we
exchanged our money and decided to go to a shopping centre that was about 30
minutes away. Our feet were painful and hurt a lot. Firstly, we went to the
store H&M where we bought some nice clothes and a few pieces of accessories.
Secondly, we visited the store DM where we bought some makeup and skin care.
After that we had to walk all the way back to our hotel. At this point our feet
had blisters and they hurt even more. On our way back we stopped at the
restaurant called Anna where we had some delicious food. We arrived back to the
hotel at approximately 10pm. We hung out for about an hour, got ready and
drifted off to sleep.
I really liked the fun activities we did
during our presentation time and I was interested in gathering some interesting
facts that we didn't know before about other countries in connection to energy
consumption. Moreover, while walking in the city centre I realised that
Romanians have so many nice branded cars. They looked all very expensive. The
town itself and the houses looked very poor and destroyed so it was weird to
see so many brand new BMWs on the side of the roads. The buses are also mostly electrically
powered, which was, on the other hand, nice to see. It's so much better for the
environment! We didn't see a lot of people on bikes though. Surprisingly, no
one to be exact! The street that the hotel is located on is not the nicest and
the people we saw weren't either.
The city centre of Targu Jiu is quite
nice and the architecture in the town is nice. I enjoyed spending time and
getting to know the students from different countries while going on a treasure
hunt. I knew many interesting things about their culture. Overall, I really
enjoyed this day even though I came back really tired. It was all worth it!
Finally, the most surprising fact today
actually happened while we were eating lunch. I gave the headmaster of the
school a gift from Slovenia - a bottle of wine. I was very impressed to hear he
actually knows a lot about Slovenia. He could locate the region where the wine
was produced. He surprised us with the fact that his daughter was born in
Jesenice!
Written
by: Ajda Grošelj
TUESDAY, MAY 18
We woke up at around 7.30 and got ready. Then we went downstairs
for breakfast and delicious coffee. We were full of energy and ready for new
adventures! Our bus had already waiting for us.
We drove to another city where we visited a really beautiful
museum with historical items and an aquarium. My friends and I enjoyed the bus
ride because we listened to different songs from each country, so we learned a
lot about new cultures. All of the students enjoyed while visiting the
aquarium. We saw many interesting species and observed some colourful fish. We
were happy having some free time when we were taking photos of the river Danube
(Donava). We were hanging out with Spanish and Portuguese students
and talked about our hobbies and our different habits connected to energy
waste and consumption. I noticed quite a few major differences regarding energy
consumption. Spanish and Portuguese people spend more money and electricity in
the summer due to the use of air conditioning. However, in Slovenia we spend
more money in the winter because we have to heat our houses and keep them warm.
Somewhere on our way we had lunch. Afterwards we went on a bus
again. The drive lasted almost two hours as we realized we were on
Romanian-Serbian border. We were able to see a magnificent hydropower plant
where we heard a lot of interesting facts and information. They produce 15% of
all energy that is used in Romania which I didn't know and to me this is an
important and interesting fact. Secondly, I was surprised at the fact this hydro
power plant is the 2nd largest in Europe. One additional interesting fact is that
the day before we came to visit this factory, they had celebrated 50th
anniversary of energy production process. We were extremely excited when we
entered the area with six turbines. They were huge and loud! Each of them
weighs more than 3600 tons! I think everybody should visit such a huge
hydropower plant!
When we came back to the hotel, we had a little break because we
were all tired from all of the activities we had on our schedules today. At
around 8 o'clock we went out for dinner – to “our” restaurant Anna where we ordered our
favorite food again. We were having a lot of fun and we laughed a lot. Then,
after we finished our amazing dinner, we decided to go back to the hotel.
We were tired, so all of us just went to sleep. It was an amazing
day and we learned a lot about cultures and new things that are connected to
energy consumption.
Written by: Katarina Naglič
WEDNESDAY, 18. MAJ
We woke up at half past seven in the morning. We got ready
and went to our teachers' room. Teacher Mojca celebrated her birthday, so we
wished her a happy birthday and gave her a small gift. Later, we went
downstairs for some delicious breakfast. After the breakfast the bus had
already waiting for us outside the hotel. Our destination today was the city of
Craiova which is situated about two hours away from our hotel.
Along the way we stopped at an important thermal
power plant to find out more about energy waste. We watched an interesting video about all the thermal power plants in
Romania and learned some interesting facts about this specific one –
Termocentrala Rovinari. The thermal power plants produces one third of all the
energy in Romania. They started building it in 1972 and it became usable seven
years later. It is the largest thermal power plant in Romania and second
largest in Europe. I really liked the video because it was explained how the
energy production works. I learned a lot of new and interesting facts about the
power plant. After watching the video, we went on a tour through the power
plant where we saw numerous turbines and pipes. The Romanian teacher told us
about how they crush the coal and then burn it in order to produce energy. She
also explained how they filter the toxic fumes, so they don't go straight in
the air. In my opinion it was a great experience to see the whole production
but it was really noisy and loud because of all the machines inside the
factory.
After the tour we went back to our bus and drove
to a restaurant where we had lunch. We were all really hungry so it was high
time for eat some delicious food!.
We drove for one more hour and arrived to
Craiova. It was astonishing; however, although the city is big you can still
see signs of poverty. We had two hours of free time so we went to a shopping
centre. Firstly, we went to buy some clothes and accessories and later we went
to Starbucks to grab a cup of coffee.
Our bus drive was very long and exsausting but
it was really fun because we were talking to our Spanish and Portuguese students almost the
whole time. They are all very nice and it is interesting to talk to them and we
even took some group photos and videos so we will be able to keep memories
later on when we return back to our country. Although some students struggle
with English, we all tried to support each other and made some great
conversations.
Two hours passed so quickly and we had to drive back to our
hotel in Targu Jiu. We took a short rest and then went to the city center for
dinner. It was very delicious and overall it was a pleasant experience because
our waiter was a very pleasant and funny guy and he could speak English quite
well!
Later that night there was a concert in the city
centre and we decided to go. We were having a lot of fun even thought we didn't
know the singer. After the concert we were all very tired so we went back to
our hotel. We did some face masks and then we went to sleep.
Written by: Sara Eniko
THURSDAY, MAY 19
On the fifth and last
day of our staying at the Story hotel, we woke up and, as usually, ate our
breakfast. After breakfast, all the participants of mobility went to a hotel’s
conference room where we split into six groups. Each group consisted of mixed
nationality students. Firstly, we were shown how electricity is produced on the
basis of renewable resources such as water, wind and sun. Secondly, each group
made a presentation about the topic they were given. The presentations were
very interesting, since there were some great ideas gathered on how to save
energy in school, city, village, hotel and factory. Afterwards we had a little
competition for the best photo of the week. Each country posted five photos and
then we voted for the best one.
After presentations we had some free time. We hung out with our friend
from Spain a bit and then went to our rooms for about an hour to write our
diary entries. After lunch we enjoyed in the city centre, we had free time
until 8 o'clock.
In the evening we had our last dinner together. It was time to dance and
have some fun! Each country picked a few songs and gave instructions how to
dance. At first it was a bit awkward and we were a bit shy; however, soon
everybody got relaxed and started enjoying. We were really surprised how good
Spanish teachers can dance. Nobody wanted to leave when it was time to leave. Everything
comes to an end, so we said goodbye to our new friends and make some last
wonderful memories together.
Written by: Lenča Miklavčič
FRIDAY, MAY 19
On the last day of our mobility, we woke up at 8 o' clock. We
all packed our things and got dressed. We ate breakfast which was delicious as
usually and we also grab the opportunity and took some croissants and other
food to eat on our way to airport.
We were ready to go, but we were also quite sad,
because we made some good friends and we didn't want to separate. Unfortunetely,
we didn't have a choice, so we placed our luggage into the van.
While driving,
teachers were talking to our driver Dejan in Serbian and girls were listening
to music and sleeping most of the time towards the Belgrade Airport. Somewehere
in the middle of our way back to the airport, driver stopped the van, so we
could eat some snacks and stretch our legs. We stopped on the spot with a magnificent
view of the valley.
Once at the
airport, we were quite excited because we knew we were not far from our homes. We said goodbye to our kind driver Dejan (Jumbo
Travel) who was very sweet all the way and I think we won't forget him easily.
He even bought us one basket of fresh strawberries on our first day while
travelling to Romania! He was really nice and he was always cheerful and
talkative.
We went throught airport security and we waited
for our flight for about an hour and a half. We had a delay but then our
airplane was finally ready and we got on the airport bus which took us straight
towards our airplane.
Our take off was gentle and comfortable, so we
enjoyed it. I think we all love to fly.
Our landing wasn't as nice as our take off, but
we survived which matters the most.
We were so happy to meet our families again and
we almost ran to the airport exit without our luggage. Our parents were already
waiting for us and it was a pleasant reunion. That was the end of our journey and we all can say it was an unforgettable
experience. We would do it again and again if we could 😊
Written
by: Sara Kosmač
