A Lifetime in Six Days – Armenian Edition
We are five Armenian girls who got to know each other only shortly before the start of the exchange, in a one of many cozy cafes in Yerevan, shy and slightly embarrassed to tell our names. Tomorrow morning we are going to leave a cozy Polish village, this time as dear friends who, it seems like, have shared a lifetime of joy full of the colors of different cultures.
Our GPS now marks a cozy hotel in a tiny Polish village Marianówka where we spent the last six days. A couple of months ago we didn’t know about the existence of the village that from now on will be pinned in our warmest memories.
We feel sweet melancholy – some sort of a bittersweet feeling that comes from the sadness of leaving so many friendly humans and going back home. But the mere realization that we have lived those moments makes our hearts warm.
The last couple of days seemed like a small lifetime to us. It seems like we passed these days not only in Poland, but also in Kosovo, Italy, Portugal, Georgia and back in our home country.The energies of all participants co-created some sort of a beautiful mixture of our cultures, languages, and auras. The hallways of the hotel were filled with different accents of English language, imitations of each others’ languages, learning new phrases and facts about each other’s cultures, admiring the similarities and learning the differences.
Although the imaginary country and culture that we co-created for the last 6 days was rather a stimulation of utopia for the close-to ideal pure environment, the topic that gathered all of us together was quite the opposite. The scope of different formats of discussing a dystopian society – dystopality – was so diverse, so enlightening and so entertaining: debate, games, interviewing unknown people of different ages, films, discussions, creative projects – you name it!
All of the formats had one firm foundation and a thick red line – intercultural exchange of thoughts and worldviews. We were equally learning from both the educational materials and the conversations with each other. Luckily enough, most of the participants were so respectful, mature, interesting, and a pleasure to talk to. We learned a lot about their cultures and continuously drew parallels between the topic of the exchange and the new cultures we were getting to know.
The intercultural evenings were a bliss – little did we know we would burn so many calories of pure joy and dancing around and laughing all together!
And tomorrow we’re taking with us a lifetime of memories that will warm up our hearts for a long time.
