Changing the perspective – day 9

Day 9 was a special day because we were able to sleep until 9.00. It was our last day, so we had meetings and evaluation games in our national groups after having breakfast at 9.30.

During our evaluation games we thought about our time and experiences and about the progresses we made. It was interesting to see that everybody had special opinions about our program but in general we all learned the same thing: To live sustainable in our future.

Before lunch, Alicia and Anne had a prayer about being responsible and taking chances.

At 12.00 we ate Lasagne.

In addition to the evaluation in the national groups we continued with evaluation games in the big group in the afternoon.

Not only learning about sustainability was important for us, it was also necessary to clean the house. Therefore we made a lottery, so everybody got one job to do like cleaning the bathrooms or getting the kayaks into the hut.

Of course we needed a break after this hard work so we had coffee and cake at 4 pm.

While the most of us girls packed their suitcases, the others started to plan the farewell party.

Then we had an amazing evening with games, a very yummy dinner and the epic PARTY!!!

Alicia & Anne

Changing the rules – day 8

Today we woke up at 8 and had breakfast at 8:30. Then we started with a morning prayer at 9:30 and then began with a project called What if? We worked in five groups and each group had two topics and had to write about the affects of them. Then we wrote letters to schools, ministers, presidents and mayors. We wrote about things that could be more sustainable. Then we had lasagna for lunch and it was very good.

In the afternoon the first group went horseback riding and the rest were finishing the letters and making their YOUTHPASS. Then the second group went horseback riding while the first came back and did their YOUTHPASS. The third group went before dinner and when they came back we had grjónagrautur with slátur and skyr for dinner which not everybody liked a lot. After dinner everybody brought their matress into the big room and we watched a movie called Hidden Figures. It was about three black women in the 60’s working at NASA “changing the rules”. Then we had quiet zone at 23 and went to bed.

Ayline & María

Changing the flow – day 7

We started the morning like everyday. Then we did a role play which we played very fast. Some of us were f.ex. cleaning the floor, the others were quiet and passive. We didn’t know what was going on so we just followed the instructions.  Afterwards we heard what the story was about: A volcanic eruption and earthquakes threatened everybody in the room – 20 minutes time to evacuate. We are very happy … nobody died!

After that we had lunch, fishbolls with potatoes and rúgbraud. Then the bus left at 13:00 and we started at the Vatnajökull national park visitor center. There was a friendly girl who told us about the glacier and the national park.
Next we went to Egilsstaðir, some of us went shopping and ate icecream. Most of the german girls went to the swimming pool and the liked it a lot. They went to the sauna, hot tub and tried the cold tub which is 3-5°.

In the evening we had the national dinner which the Icelandic girls prepeard. We had Icelandic meatsoup; it was very good and the program was funny. Like every evening we had our evening prayer, and now everybody is very tired and we are going to sleep soon so we can give our best for tomorrow.

Charly & Guðrún

Changing conditions – day 6

We started the day by playing a game called ”scramble for wealth and power” which was really eye opening. Some of us were poor other rich or middle classed, there were also immigrants. We got chocolate money as currency and used it to buy cake slices and coffee. We learned that it is not as easy in real life to equalize every class. We had lamb goulash for lunch, which was really good.

Before the national meeting we had a little break and started an investigation as journalists. We discussed the problem with women in crisis’s in Germany and in Iceland.

After the coffee break we “played” some funny cleaning games J

We tidied the bathrooms and the floors.

We had a dinner bouquet at 7 o’clock then we walked to the ruins and had a very nice and special evening prayer there.

 

Laura and Jónína

 

Changing the unchangeable – day 5

At 8:30 the day started with breakfast. After breakfast we went outside because the weather was great and played a few games like Samurai.

Then we started on another project which was very interesting. The topic was economical sustainability. In 6 groups we worked on it, we had much fun and made mind maps.

At 12:00 we made a midday prayer at the lake about love.

After lunch we continued with the project and when we were finished we had free time. We were on the lake, playing cards, reading books and be on the kajaks. For dinner we had tortillas and they tasted very good. After dinner we showed the results of the project and then we made a bonfire at the lake. We sang some songs, ate marshmallows and had a lot of fun. The day was very interesting and exciting.

 

Lea & Lovísa

Changing the size of our ecological footprint – day 4

So we woke up at 8 am and had breakfast at 08:30. We then we played a German game called Farbenrutschen and after that we had national meetings to talk about how we felt and what was good and bad. After those meetings we did The Shopping Game, a game that includes shopping and sustainability. We also learned some things about sustainable products and talked in smaller groups.

When we finished it we had some free time and then lunch, which was good.

After lunch and free time, there was an outdoor activity where we learned something about changing the size of our ecological footprint.

Then we went in small groups and made sculptures and pictures with things from the nature that represented our idea of sustainability. When we were finished we had a little brake with coffee and cake. Then Sigga introduced us to the Youthpass and then the Icelandic girls talked a little bit about their national Evening while the German girls prepared the dinner wich was Spätzle, Schnitzel and also Linsen. They needed two hours to cook it and it was really good.

Then some of the girls went kayaking while the others stayed inside talking and having fun.

Today was a good day and we learned a lot about sustainability.

María & Mona

Changing the environment back – day 3

Today we woke up earlier because we were going to have a long travel day.

The bus left at 9 o’clock from Langamýri which was too early for most of us because we really liked the place, especially the swimming pool. The first stop was in Akureyri where we bought some food to have a picnic outside on our way. For the Germans it was interesting to see the big price differences between the two countries. The next stop was Goðafoss where we took a lot of pictures and enjoyed the waterfall.

After that we drove to Dimmuborgir at Mývatn. There we took a group photo and had lunch. We thought the landscape was amazing and liked to walk through the lava stones. On the way to Jardböd everyone was looking forward to swim in the natural bath and to enjoy the warm water. It was so relaxing and something very special for us. After chilling in the hot water we all were hungry, so we had dinner at “Daddis pizza”. With new energy we walked around Krafla and experienced the volcano itself. Krafla is one of the most active volcanos of Iceland. Beside the volcano there is a geothermal power plant.

After a long drive we arrived at Eiðar. We had our evening prayer, enjoyed the beautiful sunrise and some of us went outside to see rising stars. It was a long and full day so everyone went tired to bed.

Sarah & Marín

Changing the community – day 2

We started the day with a marvelous breakfast.

When everyone finished their breakfast we played some funny icebreaker games like “this is the story of my pony” (singing, clapping hands and jumping together), human knot, name train and then lineup on chairs to get to know each other more. It was a lot of laughing. When we got the free time the German girls went to the pool and the hot tub and the Icelandic girls walked to Varmárhlíð. After lunch we did some research about Sustainability and it was really big and confusing theme with many new informations. We had five categories: social, political, cultural, ecological and economical sustainability. It was hard to see in which way women were treated at different times and in different countries but it was great to notice that it also had positive sides: there are always people who care for sustainability to make the world a better place. Last but not least we need go to sleep on time because we have to wake up early to start the adventure for tomorrow.

Auður & Sina

Changing into a group… again :) – day 1

 

The German girls arrived at 4 am in the morning and slept after a long night of traveling. While waiting for the Icelandic girls to arrive they went to the hot tub and looked around the area and went shopping in Varmahlíð.

The Icelandic girls left Egilsstaðir at 11 am and arrived at Langamýri at 4pm and the nationalities met after a long long time apart. We started with name games to introduce the new girls.

The rooms are very cozy and the landscape is beautiful and very peaceful so it’s the perfect place to start the exchange.

At 6pm Solveig Lára Guðmundsdóttir, bishop in Hólar arrived here in Langamýri and spoke to us about her journey from being one of the first female pastors in the Icelandic church to become one of the first female bishop in the same church. She answered a lot of questions and inspired us to do well in the exchange and also in life. She had dinner with us and we really enjoyed having her here with us. We had some games like Samurai, Lukku Láki and Zip, Zap, Bong. Then we had the evening prayer that we lead along with Sigga, we prayed and sang together and then we had free time and some of us went to the pool and afterwards we ate candy and went to bed after a long day. We both agree that this was a very good start of the youth exchange and we think this will be a very good 10 days J

Katrín Birta and Florin Luna

preparation in Eiðar in April

In April we met the two German members of the planning committee, Jennifer and Florin in Eiðar. Looking at the facilities where we will be staying in August and planning the program for Girls4Girls 2017! Changing the World.

We spent the weekend working, eating and socializing. Looking very much forward to meeting all our participants in August and sharing our work here…