The Intercultural Development Seminar (IDS)

On Wednesday Midday most the delegates of the Conference arrived at the venue. So we started in the afternoon with the Opening of the IDS. We separated all delegates in different so called Home Groups and I got 12 individuals in my group. 12 very interesting and open minded persons from five different cities all over Ukraine: Sevastopol, Cherkasy, Kyiv, Mariupol and Odessa. Our group had been a great mixture of different individuals who all had been really eager to learn something new as well as get to know me as a German better. Besides that I also was really glad that lots of people from the other Home Groups wanted to speak with me apart from all official sessions, during the parties, the room parties as well as during the breaks and meals.

Room Parties: This is really something new for me because in Germany it is not very common first to meet in the rooms and drink something together as well as communicating a lot. So here I was getting aware of Cultural Differences at all. I really like that parties, especially I was invited by lots of people to join there parties. I realized that maybe it is not so common in Ukraine to get acquainted with foreigners or have such opportunity to get in touch and communicate with people from other cultures. In the evenings after the official sessions first we had a meeting with all Facis in order to reflect on the day, what has happened, what was good and what should be improved the next day to get better and better. After a while I was really getting impatient when we talked too much and spent too much time in discussions, especially when I realized that there was no added value at all. I was really looking forward meeting my delegates again and have the chance to speak with them apart from all sessions in a more convenient informal way. I learnt by these conversations a lot about Ukrainian culture as well as domestic issues like differences between South and East part of Ukraine and the capital and West part. People are really different in their point of views how the future of their country should look like. But they have one thing in common: they all are so hospitable and open minded that I sometimes was getting sad thinking about attitude of most of the Germans in these issues. I really learnt a lot from each individual at this Conference and I’m really thankful for all experiences.

The Organizing Committee of the Conference was not very organized up from the beginning due to the fact that all of them had been very inexperienced and maybe were not showing the right attitude. But still what I really liked after a deep conversation with the president of the team on the one hand and Vova (MC responsible) and me on the other hand that they changed a lot. It was getting more smoothly after that and they understood what it really means to be responsible for the Conference and its organization.

What we all disliked very much had been the meals at all. It didn’t matter if breakfast, lunch or dinner, all the time we had just one main ingredient: noodles (pasta). I really started to hate pasta in fried or cooked form, sometimes hearty, sometimes sweet. We all started to make fun of it a lot, when we watched out for the meals and realized: okay pasta again, why not? The thing was, that although meals had been simple and not really tasteful and also had not been enough (we all the time just got a small plate which is normally for a piece of cake) it was not really influencing the mood of all participants. It was because everyone more or less liked all contents of the session, liked to communicate and to learn something new which might be important for every individual’s learning experience. So the whole atmosphere at the Conference was cool enough that everyone felt more or less comfortable. I really liked this attitude of each delegate a lot and of course we all haven’t died of hunger because we all bought lots of food in small shops in the city centre or around the venue and we had enough to drink as well (not just alcoholic drinks but also. Vodka is really important for the mood and I also started to get more and more used to this spirit.

In the last evening (Friday night) we had organized a Global Village. Each Home Group had been assigned to a different country and had the task within maximum 10 minutes to present something out of this culture what came up into their minds. It was a really funny and great night. We had represented 8 different countries: Spain, Brazil, Poland, Germany, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Japan. Every group was really imaginative and full of energy presenting themselves on the stage. I haven’t experienced such kind of event beforehand but really can just recommend going further with such session because people really like it and can improve their presentation skills as well as their knowledge about different countries and cultures. Of course we also were activated lots of stereotypes by doing this but still it was really opening everyone’s mind as well as giving so much fun and joy. It was also one of the most intensive actions during the conference and will stay in my memories forever.

But as always all good things are coming to an end , so also the Conference had to finish on Saturday with the Closing Plenary. It was really hard to say good bye to all delegates as we really came closer together and just started to cooperate in a more pleasant way. Lots of delegates also told me that they really like the Conference and the attitude of the Facilitator and that they are really sad that now the Conference is over although they mostly would like to get more. I just can say that I really miss all good conversations and all funny parts and I deeply have to thank everyone who made my experience in Mariupol so intensive and unique. Thanks a lot to my Home Group, to Sasha, Tamara, Dasha, Zhenya, Yulia, Dasha, Anna, Galina, Misha, Anton, Victor and Kolya. You all had been really great and I deeply hope that we will keep in touch and will meet altogether soon again, in Ukraine or Germany or somewhere else in the whole wide world. I wish you a great experience in your internship abroad and as well the same to all the other delegates.