Asociația SUPER TINERI (ASIRYS)

It was the 5th month of stay in this “Beautiful City” and I was feeling belonged more and more, everyday. It was a good coincidence that we started the month, planning the “20 beautiful things” project. It was a project about 20 things we found beautiful in Târgu Frumos. The definition of beauty changes from one person to another, so it was exciting to wait for the results from my colleagues. 20 works of photography, videos, music and ceramics. We started working on it.     Meanwhile, the open call for local volunteers to help us during the project resulted. On the very first week of July, we met those amazing eight girls, coming from Târgu Frumos and other cities. We organized a welcome meeting, with activities and plannings of our workshops. Each international member of Arts Lab made a team and we easily planned out our workshop program. With their help, we started having local kids and teenagers every week.   My workshops started happening in the ceramic studio we recently made. Eve

July brought new meetings and activities, I finally started experimenting the photography workshops with the local volunteers and youngsters, who started to accompany us in our activities. Being able to work with them was motivating and it helped me to learn and improve in communicating and teaching to young people something about my passion. During the first part of the month I also dedicated to continue the photographic project regarding the search for what most attracts my attention in the city of Târgu Frumos: the markets, the surrounding hills, the streets. For the project I chose to focus on aspects related to daily life, nature and the relationship between the inhabitants and the landscape. Through my photos I chose to document  details and moments along the streets of the city, looking for connections and relationships between different environments.  Towards the end of the month in the youth center we held a conference attended by some teachers and psychologists. During this e

July, I would say that this month was the month where we finally did what we were supposed to do during the project. After the success of the music video about Târgu Frumos, the organization changed their focus on actual events, workshops and conferences where me as an international volunteer got to interact with all kind of new people. During the first week I was adding subtitles to the music video while also preparing workshops and other activities for the local volunteer meetings. It was exciting to see new passionate people participate in the organization who were willing to help us out in many different task but mainly in translating. The meeting with the new volunteers went great: the girls were excited to participate in the organization and it was a great introduction in getting to know each other. Each of us ESC participants were assigned with a specific volunteer and I had Bianca, someone who was enthusiastic about movies, TV shows and acting. It’s always great to have someone

In July started working with the new volunteers, doing workshops and getting to know each other better. We welcomed the new volunteers with workshops and lots of fun. It was a month of great progress after the time of the pandemic. I finished recording the first song of the “Resilience” project with the help of the music teacher Gisela. We started the project 20 beautiful things from Târgu Frumos. We went to take photos, we got up at dawn and we stayed up to see the stars so we could take photos and record sounds. Regarding the volunteers, we started the music classes, where I teached them how to compose a song. Now we are composing the anthem for Super Tineri. At the end of the month we made the exhibition of sounds and photos in a small activity with teachers from the area and we also started the long-awaited caravan. Anyway, it was a productive month and I am happy with how little I have achieved. In the end, vacations came and we traveled a lot, but that's another story! Writte

Let me tell you a story. It was the month June of that year, the weather just started to get warmer and warmer everyday. I could feel the change in my small room, it was quite unbearable to stay inside and impossible to sleep. Well, we could say that summer has come.  After a beautiful and unpredictable month, I was quite excited for the beginning of a new one. I knew that something amazing is going to happen and help me achieve one of my goals: Learning how to manage an art studio. Because I always wanted to be an independent artist, creating in my small studio, managing the advertising part and reaching a lot of people. It happened, with small steps. After having discussions with Mihaela about renewing the old youth center and turning it to a ceramic studio, we started preparing. First, we bought the materials we will need there: Clay, shaping materials, glaze, pigments and the ceramic kiln- that huge oven to ‘cook’ the ceramics and make them strong enough to stand for ages. I rememb

June has passed and I now find myself in the half of this volunteering experience in Târgu Frumos. More than the previous months, June has been full of new encounters and trips to discover new places. During the first week we visited the Jewish cemetery, a place rich in history, located in the hills around the city. The place is unfortunately left in a state of semi abandonment with most of the gravestones covered with vegetation. Here I met the caretaker, a lady who lives nearby and who told me something about the history of the place and how even today, despite none of the Jewish community is living in the city, somebody still comes from other cities to visit it. Near where the cemetery is located I also met some families belonging to the Rroma community, with the help of a local volunteer I talked with them and took some photos that will become part of the photographic project through which I am documenting Târgu Frumos. As I like drawing in the computer I collaborated in the editin

June came and went faster than I thought. The on arrival training has finished and with the less strict condition of the alert status we were able to move around more freely (with a mask of course). My mind was concentrated on the various task that went evolving progressively even though I faced some difficulties on the way. For example, the video. If anyone follows the activities and uploads of Super Tineri knows that a video about Târgu Frumos had been published. Well behind this simple video a lot of things happened. The video was on the making before the quarantine began and there was even a shotlist (paper where the recording plans are written) ready. When the state of emergency happened, it was put on pause for two months. For this month, I was determined to finish it. I finished the video with my friends and it’s now out there displayed to the world. Now I am satisfied that it’s over and people can watch it. My intention for the crowdfunding projects things was to make documenta

June was a month of discovering Romania and make new friends. The situation with the virus improved, so we had the opportunity to go a little further from the city. The first week we had an approach with the Rroma community in a sector of Târgu Frumos and we learned how they live. We all went to see the abandoned Jewish cemetery and according to the inhabitants of the city, no one was in charge of that territory. We met with the children of the area and they taught us some places and a little of the Rroma language. The second week begins with the creation of crowdfunding, with the first song about my life and with the intention of deepening the music in Romania. I began to work with the Gisela, a music teacher, and her students. I learned a lot about Romanian music, its rhythms and melodies. Also, we were always meeting more artists. The third week was a week of recording and meeting new musicians to advance the project. I have walked through the city recording sounds. We visited the t

Cold May. Unpredictable, full of surprises, meanwhile, amazingly beautiful. Every passing day is a proof of something we ignore while we are blindly rushing through daily life. It is called, "coincidence". Every second, there are million possibilities to change our way, the path we are on, our lives. Sometimes ignoring only one word can drag us to a completely different situation. That's the main thought I discovered this month. Letting things happen. The days of May were full of events. First difference was writing an EU project, which was the first experience for all the team. With the encouragement of Mihaela, we started to think, design, and write a Youth Exchange. It was quite hard in the beginning, but later on it turned a great team work, and a new experience. After writing my masters thesis, I wasn't expecting to be into research, fitting into writing plans, and spending time in front of the computer the whole day. Well, I think it won't be true if I say I

A complete month of routine, preparations and tasks. That’s one way to put it. Romania transitioned from a state of emergency to a state of alert and some people were able to return to their normal routine, including us, the volunteers of Super Tineri. Our first task of May was planning out a youth exchange programme for the National Agency. Our project is about the youngsters who are interested in working within the world of Art by learning how to find a job related to their passion, build a confident curriculum for their career and even know how to cooperate with people of different backgrounds. It was the first time I ever wrote something so detailed and organized about a EU event. We dedicated so much time for this document where we all collaborated and shared our workflow. We only had one week to finish it before the deadline and those days were intense. Nevertheless, I think it was a witty experience where we learned how to communicate with various organizations, understand the m

This month in Romania was absolutely wonderful! The first week began with the training for volunteers in Romania. I met other volunteers, musicians and artists, we got together and wrote a song. We promised to see each other in the future and enjoy each other company. Even if the training of volunteers was online, I had a lot of fun and a new experiences.  The second week we started to leave home in order to visit new places. We went to Cucuteni to get to know a little about the culture. I listened to new music (my favorite musician is Florin Salam) and I was able to learn more about the Romanian language. I started walking through the city of Târgu Frumos and it was full of surprises. In Iasi I met Dragoş, a very special person on this trip, who was a street musician. We shared moments making music and talking a little. We walked as much as we could and met friendly people. The third week was important for me. I found a traditional Mihai Eminescu book in Spanish, so I could better und

May have been a month really full of new activities and encounters! The measures to be maintained in respect of the quarantine became softer, so I finally had the opportunity to travel a bit and also to visit the center of Iaşi.  This month started with the on arrival training that we were supposed to do in Bucharest. Unfortunately we had to carry it out online but it was interesting for the methodologies adopted that kept it dynamic even if we were all the time in front of a PC. The training lasted 10 days and we learnt something about the culture of Romania and volunteering in a project. It has also been a good way to learn new methods for working online with other people, but above all it allowed us to get to know the other volunteers in the country and to share experiences about ourselves and the activities we are realizing. By talking with the other volunteers we discovered how everyone was in a similar situation during the quarantine and we also make contact on order to organise