Asociația SUPER TINERI (ASIRYS)

September was a sad month for me. The weather got cold, the greens turned yellow, and everything made me feel melancholic. With the cold weather, I am seeking for  warm places and in September was a bit complicated to find them. I am definitely not used with cold season, but I hope I will get used with it. That's the reason why probably I felt a bit home sick. Our 5th volunteer friend from Turkey joined us. I can say that speaking my own language with her saved me from feeling lonely. It was busy month, workshops, workshops, school workshops and exhibition preparations, all these activities were as intense as possible.  As we started to work to an artistic exhibition, I started doing research about the Romanian ceramic history. I knew that Romanian Cucuteni ceramics was famous. I researched in more detail and started to apply the patterns. I made experiments and I designed the patterns that were integrated with my work. I created the models. I embroidered the Cucuteni patterns I ma

I finally arrived in Târgu Frumos in September. This month was the month when I entered a brand new culture, met many different people and opened a new page in my life. From the first moment I landed, I was impressed by the helpfulness of the Romanian people. Everyone was very kind and helpful. We had great activities ahead of us and I was very happy to be involved in this project. I had the opportunity to get to know both the Romanian culture and the countries of other volunteers better. I tasted local delicacies. Papanassi dessert became my favorite! First, I attended other workshops to understand the process and then I started to prepare a workshop for children from different schools. Now I understand better how much I miss spending time with children. The last week was spent with a completely intensive on-arrival training. Accompanied by mentors, we met other volunteers in Romania and had cultural interaction, and we also got answers to all the questions we had. Now I feel that I c

The month of September started with a trip to Bucharest, where I had the opportunity to meet many people living a similar experience as mine. Though I did not spend so much time there, I remember it as one of the most important ones from the whole experience. It gave me some alone time to disconnect from the everyday life in Târgu Frumos and my thoughts. At the same time, I got to know a completely different place with a completely different rhythm. Coming back from Bucharest, I found out that our family had spread while I was out. Kübra, the last member of the international volunteer’s team, had arrived home just two days before. I remember hearing her voice for the first time while I was in my bedroom, trying to readjust my sleeping cycle. I thought she had the sweetest voice, and after I had the chance to meet her, I thought she was as sweet as her voice. On the 12 of September, I went to Iași with Mihaela, where we met different artists who were taking part in an artistic event on

Craftastic was an 8-day youth exchange, held in Târgu Frumos, Iași county, Romania, involving 46 participants, aged between 16 and 30 years old, from 8 countries: Romania, France, Estonia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, and the Czech Republic. The topics addressed by the project were: environmental protection, recycling, and entrepreneurship.  Each member of the Greek group of Craftastic project wrote a testimonial about their experience during the youth exchange. The testimonial was posted on the website of the sending organisation: Greek Youth Mobility - link . The group estimated that more than 100 people read the article.  Craftastic is a project funded by Erasmus Plus programme, with the support of European Union. 

Craftastic was an 8-day youth exchange, held in Târgu Frumos, Iași county, Romania, involving 46 participants, aged between 16 and 30 years old, from 8 countries: Romania, France, Estonia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, and the Czech Republic. The topics addressed by the project were: environmental protection, recycling, and entrepreneurship. The Portuguese group of Craftastic project organized an open Podcast/Talk show-style live event, held online with the Portuguese team as hosts while they went through a series of unexpected guests. They talked about their experience and the impact it had on them in an unfiltered conversation that was streamed for anyone to watch/listen to. The podcast was published on our YouTube .  Joana also create a short video that was published by the sending organisation, presenting the learning journey of the Portuguese team: Craftastic - Youth Exchange, Roménia Aqui fica um breve vídeo feito por uma das participantes, Joana, do Youth Exchange que teve

Craftastic was an 8-day youth exchange, held in Târgu Frumos, Iași county, Romania, involving 46 participants, aged between 16 and 30 years old, from 8 countries: Romania, France, Estonia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, and the Czech Republic. The topics addressed by the project were: environmental protection, recycling, and entrepreneurship.   The Italian group of Craftastic project did the following dissemination activities:  *Elvin Hunbatov din offline activities involving his friends. He shared information about the youth exchange and they decided together to go to Tuscany and clean those area from plastics. The plastic was deposited in special containers designed for recycling. *Francesco Maria Iachetta shared his learning achievements through a testimonial, he posted in social media and reached 125 people: ''Our plastic footprint on the environmental health involves the entire world population. During the project we had the opportunity to compare, with other young people

When I picture Easter eggs, I think of the shiny tinfoil hiding a sweet treat underneath. I can see them piled high in supermarkets on special offer, signalling that it's almost the one time of year it's acceptable to have chocolate for breakfast. In Romania, Easter eggs are something totally different. At the seventh annual Folcloristica I had the pleasure of meeting some traditional egg painters. Despite the long and labor intensive process, children queued up to paint an egg of their own or simply get a better look at these miniature works of art. The patterns and motifs were a mixture of the natural and the religious, and as with most other Romanian crafts vary from region to region. The process of painting the egg is similar to batik, using wax to protect certain areas from the dye to create patterns. Everything has to be done with the lightest touch, so that you don’t shatter your egg. A slow and gentle affair, the whole procedure is nothing short of meditative. by Fiona

  Craftastic was an 8-day youth exchange, held in Târgu Frumos, Iași county, Romania, involving 46 participants, aged between 16 and 30 years old, from 8 countries: Romania, France, Estonia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, and the Czech Republic. The topics addressed by the project were: environmental protection, recycling, and entrepreneurship.   The Estonian group of Craftastic project did the following dissemination activities: *Ingrid Tärk did a small workshop where she talked about the project and Erasmus+ opportunities. There were involved 7 participants.   *Kärolin Liik involved 10 young people in her dissemination activity. She introduced Craftastic project to a group of friends. She showed pictures, explained what we did and how was the process - the activities that led to producing actual items out of 'trash' and what we actually produced by the end of this. The participants got more ideas how their everyday trash could be recycled. Also they got inspiration for

In October 2021, we organized the second edition of the art exhibition: Beautiful Fair Town - Orașul Târgu Frumos. The event reunited 5 artists from Basque Country, Ireland, Latvia and Turkey, under Arts Lab 3.0, a project funded by European Solidarity Corps of European Union. The art works represent the beauty of Târgu Frumos, in the eyes of the 5 artists involved in a local 8-month volunteering program. How does an international group of artists perceive Târgu Frumos? What and where is the beauty of this small town? Here is the artwork of Fiona O'Neill from Dublin, Ireland. Fiona is a textiles artist and activist from Dublin, Ireland. After finishing her studies at NCAD in Fine Art Textiles, she spent three years in Greece working with displaced communities in refugee camps. A large part of her work is informed by the interconnected history of textile techniques and the fight for women’s rights; before women had a voice in the political sphere they used ‘domestic art’ as a

In October 2021, we organized the second edition of the art exhibition: Beautiful Fair Town - Orașul Târgu Frumos. The event reunited 5 artists from Basque Country, Ireland, Latvia and Turkey, under Arts Lab 3.0, a project funded by European Solidarity Corps of European Union. The art works represent the beauty of Târgu Frumos, in the eyes of the 5 artists involved in a local 8-month volunteering program. How does an international group of artists perceive Târgu Frumos? What and where is the beauty of this small town? Here is the artwork of Demet Durdu, from Antalya, Turkey.  I am a ceramic and glass artist. Dealing with mud and glass allows me to embark on my inner journey. I am completely alone with myself and I use two wonderful materials, glass, and ceramics, to express my interior world. For Beautiful Fair Town exhibition, I got inspired by the Cucuteni patterns. You can see my minimal form works that I made with the sgrafitto technique. But besides the art works, Târgu Frumos in

It’s already been three months since I arrived in Târgu Frumos and I have this constant feeling that I’ve been here forever, at the same time I feel as lost as I felt in the airport at Bucharest when I stepped in this country for the first time. There are things in this place which I am slowly getting used to, like sleeping without blinders and waking up to the sunlight, or walking on the streets of Târgu Frumos and seeing familiar faces. And very slowly but surely, the language. Nevertheless, there are other things that I will never get used to, as the way people drive in this country, the unbearable hot weather we have had during the summer and the cold one we are waiting to have during the next months. But overall, the thing I am struggling with the most to get used to, is living so far away from the warmth of my people. The month of August was full of new experiences and emotions. Folcloristica was an exhausting but really enriching experience for every person that was part of it.