Youth Clubs Part-1

Finally I started the field work :).

After several researches, I had a brief idea of what I would find in a Youth Club (YC).

Well I will start thinking that I every time I assume being ready for something is a sign that I am totally wrong, because the idea that I had of a YC was a bit out of reality. I thought  it was a place where children and youth used to go just to keep themselves occupied and out of drugs and/or alcohol  just playing or something meaningless to society.

I was not completely wrong, but actually there is something more, and thats why now I became passionated for their work.

X-ray Painting in the Lobby

I have been to a YC called X-ray Ungdomskulturhus, there I met so many good people such as Gomi, Nastaran, Cliff, Farooq and Nora. With them, only in one day I managed to understand what is a YC and now I can say that IT'S A PLACE WHERE CREATIVITY IS GIVEN SPACE TO DEVELOP; music and dance are just examples of the possibilities.

They manage initiatives aiming an audience younger than 18 in order to take them off the streets and give them access to an arena where they can define themselves in society.

from http://downeu.com

Proving the quality of their work for Norwegian youth, we can find several artists such as the Madcon which has its origins in a YC and are now recognized for his talent.

One of the first impression that we have from Norwegian society is that they are very close to the unknown, but i realized that in the YC the "UNKNOWN" is welcome.

they encourage a culture of trust, so much the first day that felt like home, what struck memost was the fact that they have so many high-cost equipment, but even so they do not have any control mechanism (though this is quite normal here) in order to get young people to understand that there is no reason to steal what is there because everything belongs to them and they can use when they want.

For sure I have much to say about the great job done by this cool guys here.

Theory vs. Practice

Almost two months have past since I arrived in Norway.
I spent much time trying to create the most appropriate text to start writing my blog, but then I realized that the best I can do is write things as they come.
Everyday I wake up and think "Is this really happening", then I look out of the window and  the environment around me answers me "Yes".
Ok, two months past, I keep asking myself  "was it really what I was expecting for this Exchange", of course no.
We cannot predict the unknown, and maybe my mistake was try to predict things i'd never lived.
I  do not regret, on the contrary, I am very proud of this because I think it was important for me to grow and learn much more than what I thought I knew.
Even so, still funny to know that after so many seminars, and preparation, I assumed that I was ready but I was wrong.
There is a thing that we are not taught anywhere  "life experience". Now I agree when people say that to come in an Exchange Program is not all about willingness only but also strength, because we go through situations that we need both of them.


One of the moments that touched me most so far was in the Preparatory Course provided by FK Norway, when we had a session called Conflict Management.
Peter Harris, the guy who gave us an amazing lecture, told us that to live in societies, everybody creates masks for themselves, so when they feel out of their comfort zone, they can use them to protect themselves.
I know it can sound strange, but this is what we see when something either from the organization or participants goes wrong.
The biggest problem we are facing here out of  masks is the lack of communication.
As a brief summary, I dare myself to say that what we were taught is not being used by any party, apologies to those who feel offended, but this is reality.

Welcome Everybody

Dear friends, all of you are welcome to my Blog.
As you know, I'm very crazy and sometimes direct, so don't expect me to change this in here :) .
Well, talking a little bit more about this blog, it is a way that I found to release all thoughts that I
have in my mind. I will try to write every experience that I have here in Norway and I hope you
like it. If you don't agree with something, feel comfortable to show your opinion, but please respect
my own opinion :).

PS:Forgive me if at some points i misspell something, ingen er perfekte