Twinning Youth Exchange 2018

Tonight we made a super choir with our friends from #Rheinfelden #Fecamp #Mouscron

Such a fun rehearsal, hope our visitors enjoyed.

Big thanks to @vysvale @VOGCouncil @Leightonrowland pic.twitter.com/vlYMttq95m

— BarryMaleVoiceChoir (@BarryMaleVoice) July 30, 2018

As well as being a exhausting, it has been up to now a very successful week! Despite the initial rain and the German's flight being delayed, we all arrived safely and started introductions.  We play many games to learn everyone's name and nationalities, and before long we were speaking as well established friends.

The first day kicked off with lots of language activities and team building games, and the afternoon was dedicated to Welsh culture.  We went to Cardiff Bay and had a tour of the Senedd before arriving at the Civic Offices in Barry to have the official welcome by the Vale Mayor, Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Learning & Culture.  We went to Barry Island for chippy and then visited the Barry Male Voice Choir - "Delilah" has now become the anthem of the trip!

On Tuesday we started preparing for our big art mural and collecting ideas for the project.  We settled on a design that included landmarks from the Vale, Fecamp, Mouscron & Rheinfelden and wanted to include the colours of the flags.  Young people and the graffiti artists from The Hold Up will now start working on this project.  In the afternoon we went on a small DofE walk to show of the countryside in the Vale of Glamorgan and it's natural beauty!

Wednesday followed with some graffiti work, DJ-ing, beat boxing and street dancing.  It gave us the opportunity to try new things and improve our skills. In the afternoon we visited St Fagans Museum and went on the high ropes at Coed Lan.  We were able to show off our Welsh heritage and after the museum we went for a very British carvery.  Nobody had heard of a carvery before but they all enjoyed it!

Even though we are only half way through the Twinning Youth Exchange, we foresee this week being a tremendous success!! There are no issues with language and everyone is getting along and making friends!  We have put a lot of effort into welcoming our Twinning friends and can't wait for the rest of the week!

On we go!
Continuons!
Los Gehts!

Fecamp 2017

For the past week as Deputy Youth Mayor I have been on a youth exchange with youth councillors from the Vale Youth Forum, Llantwit Youth Council, Barry Youth Action and Penarth Youth Action. The exchange had been organised to bring together young people from the different countries twinned with the Vale of Glamorgan - Fecamp in France, Mouscron in Belgium, Rheinfelden in Germany and Putnok in Hungary also took part even though they are not twinned with the Vale.

The twinning exchange took place in Fecamp and I knew from the start that it was going to be an unforgettable experience.  Throughout the week we took part in a variety of activities to learn more about French culture and the seaside town, Fecamp.  We met the Mayor and members of the twinning committee too.  We went on a sailing ship, walked along the beautiful cliffs, visited a smoked fish factory, went rowing and learnt about the wildlife along the coast.  We all had so much fun!

Throughout the week we also worked on designing and creating a sculpture for the Fecamp twinning garden which was officially opened on the last day and followed by a farewell party.  Thank you to Michelle who organised the week and invited young people from the Vale, it was amazing.  We all laughed so much and it was great to meet so many different people and make new friends from across Europe!

 

Celebrations!

Today was our last full day in Mouscron. We began the day with the official opening ceremony of La Grange by the Mayor.  We celebrated the work we had done throughout the week and the relationships we have built with the young people from our twin towns.  The opening ceremony began with the Mayor giving a speech congratulating us on our work and expressing his admiration for how we, from different cultures, and countries have come together and worked effectively as a group to complete our youth project.

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At lunch we had a barbecue to celebrate our work. A lot of the young people helped to prepare the food for the barbecue. There was a variety of fresh foods and drinks, which gave us an opportunity to socialise with the new friends that we have made, in addition to decision makers in Mouscron.

We then walked from La Grange, to a bowling alley 10 minutes away where we played an enjoyable game of 10 pin bowling.  After this we celebrated our night with an extremely enjoyable party, as a farewell to our new found friends. We're sad to be leaving and will miss all of our new friends from Rheinfelden, Mouscron & Fécamp. It's been an amazing week!

http://www.notele.be/list70-les-reportages-de-notele-sur-I-entite-de-mouscron-media44240-les-ados-des-villes-jumelles-sont-dans-la-place.html.

Tag drei!

So we are now on the 3rd day of the Mouscron Youth Camp, which feels really weird as the time has gone by so quickly with days full of fun and adventure. Today we did more hard work in the garden, sanding down and even painting the benches we had been building over the past couple of days. We also started building chicken pens which look really cool.

Then in the afternoon we visited an Artisan Chocolate shop (which everyone had been looking forward to since we saw the itinerary). It was an amazing experience to see Belgium chocolate being made 1st hand, and of course we couldn't leave without tasting it! Then we progressed to our next activity of the day hockey and archery, which got very competitive, yet was loads of fun. Then to round of the day the Germans from Rheinfelden put on a great show, with lots of music plus some great dancing and choreography! We all can't wait for tomorrow, especially as it is our night to facilitate tomorrow.

Day 2

Day 2 in Mouscron & the weather's not so great today. However, luckily we're used to it in Wales, unlike the Germans who said they were freezing cold after having 35 degree weather.  Lucky them!  We started the day at La Grange where we were making the bases for the sun beds that will be used in the Twinning garden so that tomorrow and Thursday we can assemble and paint them.  It was a real team effort and due to this we already have 4 sun beds assembled and we are on course for our 10 sun bed target.

After our picnic at La Grange we went to a shopping centre and Mouscron city centre which had more tourist shops and a beautiful chocolate shop filled with Belgian chocolate,  I can already see you're jealous!  Afterwards we went to the cinema and watched "Demain" - a French documentary about climate change and the environmental challenges we face in the world today.  We than had a discussion on the environmentally friendly schemes we do in the Vale, Mouscron, Fécamp and Rheinfelden.  This evening Fécamp hosted their culture night where we learnt to tie sailing knots and tasted french food.  It's been a fantastic experience so far.  

Bienvenue a Mouscron!

Today was our first day of the youth camp in Mouscron, Belgium, one of the Vale's twin towns, along with young people from Mouscron, Rheinfelden and Fécamp. We all met with the mayor of Mouscron and cabinet member Kathy who welcomed us to Belgium. We visited the old Mouscron town hall and we were given a tour of the new  civic offices.

We then went to work at La Grange, the garden dedicated to the Twinning Project. We have really enjoyed the different aspects of woodwork that we have learnt in order to build benches for the garden. The young people from Mouscron also hosted an evening of fun games and as a result we were able to get to know the other young people at the camp. Bon nuit from us all!