CHANGING ROOM Staff Exchange

Florence Jauberthie at Mejeriet (Lund, Sweden)

Hej / Hello / Salut !

After several months where I’ve tried to gather all the young people in exchange within TEH network to build this blog, I’m very glad at last to write my first article in the Youth Exchange Blog! And I’m quite happy that there are already some articles here (not writing only by me!).

 Let’s do the presentation:

I’m Florence. I’m from France. I might say that I’m the typical cliché of the Frenchwoman, because I can’t live without cheese, wine and “baguette”. Look at the picture if you want to know why…

* Translation: “Bread, wine and cheese: that’s good for the health!”

But since I live in Sweden, I have learned to live without (or with less, let’s say!), and I discover an other way of life… Not so bad I have to say!

Here, I have learned a new word: « Fika ». And I can’t live without now!  Fika is a special word to refer to a social institution in Sweden: the coffee break. Swedes have made a special verb and noun for that, to show how is important in their culture! Everything is a pretext for a fika, even at work.  Fika rocks!

I’m doing my European Voluntary Service at Mejeriet, in the really cute and charming city of Lund, in the Southern part of Sweden, in the Skåne region where all the people talk with a strong accent (« skanska »)!

In France, I was involved in many cultural projects and places, like Mains d’Oeuvre my sending organisation where I was volunteering last year for different cultural events (concerts, exhibitions, theatre) and some office tasks.  EVS is a way for me to learn differently, and gain experience in the cultural field when being abroad. A full life experience in fact!

Changing country, changing language, changing “room”, changing food. Indeed, changing life.

That’s something I’ve never experienced in my life.

And I might say after seven months living here that I’m proud of myself, dared to change my habits and to broaden my mind.  It’s like to learn life again…

And that one’s of the amazing and best thing that I’ve done in my life!

Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

 Until next September, I’ll try to give you an overview about my EVS experience in Sweden through some articles and pictures… Feel free to follow me !

Vi ses snart / See you soon / A bientôt !

Marian Söderholm at ufaFabrik, Berlin

Not only is this my first post here, but also the very first post on the Youth Exchange blog! I feel honoured, and quite excited. For the next two months I will be writing about my experiences during my internship at the ufaFabrik in Berlin, and also following fellow travellers who are experiencing similar but yet very different adventures in other countries. This is a space for public thought and personal reflection, and I hope it will inspire others to take the chance, if and when it presents itself, to travel and work in another country for a while, however short. It’s worth it, I promise.

So, what is this all about? Who am I, and why am I writing here? Let’s start with the basics: my name is Marian Söderholm and I am a student at Kulturverkstan in Göteborg, Sweden. I am studying the final term of a 2-year course in Cultural Project Management and currently one month into a 4-month internship at ufaFabrik - International Centre for Culture and Ecology - in Berlin, Germany. I am 25 years old, 5′6” and I have, together with my colleague Martin, founded an Emergency Chocolate Money box in the office where we work.

Here at the ufaFabrik I am involved in local promotional work for the theatre, music, cabaret and comedy performances we stage every week. I also assist in other projects, such as editing the website, writing articles and EU applications, working on premiere evenings and exploring the potential of visibility through social media and cultural networks. I am also running my own projects within the ufaFabrik – at the moment doing research and conducting interviews about environmental policy and innovation, and finally writing blogs and reports for my school back in Sweden (which now, for some reason, feels like a million miles away). And, to top it all off, I work at the Kinderbauernhof – the Children’s Farm – one day a week, cleaning rabbit cages and feeding Rudi and Rosa, the two largest and friendliest pigs I have ever met.

I have, as I mentioned, been in Berlin for just over one month now. During this time I have experienced snow, sunshine, early morning coffee and late night dancing, Turkish food markets and vegetable kebabs, birthday parties and bookshop parties, language lessons and street dance classes, new housemates and old friends, film festivals and German hip-hop, sculpture and S-bahns, theatre premieres and pony stables. And that’s not even half of it. The other day, a friendly bartender welcomed me to Berlin - the City of Choice, and every day it becomes clearer what he meant. I see people walking the streets here whose faces are old beyond their years, but I also see in Berlin a never-ending source of energy, creativity and youthfulness. My decision to come here will not be regretted. In two months’ time, when I return to Sweden, I will have a whole new network of friends and colleagues in the cultural business, and a whole new language to speak.

It was through my previous internship at the Trans Europe Halles’ Coordination Office in Lund that I discovered the existence of ufaFabrik, and also through TEH that I became involved in writing this blog. I have a lot to thank Trans Europe Halles for, but I think I also have to thank myself. For seeing and grasping opportunities when they arise, for taking the chance to move to Berlin and for not being afraid.

CHANGING ROOM is a two-year (2009-2010) mobility project that aims to test, study and evaluate a cultural professionals exchange and training programme within Trans Europe Halles, with the aim of it expanding into a EU wide initiative. Twenty-three TEH members will participate in CHANGING ROOM, hosting or sending cultural professionals and youth volunteers for periods of up to six months.  This ‘taste’ of mobility is intended to stimulate longer-term exchanges and lead to an increase in the permanent engagements of non-national workers by network members. Through the experiences of the exchange participants and their hosts, combined with workshops and a study by The Sibelius Academy (Finland), CHANGING ROOM will identify opportunities, issues and barriers to the mobility of cultural workers and then propose new ideas and forms for increasing mobility. The study will examine and identify the key factors which enhance and stimulate mobility, identify its benefits and how best to raise its value. It will also provide data on mobility within the network and aim to identify the key differences and similarities in working in culture across a sample of the 27 EU states.

This project has been funded with the support from the European Commission.

Changing Room is a project by TEH in collaboration with Melkweg & Silbelius Academy.