breaking the ice

First I have been in Firenze at the regional school student’s parliament of Tuscany. Impressive how well organised this is and what a sustainable participation structure it seems to be. It was also refreshing seeing Italian youngsters discuss Europe!
Directly from Firenze I went to Moscow, or somewhere close to Moscow. There we organised together with the Russian Youth Council 3 parallel activities. A Seminar on youth policy development, a Seminar for the preparation of the Youth Forums campaign against Visa obstacles and an expert group on diversity and equality;
Judging from the feedback of the other bureau members and the participants, all 3 events have achieved their objectives.
The venue though was weird. It was called hotel forest Tropicana. Well, it was indeed somewhere in the middle of a fir and birch wood in the middle of nowhere. But it was tropical, the room temperature was around 30°C and it was not possible to regulate it decentralised. That basically meant, that the moment you entered your room, you had to be afraid that your underwear was mantling into your skin.
They also had theme rooms, one with lots of palm trees and bamboo wood, one with lots of aquaria and so on. In addition there were animators, dancing shows, magicians and so on.
So considering this tropical atmosphere, I am surprised that everything welt so well! On the Picture you see Nuno and me posing in front of the palm trees at the resort entrance, if you look close enough you can even recognise the coconuts!