Hello there!
From Wednesday 27th September to Sunday 1st
October 2017, our school, Institution Saint-Pierre
(ISP) in Courpière, in the Auvergne (France), welcomed the European Youth
Conference 2017. The topic of our Conference was: "Speaking out: How can young people get a voice in Europe?"
Wednesday 27th September
The delegates started to arrive around 8:00 pm. Amélie
Courtine, Miss Saby and myself welcomed them and took them to the canteen.
After the meal, we got started with the ice-breaking
activities. We had prepared some games for the delegates to get to know each
other a little better. We had a bag (found at the last minute!) with names-tags
in it, and everyone had to pick one at random. They then had to find the person
to whom it belonged and start a quick conversation. Then, in a large circle,
each person had to give the name, the country and one fact about their conversation
partner. It was a bit chaotic, but it ended up fine nonetheless (winging it is,
after all, what we, the French delegation, do best!).
Everyone being really tired from travelling, we took
the delegates to their respective dorms. The boys were lead to the dormitory in
the Lycée, and Amélie and I had to
walk the girls to their dormitory in the Primary school down in the village.
Earlier that afternoon, Miss Saby, Charline and I had gone to the girls' dorm to get everything ready. The windows were left
open and we forgot to switch the lights off in one of the rooms; the result is
that, by the time our guests got to the dormitory, there were bats in the room
with the lights on! Miss Saby and I transferred the beds to another room, so: problem solved! We had asked Laura, a really nice teacher from England, to help
us but she is even scared of butterflies, so, bats...
Thursday 28th September
This morning, we, the girls, woke up at 6:30 am to
make sure that we would be on time for breakfast at 7:30. All the girls, and some
of the teachers including Miss Saby, sleep at the Primary school dormitory and
we have to walk up to the ISP. So, I walked them all back up to the high school
to have breakfast.
After breakfast, at 8:30 am, we got to work and
started with the exposés. That was a really interesting activity because we got to
know every country's point of view on the topic of this year's conference
better. And, believe it or not, we managed to be one hour ahead of schedule!
We went to the canteen at noon, and then got straight back
to work!
This afternoon, we had “creative activities” in groups
of four or five (with no one from the same country in a group). I worked with Luca,
a girl from Hungary, Michele from Germany, Emilia from Poland, and Kieran, a boy
from Ireland. Each group was given a topic chosen by the teachers from listening
to the morning’s exposés. My group's topic was: “What matters most to young people?” Each group could do whatever
they felt like doing, as long as they talked about their topic.
From 5:15 to 7:15 pm was free time, and so the
delegates went to visit Courpière. A lot of the delegates said to me that they
thought our town was really lovely and that they had taken lots of pictures.
After dinner, the school's boarders organized board
games from 8:30 to 10:15 pm. Each group had a French supervisor who was in
charge of guiding their team from one class to the other. Teachers even got "quality time" on their own playing who knows what game!
Friday 29th September
The girls woke up at 6:30 am. Panic on board: Miss
Saby's car had been stolen during the night! In fact, no, it turns out she just
could not remember where she had parked it exactly. She was not losing her marbles;
she was just very tired the evening before…
After this hiatus, breakfast went smoothly, and we
then had an extra hour to finish our creative activities.
10 am: Stands Time! Every delegation had brought typical
food from their country. The French Team managed to get some Fourme d'Ambert from the canteen. The
questionnaire we had prepared was a success. During the Stands Time, the French pupils
from Section Euro came and interviewed
the delegates. They wrote up their interviews at the CDI with the invaluable
help of Mme Torres in the afternoon. They added the really nice photo portraits
of the delegates taken by Mr Saint-André on Thursday to each interview. The
portraits and interviews are now hanging on the walls of the canteen stairwell.
At 2:15 pm, after lunch, the Mayor and the local Priest came
to ISP. Twenty-five years ago, the Priest had been the Headmaster of the
Institution Saint-Pierre. A journalist from La
Montagne also turned up. They had a look at the result of our creative
activities: my group made two short films, another group put on a sketch, another
sang a couple of songs, and there was also a kind of oral presentation from
another group.
5:00 pm: Photo Safari time! The pupils from Section Euro had prepared a photographic
“safari” for our friendly foreigners. Each team was given a secret theme; the
teams then had to go into town and shoot pictures inspired by their particular theme.
Then, the teams had to guess the different themes from the photos. We made sure
that everyone understood the rules (including the safety rules!) and we went off
hunting for good pictures. It went really well (even though my feet still hurt
from so much walking!).
Dinner, then: Movie Time! We watched “Les Choristes” as parts of it were shot
in our school. Our visitors really liked it. Some of them even asked for me to
write the name of the movie on a piece of paper for them to re-watch it at
home.
Once everyone was settled in their dorms, Miss Saby
had the kindness to drive me back home, even though she was as tired as I was. Tomorrow,
the delegates are going to Clermont-Ferrand (I cannot go unfortunately).
And now, I guess I'm just going to have a good night’s
rest and dream of winning tomorrow's “Eurovision” Song Contest!
Saturday 30th September
Today was nap day for the French “Teamers” and Miss
Saby! Our Europeans went to Clermont-Ferrand with Mrs Lancement and Mrs
Challand. They visited the Michelin Museum and then had free time. They got
back to ISP by 6 pm. Most of them told me that they had enjoyed the visit. A member
of the Irish delegation made a great pun: “I was so tired in the tyres
Museum!"
From 6:30 to 7:30 pm, the delegations had time to
rehearse the song that they were going to present in front of everyone after
dinner. The French Team chose to sing and play "We are the World" because
we thought it was, in a way, related to the topic of the Conference.
We had dinner all together, with some of the teachers and
people working at our school. We had a delicious “trufade,” a typical dish of
the Auvergne; our thanks to the chef!
We then stayed in the canteen to enjoy what we call the “Eurovision Song Contest.” Each in turn, the delegations sang their chosen
songs. Every song was really good; I loved it! The French team went on last.
The eleven delegations voted for the winner. Last year,
in Denmark, the winner was Poland. And this year's winner was (drum roll):
Latvia! The two girls, accompanied by one of their teachers, sang an amazing
song in Latvian. They really deserved to win (even though, if you ask me, I'd
say that everyone deserved to win)! They won a nice big bottle of local “Coca
Cola” and "pâte de fruits." One of the girls played violin, the other mandolin, and their
teacher piano, while they all sang together. They were amazing!
The French performance was also really good; we ended
up second. Knowing that last year, in Denmark, France was eighth out of eleven,
it means that we have much improved!
After that, the Fench “Teamers” from last year (Amélie, Rémi,
Nicolas and myself), accompanied by Miss Saby on piano, made everyone, teachers
included, dance on our choreography from last year's Eurovision (the song was “Another Brick In The Wall” by Pink
Floyd). Then, Nicolas showed us how to do the “Thumbs Dance”, and the the “Madison.”
It was a really fun moment!
The boys and girls from England then played some well-known
Beatles and Phil Collins songs on the piano and guitar for everyone to sing
along to.
Then, knowing it would be the last evening we would spend together, came
the moment to go to bed… At about 2 am, everyone went to their dorms to get
some sleep (though I think some people didn't manage to sleep at all).
Sunday 1st October
This morning, after tidying the dorms, we had
breakfast. Then, at 11:08 am, all
the delegates left on the coach; my heart sank as I waved goodbye. All good
things come to an end, right ?
The Conference was an AMAZING experience that I'll remember
for the rest of my life. I'm extremely lucky to have been part of it; I've made
some really good friends and met some of the kindest people ever.
I would like to thank everyone who took part and who made
this an unforgettable moment of our lives, especially Miss Saby, and our Headmaster
and the teachers and staff who made it possible for us to be part of something
as mind-blowing as the Y2K!
I really hope to see our friends again soon. Maybe
I'll go backpacking all around Europe this summer… Any invites?!
Cynthia Da Silva is a pupil in "première" (in "Section Euro") and one of the "Teamers" of the 2017 Conference.
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