People sometimes forget that Erasmus+ isn’t a classroom. It’s non-formal and informal learning and that’s the whole point. Yes, there were structured workshops on active listening, conflict transformation, empathy, negotiation and NVC tools. But honestly? Half of what people walked away with came from the moments between the workshops.
Cooking together. Intercultural nights with way too much food, music and dancing. Late conversations in the basement while finishing the handbook. Walks around Nova Gradiška in mixed groups, trying to explain your country’s weird jokes in English. Sitting in a circle at 2am sharing stories from home. Discovering that someone from Estonia and someone from Türkiye actually grew up watching the same cartoons.
That’s the spirit of Erasmus+. You don’t just learn about other cultures you learn from the people in them. Twenty-six people from Croatia, North Macedonia, Spain, Türkiye, Italy, Serbia, Germany and Estonia, each bringing their own context, their own way of handling conflict, their own perspective on what “communication” even means. Eight days later, the room felt like a small family.
That’s what Erasmus+ does. It builds friendships that outlast the project, networks that turn into future collaborations, and a quiet sense that Europe is, in the end, made of people not institutions.
Some informal photos below ⬇️
