Career Tour Recap

            On the 20-th of July, 2015, 10 youngsters and 2 leaders visited Hungary to attend the Career Tour youth-exchange and to represent our country and association. This youth exchange was held in cooperation with the Gordiusz Association.

            After the exhausting twelve hour trip to Nyiregyhaza, where the youth exchange was held, we were accommodated in a wonderful baroque styled hotel named Korona. We didn’t do anything because we were too tired and we still needed time to accommodate.

            On the second day, early in the morning we had a trip to the LEGO factory where we witnessed the massive production of LEGO toys as well as the role of each worker and the difficulty of his/her job.

             Later that day, we played a game that helped build friendships between participants of a different country faster. In this game pieces of paper are put on the floor, music is being played and everybody is dancing on the floor. When the music is played, you have to stop dancing on the floor and stand on a piece of paper, or you lose. However, there is a catch, after every cycle there are less pieces of paper as they are being taken away by the leaders. This means that more people have to do with less space, which would result in actions such as holding hands and hugging, which are all powerful methods of establishing a good relationship between two strangers.

             We then discussed about our goals and expectations in life, what we are capable of doing, what we like doing and what we should do. Some people are shooting for the stars while some prefer to safely stay on the ground and not fall.

              That evening both sides introduced their country's history, culture, political situation, economic power, geostrategic position and similar interesting facts about the nation and country. Both parties also bought along traditional food and drinks for the participants to try and hopefully enjoy. Everybody from the Macedonian group loved the Hungarian cookies that they generally make for their family, while I doubt any Hungarian disliked our homemade Ajvar.

                We started off the third day talking about the educational systems in both of the countries. This way we became conscious about our possibilities in life and about the potential improvements and work needed in order to push forward in life. We came to a conclusion that both of the educational systems are very similar and that if you can do something good and if you try hard enough you can end up doing what you like.

               After dinner, we went to a Human-Net foundation building where the Hungarian elite units K-9 demonstrated just how easy it is to discover illegal substances no matter where we would hide them. A longer blog post about the police presentation is coming soon, for now all you need to know is that the officers did a really good job answering our questions, explaining the drug route, helping us stay safe from these horrible things and showing what it really takes to be a special force unit.

               We also got to talk to some of the volunteers in the Gordiusz Association foundation, they explained the function of an EVS volunteer and they talked about some audio and video editing software that they use in order to make the presentations that we got to

               On day four each young person talked about his/her qualifications and what he/she wants to be. After long discussions and information exchange we learned our strengths and the means of using them to the maximum potential.

                We then went to the Gordiusz Association foundation building where we learned about the job opportunities in Hungary and we saw what the young people there are most likely to do and where they can get the best possible education.

                We proceeded to the salt-caves, an alternative medicine method that supposedly helps prevent cancer and other dangerous diseases. A lot of young people learned about a new thing they can study - alternative medicine, a branch not well known by today's youth, but still a potential future career for someone who'd like to help people struggling with their condition.

               After this, we visited an Új Nemzedék office (click the link to visit their website), this is a Hungarian organization where the young can come and ask questions about education, career paths, tourism opportunities or just about anything that they might be interested in, while doing so, this organization will help them find what they are looking for by gathering information by communicating with the other nineteen offices scattered nationwide. However, young people can also come here and just play games, talk to each other and just have fun in the cool colorful room that is also a stash of a lot of board games and modern literature carefully placed on nicely made wooden shelves.

               The fifth day was zoo-day, we visited the local zoo which is also one of the biggest in Europe. We spent the entire day having fun and experiencing the wild behavior of the animals from all around the planet in this 30.000 meters squared space of unexplained wonders of nature. Since we were trying to decide what path to take in life, we talked to some of the zoo keepers and they explained to us that they have to be active all day and that each of them must play different roles in order for these animals to survive, but this wasn't necessary because their healthy muscular body and the way they stared at the animals with love, excitement and curiosity spoke for itself. After seeing a person like that doing what he loves doing you don't need more than five seconds to decide if you are fit for working with animals or not.

               The sixth day was a more relaxed day and we made a short recap about the youth exchange, what we learned and the friendships we built at the course of the past five days. This was a really sad day as I was sadly looking at young confused people that I don't know if I will ever see again just looking at me with the same stare of understanding and compassion. I really hope I do, they were all so nice to me despite all of the personality and culture differences, I really do hope they felt the same way in my presence.

                The following evening we had free time to hang out with each other before the inevitable departure, as well as buy our souvenirs, clothes and gadgets that we liked from this beautiful baroque themed town. 

               The last day we had breakfast and we departed to Budapest where we had lunch in a Hotel and got to see one of the views that created a permanent mental image of disparity, borders of human achievements and excitement and pride as you break the ramps of that border and roll forward with full speed, waving back at the nature so beautiful and vulnerable yet half-defeated by some of the brightest mind that humanity had to offer, this view is the Budapest citadel.

                Because of the close relation between the two municipalities, Kocani and Budapest, we had a free stay at a hotel just four kilometers outside of town. This is a very friendly gesture from our friends here in Kocani and our association really appreciates it.

               On the last day we woke up, packed our bags and went straight to Kocani. We all came back as more decisive people who now feel more secure doing what they love in this everlasting labor market in which we all must fit.
                Please see the photographs at: http://imgur.com/a/moVIp because our blog is not working properly at the moment.

- Filip Vojnovski