Exchange student farewell

It took place in a nice guesthouse “Zaļie atvari” right outside Jelgava. It was a great opportunity to spend time together once again and share all the impressions gathered while studying and living in Latvia. More than 70 exchange students arrived to the guesthouse by bus and we welcomed the guests with opening speeches by ESN Riga team members which were followed with a dinner. The evening program started with an activity where all exchange students took part. First, all people were divided into groups of 10 people and then their task was to prepare a performance according to a certain topic, for example, studies at the university, trolleybus No.15, travelling in Latvia etc. Students were actively working to make a good show. In about 20 minutes everybody was prepared. The performances were evaluated by a jury, which consisted of 2 ESN Riga members and 2 exchange students. Each group came up with a creative and original performance - they showed us small insight into what they experienced during their Erasmus life in Latvia. Everybody seemed to enjoy the performances a lot and it was not an easy job for jury to decide which will be the winning team. It turned out that the trolleybus No. 15 took the group to the winners’ position. Other more team building activities and games followed in the evening. Later on, of course, sauna was an indispensable part for the night. The dance floor was full of people dancing and chatting until the early morning. Probably the biggest surprise awaited us the next morning and everybody could enjoy the first day when the real winter set in and everything was covered with white and soft snow. It definitely helped to create the Christmas mood for us! For ESN Riga team it is very important to know the opinion of exchange students thus we asked students to share some of their impressions collected during the past 5 month spent in Latvia by writing a letter to ESN Riga. Here are some of the questions we asked them to describe in the letters:  1. What is ERASMUS for you? 2. Best memories from Riga and Latvia. 3. Your favorite activities that were organized by ESN Riga – and your impressions of us, the local volunteers. 4. What are the 3 things you will take with you home from Latvia? ESN Riga wanted to thank everybody for the amazing time we had spent all together in the last 4 months and thus awarded some certificates and presents to the best Erasmus students. For instance, the 3 people who managed to take part in all events organized by ESN Riga. There were more nominations: The Best Actor, the King/Queen of the Dance floor, the Miss/Mister Erasmus 2009 etc. All students were the winners of the night; all participants of the event received a gift from ESN Riga Team - a cup “Erasmus Autumn Semester 09’” with the persons’ name on it. Also to recall the funniest moments of the past semester in Riga we saw a presentation with pictures, which deserved a great deal of applause and laughter. ESN Riga hopes to see all of the exchange students again in Riga and may your Christmas be also as special and unique as you are!