It's always nice to stroll around the city, see new places and meet new people. The Erasmus meetings are not just about freewheeling, as there are presentations, performances and different kind of works to be prepared, rehearsed, presented and discussed.

We were welcomed at school most warmly: A Bulgarian tradition is to share a special kind of bread with their guests by the time of their arrival. The symbolic gesture is strongly related to the main goal of our project: As the project Song of Joy is about sharing, understanding and co-operation, could you not start a project in any better way?

All the countries presented themselves and we enjoyed a dance performance by the students of our hosting school. After a short break we got to work:
The dance workshops, visual arts lessons, discussions and quizzes about the common European ground and cultural specialities were the backbone of the meeting in Varna.

As the official theme for this project is "the new rhythm of Europe", this was also the focus of the meeting. The rhythm is a crucial part of human thinking: the patterns of literature, traditional decorations, dance and music all are different expressions of rhythm. A rhythm may also be seen within our society; the pace of life in every country is slightly different thus expressing rhythm of everyday life.

The meeting in Varna was more or less a prism through which we had a chance to take a peek in many aspects of rhythmical patterns described above.

It was clear that despite of various cultural differences there was even more in common: the songs had same kind of rhythmical patterns, the tales had similar kind of heroes and villains, the dances were about being together and physically in touch with another person. It really doesn't matter if you are dancing to a 7/4 rhythm, and afro-cuban beat or a Finnish polka. The very meaning of sharing is built-in everywhere.