Exchange student farewell (Goodbye party Fall' 09)

      The fall semester 2009 is soon coming to an end which means that for many exchange students it will be time to return to their home countries therefore ESN Riga in cooperation with Academic Programme Agency (APA) organized the traditional farewell event on 12th -13 th December. It took place in a nice guesthouse “Zaļie atvari” right outside Jelgava. In this way students could spend time together once again and share all the impressions gathered while they were studying and living in Latvia.

      More than 70 exchange students arrived to the guesthouse by bus and we welcomed the guests by opening speeches by ESN Riga team members and 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 nr.15, traveling in Latvia etc. In their groups 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 to show us small parts of what they experienced during their Erasmus life. Everybody seemed to enjoy the performances a lot and it was not an easy job for jury to define the winning team. It turned out that the trolleybus nr. 15 took the group to the winners’ position. More team building activities and games followed in the evening. Later on sauna was, of course, an indispensable part for the night. The dance floor was full until the early morning with people dancing and chatting.

      Probably the biggest surprise awaited us the next morning as 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 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 month 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. Nobody left from the goodbye party without a gift because in the end ESN Riga presented to each participant a cup with the persons’ name on it. Also to recall the most fun 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! 

Elīna Veštere,
ESN Riga team member