Welcome party Spring'10

After the introduction week with it's activities was over, the main semester starting event - the Welcome Seminar Party by ESN Riga took place. These events are the main starting point for every new exchange period. In this spring semester (2010) the party took place in a wonderful eco guest house.

On Saturday afternoon, after a very active introduction week, the students were waiting at the Faculty of Economics and Management to get on the bus to start the weekend. The students were in a very good mood.After we had checked if all students had arrived and if they had the full equipment with them, we started the trip to our guest house. After an one hour trip the students got a warm and pleasant welcome from the ESN Riga team members. The members arrived earlier to prepare the location for the new exchange students.

After the check in and the compulsive welcome speech the students got divided into four groups. The four team leaders - Linda Ribakova, Ilze Jastreboava, Liene Apsalone, Santa Jastrebova and Gabriele Filippi - were in charge of the groups. The students did a lot of team building activities to get to know each other and had some fun because the main goal of this weekend was to build up a group membership between the new students. Afterall to be an ERASMUS student is to be a part of the ERASMUS family.

After the team building event we had a very tasteful traditional Latvian dinner. Then the students had to get prepared for the the second part of the evening – the “Old Style” talent show. Everything was welcome ABBA, Michael Jackson, Queen; you name it. All participants were dressed up for it, but the 80’s style was dominating. Dividing again in the same groups, the students showed their performances to a jury of 4 members- Reinis Rozenbergs (Latvia), Marta Golak (exchange student from Poland), Miodrag Vujovic (exchange student from Montenegro) with the head of jury Linda Ribakova (Latvia). We have to admit that every group was very creative and unique.

Then, when the official part was over, we stared the unofficial party. Sauna, Jacuzzi, dance floor, Limbo and many more activities were offered and we had a terrific time till dawn. Weakening up in the morning was very tough.

The second day started with a well-balanced breakfast as you need after a good night. Then the seminar started with the introduction of LUSP (Student Council of University of Latvia), which supported this welcome weekend. Afterwards the introduction about ESN Riga and the presentation of the nearest planned events by ESN Riga followed. Then we read out the gossips from last night, this is our tradition and it always gives a lot of fun. At the end we did an award ceremony, who was the best dancer, kisser and so on.

Then it was time to pack the bags because the leaving time came up but before that, everybody was welcome to evaluate this weekend. We hope everybody had a brilliant time. The students are now in Riga and doing their exchange semester we hope they will have a wonderful time here in our country. We tried to give them a good first impression and a marvelous start and the feeling that we, the ESN Riga Team, will always support them.

The ESN Riga Team would like to thank everybody for this unique weekend!

By Santa Jastrebova, ESN & Buddy system coordinator, ESN Riga board