YOUTH BRIDGING THE GAP:LET'S SEE BEYOND OUR GENDER AND CULTURAL GLASSES

ICELAND - BELGIUM - TURKEY - LATVIA

CHAPTER EXCHANGE ICELAND 201 2

Ásmundur GuðjónssonBirthday 2. January 1 990 - CapricornAFS country: Argentina

What do you do in life? Study software engineering andprogram on smart phones

Primary tasks for Chapter Exchange Iceland? I havemostly been in charge of getting the experts to chaptex.

In the last issue of the Youth Exchange pamphlet you got to know three of the members of theIcelandic team and now it is time to get to know the other seven.

They have all been working hard on preparing this Youth Exchange; creating games, email ingexperts, call ing restaurants, organizing activities and working on numerous other projects. Aftermonths of preparation the whole team is ready to host this upcoming event but before yourarrival you have a chance to get to know them a little bit better.

Meet the Icelandic team

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Berglind VignisdóttirBirthday 1 9. July 1 993 - CancerAFS country: France

What do you do in life? School, AFS , work andoccasionally I l ike to get to my french roots then I put onmy beret, drink a little red wine eat my baguette andcheese and reminiss.

Primary tasks for Chapter Exchange Iceland? Leizure actvivites , Icelandic culture and CityRally and more awesomeness!

Hugrún Arna VigfúsardóttirBirthday 5. November 1 990 - ScorpioAFS country : United States, Texas.

What do you do in life? I 'm studying businessadministration at the University of Iceland. I work in abank during the summer but in the winter time I work at afast food resturant. I spend a lot of time working withAFS, and when I have some spare time I spend it withmy friends and family.

Primary tasks for Chapter Exchange Iceland? Practical stuff! Money, bus, food, venues andhappiness!

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Guðrún RunólfsdóttirBirthday 2. September1 994 - VirgoAFS country : New Zealand

What do you do in life? I currently go to school inReykjavík and I plan on graduating in about 2 years. Lastsummer I worked in the countryside in Iceland as areceptionist at a Hotel. I love travell ing and seeing newplaces, planning on a world tour after I finish school, thenI 'm hopefully going to return to New Zealand, myexhange country. Other than that I love working with

AFSers, and meeting new people from all around the world.

Primary tasks for Chapter Exchange Iceland? I got this amazing opportunity to join ChapterExchange and I 'm really looking forward to the project. I 've been multitasking quite a bit, forexample I 'm planning a presentation which is a part of the Icelandic cultures about sports.

Jenný LárentsínusdóttirBirthday 04. Apri l 1 993 - AriesAFS country: I taly

What do you do in life? School, and I   work at subway inIceland and a resturant called Ital ia. I l ike being with myfriends, dancing, singing and coffeehousing. But what Il ike the most is  chi l l ing with   a group of interesting AFSersand  being an AFS volunteer.  

Primary tasks for Chapter Exchange Iceland? I 'm inthe Expert crew, finding the best experts possible:) and than in the creative session crew. Butalso like all the other Icelandic volunteers, Icelandic culture, city rally and so on. .

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Ásdís Björk GunnarsdóttirBirthday 22. February 1 993 - PiscesAFS country: Venezuela

What do you do in life? When I 'm not doingsomething AFS related (which is quite often mind youhaha) I go to school where I study science andlanguages. I also work a lot in all kinds of places, thissummer in particular in a kindergarden, Subway andthe newspaper. But other than that I really just l ikehanging with friends and seeing the world.

Primary tasks for Chapter Exchange Iceland? I primari ly see to the food, transport,accommodation and venues with Hugrún, as well as some smaller tasks here and there alongwith the rest of the group :)

Vignir ÁrnasonBirthday 3. June 1 989 - GeminiAFS country: Paraguay 2008-2009

What do you do in life? I 'm a student at theUniversity of Iceland, currently studying Spanish.I 've already finished 2 years of Icelandic, and myaim is to finish 2 years of Spanish as well .Otherwise I spent time with friends and family,when I 'm not doing some AFS stuff.

Primary tasks for Chapter Exchange Iceland?

Visa supervision and help, Creative-session workand other miscellaneous things, along with generalawesomeness.

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It is designed by Joshua Fitoussi - our AFS friend from France, thank you!

Now if you are wondering about what this logo is all about and what the animals are doing in itwe can answer that for you. The mountains remind us about where the Exchange takes place, inIceland. The glasses are there to tel l us about the topic, Youth Bridging the Gap: Let's SeeBeyond Our Gender and Cultural Glasses. Finally we have the animals that each represent acountry that is participating in the project. Penguin is for Turkey, unicorn for Belgium, sheep forIceland and finally l inx for Latvia.

Check out the logo!

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Have a look at our schedule!As you can see we have pleanty of activites planned out for you...

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"My country is the world, and my religion is to dogood” (Thomas Paine, 1 737 - 1 809)

Since 2005 I have participated in seven different youthexchange programs. Now, I would very much like tosay that this is because I am particularly skil led, orimportant, but the truth is that in those seven years, Ihave prioritized it above all else. I skipped school,weaseled out of work and gave away concert tickets.

After the first one, in Prague, I was sold on the concept.We had our workshops and living quarters in arefurbished castle, where each four-bed bedroom wasabout the size of the house I grew up in. We talkedabout Europe, and the European identity andcitizenship. We shared stories, went on excursions,

had debates and most of the times I had no ideawhat was happening. I went home with a feeling ofsatisfaction that I attributed to the fact that we hadso much fun. Of course we had fun, it is verydifficult to put 40 AFS’ers in the middle of a forestand not have fun. But throughout the followingmonths, I caught myself paying attention to newsreports, l istening in on family discussions andreading things on Wikipedia. As a hardcorecomputer scientist and dimwitted teenager, this wasall new to me. I t didn’t stop there.

Czech Republic 2010Empowering Young Volunteers: RevealingYouth Poverty in Europe - Catching somesleep with Sander.

Finland 2008European Youth in Action: Challenges onHuman Rights - Team Belgium during theAFS WinterOlympics.

It's been a wild ride. . . And I don't think it's gonna be over any time soon..

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Cultural understanding and diversity, equality,human rights, … I said yes to all these thingswithout knowing what they meant. My AFSexchange to Norway in 2003 challenged me on avery basic level, showing me that there are infinitesubcultures outside of my own. The chapterexchanges challenged me on a much higher level,putting my views on important European andGlobal topics to the forefront. We live in anamazing time, where high ranking politicians have

decided that peace and understanding cancome from cultural exchanges. Programs likeErasmus and the Youth in Action (which fundsthe chapex) are clear cut proof, and they makeme very happy to bea part of this.

I am humbled by thepeople that made it possible for me to participate in all these projects,and I believe it is our duty to keep it going as long as we can. Keepgrowing, keep being inclusive in your daily l ives and reach out to othercultures. More than 1 20 AFS related Facebook friends later, I have noregrets and a hell of a lot of stories.

Joon

Czech Republic 2012,Empowering Young Volunteers: RevealingYouth Poverty in Europe - Jumping in thestreets ofPrague during the Prep meeting.

Finland 2008European Youth in Action: Challenges on HumanRights - Finish sausage tradition, on ice!

Belgium 2010Empowering Young Volunteers:Living In and Learning From aMulticultural Society - My Africandance outfit during the leisureworkshop.

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For the first half of the Youth Exchange we wil l be staying at Ágarður.Hvolsvöllur is a charming little vi l lage in the south of Iceland. With its population of only 800inhabitants our staying there wil l most certainly be a lively change for the small town residents.But even though Hvolsvöllur may be small it holds a very big place in Icelandic history for beingthe place where one of Iceland’s most famous sagas, Brennu-Njáls saga, transpired. This youcan see clearly in the town’s culture. But enough about that. We wil l be staying at a cozy littleguesthouse called Ásgarður where we hope to have a very good time!

Ásgarður

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The four last days in Iceland we wil l be staying at hostel called Kex and which is located in thecapitals central. I t‘s close to everything, stores, museums, bars and so on. The word „kex“means biscuit in Icelandic and that is no coinsident because the hostel was a biscuit factoryonce. Today they have furnished it with salvaged materials and found objects from variousplaces. While you are staying at Kex you have the posibi l i ty of self-service laundry facil i ties, freewireless internet and even the opption of cooking for yourself! And a lot more so you can feel athome.

KEX

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Prep meeting 201 2During the weekend of 31 -2nd of September the Chapter Exchange partner countries had theirprep meeting. During that meeting we went over the schedule, food, hosting, workshops etc. . .Another important thing that happened is that we got to know each other and to talk about howwe are approching the topic. We all got really excited and are looking forward to the exchangeitself in the end of September.

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Sleeping bags SlippersToiletries SwimsuitTowel PyjamasRain coat/warm coat Waterproof shoesSome orange clothes Clothes for the final party

The theme is THE FUTURE

. . . . .and remember to bring your smile

Here you can see theweather forcast up onyour arrival on Saturday

- it is going to rain beprepared!

What to bring?

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Icelanders have a phone book that has most everyone’s names, telephone numbers andprofessions, which can range from normal everyday jobs to Pokémon masters, dogwhisperers, alien tamers and unicorns as people submit the information themselves.

We love trampolines and you can find one in pretty much every 5-1 0 gardens (in thesummer mostly).

Icelandic teenagers usually start working early and according to that they move out fromtheir parents at early age.

We always take our shoes off when we enter someone‘s home unless given specificpermission.

We don't like blowing our nose, we prefer to sniff it.

We always thank people for the meal they serve, by saying „takk fyrir mig“.

When going to the swimming pool it‘s mandatory to shower before going into the pool.This is usually done in changing rooms in the pool where everyone showers together.

In Iceland it is rare to have a surname or a family name we rather take the first name ofones father (or mother) and add "dóttir" or "son" to it, "dóttir" stands for daugher and"son" for son.

We don‘t use formal titles, and we don‘t address anyone by their last name nor use Mr. orMrs. We call everyone by their first name or nickname, even teachers, doctors and thepresident.

Icelandic customs and habits

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Þetta verkefni hefur verið fjármagnað með styrk frá framkvæmdastjórn Evrópusambandsins. Þessuútgáfa lýsir aðeins viðhorfum höfundarins og Framkvæmdastjórnin tekur ekki ábyrgð á því hvernigupplýsingar sem hér er að finna eru notaðar.