TRANSYLVANIA: A Cultural Experience and a Project to Remember
In Romania as part of our Erasmus+ project together with our Romanian counterparts and Project partners ADEPT-OpWall we got a chance to live the Romanian culture through first-hand experience. This project also served as a good way of non-formal education as through fun activities such as geocaching and treasure hunts, we got to see sites of important historical value or of artistic value and thus learned about the history of Romania in a way that helped us bond with Romanian youths.
The visits to museums allowed us to see and learn more about the history of Romania. We were also able to learn other cultural traditions such as the Romanian traditional dance and their traditional costumes through the cultural exchanges that we did as part of our project. In these cultural exchanges both groups got to perform the traditional dance of their country wearing traditional clothes as well as teach it to each other. We also got to exchange traditional food between us. We were also able to learn a little bit about the Romanian language, as we taught our Romanian counterparts the basic Maltese words such as the numbers, days of the weeks and common phrases.
When we got to go on surveys with scientists in the Carpathian Mountains we learnt about how scientific research is carried out on the field. We also got to enjoy the richness of the wildlife that the Romanian countryside has to offer. Some of the surveys we got to carry out were bat surveys in which we were able to use devices such as bat duets that detect the inaudible frequencies that bats produce to echolocate during flight. During this survey we also got to use an anabat recorder which records these frequencies to be used to analyse what species of bats were present in the area. We also got to use traps such as harp traps which are used to trap bats to study them up close.
During other surveys we got to study the fauna by looking for indicator species. This is important as this gives a general overview about the biodiversity of an area and the quality of the soil affecting it. We were also shown snakes, lizards, amphibians and other reptiles that inhabit the area. Traps were also used to capture some of these organisms to get a closer view at them and also to identify these species.
Mist nets were also used to trap birds in order to ring them and record their health condition, sex them, and give an approximate age for the trapped birds. We also were able to trap small mammals by using a capture recapture method in order to get an estimate population size of the small mammals in the area. Other surveys that were carried out included butterfly trapping and moth trapping, bird point count, grass hopper study, and large mammal survey in which camera traps and study of footprints were used.
Apart from allowing us to form new friendships, this experience served as a good job exposure to another field that can be studied in the scientific sector. We also became more aware of job opportunities in other EU countries. Also this helped in understanding things that are part of our scholastic curriculum as we got to apply the theory learnt in school and it now makes more sense. Since this experience was affiliated with the importance of conservation of wildlife and the natural habitat of these species, this has led us to realise the importance of such projects and has made us more aware about the fact that we need to conserve the environment. It has enabled us to realise about the need to take action and collaborate with other people, even if they come from different backgrounds and culture.
In our opinion this hands on experience has been a great way for us to learn about a different culture, make new friends, as well as gain a lot of personal maturity and make use of our knowledge in the Biological sector. It has been a great pleasure working together with the Romanian youths, youth leaders and scientists since all people involved in it did their utmost to ensure that we enjoy this project to the fullest and gain the most from it. We would most definitely recommend this project to other students like us as we believe that this project has enabled us to expand our intellectual and general knowledge, the need to be open and tolerant to different cultures and to understand the need for conservation projects regarding the environment.
