Now it is almost ten years ago, since I was lucky enough to go as an International Farm Youth Exchange (IFYE) delegate to Northern Ireland. During this six amazing weeks which I spent by the Young Farmer Clubs of Ulster, I have met a lot of amazing people that shared their life with me and gave me an unique impression of their country(side), culture and way of life. I was very impressed from the rural life there and especially I was fascinated from the many daily practices that I could experience and which are slightly or totally different to back home.
After returning from my exchange with all the countless impression from YFCU, I became quickly very active in Swiss Rural youth in my local club as well as on national level. Always interested in international projects and intercultural experiences I then of course found my way to Rural Youth Europe.
In the five years, I have been with RYEurope so far, my experience I made in Ulster continued in a way. I am still meeting new amazing people from all over Europe, learn new things from them and realize new interesting differences and similarities between different countries. But no matter how varying practices are in different countries, the attitude of rural people across Europe is very converging.
By brainstorming in our December board meeting to find new ways to communicate Rural issues, we concluded with how interesting this stories and practices of the daily life actually are and so the idea of this blog was born. From now on with this blog, we will let young people know, how they do it in other countries and you will find here stories from rural areas across Europe.
We are looking forward to communicate you soon the next entry and if you also like to write, we are also very happy to share your story.