The day of integration and cross-cultural classes had already been over. On Saturday morning, when I woke up, I was very curious because then we were to start music classes. I was walking along the sunny old town and I was wondering, what the day would bring.
The room in Centre for Cultural Education was full of mirrors. We were sitting in a circle and Mrs. Magda Stępień, who looked very inconspicuous, every minute turned into a real master of eurhythmics. There was a lot of laughter but learning as well: we were beating various times, creating canons, miming gestures and even dancing Cracovienne - Polish folk dance. Mrs. Magda was literally flying over the ground. Wandering among us, she evoked humility in us, since we realized quite quickly that eurhythmics is not as so easy and obvious as it seemed to be at first glance.
After dinner, the first classes of Byelorussian songs called "Oh My Lord!" took place, and everyone liked it. The song was performed wonderfully and with dignity, and Svieta proved to be a great conductor. By the end of the classes, I was proud of myself because I memorised the words and notes very quickly.
We timetabled going to theatre at Pascal Schumacher Quartet concert, which took place in the Old Town Plaza within the scope of XIX International Jazz Festival. The music was beautiful, and at the end of the day we treated ourselves to a long walking and ice-cream because Svieta had been talking about ice-cream for two days.
And that was just the beginning of wonderful time, which I was able to spent thanks to this project. I knew that it would be awesome, but I didn't realise I would have such amazing time. Tired after semester finals, I wondered if I had enough strength to fully participate in the project. It appeared that One Voice was exactly what I needed at that time.
The last memory I have from Saturday, 29th July, were Svieta's eyes which were looking joyfully at me from behind mass of curly hair.
Maja Kurpiewska
photo: Karina Krystosiak