Dennis’ Trip to Lithuania: Day 1
My trip to Lithuania and my presentation to the country’s Parliament on Youth Social Enterprise.
As youth leader, I was given the amazing opportunity this month to present to Lithuania’s Parliament on Youth Social Enterprise along with a woman called Julia Wolton and Samuel Alebioshu – another young entrepreneur. Julia works for 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning who have a social enterprise led by young people called HustleBucks.
Yesterday (Sunday 8th), I got up at 8:45am to pack my bags and took a bus to Julia Wolton’s home. She had arranged a trip to Lithuania where we would be presenting to the Lithuanian Parliament on Youth Social Enterprise.
I stayed at Julia’s house where we re-wrote our presentation several times because we wanted it to sound professional, we also spent time rehearsing it. We had to do this not only so it was almost perfect, but also because our presentation would be translated simultaneously by an interpreter at the conference and we didn’t want to confuse them!
Today: Monday 9th December 2013
I got up around 9am to eat breakfast and catch a train with Julia to Liverpool Street from where we caught another to Stansted Airport. At Stansted we waited for Samuel, who is one of the founders of HustleBucks, to arrive.
Whilst waiting for Samuel I went off to get myself Burger King as I was very hungry! Upon my return Samuel had arrived and together we went on the plane together around 3pm. Well that was the plan – the plane was packed and we sat wherever possible!
We arrived at Vilnius the capital of Lithuania at 10pm, boy was it cold! It had snowed everywhere and the ground was very slippery. As soon as we exited the arrival part of the airport we spotted Egidijus Gricius who is the Coordinator of Youth Affairs for the Lithuanian Municipality of Rietavas.
Egidijus had brought a car to pick us up and took myself and Samuel to a hotel whilst Julia stayed in one of the parliament’s apartments for the M.P.s. As it was late and we were tired after the flight we decided to stay in and get an early night!
Look out for the second part of my blog tomorrow!