The Erasmus+ experience was way more stunning than what I could imagine at the beginning of the week. By the time all the students from Belgium, Denmark, Estonia and Germany finally made it to Spain we already knew each other, because we spent the previous week chatting.
The first days were kind of weird: it was the first time for all of us to take part in such a project, and we were all trying to understand the way it works, but it did not take much time for us to start working in the activities, like preparing the debate. We were soon involved in attending to seminars, creating videos, drawing pictures for the website and some other exercises but, from my point of view, the best part of all the days was the afternoon, when we would just go to the town and hang out. While the first days we were practically separated by countries, we were getting closer and closer between all of us as the time passed.
The whole week happened so fast that I could not realize how few time we had left until Thursday afternoon. We had done a lot of things together: we went to the bowling, to the ice cream shop of the town (were the exchange students tasted orxata con fartons and chocolate con churros), and we even went to a restaurant to have dinner, the 36 of us. Personally, I absolutely think that was the best moment of all, because we were on our own in a terrace and we enjoyed that to the fullest. But the tour day in Valencia was also amazing: we visited the historical centre of the city and we went to l’Albufera, a beautiful lake next to the city, to have lunch. Although it was a shame that we could not travel in the boats as we were supposed to, because of the wind, we went to a shopping centre near that place where we had a good time, anyways.
On Friday, our last day together, we finally made the debate, and that was way more interesting than what I thought it would be in a first place. I did not agree with the position we had to defend on it but, in spite if that, I think that my team did a good work. Once all the teams had participated on the debate and all rounds were closed, we had a great picnic with the food we, the Spanish students, brought, and that was fantastic. At a certain point, however, he had to leave the school. We went to a shopping centre and we spent the afternoon. We knew that was going to be our last time together, so we wanted to make it special and we wanted to feel happy that we met, but we couldn’t avoid to cry while people were leaving the place. It was so hard to say goodbye to everyone. At least, on Saturday, we had one last chance to see our friends in the airport. That was the saddest moment of all.
I am going to remember this experience forever, and I really hope we can finish the exchange by meeting again our friends in the rest of the activities set in different countries.
By Marco from Spain
