Mi Aventura SVE en Granada

sábado, 8 de abril de 2017

La vida comienza al final de tu zona de confort!

The first steps

In the summer I decided I would like to do something new (nuevo), something which is not studying, like studying (estudio) in the school, but learning about myself, about the world, get to know other cultures, make new friends. It is a really good opportunity to develop my skills and be useful in a new group at the Asociación Las Niñas del Tul . Before I came here, I was a volunteer (voluntario) in Hungary, in Kaposvár at the The Compass European Youth Organisation.
I heard about this project from Niki, my Hungarian coordinator and I said:"Why not?!" We send our CV and motivation letter, I had a skype conversation and now I am here. :D I am really lucky (afortunado) to be a volunteer in Granada for 7 months.

It was a hard decision for me, because of my family, friends (amigos).... I really love to live in my village... I had to leave for a few time the dance group, where I am dancing (Somogy Dance Ensemble-Kaposvár), but I needed to decide. I have had this idea for a long time, to study abroad, work abroad and now I think it was the best moment to take the first step. If I hadn't tried, I would feel sorry about this. So I am happy (feliz) to be here.

First of all I was afraid of to travel by plane, but it was a good surprise (sorpresa) for me, because I enjoyed it. :D When we arrived in Malaga I felt: "I am in the good moment, in the good place". I spend one night in Malaga and next day I traveled to Granada by bus. I met with Didi (she is my flat-mate and she will working in the same project with me), Daniel, and Carmen from the Las niñas del tul at the bus station (estación de autobúses). The situation was really friendly. It was, like a small family.

The first week:

Julia's flat (where we are living) is amazing. I just say again WE ARE REALLY LUCKY! In the city-centre, near the Gran Via and the Albaicín, which is fascinating for me. We have own room, with beautiful furniture. And the best is the balkony on the top of the flat.

Before I come here I have never learned Spanish, so I had some fear with this, and I thought my English is not so good, too. But now I think in the daily life I can understand and make oneself understood in English. We have a lot of fun, when we try to explain something, which is not so clear (claro) in the first time. But of course I would like to improve my English... The biggest language project for me is to learn Spanish. And I am so motivated, because I would like to understand the people on the street, speak (hablar) with them in their language. It is really different when you can speak with the people in their own language. And speak in Spanish is important (importante) for my voluntary work, too. Fortunately I have a lot of support. You know it is really difficult for me, maybe just in the beginning to say my feelings in an other language. Okay it is more difficult, too, because I am so bemused, but I like it. :D I like to discover myself and I am so eager to feel my different feelings :D I stepped out of my comfort zone, and I will try to do it again and again. Before it seemed impossible, but now I have experiences, and if I will disbelieve I can say I did it, so I can do it again. Don't worry, relax, step by step :)

I have been here just for two weeks, but I have a lot of experiences. I got to know a lot of people. In the first week we started to do the paper things, and now I can say WE DID IT, because it is not so easy in Spain but Nadia helped us a lot. With Didi we can speak about everything and we visited the city together. Before the On-Arrival training I met with Elena, my tutor, too. It was a really lovely meeting. We are interested in the same things. We found the common voice as of the moment we met.

The first week we had a meeting with Carmen. We tasted the churros with chocolate, I loved it. :D She spoke about their organization, and what kind of tasks we will have during the seven months. We met with other volunteers, too. We had a common lunch. Everybody cooked (para cocinar) something special. We made our first tortilla de patata. After the On-Arrival training(there will be an other text about this) we visited our new place with Nadia and Daniel, where we will have the office. We were in the University, too. We will inform the students about the EVS and in the youth center we can organize several events for the young people. After the Eastern we will start the work (trabajo), but already we are thinking about what we would like to do, and how... :) We will have a lot of several tasks and we are really interested in it.

Granada is the best place to discover myself and learn more about Andalusia, Spanish culture, my culture, who I am, how can I make new friends, how can I be more flexible... The big questions in our life... AND HOW CAN I LIVE IN THE MOMENT and TO KEEP THE BALANCE. You can go to the Albaicín, sit down, take a deep breath, enjoy the sun. But you can enjoy the night-life in the city, too. We are just in the beginning, but I think we can discover everything in the next 7 months. I felt several emotion during the first two week, during the days. Granada will be my home for 7 months or who knows ... maybe I will come back in the future. And I feel I am really at home, I love this place. One thing is difficult (difícil) for me, the language, but I think it will be a changing (cambiar). I am on the way. I try to improve myself every day.(That is one of the reason I write some Spanish word after the English, maybe it is not the correct form but it is a good practice for me.)

"The sun is a daily reminder that we too can rise again from the darkness, that we too can shine our own light." :)
Thank you Didiii for this crazy picture, you are my best flat-mate.

And now some pictures:

You can find me on the instagram, too: lucahugica (Tóth Luca) and you can find more pictures with #lasdeltul

Tomorrow I will came back and I will write about our first training, On-Arrival training in Jaen.

lunes, 27 de marzo de 2017

¡Nuestras nuevas compañeras!: Luca Tóth y Diana Mladenova

Anónimo 3:16 0 Comments

¡Estamos encantados de poder dar la bienvenida a nuestras nuevas EVS! Unas chicas encantadoras que vienen de Hungría y Bulgaria con muchas ganas y energía para vivir Granada, junto a nosotros, que las acompañaremos en su proceso de aprendizaje ^_^

Luca Tóth

“Hola! My name is Luca Tòth. I am a 22 year old girl from Hungary. I am a 4rd student at University of Pècs, but now I have a passive term in my studies. I am going to be a physiotherapist. I have heard about EVS and Asociación Las Niñas del Tul from the The Compass European Youth Organisation in Kaposvár. I like the new challenges, that is why I choose the voluntary work abroad. At Compass I had to chance to work with youth and volunteers from several countries, who told me a lot of information about EVS. So I decided I would like to try myself in a foreign town with unknown people. It is a good opportunity for me to develop my skills, know other cultures, habits, language, show our Hungarian traditions and promote the youth to be brave, open-minded and start our own EVS project abroad.
As for my hobby I love Hungarian folk dancing. This is my favorite activity in my free time. Due to we have horses I like riding a horse,too. Every day a try to practise yoga. It is for my mind and for my body,too. :D”

Luca Tóth

Diana Mladenova

“¡Hola a todos! Me llamo Diana (pero prefiero Didi). Soy de Bulgaria, de la capital, Sofía. Tengo 23 años y acabo de graduarme en Estudios europeos en la Universidad de Sofía. Actualmente soy voluntaria del Servicio voluntariado europeo en Granada.

Esta no es mi primera vez en España. Después del Erasmus en Madrid el año pasado, he decidido volver otra vez a España para hacer un máster , una práctica o algo así. Durante mi Erasmus tuve la oportunidad de viajar mucho y cuando vine a Andalucía me enamoré, especialmente de Granada.

Entonces, no sabía por qué Granada me gustaba tanto. Después fui a Marruecos y me di cuenta que me interesa la cultura árabe y como todos sabemos, Granada se parece mucho a Marruecos. Es una ciudad magnífica donde se puede sentir como se mezclan las diferentes culturas y es esto lo que más me interesa.

Me gusta viajar. Quiero recorrer el mundo. Quiero ir a América Latina, los países árabes y África. Durante toda mi carrera estudié mucho sobre Europa y la Unión Europea. Pero después de graduarme quiero aprender un poco de los países periféricos.

Me gusta hacer deporte. Me gusta hacer jogging, la natación,el senderismo, el tenis... Me gusta estar cerca de la naturaleza y por eso me encantan las montañas y el mar. Me gusta el verano, el sol y el calor.

Me gusta mucho leer libros, me interesa la historia, y escuchar música. Me gusta el jazz, hip hop, trip hop, funk, música española, árabe, israelí y balcánica.

Y finalmente, pero no menos importante, una curiosidad sobre mi personalidad: siempre llevo calcetines diferentes. :D”

Диана Младенова

¡Bienvenidas! #lasdeltul #evs

martes, 21 de junio de 2016

Wishes for you and for all children around the World.

Moni 8:13 0 Comments

Try to remind yourself you as a child. Think about your dreams that you had. This big one and small one. Dreams that you were making when you were alone and these which you were sharing with people that you loved. Now think - what would you wish for the children who lives close to you? What would you wish for all children around the world?

With “Węgajty” Association we decided to make small project, activity with children in Spain and Poland. Węgajty Association is making “Summer in Theatre” project, and they will make with children performance called “Halo, can you hear me?” based on children’s rights, dreams, wishes and desires. We decided to use opportunity that I’m making my EVS in Ciudad de Los Niños and we created common activity that was conducted more or less at the same time in Spain and in Poland. We were collaborating with Beata Późniak, one very motivated and open for new ideas teacher from Primary School in Jonkowo village.

Children were writing letters to each others. In the first part they were describing and presenting their cultures. With children in Ciudad de Los Niños we were trying to find answers for a few questions: What is the culture? What makes Spain/Andalucia special and different from other parts of the world? Who are we? What define us? What would surprise person from other culture (people from Poland) here, in Granada? What will impress them? We were looking for the answers, children were drawing their ideas. It was also important moment for me, because I could share with them few things that surprised me when I came here. We were trying to define Spanish culture. At the end I collected their pictures and ideas and made big circle full of their pictures.

In the second part, we were making wishes for each other’s and for all children in the world. I left this topic very open, I just gave one sheet of paper for each child and I asked them to draw wish for other children. Not every child know how to write so when they were giving me back their pictures I was writing their wishes on the other side (then I added them on the computer). That what I get back surprised and touched me very much. Some children are very small, they are just few years old, but with such a big passion they were making wishes for other children.

Here are some of their dreams:

Some of these dreams are very simple and because of that they are so powerful. I remember small girl drawing the fridge, she was saying to me every product that she was putting inside [“teacher, there will be eggs, a lot of eggs and milk and apples and (…)”]. Or the boy who were drawing a bed – he just came and gave me his picture and said: “I wish that every child will have a bed and sleep well”. I was really touched, but for them I was just saying “Thank you, It’s a beautiful wish”. This what happened during this simple activity reminded me what I’m doing here. I believe that every dream reflects lack of something in our life. I saw this children dreaming about such a simple, basic things. Again I felt that I want to share with them my affection and love - simple things that every of us need to live and to be happy.

Monika

viernes, 17 de junio de 2016

Giants, reggeaton and corrida or … Corpus Christi in Granada

magdalena kusa 5:34 0 Comments

It is said, that in Granada the biggest holidays is Corpus Christi. Because it is an important christian holidays and it is also the time, when it take place here feria de primavera.

In our center we started to celebrate Corpus one week earlier. During all May, we had kind of Masses in the school's chapel, because it was a special Virgin's month. But, one day, I walked into the chapel and I could see, that the Virgin Mary is ready to get out. Seriously. She was standing on a special platform, using during the Semana Santa... but, come on – we've already celebrated Easter two months ago. What's going on?

There is a famous event called Romeria, which is trip or peregrination which ends at a sanctuary or hermitage, during this celebration, there are dancing, singing, eating and drinking and, of course, people usually dress in famenco dresses. So, we prepared Romeria also here, with a „trip” around the school. Few older boys took the Mary outside the school and our little girls, wearing orange flamenco dresses, (mandatory in dots) and one boy were dancing for her.

Next, it was Wednesday – one day before the Corpus. It was impossible to walked by Gran Via. Why? Because people was waiting for La Tarasca. It is a parade of giants.

First, we can see catholics and arabic kings, then, more or less ordinary people with enormous heads, orchestra and, the most important - pretty doll in flamenco dress, riding dragon. It's connected with a legend about Saint Martha, who defeated the dragon in Tarasque kingdom in France just by prayers.

Finally we have the day of the Corpus. It seemed to be similar to the polish one. There were beautiful altars situated around the church and procesion with the Holy Sacrament.

There was even a material's roof through all the procesion way to protected decorations. So, we were waiting in front of the cathedral for procesion. Waiting...and waiting... and we couldn't believe how many people, who just carried the flags, could be inside the cathedral. And they were leaving and leaving, without any song or prayer, more than half on hour... we almost felt asleep. Finally, there left priests with a Holy Sacrament. So, like in our country, we quickly ran behind the priests, to follow the procesion, to be the first people and could see and hear everything, but... in a few minute we realized, that we were not just the first one – we were the only one who did it... Next time i'll read some savour vivre guidebook before ;)

The same week there were started two other things. First one was the feria. It is tipical for all Andalusia that during a week, more or less, in the city there are concerts, dances and fiestas inside the tents, with the sangria and flamenco and/or reggaeton music. The most well know feria take part in Sevilla in April, but in Granada it's open for everybody. And the last thing – do you know what kind of event starts in a day of Corpus? It's also tipical for Andalusia. We have flamenco, sangria, so... yes, it is corrida... When I had spanish lessons in Poland, years ago, we learned one word which is really usefull for me to describe sometimes some spanish customs – que barbaridad! ;)

sábado, 28 de mayo de 2016

How to make a frog?

magdalena kusa 10:39 0 Comments

Have you ever thought how to make a frog? DO it now. There are no rules except: do not talk about it with anyone. No more limits. Have you got it? So now, I'll show you the frog you have to do – your task is to INVENT HOW TO DO exactly this frog. Is that more or less easy for you? So now, I'll SHOW YOU HOW to do it. Which way do you prefer, as the best for you?

The frog is just an example of activity, which can let realized ourselves our expectations, style of thinking and learning, because our EVS, as a part of our life long learning proces, is the main topic of mid term evaluation.

We met in Malaga: the city of cathedral, alcazar, plaza de toros – like in the most of andalusian cities, and famous from Picasso. You can enjoy or miss it all, but, for sure, you can not miss almost hundred of EVS volunteers waiting for their new adventure. We went to Mollina. Sorry – where? Again? Town in the middle of nowhere? It seems like quite huge campus, where we were living in, is the only thing in this place. It have this advantages, that you can focus on yourself, training subjects and people, who you are with now, trying to do mission impossible – get to know everybody. The good thing of beeing with 100 people in that kind of place is connected with the farewell party... but it is a secret – you will see.

OK, so what all this mid term is about? As the arrival was about more general things like: Erasmus, EVS and some working techniques, now you have impression that this is your own coaching training. Why? Because you have time to think about your project, expectations, style of learning, style of relaxing, style of solving the problems and share it and compare with the other people from your group to discovering, inspiring, supporting. You can realised where you are, what for, why here and what to do with that. You can also realised, that not just you have problems or sometimes worse mood, not just you still haven't spoke spanish perfectly, miss your home or have no idea, what are you doing here, instead of creating a „normal life” somewhere else.

As I remember, my motto after arrival was: there is always a light in the end of the tunnel. So now, after mid term, it is: think and think pink ( kisses for Pink Panter group, if you read it), let your dreams fly all over the sky and just love life, with all the surprises it brings. There are different frogs and many ways of how to do them, just do your.

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