WITH THE ERASMUS+ PROJECT TO BARCELONA

German-Version

As part of the Erasmus+ Identify Democracy project, which our school has been part of for the past 3 years, we spent the second week of March 2022 in Barcelona with our partner schools from Spain and Belgium.

We stayed at a hostel with the Belgians near the school of the Spanish students. In each room there were two students from Austria and two from Belgium, so we could get to know each other faster. At first it was all a bit weird, because we had only seen each other in Zoom meetings, but we quickly got talking and everything was great after that. After we spent some time in our rooms, unpacking and talking, we set off for the Spanish students´ school, where we met them and their teachers. To get to know everyone better, we played some games and then the students showed us their school. I have to say, it is very cool to be shown around a school like that.

On each day we had a programme to follow. For example, Tuesday morning we visited the Catalan Parliament and because we hat some time until the International Women´s Day protest started, we went to get some food together. Finally, at 12 p.m. we joined the demonstration. In the evening we split into groups and went to host families for dinner. We got to experince an every-day Catalan dinner with the family of a Spanish student. Each of us enjoyed it a lot, as we would normally never get the opportunity to take part in something like this.

Other activities included Ball de Bastons (stick dancing), which is a popular Catalonian dance, visiting the house of Gaudi and the Sagrada Familia, as well as the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona. On Friday we even took the train to Sitges, a smaller city southwest of Barcelona. Most of the time we were led by the Spanish students. They showed us different buildings and talked about the history of the places we went to.

Of course, we also went back to their school to work on projects like the radio podcast or to create posters about a specific topic we were given. We also held a presentation about the corona situation in our country, as did the other students. This allowed us to see the similarities and differences in the measures our governments have taken in relation to the pandemic.

When wie finished our day´s programme, we usually spent our free time eating at a restaurant and then chatting at the hostel downstaris, because there was a sitting area there.

 It was a very memorable trip and we got to learn a lot about Barcelona, but most importantly, we made a lot of new friends!

Written by Lina Rahbari und Dora Buglyo