January activities

And again another month passed. Even though January was a quite slow and quiet month (at least the beginning) it went by quite fast.

The first week of the month was quite interesting as here there was still a Christmas atmosphere until the 6th, when the Three Wise Men (Los Reyes Magos) came and brought gifts just like Santa Claus in December. :) This was even a bigger holiday then Christmas itself, so everyone was very excited about it. For me this was a little unusual as normally holidays end with New Year's Eve so after I'm not very much in a Christmas mood anymore, but it was nice to experience something different. We also ate some roscón which is the traditional sweet cake with whipped cream to eat on this day. :)

Roscón

The Ecocompartimos team enjoying the roscón :)

After Reyes life kind of slowed down, so there were not so many happenings: I finished the translation of our new website to English, we were planning our activities for February and also used this quiet time to finish our YouthPass wall, tadaaaaa:

Now we have the first 5 months of our project nicely documented on the wall. :)

In January both our English groups got very active, we had a debate event together with the English reading club of the library and people enjoyed it so much, that now they are even more motivated to learn with us. Not to mention we have some new people in both our morning and afternoon groups now. And we are all looking forward to the next joint event together. :)

My group at the event of the library 

The whole group :)

We also had another intercultural chat about childhood experiences, it was a very nice one, 5 people came with quite different backgrounds and ages so we could all share a lot and had a nice diverse and funny discussion. :)

During the last few weeks of the month we got quite busy with Erasmus+ things (as the last deadline for presenting projects was the 4th of February); we helped Helena with selecting the new volunteers. It was so weird to think about this, as September is so far away (and also July when our project ends) and to be honest I don't really like this feeling of "getting replaced" hehe. :P But I think we managed to find some great people in the end, a Serbian guy and a Slovenian girl. :)
We had also a chat about volunteering and Erasmus+ in the Youth Center. It was quite nice, around 12-15 people came. This was the first time I had talk in front of people in Spanish, so I felt a little nervous about it in the beginning, but when I started talking and people started to ask questions, then I actually got to enjoy it. :)

Helena explaining to the crowd :)

Aside from work the month was a bit more active, though also not that much. At Reyes I went to Toledo with Sandra and her boyfriend Cesar to see the Belén (nativity scene) of the year and a parade. The Belén was very impressive, it took up an entire room and every single detail was very worked out. On the other hand the parade was quite disappointing we had to wait a lot and it was quite small. Nevertheless I had a good time. :)

The Belén of the year

Also we met with Filiz and Emmi (the other volunteer girls from the neighboring village Numancia) and Amber (an American girl we met here in Illescas) to go the El Escorial together for a day. It was very nice, though we arrived very late so we couldn't enter the monastery. Instead we walked around, enjoyed the view and had some pastry. :)

 
Last but not least I had my birthday in January, that helped me to move on from my "winter coma". :) I usually celebrate it with my best friends and my family, but this year unfortunately I didn't have the chance. However I feel very grateful because I got a lot of messages and good wishes. Dilya and Helena were super nice and thought of me with some nice gifts too. And my family also surprised me a beautiful bunch of flowers, which was a huge surprise and made me very happy. :)

December activities

Happy New Year to everyone! :)

Another busy month passed and also a great year ended. I have to say time flies really fast, but I'm happy for so many good things happening.

As December was mostly about Christmas preparations most events were associated with food. :) (And in my opinion this also has to do something with the fact that Spanish like to eat - and I don't blame them, their food is exquisite!)

I already wrote about the Christmas decoration workshop and my workshop with the kids, these continued in December too and I enjoyed them even more than before! :) Here are a few things I made:

We had another session of the intercultural chat series: this one about Christmas food. Unfortunately it was not such a success as the first we had about food, but we still enjoyed it and ate well. :)

Migas and puches, both typical in Spain

Russian salad of several delicious layers :)

Hungarian bejgli (or something similar ;))

We also have now double English classes on Mondays (both morning and afternoon), which are quite intense and tiring as they require now double concentration, but I still enjoy them. And the groups seem to enjoy the classes too. :) Also it's nice to see how they are developing and each time they talk more and more.

The biggest event in December we had was the charity dinner. The preparations were a little chaotic to me (or I'm still not used to the Spanish way of organizing things :)), but in the end it was a big success. 

Getting ready to welcome the guests

The super delicious meal we had :)

Marina and Helena on stage announcing the winners of the raffle

The Ecocompartimos team :)

We had a great time and Helena also liked the surprise gift we prepared for her: it is a board with "Ecocompartimos" on it, "written" by nails and thread. Now it's already on the wall in the shop and it fits there perfectly. :)

The day after the dinner I went back home to Hungary for Christmas as I already wrote it in my previous post, but for New Year's Eve I came back. I was curious to see how Spanish celebrate here, so with some friends we went to Puerta del Sol in Madrid to eat the 12 grapes at midnight in order to have good luck in the next 12 months. The square was packed with people, but the mood was great, we had a lot of fun (and I also didn't choke on the grapes, though it was hard to eat them so fast as I felt like laughing most of the time :)). After the "ceremony" we went to party and ended up dancing till 7 in the morning, so it's safe to say that I had a very good start of the new year. :)

Merry Christmas! :)

Christmas time has always been my favorite holiday of the year. I'm not religious, but there is something about the smell, the Christmas lights, the food and decorating the tree together with my family that makes this season special. This year it has been especially nice, because I've taken part in the Christmas preparations in Spain, but I got to spend Christmas at home with my friends and family in Hungary. (And as a bonus I passed by Brussels too to see a friend and the Christmas tree on Grand Place :))

So with these photos below I wish you all a very merry Christmas! :)

Christmas "tree" in Puerta del Sol, Madrid

Christmas market in Plaza Mayor 

Christmas tree in Grand Place, Brussels

Lights in Grand Place 

Christmas lights in Budapest

Christmas market in Vörösmarty tér, Budapest

The family Christmas tree at home :)

November activities

November has been the busiest month since I'm here! Don't take me wrong, this is not a complaint - on the contrary, I enjoyed it a lot. :) I already wrote about our "fame" and about my travel to Lisbon, but many other things happened too.

We had 2 more of the intercultural chat series: one about music and dances, the other about what makes us ashamed and proud of our countries. Unfortunately not so many people came as for the previous occasions, but we still had a great time.

Besides we started to make a "YouthPass wall" in the shop, where we put photos and adverts of all the events we organized since we're here. It will make the place look better and also will help us remember more the activities in the end when we will have to write the YouthPass, hehe. :)

I also started a Christmas decoration workshop: we have been promoting it for a while already, but there wasn't much interest, so I was very happy when someone finally signed up. :) We began by making Christmas decoration with quilling and already finished the first piece. Furthermore the lady attending liked very much this technique, so next week we'll create some more things. :)

Speaking of creativity, I started workshops with Helena's and Mabel's children too once a week. I have to say this is a big challenge, as I'm usually not good with kids - or well, at least I haven't worked with them yet that much. So far we did origami stars (which turned into flowers in the end as the girls were really creative :) and this week I showed them some quilling; they enjoyed that too. Next week I want to do some Christmas stuff already, let's see where their creativity brings us! :)

And last but not least last weekend I had another trip: this time to Valladolid. Helena and her family planned to go there and they offered a seat in the car, so I thought why not. :) I found a cool host, Alberto, on CouchSurfing who showed me around a bit, took me to eat some local tapas and even introduced me to some of his friends, with whom we ended up going out on Saturday night, so I had a great time. :) The trip to Valladolid and back was fun too, we played games in the car, which were super entertaining, although I was the weakest link who constantly broke the fluency of the game, as my Spanish vocabulary is not that extensive yet. :)

Plaza Mayor

Autumn colors in Campo Grande 

Royal peacocks in the park :)

Enjoying the sunshine after a day of constant rain

San Pablo church

Beautiful interior in Museo Nacional de Escultura 

Christmas lights in Plaza Mayor