June activites part 2 - Sun & Fun

As I promised, here we go with the non-work part of June! :)

I started the month with the Barcelona trip, which was practically the last trip of my volunteering time. The rest of the weekends I spent relatively calmly (meaning I didn't travel further than Madrid), but not any less exciting.

The second Saturday I went to Matadero Madrid to see some short movies. Normally I'm not a big fan, but a friend of mine convinced me, so I gave in... they were much better than I expected. We saw like 5-6 movies, and except for one very weird one, I liked the rest. They were all made by Spanish directors, however the topics were very diverse, from food to strange love stories and gay rights in Russia.

The following Thursday I went out to have lunch with Vanessa and Ana (with whom I had the quilling sessions in May) here in Illescas. We went to an Asian all-you-can-eat kind of restaurant to celebrate Ana's graduation, it was very nice. The place was very good, but they had a strange ordering system. I imagined that they'll have all the food there and we can just go and pick whatever we want, but no. They gave us a menu and an extra sheet where we could tick the dishes we wanted and indicate the quantities. The only rule was that we could "only" order 15 dishes per person... :) We ordered 15 altogether for 4 of us (plus desserts ;)) and it was more than enough, so I wonder how can one person eat 15 dishes... :)

Then on the 19th, Marta (one of our English students) invited us for a dance show, where both her and her daughter were performing. It was the annual show of the dance school, so we had all age groups and all kinds of dances. I really enjoyed it, especially the second part, because that had mostly Spanish dances (sevillanas, flamenco) and for the flamenco they even had a live guitarist and a singer. It was amazingly nice, and since I haven't been to any Spanish dance show before I was totally impressed. Both Marta and her daughter danced really really well, so I'm very happy I got invited. :)

Also June was a farewell month not only for my volunteering project, but for two friends of mine who decided to take up a new adventure in Canada. :) We had their farewell picnic in Retiro last Monday with a bunch of cool people, it was a lot of fun, I actually almost missed my last bus, since I didn't really feel like leaving... :)

The mandatory group picture of the picnic participants :)

Then this weekend I went to a walking tour called "Urban Safari": it is about street art in Madrid. I found this initiative randomly a couple of months ago and got very curious, but till now they haven't had any suitable dates... so when I saw that they finally have a tour on a Saturday, I signed up. Normally they have these in Malasaña (which is the most artsy district of Madrid), but now they had this one in Lavapiés. I was a bit disappointed, because I would have wanted to get to know Malasaña better, but since I had absolutely no clue about street art in general, it was very interesting, regardless of the district. :)

Our guide explaining about the signatures of each street artist: some have small figures, some have special ways of signing their names and some have their specific colors.

An abandoned shop decorated by street artists

Random masterpieces :)

Some "ordered" street art: the fence of a cultural center is decorated by different street artists.

June activities part 1 - Ecocompartimos

It's hard to believe, but my volunteering experience is coming to an end... as such, June was a very active month (and full of goodbye events), so I decided I'll dedicate 2 posts to it: one about my last month at Ecocompartimos and one about my free time activities.

The month started with the Toledo excursion I already wrote about, which was a very good start.
Not as much the English playground with the kids that week... I think that was the toughest time we had with them ever. There were many of them and for some reason most of them were noisy and kept fighting with each other. We couldn't get them to focus and play normally, in the end we had to shout at one point to get their attention... it was quite bad, because this way even the ones who wanted to play couldn't. But then the next time most of them didn't show up anymore, so the last 2 sessions we had were calm. At the last one we had a small farewell party kind of thing with food and drinks, and we did some handicrafts with Félix, Amelia, Paula and Daniela, it was very nice. :)

Félix and Amelia gave me the cards they made as a present :)

The second week we had our Spanish exam at UNED... The organization was quite strange, we had to go the assigned center based on our family names and they signed us in by reading off the barcode of our student cards and printed the exam right there... I wonder why we needed to go to specific centers for this. Anyhow the exam was quite easy, I think both the written and oral part went well, but of course nobody could tell us when we'll have the results... so we'll eventually find out if we passed. Or not. :)

That week Helena organized a little surprise party for us too. Sandra invited us out for Friday night for a drink, then all of a sudden Helena, Mabel, Olga and Mari Cruz (from our English class) showed up and we had a very nice evening together. I had some suspicions earlier that something's going on, but I wasn't sure... I really appreciated the gesture. :)

Smily faces :)

We also had our usual English classes in June, though the fact that summer is here is very visible: from the once 10-12 people group we had, now we usually have maximum 4-5 people showing up (and they arrive late too)... Well, last week we actually had only 1 person. :P So I guess everyone is already in vacation mode, nobody wants to be tortured with English anymore hehe. Anyways we have a farewell party in the next class, I hope at least for that I'll get to see them again. :)

There were the usual 2 intercultural chats as well, one about the future and the last one to say goodbye to that group too. We were not many, but the "hard core" was there, so we got to enjoy their company for these last times and we could say goodbye to them.

The last intercultural chat

I'm also about to finish my mosaic classes, but of course not my latest work... I guess it'll take another few months, but now that I know the technique I can finish it by myself. :)

And last but not least, this week was our last week with Helena and Mabel, since they will not be here next week when we leave... so on Friday we had our goodbyes with them (or better say "see you soon" as we'll see each other again very soon), it was very intense and emotional. We got a surprise: a textile bag with our names and a book made personally for us, with everyone writing/drawing something personal in it. It is a great gift, I honestly don't think we could have received anything nicer than this.

The cool bag and some pages of the book :)

A collage of photos I made as the cover of a small photo book I prepared for Dilya, Helena and Mabel as a little gift. :)

EVS mid-term training and Málaga

Last week we had our mid-term EVS training. This time we went to the South, we were in a village called Mollina about an hour away from Málaga, close to the mountains. To be honest I expected nice spring weather down there, but of course as we were in the mountains it was quite cold most of the time. :P However it was very sunny and the few days we spent in Málaga afterwards were the warmest winter holidays I've ever had (not counting Peru, but strictly speaking I didn't go there in winter :)).

A glimpse of the "complex" where we were staying in Mollina, it was full of palm, lemon and orange trees :)

This training was quite different from the on-arrival one: first of all there were 120 volunteers in total, which was a looot compared to the nice family-like group of 23 in Santiago. :) However there were some people from the previous training, so I was very happy too see familiar faces. :) Secondly, the content was also different: the first training was mostly about getting information and this was more about reflecting on our experiences, evaluating our projects and think about the future (both of our projects and our own a bit).

Group picture of all the volunteers

Most of the time we were divided into smaller (~15-20 people) groups and my group was just awesome!! :) It was very diverse both in terms of ages and nationalities (not to mention personalities) and I think we were a good mix. We had good atmosphere and team dynamics even during the "serious and boring sessions". Our trainer Patri was very energetic and she managed us very well, I also think she was a good fit for our group. :) We even did a quite emotional goodbye: we formed a circle and each of us had to go a round with eyes closed and the others had to guide him/her or dance or hug or whatever they wanted to do, it was very nice. :)

The sessions were also interesting, of course we had a lot of games to get to know each other and not to fall asleep in between sessions. And then we were analyzing our projects, thinking of things we could do differently or better, figuring out some next steps, giving ideas to each other and so on, it was quite intense.

My group collecting what we learnt so far in our projects

On the last day we collected what EVS means to us and made a "hot-air balloon" 

For some parts of the training we were divided into different groups: on the second night we had a "CulturCreative" night where we had to present the communities where we are staying in Spain along with the other volunteers from that region. In my case it was Castilla La Mancha and we had quite a hard time figuring out what to tell, because this region has no sea or famous food... and we were not allowed to use a computer or a presentation, so we had to be creative. :) In the end we managed, we found a legend of El Greco and played a scene from Don Quijote (where he is trying to fight the windmills :)). The others were very creative too, some prepared with costumes, some with funny Spanish expressions or some things in Catalan and Gallego, it was a lot of fun. :)

Community of Valencia dressed up as paella and beach :)

Galicia - with rain and some expressions in Gallego

"Sightseeing" in Madrid

On Thursday we also had an activity in Málaga (with again different grouping :)), we had to make pictures and a video to make some publicity for EVS, here are what we made with my group:

And on the last night we made something like a flashmob: we were divided into 4 groups and each group had to learn a small choreography in a certain style for the same song. The categories were ballet, flamenco, robot and zumba. (You can guess which one I chose... ;))

After the training we decided to stay in Málaga for the weekend with Dilya and Theresa (a German girl we know from Santiago). On Saturday 2 other girls - also our friends from the previous training - Anna (from Austria) and Leonie (from Northern Ireland) joined us too. We also met up with some other volunteers randomly as we walked in the city. It was a very nice and relaxing weekend, the city is beautiful, the weather was quite good too (especially for February :)), I had a wonderful time.

As usual here are some photos:

My fake "summer" beach photo - though the kids in the background really went into the water :)

Amazing view on the sea and the city from each side of the castle

Roman Theatre

Inside the Alcazaba

In the Interactive Museum of Musical Instruments - we could try all kind of classical and "tropcial" instruments here :)

The obligatory group-selfie with Theresa and Dilya :)

Madrid and Toledo

I realized that I wrote so far about all the places I've visited, except for Madrid and Toledo. :) This must be because they are both quite close and I have visited both of them several times (especially Madrid), so it doesn't really feel like traveling... But as both cities are great, here are my impressions and some photos:

Madrid

Well, Madrid is as amazing as any capital can be. :) I just love the city, it is perfect for any kind of activity: there are huge parks to walk around but also many bars and all kinds of events to hang out and meet people. It is always very vivid, during the day and during the night as well and is very liveable.

I don't really feel like writing a long list of what I have seen and visited here (as I'm not even nearly done with seeing everything :)), so I will give you a glimpse with a few photos:

Puerta del Sol - the very center

Plaza Mayor

Plaza de la Cebada in La Latina, a really cool square to hang out, they have also music on most Sundays

Palacio Real - though the royal family doesn't live here :P

Plaza de Cibeles - town hall

The symbol of Madrid :)

Wall in Lavapiés, a very multicultural and artistic quarter of Madrid

Retiro Park - it actually reminds me of Heroes Square and Városliget in Budapest

Royal Palace at sunset

Casa de campo - an enormous park in the middle of the city

View from the cable car over the park and the city

Toledo

Toledo is like a nice little treasure box, it is just beautiful. Although the fact that I had to go to foreign office here to arrange my papers (as Illescas officially belongs to the province of Toledo) takes away a little bit of its charm, but well. :) The city is still very nice, walking in the old town feels like time traveling and it's also a wonderful mix of Spanish, Arabic and Jewish architecture and history. Not to mention it's on a hill so the view is amazing from the top. :) I still have a lot to discover here as well, but as I will have more friends visiting me in the upcoming months, I will have the chance to get to know the city more.

Beautiful view on every side of the hill :)

Charming narrow streets

The Alcázar

The Cathedral