Erasmus in Spain 10 - 16 November 2024

November 10

The day of travel – this time to Burjassot, Spain, for the first mobility during the academic year 2024-25. The region of Valencia (where Burjassot is located) had suffered tremendously for the heavy rain and accompanying floods a week or two prior. Luckily, our partner school IES Comarcal and the town itself had been spared, but of course many of the students and teachers had – and hopefully still have – people they know in the regions who’d suffered from the damages.

November 11

The day started at around 8:30 when the headmistress, Ms Nuria Martinez, and the Erasmus+ coordinator, Ms Maria José Cob Canet, welcome the international Erasmus+ teams to IES Comarcal. We had a tour of the school, some ice-breaker activities and a nice coffee break / second breakfast before starting the work. We had the umbrella topic / them of ”Young people in Europe are … committed to democracy” and the group work centered around it. Eight teams (mixed groups with students from all the five countries and partner school) were formed and each team was given a separate task, including e.g. what they’d do as the president to encourage young people to take part in democracy, what kind of a social media campaign they’d organize to promote inclusion and diversity in democratic participation etc. Etc.

After finishing the work at around 2 PM, we excused the students and retired for a whopping two-and-a-half-hour-long lunch at the La Llotgeta. Apparently, I’ve been getting it wrong for the whole time: lunch is the main meal in Spain – and this one certainly proved it! Plenty of delicious tapas (sepia, croquettes, salmon tartar, toast with jamon y queso etc.), a main course of entrecote and a selection of chocolate tarte, cheese cakes etc. etc. to top it of. Needless to say, there wasn’t much need for a big dinner ... 

November 12

This was an early start: 5:30 at the school to begin our trip to Madrid, the capital of Spain. The coach trip took about four hours (one quick break included) so lucky me as I’m able to a) sleep on the bus and b) had enough leg space for it – not to mention c) adequate supply of packed breakfast and snacks to last the day.

The traffic in Madrid was - surprise surprise - kind of heavy by the time we got closer to the center, which meant that instead of arriving at the Congreso de los Diputados (the Congress of Deputies) at 9:30, we were there around 10:20. Thus, we had time for only a quick introduction to the Plenary Hall before the security were to come in and check the Hall before the Assembly taking place there later on.

After we exited the Congress, there was time for a quick bathroom break - or not so quick, since (as a group of 50+ people) we had to disperse to different locations. Finally though, we were underway in two different groups under the guidance of two separate guides . 

When Saara and I had finished our lunch, we went our separate ways. I walked into Plaza de Espanã to have a look at the Cervantes monument. Then I discovered that the Museum of Contemporary Arts was close by, so I decided to check out the buildings - at the very least. Imagine my pleasant surprise when I learned that it was free of charge! I wandered through the exhibitions which were well curated but kind of short and thus still had time to shop for a bit more to eat on the way back to Burjassot as well as take a leisurely walk around some of the university buildings close by our designated pick-up location.

The drive home started more or less on time at around 16:30 and went without a hitch. The following day, however, was a different story: during the compulsory rest stop for the driver (and bathroom break for others), Mari José sent us a message that the local authorities had opted to declare orange alert due to the predicted heavy rains - which meant that there would be no school nor Erasmus+ activities the following day …

November 13

Skip the day: with the school being closed, there were no Erasmus+ related activities. We teachers worked on our own, with some doing a bit of sightseeing in Valencia (I went to visit my aunt who has been living there since the 1970s).

After returning to the hotel at around 7 PM, we teachers had already made a reservation at a nearby restaurant when my phone started ringing. Red alert had been declared to Valencia region - no restaurant and no school the following day. Damn.

Well, in regards to the dinner, I and Saara had done some grocery shopping early in the morning, just to be on the safe side. Now it certainly paid off and we and all the other teachers staying at the same hotel (our German colleagues Katharina and Amelie and Italian colleagues Lucia and Sandra) had a kind of picnic dinner in the breakfast are downstairs. Granted, having sardines on toast and cannellini beans heated in microwave & finished with some leftover tomato sauce from the tin of sardines didn’t quite do the same trick in terms of culinary delight as the dinner we had been forced to cancel. Nonetheless, the company was excellent and we ended up having a jolly good time! And our Spanish hosts arranged for a video conference for Thursday, as well as online instructions for the students so they’d be able to continue their project work online.

November 14

The online meeting started at 11 AM: we managed to sort out the relevant things concerning finishing this visit and talked about the preparations for the spring mobility to the Czech Republic. Apart from that ... Well, nothing, as this was the red-alert day: no school, so ... I just went to Valencia again to visit my aunt. And despite the red alert, this was actually probably the most beautiful day of the entire trip with sunshine and everything ... 😏

November 15

This was the final working day during the visit, which started with a visit to the town hall in Burjassot. After that, we visited the grain silos adjacent to the town hall. This underground complex dated back to the days of the Spanish Empire and had earlier been used as a headquarters of a sort during the Spanish Civil War. Luckily no one was claustrophobic as the short trip through half a dozen rooms of varied size (actually, the system contained dozens of silos but most of these had either been selaed off or had collapsed) was kind of dark on. 

In the afternoon, the students started presenting their project tasks. They had been able to more or less complete them via online meeting and sessions during the two days during which the school had been closed. The tasks placed quite a bit of emphasis on creativity and oral skills as many of them were kind of acted out, including a meeting with the President and their cabinet to negotiate the means to encourage political activity among young people.

After the presentations, we gathered at IES Comarcal's gym hall where a small banquet had been set up for Erasmus+ teachers, students and the families hosting the visiting students. We had time to mix and mingle before we Finnish teachers headed back to our hotel - we had a wake-up call at around 3 AM... Our students stayed and even went to to dinner later in the evening. Well, they're young and of course you can sleep on the place.

November 16

Like Tuesday, this was an early morning - but even more extreme as we had to be at Valencia airport at 4 AM, which meant a 3 AM wake-up call… It’s a good thing I can sleep on the plane - and sleep I did (or rather we, as I don’t think a single one of the students nor my colleague Saara remember that much about the flight from Valencia to Amsterdam). There we had a two-hour layover and then off to Helsinki-Vantaa.

The flights were on time and we also had time for a traditional (I dare say it’s a tradition already) late lunch / early dinner at an Asia buffet at Tikkurila station. I was home around 7 PM.

A big thank you to my co-coordinator, our students, the Spanish teachers and host families and the whole Erasmus+ team for another pleasant and welcoming mobility in Burjassot. Despite the earlier hardships and bumps in the road during the mobility itself, we persevered and - I’m sure - managed to give the students pleasant experiences!