First Mobility
(September 2019)
Thursday – September 12, 2019 – ARRIVAL
Our German friends arrived at Madrid-Adolfo Suárez airport at the noon. Our Spanish students together with David Hinojar went to the airport to welcome them. Afterwards, we went to our high school all together. There, our principal, Mayte Cuenca, addressed an encouraging speech to all of us during a welcome ceremony.
Friday – Sept. 13, 2019 – German Chamber of Commerce
On Friday we went to the German Chamber of Commerce. Our students attended two lectures there. The first one was led by a representative of the DAAD (the German Service of Academic Exchange), who informed our students about the chance of studying in Germany in the future and the way they can help them with it. Afterwards, a member of the Chamber of Commerce explained the trade relationships between Spain and Germany, as well as their connections to migration flows. After the lecture, our students could interview them as German residents in Madrid.
Saturday and Sunday – Sept. 14 and 15, 2019 – Weekend
German students spent the whole weekend with the Spanish hosting families.
Monday – Sept. 16, 2019 – Training sessions and Exhibition.
Several teachers at IES Luis García Berlanga trained all of the students involved in the project on how to carry out some tasks for our project. Rosaura Marcos taught them how to interview people properly. Francisco Martín showed how to draw different graphs. Carlos Gracia provided them with different resources with information about the migration flows between Spain and Germany. David Hinojar organised students into groups and explained how to carry out the population survey about migration during the afternoon.
Afterwards, our teacher Daniel Fernández arranged students into groups so as to start the design of the posters of an exhibition that will show what they have been doing throughout this mobility.
Tuesday – Sept. 17, 2019 – Interviews & Exhibition
Tuesday working hours were split up into two sessions. The first part of the morning was devoted to interviews. Our students had the chance to interview three people: two of them were Spanish who once migrated to Germany being teenagers and then, being adults returned to Spain. The third person was a German man who came to live in Spain when he was seven years old. We want to say thanks to them, not only for participating in the project and answering all our students’ questions, but also for being so friendly and open to speak in both languages, Spanish and German. After these live interviews, we watched a recorded interview to a German woman who works as a psychologist in Spain and kindly recorded herself answering our questionnaire.
In the second session, students drew graphs in the computer lab with the help of our Maths teachers. They had to show the data they had collected in a survey they had carried out during Monday afternoon. Finally, they continued working on the posters for the exhibition.
Wednesday – Sept. 18, 2019 – Euroclub Denia & Europe Direct
On Wednesday we had to suspend the scheduled trip to Denia. The reason for this were the torrential rains, the tornado and, in general terms, the risky situation that had been caused in Denia by a DANA (a Deep Low Pressure Centre) which stayed over the southeast of the peninsula since the last weekend. Instead, we transformed the scheduled activities with the association Euroclub Denia into virtual. Denia is one of the favourite places for German residents in Spain. There are over 1,000 of them living in Denia and many of them take part in the activities carried out by this association. We want to say thanks to its president and vice-president who answered our students’ questions in a video conference at the assembly hall. In addition, many members of their association filled in a questionnaire about their experience as Germans in Spain and sent them to us. Our students collected their answers and showed them onto their exhibition posters.
During a second session, we received the visit of Luis Canal, on behalf of the organisation Europe Direct. He is an expert on Europe who addressed a lecture to our students on the history of the European Union and the consequences it has had to the lives of European citizens, including the benefits to internal migrants within the EU.
Thursday – Sept.19, 2019- Exhibition, association APOYAR & Tour around Madrid city centre.
Students hanged the posters of the exhibition that shows all they have learned throughout these days, so as the rest of the students at IES Luis García Berlanga can see the results of their experience.
Afterwards, they took a train to visit the association A.P.O.Y.A.R. in the city centre. There they learned about the support this organisation offers to the returned migrants. In addition, our students had time to walk around the city and discover the highlights of Madrid while carrying out a Gymkhana designed by our teacher Patricia Sanz.
Friday – Sept. 20, 2019 – Farewell
At 4 a.m our German friends took a bus at the high school that took them to the airport. David Hinojar went there along with them. Two hours after they were taking off to Germany with a piece of our hearts with them. Gute Reise!
