On the 27th of November all five countries – Slovakia, Romania, Spain, Turkey, Lithuania – met in the beautiful and strangely full of snow Spain. It was a trip that all the students and the teachers will remember for a while.
Our new friendships began with the tour of the town – Leon. The name itself means a lion, brave and autonomous animal. The city itself is the most popular for its Tapas in the whole region, has a lot of beautiful places to visit, lots of churches and museums, parks and is full of cultures that we needed to observe.
Spain is the country where people enjoy going out in the evening, meet friends in the restaurants or bars, they talk hours and hours, and they do not get tired of that. Spanish people are very warm, friendly and sensitive, ready to help you whenever you need help.
All the project partners noticed that not only the people are amazing here, but also the cuisine and the places full of history.
Nonetheless, there were so many wedding traditions to find out and to see if they were similar to the ones we have in our countries.
One of the most beautiful places was the León Cathedral. It was full of memorable stained-glass windows and beautiful relics. It represents the Gothic stile of the mid XIII century. Its colourful inside and magnificent outside took out breath away.
Other more modern place that represents the colourful lives of Spanish people was the MUSAC – the contemporary art museum in Leon. There the students not only fell in love with the exhibitions, but also became artists themselves – painting according to the music.
The main place for a lot of things in the past of Leon was the Convent of San Marcos. It was a place of the weddings, funerals, pilgrims, it was a prison, a place to hide, and now it’s a five-star hotel. The whole view of the place attracts the newly-weds for the photoshoots of their beautiful day.
The main goal of the whole week was to share the wedding traditions of different cultures. Students and teachers exchanging all of what they know, reaching for the principal aim.
All the students were divided into groups each day. They were sitting all together and sharing their ideas, thoughts, memories about the weeding in their own countries. The objectives were to create some material in the Google Classroom, prepare the slides, do a local questionary, find some material on the internet too.
Due to the visits to some marvellous places during the Leon city tour, we already knew the places significant to the local wedding. Still, there was one other town we went to – Mancilla de las mules. It is a very important place to the travellers of the Camino de Santiago. Nonetheless, it was a very special place to us, too. Students were taking interviews of the local people of what they can share about the traditional wedding in the region.
All the students and teachers of the five countries made a lot of discoveries. We saw the live performances of the local dancers, singers, some traditional instruments and outfits of the important days in people’s lives. We met the major of the Leon city, who welcomed us and shared his thoughts about the project.
The final day of the meeting was about the presentations that the students did. They completed all their researches, concluded all the information that they got from travelling and exchanging ideas, put everything into the slide demonstration and presented the material to the participants of the project.
Meanwhile, during the time the students were doing their group works and researches, the teachers were discussing the future plans for the project. The dates of the further mobilities were changed a little bit due to the national exams, celebrations and other projects. Also, the work that has to be done for the successful realizations of the WETCA project was listed. The coordinators and the other teachers talked about the students and what they have to prepare for the next mobility, what the schools’ project groups must do, and they shared their knowledge about wedding tradition.
If someone asked to conclude the whole mobility in Spain in few words, the only thing would be left to say is the name of the project. Finding out about wedding traditions in other countries and sharing ours was a thing that you can’t repeat twice in the same manner. We learnt a lot, we met new people, we exchanged ideas, gifts, found new friends, believing that these people will become a huge part of our lives.
If someone asked us – would you do it again – the answer would be the same for all of us, the teachers and the students, WE WOULD. The travelling, packing your bags, preparing information, documents and everything else disappears when you learn this much, see new places, find new friends, make memories and discover not only the culture of other countries, but yours too. It’s the experience that is made for life.
And for those who are planning to participate in this or some other Erasmus+ projects – don’t be afraid to show who you are and be a part of something as amazing as this. Join the huge and marvellous family of Erasmus. This experience doesn’t have to end. Look at it as a beginning of a new chapter.
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