Thursday 23 January 2020

ERASMUS+ THINK GREEN PROJECT – INTERNATIONAL MEETING VITORIA-GASTEIZ JANUARY 20-24. Our experiences and observations.


Please, write about the following topics:
  • The presentations of the filmed interviews and infographics from partners and how you felt on presenting your own results.
  • The workshops on the concepts of “Ecological footprint”  and  Visual Thinking, the methods used in the workshops and lessons learned.
  • The field-trip to the Project of Salinas de Añana and Visiting Ataria and the Green Ring Project of Vitoria-Gasteiz, their importance for developing sustainable tourism in Spain. What impressed you the most.
  • The workshops on the "Cooking with Km0 products" and your impressions.
  • The workshop about sustainable tourism for younger students and your impressions.
  • Your expectations and impressions of the activities developed during the exchange and your stay in Vitoria.
  • Write something about the whole experience, for example about the freetime activities, living in a host family and so on.
  • Future expectations concerning the project.









10 comments:

  1. Hey,
    Thank you very much for your blog. This is really awesome! It is a great post! It inspired me to tell my personal experiences of the week.
    In my opinion, the workshops “Ecological footprint” and “Visual thinking” were very interesting. The skills I learned might be useful in my future life. The field-trip to the Project of Salinas de Añana and Visiting Ataria and the Green Ring Project of Vitoria-Gasteiz impressed me the most, because it has a very positive impact on the environment and it was also very interesting. The workshop “Cooking with Km0 products” was a really good idea, because we cooked only with regional products, what is also very sustainable. The workshop about sustainable tourism for younger students was a good impression for me, because I instructed them in sustainable tourism. Living in a host family was a great experience for me, because I saw the typical daily routine of Spanish people. My host family was also very nice and polite.
    I will definitely have this workshop in mind for future ones. It was really an interesting and great week! I love your posts and keep working on them!
    Kind regards,
    Jakob Hofmann

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  2. Hey,
    I hope you‘re feeling well. I noticed you’re post and I think it’s a great one but that’s what you always release. Awesome posts are what I’m used to meanwhile.

    I can tell you about my experiences and impressions in the workshops of the "Cooking with Km0 products". It was a lot of fun to cook with the other classmates and people, we cooked for a total of 2 hours. Personally I think that this activity was a great and smart one because you get to connect to other people and you’re also working as a team. We made 2 delicious dishes and a dessert. Working and connecting with strange people can lead to a big connection and I think everyone enjoyed it.

    The “Cooking with Km0 products” was a valuable activity for myself and the project.

    I love your posts and keep on working hard.

    Denis

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  3. Hey there,

    Living in a host family has been a thrilling experience for me, as I have never experienced this before.
    My host’s family was very nice, hospitable and were genuinely interested in my studies and work. It was a marvellous opportunity to learn more about family circumstances in a different country. I was also able to learn more about the work and school ethic here and compare them to my country’s own.
    I must state that I found it rather unusual that I was placed in a 15 year old’s home, as there is a big age gap and contrast in interests between us, which made it a bit difficult to find leisure activities to do together. I also found it very challenging to obey my host parent’s rules, as I am used to being more independent and not having to ask for permission to do things.

    All in all it was a very interesting experience. I tried to spend as much time with my host as possible and I think it worked out well. I´m glad to have been able to make this experience and hope to return again at one point in my life.

    -Danny + Ahmad, the Germans, but not Germans

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  4. Hi students,
    ERASMUS+
    First off, congratulations on the amazing workshops and the great activities that you organised. The infographics and the presentation videos were really helpful. As we mentioned the workshops were a great way to learn and have fun.
    We loved the trip to the Salt Valley of Añana but; it was really cold and eating outside was very uncomfortable. The activity we most enjoyed was cooking with km0 products as it was a funny and delicious activity. Preparing the workshop about sustainable tourism for younger students was a great way to research about the main topic of the project. Learning more about our city made us realise what environment we live in.
    In general, it was awesome! We will be pleased to share the experience we have had this week and like this to encourage people to participate in further ERASMUS+ meetings.

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  5. Hi Pablo,
    First of all, I would like to thank you the way you welcomed us here in Vitoria-Gasteiz. I learned a lot of your Basque country and your language. Thanks to my wonderful Basque teachers, I was able to expand my Basque knowledge on words like Komunak, Eskerrik Asko, Goxua and Txoko.
    I appreciated very much our field trips to Salinas de Añana and the visit of the Green Ring of Vitoria-Gasteiz. Apart of being in the nature (and it’s good for my condition after eating so well) I learned a lot about conserving traditions and also adapting infrastructure on a sustainable way.
    I’m looking forward to share all the experiences during this project. Thanks a lot.
    Hanna

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  6. TEAM FINLAND



    Hi everybody!



    It’s been a great week here in Vitoria-Gasteiz. We’ve met a bunch of new people from different countries and learned many new things during the week. Generally, all the workshops and tours were unforgettable experiences. We’ve all fallen in love with Spanish culture and the beauty of Vitoria.

    The content of the interviews was interesting, but the presentations could have been more capsulized. The workshops were mostly great, but in the future, they should focus more on activities rather than listening, because everything is in a different language. Workshops could be more organized, because especially we Finns are not used to a lot of noise and many things happening at the same time.



    During the week we have stayed in host families. It has been interesting to see how Spanish families live. We couldn’t be more thankful to be able to live with them for a week. We got a lot of new memories that will last forever.



    Sincerely,

    Melina, Jenna, Nella, Eveliina and Neetta

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  7. Hello,
    We are the Slovenian team.
    The interviews were very insightful. We have learnt a great deal about other countries and their sustainability. All of the infographics were different and unique.
    The workshop on Visual thinking used a lot of uncoventional methods and exercises we don't use in our school.
    Salinas de Anana are a beautiful mix of old traditions and new technologies and the fact that they are in mainland is quite extraordinary and remarkable.
    The Green belt project amazed us with its scale. We think that the challenge they took on, easily accessible green surfaces for every citizen, is a very difficult, yet important goal.
    We think that Cooking with Km0 products is not something that you experience every day. It also improved our teamwork.
    At first we were a little concerned about our workshop with the younger students but then everything went smoothly. The students were cooperating and listening to us very carefully.
    Our stay in Vitoria surpassed all of our expectations. We had a lot of fun spending time with the exchange students.
    We were fascinated by the connection between family members. The host families excepted us as their own. It breaks our hearts that we have to leave.
    We hope that this project keeps connecting people all over Europe.

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  8. Team Lithuania

    First off all, we are very grateful and thankful, for the opportunity to improve our knowledges about sustainable tourism. Meeting was organized very well and experiences that we got in workshop are going to be useful in our lives. And we are pretty sure that we will be able to share our experiences to schools and countries.
    At first day we all met each other in Colegio Carmelitas “Sagrado corazon”. There we had presentation of the work done and we presented our interview and infographic. Later we had amazing opportunity to were at Town Hall of Vitoria-Gasteiz where Vitoria-Gasteiz Major said a welcome speech to all project participants. Also we were to able to walk in Town Hall inside and admire luxurious and colorful architecture elements. After that we were back at school and had really interesting workshop in mixed participants groups where we discussing about different sustainable tourist topics.
    The workshops on “Ecological footprint” and Visual Thinking were very useful, since we will be able to use our skills that we’ve learned anywhere we need to do that. It was very interesting and the teachers that presented the workshops were very sweet and honest.
    About visiting Salinas de Añana and the Green Ring project, we were enjoying the trip and whole emotions we felt about beautiful nature. Green area and Salinas salt mines were fantastic and the guides was spoken in English language very interesting. The weather in salt mines was very cold and windy, but that doesn’t stopped us to explore and listen information about interesting things. And we were very thankful for all guides and school organizers that they organized that trip and gave amazing experiences.
    On Thursday we went to “Cooking with Km0”. We divided into groups, each group had 3 people. We had really good opportunity to taste and make food. We had a lot of fun. All the time chefs were helping us and telling us what to do. It went amazing, we learned how to make Spanish food and the products were without any chemicals and preservatives.
    Last but not least was presentation for younger students about sustainable tourism went nicely. Students were interested in our topic. They were clearly listening about sustainability and about our city – Anyksciai. In our opinions, the most interesting part of our presentation was when we gave them a chance to play an online game in “Kahoot”. They were very exited and happy and that also made us happy.
    And we are pretty sure that we will share our experiences and activities to other communities, friends and social media.

    Dovilė, Kamilė, Vygantė, Ugnius, Domas








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  9. Hey!
    First, we would like to say that due to this experience we have had some amazing five days here. We learned new things with the workshops, we had the opportunity to communicate with different people, to see amazing work, to improve our English and to visit incredible places in this beautiful city.
    On the first day, we had some presentations about infographics and interviews.
    First of all, we would like to say that both the presentations of the interviews and the presentations of the infographics were quite interesting and really helpful. Wonderful work has been done!
    The first thing we saw were the interviews. All of them were really different, some of them had a lot of information about the topic of the project, but others did not. Concerning our presentation, the interviews carried out revealed that the interviewees had little knowledge regarding the topic Sustainable Tourism. We had difficulty in compressing the videos due to the size of each one. Therefore, we consider that the video we presented ended up becoming tiring for those who watched it. Next, every team showed their infographics and, in our opinion, our infographic was a good tool to have more information about sustainable development and it was complete. We focused on the organic farming area in the eight countries in the EU, comparing them to the average of the EU organic farming area and we realized that some countries are more aware of sustainability because they have a big farming area. However, there are some countries where organic sustainability isn’t so important because they have a lower percentage of farming area. We could also show the other teams a company based in Castelo de Paiva, called Agrinemus, and it was good for them to have some information about organic products made in Castelo de Paiva. We consider the infographics a good instrument of communication and presentation, and a way to pass on information. We would also like to say that the training during mobility C1 in Ingolstadt and the one done locally in AECP (Agrupamento de Escolas de Castelo de Paiva) was very useful.
    The workshop on the ecological footprint helped us to understand better the concept of the sustainable tourism.
    On two of the five days spent in Vitoria we had a workshop on Visual Thinking. We think that the techniques learned with the Spanish teacher will be very helpful and useful to help us to spread our message to the world.
    On Tuesday, the 21st January, we visited the Project of Salinas de Añana. We had the opportunity to understand the production processes of the salt flower but also to see the beautiful landscapes around the place and the big variety of flavours that salt can have.
    On Thursday, the 23rd January, we visited Ataria and the Green Ring Project. We had the opportunity to learn more about many species of animals and plants that live there, or even about the invasive ones. It was a really enriching guided tour and we think that they are developing a good work there.
    The workshop on cooking with 0km products, on the 23rd January was a very interesting activity for all those who participated in it. At our ages, few people are comfortable with cooking. With the guidance of the Spanish chefs, we learned a lot. We made two dishes. Initially, we made a starter, with plenty of vegetables and with a potato cream made by the bosses. The reviews were diverse but from an overview it was a delicious dish! The main dish was the most adored! A dish that obviously included vegetables that were wrapped. It was pretty funny to make this dish because at the time of preparation we looked like real chefs. Finally, the cooks prepared a delicious dessert quite adored by everyone. It was a very important activity for our development for the future as adults.
    (This text continues in Part II of the complete comment by the Portuguese team)

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  10. (This is the 2nd part of the complete comment by the Portuguese team)

    On the 24th January, the Portuguese team developed a workshop about sustainable development addressed to 8th graders. First, we introduced the topic Sustainability and then showed a video about it. Then, an infographic was presented about the organic agriculture in a European vision. We also talked about some organic producers from Castelo de Paiva, like Agrinemus, and the students had the chance to taste organic apple juice and maçazada (marmalade made of apples). They loved it!!! Finally, we showed the students the project mascot and, later, the team applied a gamified activity using PLICKERS, to make sure the students had understood what the project is about. It was easy and nice to work with these young students and we think that this was an extremely fulfilling experience.
    We recommend this experience to everyone.
    When we entered to this project, we knew that if we should ever participate in the mobilities, we would stay with a host-family. For some of us, it was a little bit scary because we have never been away from our families for so long. However, we had embarked very happily on this new adventure. We knew that it would be a grateful experience and a unique opportunity at our age to escape a little from our comfort zone and to learn new things.
    This week allowed us to use the English like our mother language and make new friendships across Europe. We also got to know more about Vitoria-Gasteiz which is undoubtedly a very beautiful city.
    Additionally, we did several activities with our host families to «break the ice» because, in fact, it may not be very easy at first to keep contact with new people but in spite of our cultural differences, we had learned that we have a lot in common.
    The host families were very friendly and they always tried to make us feel at home.
    In the future, we would like to keep the contact with our new friends and visit the other cities where the Erasmus+ Project is being developed. We also hope that we can take part in more projects like this one, because it was an unforgettable week!

    André Pereira, Beatriz Carmo, Maria Inês Pinto, Mara Rocha and Tomás Ferraz

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