The National Geographic Fieke Weren

Today, our last day in Spain, we went to a museum. Personally, I didn’t like the museum very much, because the weather was so beautiful outside. So we were there half an hour and we wanted to sit in the sun. So I don’t know what to say about this museum. Our last day, we also went to the Barcelona stadium. It was very beautiful and especially large! The changing rooms are very luxury, they even have a Jacuzzi. In the evening, we had dinner at the Chinese with the whole group. You could eat as much as you want, because you had to pay 10 Euros and you could eat what you want. Then, we went to the park, and want to stay there almost the whole night. But then at 3 o’ clock, there was the police, and we had to go home.  So we could sleep a few hours before we had to go back to Holland.

The insider Thursday the 10th of February Joyce van Grinsven

Today we went to the Science Museum and to the FC Barcelona stadium. The science museum was very interesting, but I don’t have physics, so I didn’t understand biggest part of the museum. Because of that, we went out and settle down on a terrace. The weather was very sunny, so it was very nice on the terrace.

After our time at the science museum we went to the FC Barcelona stadium. I don’t know very much about football, but I really liked our visit. It was very big, there can be 90.000 people in the stadium. We’ve seen places you don’t see every day, for example the changing rooms and the pressroom. After we’ve seen everything we went back to school.

My exchange partner was Laia. She lives with her mother and brother in a very tiny appartment at the thirteenth floor. They were very nice for me. Laia’s mother didn’t speak English when I arrived at Barcelona, but during my visit, she learned some words English. Before I went home, she could tell me that she would miss me, that was very nice. Laia speaks English very good. I was very happy with that, because it’s very nice when you are able to converse with your exchange partner.

Now, I’ll tell you something about the social behavior of the Spanish people compared with the Dutch. The biggest difference between the Spanish and Dutch people is that the Spanish ones don’t care about time. They don’t hurry and don’t care when they aren’t somewhere at the right time. The Spanish people are very relaxed.

Another very big difference between the Dutch and Spanish culture are the times of eating. In the morning they eat very less. They have a good breakfast at +/- 10.30. Than they finish their day at school and go home for the lunch. That’s around 15.30. Most days we went out after our “lunch” and we returned home at 20.30. They we had dinner. The lunch and dinner are both hot food, so for me it felt every day like two dinners.

The European Times Thursday

¡Hola!

All the people in Spain are very friendly and relaxed. They take everything easy and don´t worry about the time.

IES Bellvitge starts at 8.30 am and most of the students are finished at 3.00 pm. The students eat at 3.30 pm and have dinner at 7.00 pm, 8.00 pm or 9.00 pm. They eat warm food twice a day instead of once.

The schools are not the same as the schools in Holland. In Spain you go to kindergarden when you´re 3, 4 and 5. After that you go to primary school when you´re 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. After that you go to secundary school when you´re 13, 14, 15 and 16. After that you can do bachelor or half cycle and than upper or university.

In their free time they just go outside with friends, sport or do homework, so that is the same as in Holland. But the disco´s are different. I went to a latin disco and they are open in the afternoon till 9.30 pm. The music and the way they dance is also different, a big difference is that in the latin disco everyone can dance. Barcelona also has disco´s which are similar to the disco´s in Holland.

Kyra

National Geographic Wednesday

Today we went to visit Codorníu, a winery, and to Sitges. In Codorníu we got a guided tour and went in to the basement, where all the bottles of wine are. From the outside everything looked very luxury, but from the inside everything looked much older. It was a very beautiful place.
Then we went to Sitges to visit the beach, which of course is very beautiful. We were lucky
that we had such nice weather.

Mirna van Oel

The insider Wednesday

Sanne van Nistelrooij


The most important difference between Dutch and Spanish people, is how we handle the time. In Spain, the people are very relaxed. They don´t worry about the time and when they go somewhere, it´s normal to be late. When we say in Holland that we´ll be somewhere at 6 o´clock, we are there at 6 o´clock. So that´s a big difference.


In Holland we also like to know what we are going to do and i´ve noticed that Spanish people don´t like planning very much. In the previous days, the Spanish people from the exchange group didn´t know what we were going to do and they decided last minute.


My exchange partner is Cristina. She lives with her parents and sister in Barcelona. She also has a cat. Her parents aren´t from Catalonia originially. They are from Galicia. Every summer they go back to Galicia with the whole family. They are all very nice and take good care of me.


We´ve tried to learn the Spanish students a few Dutch words. Sometimes they can pronounce it correct, but there also are words which are very hard for them to pronounce. I´ve got Spanish at school, so I know a few words. That´s very handy, because now I sometimes can understand what they are talking about when the speak Spanish. Cristina´s parents can´t speak english, but sometimes when her mother asks me something, I don´t need a translation.

The European Times Tuesday

Today, we went to Parc Güell after school with the Spanish students. It´s a grand park in Barcelona which is designed by Gaudi. It think it was really nice. The people here are like very relaxed. They don´t hurry anything and they just see what´s coming next. For example, when we are talking about what we are going to do this evening, they said: ´No lo sé.´ (I don´t know)

The food here is different than in Holland. They eat a lot of bread with vinegar oil  and tomato. They rub a half tomato on the bread, so there comes juice on the bread. Then they do vinegar oil on the bread and eat it with something like ham. At diner they eat this a lot too. Another traditional Spanish food is Tortilla. It is like a really thick omelet with potatoes in it. I eat it and I liked it, only I think it would be better if it´s still warm.

Last week I noticed that some people are working here at night. In Holland we have that too like in the hospital, but here are some builders or people who works in factories working at night. I think it´s is strange, because I just want to sleep at night.

I think the things that Spanish people do in their spare time is the same as in Holland, like checking facebook or going to friends. They act mostly the same as we do, only they are more relaxed I think, like I said earlier. Just take it easy, they would say here. The different thing here in Bellvitge is that all the people live in flats and in Holland most people live in houses. So we are used to have a lot of space in our homes, but they don´t have it here. But there really proud of what they got. For example they clean their houses very good.

National Geographic Tuesday

Today we visited the Sagrada Familia, a very beautiful cathedral. It was a cathedral with many windows, so the light came from outside. The cathedral has got many towers, 18. They stand for all important persons in the bible. The church is made for Jesus, because the person who was the architect of the church was very religious. The cathedral is build because the architect wanted to praise Jesus. That’s why it´s a very high building, it´s as near at the top as it could be. The cathedral still hasn´t finished yet, the think it will be done in the year 2023.

Michelle van der Linden

The Insider Tuesday

Today we went to the Sagrada Famila. The Spanish pupils didn’t come with us, they went to school. So we didn’t hang out much with them today. Later we will go to the Park Guell with the whole group, the Dutch and the Spanish pupils. You can see a very clear difference between the Spanish and the Dutch students, the Spanish students are very touchy with each other. Not like the Dutch students. But everyone can get along very well, the Spanish students are very nice and the families too. My family is very nice. Their English is not so good, but with Google translate we understand each other just fine. It’s really nice to be here and an other culture. It’s nice to see the many differences in everything, from behaviour to food.

The European Times Monday

Theme C. The European Times Monday

Holá

The Spanish culture is very different. You can see that in many ways. First the time they eat, in the morning they eat round half past seven, which is almost the same as in Holland. But round four o’clock they eat their lunch. Their lunch is a warm meal. But their lunch is similar to our lunch because it contains potatoes, meat and vegetables and as last a dessert. In the evening they eat at ten o’clock, the meal consists mostly pizza. They don’t cut pizza with a pizza roller but with a scissor. Another thing you see what is different is the pork leg in the kitchen. I have been to the exchange partners of Merijn and Daan and there is a pork leg in their kitchen too. The school is very different, it is very small and there are bars before the windows. The teachers don’t speak English very well (maar dat komt nog wel)

Adios Salutacions Luuk

The Insider Monday

My family is really nice. They are very hospitable and they speak good English. They are very different than we are. At first place their eating time. In the morning they eat like us at about 8 o´clock. But then you’re going to see the difference in culture. They eat lunch at 4 o’clock in the afternoon and they have diner at 10 o’clock in the evening.

On Sunday we had a lunch at the boulevard of Barcelona. We went to a restaurant and ate paella. It was delicious and there was a lot of sun so it was a good day. During the diner we talked a lot and we had good conversations. The parents speak very good English and they ask me a lot about the culture and the habits of the Dutch people. I have a really good connection with my exchange student. We are on the same level of humour so we laugh a lot.

Adios Amigos Joran Verhoeven

The National Geographic Sunday

The National Geographic

Sunday was the only free day of the week. I haven´t see very much. First we walked to the school, it was not a big school, it look likes a prison, the spanisch people say that too. There were big walls around the school and bars for the windows. After that we were going to a very big shopping mall. There we walk around and at the end we were bowling. That was very nice. After that we ate a burger by McDonalds. 

Ayla van Berkel

The National Geographic Monday

Today we visited, the old town of the city. It contains, a cathedral build in gothic style. The cathedral was build in the place were the romans build there border of the roman city Barcelona. The cathedral was very impressive to see. The we walked on to the jewish border of the city. We walked to a square, I don´t know the names of all those things because it was spanish so I don´t remember. The square was a very important piece of histori In the civil war of spain. You can still see the marks that the bombs have left on the walls. In the bombing a house for childeren without parents collapsed so a lott of childeren died due the bombing. The we walked to the highest point of barcelona, it is about 16 meters above sea level. The old castele of the king was build on the highest point. the tour ended in an other church. This curch was special because it was build in 55 years wich is realy fast for a church. The city of Barcelona is very big, but you can´t really see how big it is because we travel by the underground. Merijn

The European Times Sunday

Hi, my name is Annegien.

The Spanish culture is really different then the Dutch culture. They are very hospitable and have a close family.

On Sunday I went with the family of my exchange partner (Hannah) to the church. It wasn´t a normal church as I know.

It was called ´The church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints´ and although I couldn´t understand anything, it was nice. A lot of people from the church

spoke in front of everybody, shared their emotions.

I really had to get used to the eating. Because they eat a lot and at many times, really late.

The food is nice, but you have to get used to it because at lunch they eat a lot and a few hours later we have dinner and I´m not hungry then anymore!

Also they are very friendly to everybody, and I already have met a lot of friends of Hannah. We see her friends every day.

But I have to go now, we´re going to the park and meet friends! :)

Buenas noches!

The Insider Sunday

My exchange partner Paula is a very kind person. She has: a mother, a stepfather and 2 brothers. The contact between Paula and her family is very good. They are very kind and friendly people. When I met them for the first time at the airport it was very nice, they said when we are at home, that their home is my home and that they will care at me very good. Spanish people behave very sympathetic and kind. I like them very much. They are like my family. The Spanish people are very close to each other and they like dancing very much as the Dutch group. The contact between the Dutch group and the Spanis group is very good. Everyone have introduced them self from the Spanish group and from the dutch group at the airport yesterday. The mother of Paula lived years ago in Germany. She can speak German and English. She is very friendly. When we are at them home she asked me what kind of food I like, because I don´t eat all kind of food. She had cut different recepten for me now. Paula and her family are going to learn me Spanish. I like that very much. This exchange is a very good experience for me. We will have a great time together!!!

Tulay Bolat