ROMANIA - GIURGIU
A new course with new mobility, we continue with our Erasmus + project LEARNING ZONE FOR INCLUSION AND EQUALITY. This time we moved to our partner in Romania, specifically to the Danube town of Giurgiu to meet our Italian friends.
The first day we started at the host school; we were welcomed in their regional costumes and prepared some local "snacks" as soon as we arrived... a delicious bread typical of the country.
We were able to peek into the classrooms and see how both teachers and students worked, and we were able to see the Erasmus projects on display from previous editions. The school is occupied in the morning by primary school students and in the afternoon by secondary school students. The organisation of the school is very curious...there are about 500 students divided in two periods sharing the classrooms. After the visit, our children have exhibited the works of iconic women in the history of our country. We have talked about Lidia Valentín, Emilia Pardo Bazán or Rosalía De Castro among others... And we have listened to our Italian and Romanian colleagues about their most emblematic women.
We continued the day with a sightseeing tour of the city to end up exhausted at the hotel, but not before stopping at a Carrefour to be able to take some snacks back to our room in case dinner was not to our liking.
We started a second day in the city of Bucharest. Luckily we have had splendid weather. In the morning we go on a sightseeing tour of the city. It is a working day but not a school day (they celebrate World Teachers' Day), so the guides for us and for the Italian group were teachers from the school and a couple of volunteer students; the rest of the Romanian group stayed at home resting. We have seen the Mint Palace, several orthodox churches, the Romanian National Museum and walked around the old part of the city. We were impressed by the huge buildings and the enormous avenues throughout the city (here everything is big, there is nothing small...) For lunch we were taken to a very old typical restaurant and we even had a small violin concert to liven up our meal. The afternoon was free for shopping in the old part of the city and time to get to know it.
A third day dawned with nerves, as it was the day on which we put together the plays prepared by each of the centres. A lot of nerves and emotions were experienced throughout the morning as, in addition to the responsibility of doing things well, there was a theatre full to capacity and even local television broadcasting the event. After the works came the collection of diplomas. Afterwards, we went for lunch on the banks of the Danube River from where we could see the Bulgarian city of Ruse. We came to the conclusion that the typical Romanian delicacies are not suitable for the mouths of our young Spaniards. Immediately after lunch we went back to the hotel to "rest" for a while and at 18:00 we went to a large hall near the hotel for the big farewell party attended by students, parents and teachers from the three schools. We even had a disco where we were "entertained" with current songs such as the macarena, gasoline or saturday night... in this country we teachers sometimes have the feeling that we are travelling back 10, 15 or even 20 years. And the usual farewells with a few tears included, made us all agree to meet again next year in Spain.
We think that the memory they take with them from this country, which they probably didn't even know
where it was located just 10 days ago, is unforgettable?
