Visit to the Port of Huelva

On Wednesday the Europrensa group headed to Huelva to visit Huelva's Harbour. When we arrived to the facilities, we entered the museum and watch a couple of films in English and Spanish about the history of the company and about Huelva's history as international port since Phoenicians inhabited our marvellous land..

After the videos, we had a little ask and answer time with the representative of the harbour, in which he showed us aditional data about it, from the amount of cargo they can handle in a day to the number of jobs they produce..

After this, we headed to the port himself, exactly to the fisherman's loading dock, where we could see the "Lonja", where fish is sold and several fisherman's boats. We asked to visit the cargo port, but it couldn't be possible due to security issues for such a large group..

Customs and Stereotypes

The group was divided into the original teams of each country. First, they debated in their own groups about the stereotypes of their countries for a later presentation of them to the other groups. It was a very informative activity, which let everyone know better the countries of their new friends, finding that stereotypes actually do not define a country for themselves, and that we have to change a bit our beliefs about those countries.

Italians

They arent just plain pizza eaters. Every single region has its own traditional cuisine. Mafia is not over the whole country but is mainly active in the south. It is a stereotype that there is trash on the street because that was just a one time event in Napoli. They introduced us some gestures and their meanings through a role-play.

Polish

They sang a song that was very beautiful. They came from different parts of the country and they shared info about them. They taught us polish expressions and words. They told us stories about polish people who are world-famous. Instead of explaining stereotypes they focused on introducing their country.

Spaniards

The bullfights are not supported by everyone. They told us stories about spanish dances and they presented some of them as well. We learned about different types and styles. Flamenco has 4 types and we will have the opportunity to learn each of them during the week. We heard about the siesta and about possibilities for young people who want to have fun and party.

Romanians

Ana, the only one attendee shared information about the history of her country for example about the cemetery of Máramaros, about the parliament built by Ceausescu. About the beautiful and diverse natural habitat of the Danube Delta and about Dracula and his habits.

Hungarians

The Hungarian team devided their presentation into three parts: stereotypes, customs and fun facts. They talk about cuisine, famous Hungarian people and the attitude of society. We have gotten to learn how proud they are of having the most olympic golds and Nobel prices respectively compared to population.

Nevertheless Bucarest is not equal to Budapest!!!!

Europrensa VI Photos

In the next link you can find the album with all the photos I made so far in EuroprensaVI.

I will update later with all the videos too!!!

Photos

Sand Castle Competition

As last year this activity had a great welcome by the participants, we decided to repeat it.

On Tuesday at 4 PM five different nations decided to challenge themselves in an hard and serious competition... a sand castle competition on the seaside of Mazagón!!

Acting like children everybody tried to do his best to make the most wonderful castle of his life. After several hours of hard work everyone was ready to show his masterpiece to the competitors.

Polandia, made by the Polish team, was a huge and circular construction with high walls decorated with shells. The Spanish one was a squared castle with inner towers and a yellow buoy with a flag on the top. The most original models were made by Italians and Hungarians: the first one created a star­shaped castle with six towers and a central building; the second one was a functional contruction... a wonderful Jacuzzi!!

So... who's the winning team? As in Italy people say “ai posteri l'ardua sentenza”! (sentence waits posterity)

Meeting Point

On the first day we have started our stay from very delicious Andalusian breakfast in bar La Playa. After the meal it was a time to get to know each other a bit better. The organizator of Europrensa, Antonio, let Gábor from the Hungarian team lead to explain some group games which purpose was to break the ice between people from different nations :)

To take part in the first activity we were asked to form a circle and stand close to each other. The person who starts had to introduce himself by saying his name and show a gesture simultaneously, for example he could jump, clap his hands etc. The next participant had to repeat the name of the previous one and then add his own gesture. We were following the process one by one. There was 28 of us, 5 nationalities, so it was quite hard to remember all of the people with movements. At the end we were laughing all the time because some of the gestures were really funny. Of course we were making mistakes but finally we have learned the names. As a final turn we have repeated all the movements with names together.

The second game ´WHACK-A-MOLE´ we played was supposed to make us remember our names even better than in previous game!!! The rules were quite simple: we were divided into three mixed groups. There was one person in each group that held a rolled piece of paper ("the hammer"). 

The general rule is that the rest of the people who make a circle around the one with the hammer have to tell name of some other person from the circle as fast as possible. The person in the middle has to try to hit the person whose name has been said before he or she tells yet another name. If the person whose name has been said don't tell another name and gets hit, he gets "the hammer" and tries to hit another person, so he can get out of the middle of the circle. This went for some time, and then the groups were mixed two more times to make things even more difficult and productive. 

I think this game allowed us to remember our names even better than the first one, as it required fast reflex. It seemed that everyone enjoyed this game and had fun while getting to know each other. This game really helped to open up to other nationalities :)

The third game was supposed to be a fight. We were divided into three groups. In each turn two teams had to form lines facing the opponents. The main task was to make the other group laugh before the time of two minutes is up. The rule was not to avoid touching the deffended person and make hilarious faces and poses. One of Polish girls, Agata pretended to be a duck. She was imitating funny noises of animals so no one could resist and maintain his composure. We were receiving points after winning or not being beaten. Generally there were three rounds so we had a mini-league. 

Thanks to all activities we could break the ice and make the atmosphere much more friendly. We got really opened to each other because the games were interactive. :)

After we made friends together, we went to the breathtaking beach of Mazagon to lay in smudges of the afternoon sun. When the clear, fresh air entered our lungs, we felt fulfilled with happiness that resulted from the fact that we are going to spend an entire week in this idyllic place which is close to be a paradise.

Introduction

Europrensa is coexistence. It is the birth of friendship and interpersonal links between groups of people from different countries like Romania, Poland, Hungary, Italy or Spain.

The UNIPO association from Mazagón has been organizing Europrensa for six years, so we are facing our sixth international meeting, and the first one under the name of ERASMUS+ program. All participants will meet together in the summer village of Mazagón, located in the south of Spain, in the province of Huelva. Huelva is very well known for its infinite coast line, Doñana National Park, and the small village of "El Rocio" with its famous pilgrimage party. From the 5th to the 12th of October,the participants will live together, eat toguether and do activities in which they will share their point of view and life experiences about issues like customs and sterotypes, natural environment protection and its importance, youth and art of our countries.

This blog aims to share this unforgettable experience, through articles, photos and videos made by the participants and encourage everyone to participate in the next years. Also, we will use social networks like twiter or facebook, under the hashtag #EUROPRENSAVI.