Martinimarkt

Because of St Martin´s day, there is a huge party in Dornbirn (as the main church is St. Martin) It´s a very traditional market where you can eat goose and drink mauld wine and cider (glüwein and glümoscht)



Some people were the traditional outfit for this day, that it looks like XIX th century.







Here some of the images from Marktplatz.

European Youth Week

Last week was European Youth Week and we had a lot of activities in aha Vorarlberg: special decoration, scholars visit, food from different countries, a Photo Exhibition, etc.

I will show you some of the pictures I made.

Decoration and food:



Some of the students reading the Photo Exhibition panels:


Some of the panels I did showing the volunteers that aha worked with since it first began:



In the afternoon all the visitors having fun:



After everything was finished we made a fire outside and cook chestnuts!!!

Bodensee Jugendgipfel

Finally last week there was an international event for young people that live around the Bodensee (from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein) It was in Vaduz (the capital of Liechtenstein) and a lot of people assisted.





For this I prepared some games about Europe, general knowledge: flags, national anthems, capitals, famous European people, brands and their origins...


It had a great success, I think it was very funny.

Bludenz Markt der Kultur

We participate as well in this great idea. To have a little bit of the culture of every foreigner group in Vorarlberg. We went there as EVS so we could show an example of our culture but mostly inform the people about what is an European volunteer and what we do there (and also to let them know that we are here!)






So I prepared everything in the stand and Kinga (the volunteer working in Bregenz) helped me to prepare the panel about our countries and also came with me in the aha car (my first time driving in Austria, was cool!!!)












There were a lot of people in the market. There were food and dances from Serbia, Turkey, Chechenia, Camboya,... so it was very interesting, funny, and tasty!!!

MidTerm Meeting

Ok, I know there has been a lot of time without updating but that is because I was doing a lot of things!!! So now I will show some of the pictures I made during the past month and a half.











The first thing I´m talking about is the Mid Term Meeting, that every EVS should do. Our was in Innsbruck, not so far as last time (Vienna is like 7 hours by train!!!)


The weather was perfect, even for the end of September, so we could have a few outdoor activities.






We mostly talked a lot: about our projects, future plans and possible resolutions to conflicts.




It was very instructive and we had a great time. We also went for a walk to the town, that is beautiful (I had already been there before) And it was s shame there were some clouds and we couldn´t see the mountains clearly, they are spectacular!

Dorbiner Messe

Ok, I know I haven´t been faithful to you, I forgot about Blogging for a long time, but now I´m back. I don´t know if I should explain a little bit what I have been up to the last month but I will start with what I did last weekend.

There´s being a huge event here in Dornbirn and I was there, helping the people from Europe Direct and representing aha (and EVS of course) Dornbirn HerbstMesse

We spent 5 days explaining to young Austrian people about EVS and going abroad in general.



There was a little bit of everything from Vorarlberg and Austria in general (cheese, milk, pumpkin seeds, cars, beer, decoration, pools, restaurants, political parties, radio stations, TV, entertainment, social issues, etc)

We had a fishing game for little kids.

Luino -Lago Maggiore-

Ok, last wednesday we spent the day in the North of Italy, the weather was perfect, the journey quite pleasant, and the food unbelievable.

Let´s start with the journey, we went throw the mountains of Switzerland, with great landscapes and still melting water from the snow.

When we arrived to Luino there was market day, so a great market was all about the town, and we had a walk around.

We had lunch in an incredible restaurant with a sunny terrace (it has a medieval column from the XIIth century) and I could finally had some funghi porcini (I missed them so much!) Then we went near the lake, we bought some postcards and had a real italian icecream before coming back to Austria (I had an ananas "granita"!!!)

Here I am with the French volunteer in Ravensburg, Helene.

Hiking in Dornbirn

Last Sunday we organized a hiking day for the volunteers around here.

We went up to the mountain with the Karren and we walked until Staufenalpe, where we had lunch. While we were walking there we found cows that are taken there during the summer.





Then we continued until Rappenlochschlucht, that is an amazing natural cavity between mountains with the river beneath them.



It was a great day, and I will come back to this wonderful place soon!!!

Feldkirch Medieval Festival

Last Friday I went with some friends to this great medieval festival. I had been in others festivals before, but nothing like this. It felt so real!!!

There was a lot of people in disguise not only the people from the stands, the customs where made of wool and leather, and most of the sellermen looked like they really live like that most of the time!

We tried some of the home-made beer and roasted pork, so we could feel more in the ages we were surrounded by. You could buy anything from leather artcraft boots to a fancy braided hair to feel like a medieval princess.

It was really cool, you felt for real in Medieval times not only because of the quality of the show but because of the beauty of the city.

There was all kinf of shows: concerts (percussion, with pipes, dancing with fire,...) performances (sword fighting,...) mostly every tent was a show itself!!!

Spanish Movie Marathon

In order to show people something more about Spain , we organized a Spanish Film Night for the volunteers around (ok we were only three but we did invite everyone!!) and I think we spend a great evening.

THE FILMS

We started the night with the first wonder in Spanish Cinema, the short surrealistic movie: Un Chien Andalou, by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí. As every good surrealistic artist they based this film in a dream they had. Buñuel´s dream was a full moon pierced by a thin cloud and (the most famous scene of the movie) a girl´s eye being cut by a knife.

Dali´s dream was a complicated metaphor about society, taboos, sexuality, etc starring Lorca ("le chien andalou") that later would die because of his homosexuality.

After the war, Buñuel had to exile in France and Mexico so did his cinema.




As long movies I selected two of what I believe are the best Spanish movies, from very different times and styles.

EL VERDUGO




The first one was from the 50s, El verdugo. And for me it´s the best movie in Spanish cinema, it´s about death penalty and it was done during Franco´s regimen so it was really difficult to speak about certain things, going through censure. Some of the things it criticized are still present in some aspect of the life not only in Spain and I think this makes it more valuable.


Even with this they are quite free to speak about some real stuff, and sometimes is quite evident. It´s a satire of the 50s society, the urbanism problem, the starting tourism, the decency limits, etc






TESIS


This film is the first by Alejandro Amenabar, nominated to the Oscars for Inside the Sea (Mar Adentro) and I think is still one of his best works (with Abre los Ojos, Open your Eyes) and whoever thinks Spanish Cinema is not enough good should have come to this film night because I think we probed it´s really good. This film is from the early 90s but still fresh.


Amenabar did a great work not only with the direction and script but also with the music.





FESSER

And so we finished with something more contemporary. A short movie by Fesser about the north-south difference where we can really learn about Happiness.

Constanz and Meersburg

This weekend we did a trip to Constanz and Meersburg with aha crew. We spent two great days just eating and walking around beautiful towns. We went there by car and across the lake wih the boat.

It´s being great holidays! We could visit new cites with a great weather, we even lied in the grass to rest so it´s being quite perfect. Well we tried to go dancing and when we could find the perfect place we had to go back to the hotel, but we spent 15 glorious minutes dancing like crazy! hehehehe.

So we just came back to Meersburg the next day with the boat so we could visit (it´s really a very nice town) and after lunch we went to see the castle which is amazing (specially for me, I´ve never being around real medieval stuff, medieval times in Granada were only arabic times, quite different)

To resume it´s being a great weekend!!!