A Spanish Volunteer in aha Vorarlberg (Austria)

Martinimarkt

2008-11-13T05:31:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-13T05:16:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-28T03:56:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-28T03:35:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-28T03:15:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-09T03:54:00.000-07:00

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-

2008-07-11T03:24:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-23T01:50:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-16T05:22:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-26T00:53:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-20T00:59:00.000-07:00

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!!!

On arrival Training Day 4:So long, farewell

2008-05-13T04:39:00.000-07:00

The last day was just the farewell and we valorate how the training was (awesome!!)

We said everything we wanted to say, we wrote some lines about each other and spoke about creating a group in Facebook and maybe a forum and of course to join again and travel together so we´re not alone!!!

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen , goodbye

http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgvbpBbp0Rg

On arrival Training Day 3: The show must go on

2008-05-13T04:27:00.000-07:00

We continue explaining proyects, opportunities the EC offers, speaking about EVS, Europe and Austria.

It was a great day so we went out, to the sun!

We had a break to eat ( we ate soooo well!!! I think I ave 2 more kilos than when I left!!)

This night was movie night and we watched some of the short lenght movies joined by Lars von Trier abot Europe some of them were interesting but most weren´t very good. We also spoke a little bit about our own countries.

On arrival Training Day 2: Lost in the City

2008-05-13T03:28:00.000-07:00

Day 2 was really funny.

We had to do some tasks in the city center and take photos.

So we split into 3 different groups with 3 people in each one. They gave us a map and we started the City Surf!!!

Then we had to go to a certain point and buy food to make lunch!!! We had typical austrian recipes and it was delicious!!! We had liptauerbrote, Käseknuffle mit steirischem, bauersalat and apfelstrudel. We made the main course: Käaseknuffle, typical from Vorarlberg.

I think it was a great job, we all had so much fun, we ate a lot and we learned about typical food in Austria, and typical ingredients!!!

The best apfel strudel I´ve ever tried!!! (it´s like the third one but still, amazing!!!)

A night in the opera

That evening we had some free time and I wanted to go to the opera.

I manage to capture the russian speaking comunity! ejejej (they were Inga, Katka and Vlad)

We were very lucky as we could see Le nozze di figaro from a perfect place (though we were standing, but 3,50 euros, what else can you ask for!!) We only waited for one hour to get the tickets. And the opera had even subtitles!!! (English and German)

We were standing there!

On arrival Training Day 1: Getting to know each other

2008-05-13T03:02:00.000-07:00

Vorarlberg Volunteers

After a long long train night (10 hours) we finally arrived in Vienna and met Inga (who was on the same train but couldn´t find us earlier)

As we had still time (we arrived at 7,30 in the morning) we decided to have a walk through the town (the others hadn´t being there yet) so I was guide once more!

They can speak by themselves but I think we had a great time (at least I had) and we covered the main monuments in Vienna. Then we had a coffee break at Coffee Museum and we went to the meeting point in Europa Haus.

It´s quite far from the center but it´s an amazing place!!! We had our meetings in the schloß (castle) and when we came in it had all the original furnitures and even Sissi´s paintings! We owned the China Room for those days.

That afternoon we tried to know each other a little bit better, we were only ten volunteers so it wasn´t so difficult. We spoke about where we came from and about our proyects.

aha Bludenz

2008-04-29T05:05:00.000-07:00

Ok, yesterday it was my first day in Bludenz. I took the train and I was carrying a little map of the city. It was a marvelous day, shiny blue sky and the mountains looked so magnificent!!!

When I arrived I just felt something amazing, the whole city smelled like chocolate!!! Then I remembered, there is a Milka Factory in this town!!! I was very happy and when I found aha they told me it wasn´t that great, because when It smells like chocolate it means it will rain soon. I laughed but that evening started raining!! So it was true!! (ok I know is not a very good picture, but if you try hard you can see Milka factory far away eheeh sorry!)

Heheheh, well the thing is I´ll be giving Spanish lessons in Bludenz every two Mondays at 16,30 h let´s see if young people are interested I´ll try to do it funny (people from aha Dornbirn can testify I am, I hope heheh)

I loved this town and I´m looking forward to be there again as I saw there is a Second Hand Shop for books!!!

Volunteers in Ravensburg

2008-04-22T06:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to Ravensburg with other volunteers from Liechenstein.

There we met Elena, who is doing EVS in aha Ravensbug. She was great, she made us a tour through the city and show us the ahaoffice (which is in an old barn!!)

Here we can see how far Ravensburg is from Berlin (this are Elena and Vanessa the volunteers from Ravensburg and Liechenstein)

Then we went to try some of the typical dishes of the place and do some more tourism, so we learned this is the town of the towers. I loved this medieval towers so I made a lot of photographs, and there´s still some old walls too!!

Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon

2008-04-16T02:29:00.000-07:00

Ok the photos thing is getting better. Though is still wrong...

Now I´ll tell you about my day off. I went throw the town (Dornbirn) and I had a walk to the river, Dornbirner Ache, and I had magnificents views over the mountains.

So I continued walking towards the center of the town, thou I didn´t really know how to go from there, and I found what it appeared to me as a food market. I realized soon that it was done mainly by arabian people. There were teashops, kebab stores, and even some places with clothes. I tried something like a crepe with spinach in it (and a lot of spices) I really loved it there. I took a lot of pictures, as you can see.

Everything was done in the tradicional way, and when I continued my way to the center, I realized it was something organized by the islamic center (maybe the mosque, I don´t know if it´s both)

They even had arabian homemade sweets!! That of course I tasted, and I have to say they were delicious!!

So what I mostly did on my day off, was eating!!!!

Bregenz

2008-04-16T02:15:00.000-07:00

Well, as you can see, I´m still awful with the edition part of the blog, the photos where moved places and I can´t do anything now, so sorry! but I´ll learn as I use it...

Now I´ll speak abot Bregenz I went to help there last Saturday because they had a great thing only for the girls in the city, called Girl City Surf, to get the girls to know the asociations for them in the town.

They had to find different organizations and get stamps so they finally could assist to a party in the youth center and get some gifts (Tshirts, tickets to the cinema, and a mp4 player!!!)

In every place there where things to do, so I helped in the GZ cafe where there were circus learning skills, most of the girls wanted to do fire eheh.

2008-04-16T02:02:00.000-07:00

Ok, I´ll try to catch on with this last days I couldn´t write. I´ll star speaking about the town I´m living now, it´s called Dornbirn. Here you can see MarktPlatz. Today there was a street market here with some farmers who sell there own apples, pears, and vegetables. There are a lot of florists too!!! So it´s quite nice to visit this market.

This other photo is the train station, near aha, the asociation where I work. I use a lot of train conections to go to Bregenz and soon to Bludenz as I work there sometimes.

This is the youth asociation where I work aha Tipps&Info

Hallo!!!

2008-04-10T06:26:00.000-07:00

Ich bin Maria, spanierin voluntieren im aha Voralberg: http://www.aha.or.at/

I´ll start my blog in English because my German isn´t good at all, but I will be introducing it as I get better at it.

This is my fist week as a EVS (European Volunteer Service) and the first impression was quite good! This region is just amazing with all this trees, green spaces and there´s still some snow over the nearer mountains!!!

I´ll have some photos soon so you can see!!

I´ll try to comment often.

Ciao!