The first visit as part of project in Spain
The first visit as part of the project in Spain
The 6 – 11 March 2010
The team of Vanatorii Mici School that represented Romania in the multilateral project named "Museums in Europe...a trip to knowledge" was made up, during the visit in Spain, by the teachers Rodica Oprea , Cristi Stoica , Ionela Manaila and Rozalia Iorga and by the students of 14 – 15 years old George Dinica and Damian Lupescu .
Because of the fact that our coordinator(Italy) retired from the project from the very beginning and because of some long enough negotiations to choose another one (Turkey), the project had been taken the rap for this: the first meeting took place late , in March 2010 , and the entire agenda has been changed to square with the new reality .
1. The work meeting has been difficult, the partners had different opinions concerning the targets of the project and the final products .It had not been made by that time a coordination of the activities, a distribution of tasks step by step and we had not a vision for the virtual museum we would create. Our worries and the clash of options turned in the end to the selection of another coordinator (Spain), to the establishment of the type of museum each team will work on (ethnographical museum) and to the planning of our first steps in the standing out of the "virtual museum".
2. The period of our standing in Solana de los Barros, the activities we took part top in "Mariano Barbacid" School and in some other places in Extremadura, were very fruitful for the Romanian team.
We liked the school very much (new, modern and endowed), the youth and the enthusiasm of the teaching stuff .We all noticed the open relations teacher-students. Our students, George and Damian, were satisfied with the fact that were rallied in school activities(pottery, football games , cooking ) and with the fact that they communicated with a lot of Spanish students , they considered very friendly .
During the trips we made together, we saw the students very happy, spontaneous and noisy, near the teachers but also civilized and polite.
We also liked the community's involvement in school's life, parents'participation to some school activities since we also tend to the same type of relations in our community.
We are thankful to entire teaching stuff from "Mariano Barbacid" School we are sure they did their best so that the meeting take place in good order , to succeed our objects and so that the guests feel good .
3. Spains' beauty moved all of us. The nature seemed tamed by humans and only here and there it looked original, unitary, such as in the giant granite cliffs which spread the landscape of Extremadura in the area of Malpartida de Caceres .
In process of time, human's creations are single and wonderful and it is obvious that Spanish people are proud of their history and nature. The three towns we visited, Merida , Badajos and Caceres even if they are modest, provincial towns , they shelter treasures for an entire country .
We liked both big and small localities that keep the traditions in architecture and combine them with modern . The palm trees and the orange trees which are decorating the streets increase the impression of light , cleanliness and order .
We thought we would find a temperamental and noisy people, but instead , we found calm , polite and nice Spanish people . Their diligence can be seen through the cleanliness of the towns, through faultless roads and through neat agricultural land , planted with orchards and vineyards .
4. As the object of our project aims to the consolidation of European citizenship affiliation, but also promoting the keeping and knowledge of the diversity of each country, its historical and cultural knowledge, the agenda of our visit in Spain included a clear and wide documentation through the museums of Extremadura .
We liked all the museums we visited, but each of us had his own preferences :
- George , keen on Biology , was delighted with the visit in "Los Barruecos Natural Monument" in Malpartida de Caceres, where he admired the Mediterranean scenery in its entire pureness and expressiveness, sprinkled with a lot of black storks nest, indisputable signs of the area .
- Damian admired the cleverness of the exhibits from the museum Wolf Vostel, the fact that this is not a typical traditional museum, that it applied for his imagination and that it allowed him to interact with the exposed works .
- Rozalia, the Art teacher, was glad to know by her self the work of a great well-known artist, Wolf Vostel, who left his mark through the movement he set up, Fluxus, on an entire artistic tendency in the middle of 20 century .
- Ionela, the English teacher, was also captivated by the originality of the Art works in Wolf Vostel Museum, by the various possibility to interpret the artist's messages, by the novelty of the museum made-up in a former medieval reservoir and a mill for wool washing .
- Cristi, the Mathematics teacher, stuck for a strong impression from the town Caceres, owing to his old part ( Ciudad Monumental), which preserves medieval high defensive walls and towers, houses and palaces belonging to Roman, Islamic, Gothic, Renaissance architectural styles . Varied museum were disposed in this are, whose general aspect was kept to the letter by its inhabitants.
- Rodica, Geography and History teacher, felt the best in Merida, through the relics of Roman civilization: the Amphiteatre, Circus Maximus, Diana's Temple, Traian's Arch. The National Museum of Roman Art, housed by an imposing building of the architect Rafael Moneo, was the best of this type she has ever seen, spectacular thanks to his value and to enormous sheltered collections .
So, we can just express our satisfaction for the meeting in Spain, we believe this was a success for our project, a source of personal enrichment and we would all like to see Spain again .
Rodica Oprea