Global Boomerang Project in Spain

Six AEGEE-Dresden members, together with two members of ESN TU Dresden went to a youth exchange funded by the Erasmus+ Program near Zamora in a small town called Muga de Sayago. We had lots of fun learning about Entrepreneurship and Youth Social Initiatives with the participants from five other countries: Spain, Italy, Slovakia, Lithuania and Greece. We had the opportunity to get to know other associations and also present ourselves, we enjoyed the Spanish food and the warm weather, the trip to Salamanca and the kayaking, and we finished the ten days with a short city trip to Madrid.

The eight members of the german team woke up early on Wednesday, 1st of July 2015 – we took a bus early in the morning to go to the airport in Berlin, because finally the Erasmus+ project in Muga de Sayago, Spain, was about to start! In a great mood, we arrived in Madrid and had the first approaches to get to know the group of the 10-days-project. We attended a Youth Exchange with six countries of Europe – eight young people from Spain, Italy, Slovakia, Lithuania, Greece and Germany each – and we met to learn about Entrepreneurship, Youth Social Initiatives and Youth Employment in our countries.

The Spanish organization team rented a small hotel in a small village not far from the Portuguese border near Salamanca, called Muga de Sayago. It was perfect to get to know the group, we had the best summer weather and not much of distraction, just the hotel, a bar and Kobi’s, a small supermarket. The program of the week was quite intense, we had workshops about the subjects every day, good spanish food and many activities during the days. Games to get to know each other, to just laugh, to get activated, to learn the other languages, and always with lots of fun.

Also the nights were quite interesting, every country prepared one special evening to present their country in a cultural and culinary way. Like this, we learned to dance Sirtaki, we listened to typical Lithuanian songs, we learned about Spanish traditions of the bullfights and much more. To have a break from the workshops, we went for one afternoon to lake Almendra to cool our heads down – it was relaxing to have some laid-back time in the water and at the beach. One other day, the organizers surprised us with a great kayak trip on the river Agueda. We had a barbecue and went to Salamanca in the afternoon, to walk around on Plaza Mayor and to see the beautiful Cathedral.

We really grew an international, well working team during the ten days of the project., It was hard to say goodbye to the participants on the last day – as well as to the organizers, who really did a great job and made such an event possible! We want to thank the association WE LIVE from Valladolid that they put all the effort in organizing the Global Boomerang project. I am sure all the participants look back at it with great memories and a big smile. Let’s hope to meet everyone again on other projects like this, or anywhere else in Europe!