Thank you Julio for sharing with us your wonderful family.
Europe is now bigger and sweater.
Part 1 (Translated by Eleanor Mcguirre, our dear, dear assistant)
MY COMENIUS EXPERIENCE
It all began with a letter home from school that mentioned a school exchange was taking place between Abencerrajes and a school in Hungary – ten children would be able to go for free! Julio thought it was crazy and that his loving parents would never consider dumping their darling little boy in a place that was so alien to him. However, we told him that it could turn out to be really interesting and stressed that the most important thing is to live life to the fullest. We wanted to sign up!
A few days later, when I was picking Julio up from the school gates at hometime, he complained about having to go to Hungary. He didn't understand that he was lucky to be so privileged to get such an opportunity. However it didn't take much for Pepa to convince me to accompany the children on the Comenius trip. There we were! We would soon be on our way and ready to go! Julio had his first ID card, his first passport, EU health card! And as my mother joined in with the revelry, Julio went from feeling like he was embarking on his own odyssey to feeling worn-out from so much protection.
Bit by bit I found out about the details: I knew that the other adults taking part in the project were an affable bunch and, as far as the Julio was concerned, he had a lot of good friends taking part but he was seperated from his usual friendship circle.
I had never had any grand travelling experience before – they were always very well-organised, family-orientated holidays in a four or five star hotel... so this trip would be a bit of a novelty.
We were advised to give gifts to our host families and while I love giving presents, without knowing what the family was like, the presents soon became impersonal Andalusian mementos. I stuffed my suitcase full of olive oil and ham (so much so that I could barely fit in my own luggage!) as well as a Spanish football team supporter's scarf and some bracelets with the Spanish flag on.
And there we were – our next stop was Madrid and the airport! We hadn even reached our destination when we had our first setback. We had joked about the possibility that someone would end up stranded in Barajas and we nearly found ourselves in that situation when Diego lost his wallet. Thankfully we were able to catch our plane to Munich. The journey on the aeroplane was fun – the kids were excited and switching seats. I am not particularly afraid of flying but the thought crossed my mind that should the plane crash, they wouldn't find our bodies in the correct seats. Some of the other passengers complained about the racket that the kids were making and asked the air stewardesses if they could changed seats which just led to more laughter.
Our in-flight meal did not live up to the children's expectations and they found the food to be somewhat inedible (an odd sausagey meatball concoction and those who dared to try it were not rewarded for their bravery). I began to wonder about the problems Julio might encounter when it came to trying other new foods – although he is a good eater, it can sometimes be hard getting him to try new things. In Munich, Pepa noticed that the children has suddenly gone very quiet whereas I noticed the cold and the rain and at once understood why the little ones were so hushed. The cold and the rain were sapping the entire group's energy, and it was especially affecting the twelve kids. I gradually regressed into a little girl myself with each new experience – I got confused and ended up in the gents' toilets! Germans are an uncompromising bunch!
We made good use of the tea and coffee self-service machine in Luftansa. It was all very civilised until I realised that Germans are also pigs and left their used cups etc on the chairs instead of putting their rubbish in the bin.
The bright lights and adverts in Munich airport destroyed my wonderful camara! All my photos were ruined! I couldn't believe that it was our first big adventure abroad and we wouldn't be able to any pictures to document it!
We got back on the aeroplane after killing time in the airport for several hours. We were almost used to taking off and landing. We had another bizarre lunch on the plane. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear the Germans were trying to turn us against Frankfurters!
When we landed in Hungary, we were a little underwhelmed by everything that we saw: the people, the outskirts of the airport, the bus that picked us up must have been 50 years old! And the hotel! Never have I been so cold in all my God-given days! I didn't get a wink of sleep all night and I couldn't understand why there was no bottom sheet on my bed. I was so disgusted that I slept fully clothed! I still have nightmares about the night that we spent there!
Breakfast brought out the best in everyone and, seeing as we are 'made in Spain', we helped ourselves to the breakfast buffet and made ourselves a mid-morning snack. We even began to exchange our first few words in English. I didn't know how to say salt so I started to shake an imaginary salt-shaker. My first few steps in English would definitely get me a Masters in mime! The little ones were kept entertained by the water dispensor and they had a right old laugh with the fizzy water! (Blue was sparkling and pink was still, if you are interested!) They changed euros at the hotel reception desk and a morning walk …..
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