I.E.S. Ramón Y Cajal, Murcia, Spain.

The 2^nd Transnational Meeting of our project LIFE took place from21st-25^th March 2015

On Saturday 21th March we met the Polish, the English, the Portuguese and the Belgian delegations from our Erasmus partners. Once we were together and the students from every country with their host families, we went to have dinner to El Continental Bistró, where they could enjoy some of the typical dishes of our cousine: “Bull tail”, “fried artichokes”, “Tempura aubergines”, “Dorada”, “sobrasada”, “Russian salad”, “salad with goat cheese and quince”, “salmon”, “Roast pork” and desserts such as “pan de calatrava” or “Cheese cake”. It was a good time to see old friends and to get to know new ones.

On Sundaymorning we went to spend the day to Cartagena, the second biggest city in the region. There we saw The museum-refuge of the Civil War, the panoramic lift, The Roman theatre, the Punic wall and could walk along the promenade.

On Monday 23^rdwe started our meeting by doing a school tour. In four groups, the hosting students showed our friends around the school. Then we met in the meeting room and were welcome by the headteacher. After his kind words the Polish students presented their country to us and then we started presenting and evaluating the works done by students in the different schools regarding our activity entitled “Masks”: Polish films and posters, Spanish written caricatures, caricatures and Limericks, and a Belgian poster on eTwinning.Nextthe students went with their correspondents to the playground, and the teachers could enjoy a breakfor which the school Erasmus cell had kindly prepared coffee, fruit, sandwiches and cakes to share with our guests. After breaktime, both teachers and students together went to the language lab to see how the project website is organised. There we also worked on eTwinning: we made the new students members of the platform and talked to them about the follow up activity they should be involved in after the meeting. We left them there making international groups to work on collaborative writing. They decided to write about “Food and Traditions”. The teachers met again to clarify how we would make the most out of that platform, the Blog and the website of our project, and we also chose thelogo from the ones made in the Joint Project “Rose-Coloured Glasses”.

At about 13.00 people from all the delegations started preparingan International lunch in the meeting room. There we could enjoy typical food from the different countries taking part in the project. At 14.15, when school finished, the students left  to go to the city centre together, and theteachers were taken to their hotel to enjoy a free evening to do some shopping, rest, visit the city, visit an exhibition on the Murcian Holy Week, and enjoy some “chocolate con churros” the luckiest ones. Afterwards the whole group met together again to have dinner at La Mary near the Romeatheatre, where we enjoyed the food, the music and mainly the company.

On Tuesday 24^thwe started watching the fantastic stop motion animation film made with the works done by the English students for the “Masks” activity. After that, although we had planned to go on a trip to seetwo visitors centres on the mountain: Centro de visitantes San Antonio el Pobre and the Centro de visitantes de la Luz,  walking up the mountain to get from one to the other, we had to change plans due to the heavy rain that was pouring down. Instead, we went to a “Zumba” lesson in which the instructor was one of the students in Bachillerato of Arts. After it the teachers went on working on the project while the students were with their hosts playing sport games in the gym and playing music instruments and having fun singing Karaoke songs together in the music room.The meeting closed with the handing over of theCertificates of attendanceto the students and teachers that took part in this meeting.

In the evening, after lunch at King Wok, we had some time for resting or shopping before meeting again at 18.00, to visit the Museum of the City.To end our meeting where it had started, we went back to school to meet the headteacher and answer some questions about the different school systems, mainly about evaluation and assessment. Then we haddinner there with the some of the staff and enjoyed some of the components of the “huge” Murcianmusic group Los Parrandboleros, that delighted us with their lovely music.

On Wednesday morning all the delegations left in the morning except the English one. The English students were in school with their Spanish hosts, and the teachers went to the Sanctuary of the Patron Saint of the city and to the Visitors Centre of La Luz to enjoy the landscape and the view from there. After lunch all of them left to the airport, leaving behind them a trail of friendship to feed…

                                                                  Begoña Toro