Riga - Day 7 (Saturday)

Saturday - COMING BACK HOME – by Juanjo

Saturday morning, about 4 a.m., I don´t remember last time when I was awake in these hours, before going to bed, of course, the smart phone alarm rings and we need to wake up.  I’m afraid everything is finished.

Juan and I, with gummy eyes, decided to take a shower and go down to the hotel reception to take our taxi to the airport… we had to be there before five!

       Our girls and boy arrived soon, like they always do, at the right time, and after some tear drops, many hugs and promises we were willing to begin the return trip… a lot of hours by plane with a stop in the city of lights.

       After some sandwiches and coffees in the airport we took the plane to Paris… If I talk sincerely I don’t remember anything in the aircraft, nice and repairing dream… I only remember a nice stewardess asking my mane and giving me six mixed croissants and bottles of water… I think it was a question of flying companies, but other travelers in the cabin looked at me with envy.

      I don’t know if some of us saw Paris from the air, because we were sleeping. It’s a great pity.

      After a long walk across Charles de Gaulle airport, by the way… so huge, we found our gate of departure, enjoyed our unexpected croissants, I’m sure we paid for them in the tickets two months before, and, because the waiting was so long, we even ate some French sandwiches… 

     We had to stay such a long time in the airport because there was a lot of police control, there were soldiers everywhere, controlling the suspicious people in the airport, since there were terrorist alarms.

     During the trip to Malaga, some of us could sleep a bit, or when clouds cleared we could see some nice views through the windows, and enjoy them.

      Finally we arrived at Malaga airport, maybe tired, maybe wishing to come back home, maybe desiring  to sleep in our beds, but with a simple but t-shirt that the Latvian people had given us as a gift, and with a little, or not so little part of our hearts living forever in Riga.  This is the most important gift for all the travelers; to improve their minds and hearts and leave part of it in every lovely place they visit.

                                                                                        To my companions. 

                                                                                        Juanjo.

 

 

 

Riga - Day 6 (Friday)

Friday, 2nd October 2015 – by Paula

This is the last day we are spending in Riga. I have woken up very early, to finish packaging my luggage, because we are leaving tomorrow, very early in the morning and I am not in my correspondent's house tonight. Once we arrived to school, they told us what we were going to do during the day. The plans were: visiting the Daugava museum (Daugava is the name of the river in Riga), going to a strange kind of thematic/typical restaurant and finishing with a talent show and a party at the school. The trip to the museum was a bit long and we spent all the journey sleeping. When we finally arrived to the museum, we saw a modern art exposition, whose artists were Latvian native, which were the first civilizations to live in Latvia and how people used to live there. They showed us a part of their complicated and interesting history. People there used to live in wooden houses and live from the fishing and hunting. They stopped using those methods, because they killed and injured other animals. Also we saw how they stored their food, and made them last all the winter. Something I loved was a giant see-saw which fitted like 8 people. The next stop was Lido, the restaurant. There we had free time and we bought some souvenirs. After free time we ate really good food. In my opinion it was the best meal I had in the project. We went by bus to school finally and we saw the talent show. It was amazing! They danced, sang, played instruments and did awesome things. The thing I liked the most was a teacher who began to sing and none of us knew she did like that. When the talent show finished we started with the party. It was one of the best things we could've ever had! We started partying at 4 o'clock in the noon and we finished at 9. Very soon for a party for us, because we are used to starting past midnight. Well we continued the party at Andrea's correspondent house. We ended very, very, very late! Hope I can repeat this experience with the same people again, I loved it!

 

 In Daugava Museum

 Daugava river

Daugava river museum

Daugava river museum

 

 Farewell party

  Farewell party

 

  Farewell party

 

Riga - Day 5 (Thursday)

Thursday – by Carmen

On Thursday some of us had to get up earlier because some of our partners had to stay in the high school for classes. When all the people arrived we had free time. Then we started with the expositions about water. Latvian people started, then us, Greek, Turkish, Italian and finally English people. After that we had a break and some friends and me with our hosts went to McDonalds to have breakfast, a strange breakfast. 

Later, we had Latvian lessons with our partners. Then we went to eat at high school. After that we had a little competition. We could play volleyball or football, I chose volleyball, but my team didn't win. It was so funny. We finished at four o'clock more or less and some friends and me went to my host's house to be ready for the opera. We went by bus and we ate at McDonald’s again. 

After that we went to the Latvian National Opera theatre to see the opera La Traviata. We were there from six until half past eight in the evening. Finally everyone went to their houses.

Sport Competition

Riga - Day 4 (Wednesday)

Wednesday the 30^th of October – by Natalia

When we woke up, we had breakfast and went to the highschool. Later we got on the bus and headed to Kuldiga, a town with waterfalls, but before arriving, we stopped four times, we had breakfast and we also took a walk in the woods and we saw some creepy dolls.

Pedvale museum is an open air field with sculptures carved in wood or stone that represent a metaphor of the world we live in, they are a mixture of man-made creations such as TVs and nature. Some sculptures are made with recycled material such as cloth or old televisions.

When we arrived in town (Kuldiga), we took a walk around the waterfalls and went to eat, but later we saw the town and when we entered the bus, we talked to the Italians and some people fell asleep. When we arrived in Riga we went to our houses because we were tired.

Spooky dolls

Group picture

 

Pedvale

Pedvale

Television to nature

 

Kuldiga waterfalls

Riga - Day 3 (Tuesday)

Tuesday in Riga – by Andrea

On Tuesday, I got up at 7:30 and I ate a hotdog for breakfast. Then I went to the "Purvciems Riga" high school and we were split into two groups.

The first group went to a classroom for a painting lesson and the second group were playing a game. It was a game with questions and answers, a quiz. If you said the correct answer you earned points.

When the two groups finished their activities they changed.

Then we were playing the piano and singing with the other students of the different countries.

At eleven o`clock we went to the school and we ate some typical sweets from Latvia.

Then we went on the bus to go to Jurmala. We stopped in a forest to see a museum of and we had a walk from the forest to the beach.

After that we had lunch, we ate salmon.

When we arrived to the high school at 5 o`clock we went bowling with our hosts. It was really funny. There we ate some pizza and we went back to our homes.

When I was at home I had a shower and I went to bed at 12 o`clock.

Art lesson at Purvciems

 The work of students and teachers

Competitions

  Jurmala beach

Riga - Day 2 (Monday)

On Monday: Arrival to school – by Carla

I got up at 7:00 am. I went to the high school at 8:30 am. There we visited the classes; the headmaster spoke to us about the school. It has many students (more than 1200) from children to teenagers; primary to secondary (12 grades).

Then we had a little coffee time and we went to the bus to go Riga center.

There, two students from 12 grade explained to us some interesting things about a few famous monuments. We also visited the City Hall and the mayor talked to us about the city, and gave us some presents from Riga.

We visited the Old Town in Riga, there we took a lot of photos and it was more beautiful than the center.

We ate in a restaurant called "Lido" (it's a well-known restaurant for its food), however I didn't like it too much.

After that we bought bus tickets and we went to Andrey's house. There we played "fifa" and made some silly things. At 19:30 we took the bus and came back home.

When we arrived I had dinner and after that I helped Polina with her Spanish homework. Then I had a shower and went to bed.

Headmaster's welcome at Purvciems

With the mayor of Riga

At the City Hall

Outside the City Hall

The three brothers at Old town Riga

 Group picture

 Latvian National monument

Riga - Day 1 (Sunday)

Trip to Riga – by Rodrigo

Sunday, 27th September 2015. All the Spanish were in Verano Azul Park at 4:15 am. We arrived at Málaga Airport at 5:30 am. There we checked our luggage and we got on the airplane. The airplane left to Oslo (Norway) at 7:30 am.

When we were in Oslo, we had pizza and noodles for lunch at the airport. Then, we got on another airplane and left to Riga (Latvia). We arrived at 5:30 pm. All the families came to the airport to welcome us. After that, each one went with his exchange family.