What a week! Ten nights of theatre are over and it has been wonderful!
Every year here in Ribadavia a big theatre event is organised called "MIT - Mostra Internacional de Teatro". Groups from different parts of Spain, Chile, Argentina and Belgium came to perform in this festival. 
Sabrina and I volunteered to help, not only to get free entries to all the shows but also to take part in the organisation and peek behind the curtain. They gave us shirts and staff badges. On three days at 11pm I needed to scan the tickets at the entrance to the amphitheatre behind the castle, which has exclusively been build for the MIT! For some reason I really enjoyed doing that. It was the first time they used scanners instead of just tearing the ticket. 

After letting the people in we needed to close the doors and wait outside to tell people who were coming late that they could use the other door, for instance. We always were in pairs doing all that. And so I also got in touch with some more people, which is great! The waiting of course was rather boring.

Apart from the performances we could not see because we were working, we tried to visit all the shows. So last week I have been out every night at least from 11pm to 1am or even longer if there was a second show before (in the Culture House or in the streets) or after (in the streets for free). And it has been wonderful! The plays were all very different, ranging from a lot of comedy over thriller to mute puppet theatre. Most of them were in Spanish of course which was partly quite hard to understand and some even were in Gallego which is even harder to understand...but still I enjoyed watching all the different actors, stage settings and ideas that have been presented.
My two favourite plays were:

"O home almofada" (The Pillow-Man)
Although it was in Gallego (the Galician language) I understood quite a lot. It was a very impressive thriller, playing with the border between reality and nightmare with incredible performances of the four actors, great light effects and a clever use of the a stage setting.

"A mano" (Handmade)
Before entering the small and dark room you get a tiny little cup with some delicious tea and a homemade cookie to get you in the right mood for this adorable little play which is by all means exactly the opposite of my other favourite.
A puppet theatre done by two people, accompanied by music and spotlight tells the story of a small clay man who happens to be stuck in a second and shop and is not able to escape. The little figure is as simple as it is artful. It has a head made of clay and the hand of one of the performers serves as his body. I absolutely loved the antique touch this play had and it's clear and beautiful simplicity. Yes, sometimes less is definitly more!

Here are some fotos of two other shows which were on the streets and therefore for free.
The first one was for adults and a little bit unsettling in my opinion. A big crazy spectacle.
The other one was for children and the group involved people from the audience into their play which was quite amusing and worked out better than I expected it to do. However, I think neither of them had been breathtaking.

It has been a while, so let's write a little something!
Last weeks creative writing workshop has been successful, although it would have been better with more people. We are planning to repeat it some other day. Here are some of the results: my favourite posters! 

The workshop was bilingual so we had posters in English and in Spanish about different topics. I found the techniques of developing such phrases as a group very interesting and I'm sure it will be helpful for future projects!

I'm enjoying the theatre festival very much! I will tell you all about it in my next post, when the festival is over!

Yesterday was holiday in Spain. Santiago Apostol. And normally, in the night from 24th to 25th they illuminate the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela and organise a big show with fireworks and hundreds of spectators. I did not go to Santiago because of the theatre festival here in Ribadavia. Sabrina (my flatmate) went there. And luckily she went by car. 
Because, as you probably already know, all the festivities were cancelled because of a terrible train accident close to Santiago with 80 deaths and many injured. It is all over the national and international news. One of the theatre shows here also has been cancelled and today we commemorated the victims in five minutes silence in Plaza Mayor.
It's a difficult time for everybody involved. The pictures are horrible. I am just happy that Sabrina and I did not go to Santiago on that train and I feel deeply sorry for all the families.

Sorry for this rather sad paragraph but I felt that I needed to write about this as it affects everyone in Galicia by some means or the other.
So to finish up: I gave my first German class! Unfortunatly only to two people, but well, maybe there will be more and if not it's also good. It is very interesting to teach your own language. You learn and become aware of things you never realized before, because you just didn't think about them while doing them. I started with basic phrases and German pronounciation. And hell...I would not want to learn my own language! There are so many exceptions to so many rules that the pronounciation seems to be simply random. It's also not easy to learn how to pronounce the vocals including ü,ö and ä in different words. And the soft "ch" causes difficulties, as well. However, I am not going to teach grammatics but only basic and useful words and phrases for people who want to travel to Germany.

The super hot days are over, we enjoy the summer with only over 30°C every day, we have two fans in the flat and from time to time exciting summer storms! It's awesome to watch them from our balcony. The first and strongest one was just crazy! There were raindrops flying up instead of down and evevn big hailstones (remember...over 30°C!) I tried to catch. Sabrina made a nice snapshot of this :)

Aren't these clouds impressive?

But I digress...what I actually wanted to tell you was a little bit about my work here. So, here we go!
According to my "Activity Agreement", in which all the terms and conditions of my EVS are stated, I have to work 5 hours a day and 5 days a week for the office. This means Monday to Friday from 9:30 to 14:30. Sabrina (my flatmate) and I walk to work. It takes us about 10 minutes. 
A big part of our job is office work. OMIX coordinates exchanges and projects for young people from this region here and sends them abroad. For this we have to apply for projects, find participants, organise their travel, prepare them, etc. So there is quite some mailing and paper work to do. This is the not so exciting part of my job. 

We also do language classes. The English classes already started (twice a week for one hour), but they are rather informal with games, songs or funny videos. Next week I will also start with German classes for traveling and the week after Sabrina is going to begin with Italian classes. In August I want to do a Japanese class, as well. Soon, there will be a movie night with films in English every Wednesday. 

At the moment I am doing a three day workshop "Creative Writing" in both English and Spanish. It is some kind of "Loesje"-Workshop. If you're interested in what this is about klick here.
All the workshops and classes we give are free of charge for the people.

And for all these activities we are designing poster to put them on Facebook or our website.
If there is an event (a band contest, for instance) we film it and cut a short video to upload on YouTube.

Well, this is basically what I am doing here :)

While in June everybody was asking what the hell summer was waiting for and why it was warmer in Germany than in Spain, July changed it all. 
SUN
Our flat is right beneath the attic and the heat concentrates in our rooms. We are too far from the coast to get any of its winds and so the air stays still and thick. At the moment Sabrina and I are trying to organise some fans to stir up the humid air. Saturday we have been to the commercial center in Ourense which had been cooled down to pleasant 27°C...outside they measured over 40°C and at midnight it still was 30°C! 
I am seriously happy that summer finally arrived but this is just too hot! Before, I was a little annoyed by the siesta the Spanish people use to do in the afternoon because all the shops are closed but now I became the biggest siesta-fan ;)

Ribadavia might be in the north of Spain and Galicia might be famous for its mild and humid weather...well, ha. ha. ha....check this out: "La Region: Noticia Ourense"

However, luckily we have another place to go to if we want to cool down! Not too far from here, maybe 10 minutes by car, there is a little village called Melón and there you can find the most beautiful waterfalls ever! 

The rocks were so hot that I burned my feet!!! Ouuuch...The water however was freezing and really refreshing.
I also took some fotos of the waterfalls with some special adjustments but I have some problems with the file format of my canon camera. When I figuered out how to display the pictures I will upload them for you!

The night of 23th to 24th of June is called "San Xuan" and here in Galicia it is a magical night! 

It was the night after my adventure on the Cies and I surfed the couch of a young marine biologist from Vigo, Noelia. She and her parents warmly welcomed me in their home and showed me the traditions they do in the night of San Juan. 
We collected all sorts of herbs, grases and leaves from their garden until we had a fragrant bunch of plants which we then put in a tub of water. We left this outside over night. It is thought that the herbs and the water absorb the magic of the moonlight and in the morning we washed our faces with this essence for good luck.

We also went to the beach with some of the other couchsurfing guys that night. People built up a huge pile of wooden things with a pole in the middle on which they hanged a straw man. Everybody wrote snippets with all the bad things they want to forget and get rid of to burn. So did I. At midnight they lit the fire and it was just huge!

At the beach there also were a lot of fires burning. Smaller ones, with people sitting around them laughing, chatting and singing. If you jump three times over the fire, you can wish for something! 

Offshore of the west coast of Galicia the "Atlantic Islands of Galicia National Park" is situated, consisting of three archipelagos. One of these groups of islands is called Cies and I spent wonderful three days there camping with a group of couchsurfers. 

(Couchsurfing - for all those who have never heard of it - is a communtiy of people from all over the world who enjoy travelling and meeting others. As a member of this community, you can host couchsurfers and surf other people's couches, you can participate in meetings, find people to show you around a place or just meet for a coffee. By "surfing someone's couch" you do not only have a cheap accommodation but also the chance to get to know whatever place you are visiting much more intense and to get in contact with interesting and open-minded people)

So. Nearly two weeks ago some couchsurfers from Vigo organised a big meeting on the Cies Islands. Around 50 People from all over Galicia, all over Spain, no actually all over the world gathered to spend an awesome weekend in an awesome place. 
For me this was a great opportunity to meet some new people and see some more of Galicia. And I gotta say, the Cies are simply magnificent!!! There is no traffic on these three Islands and there are also no people living there. The many visitors who come daily with the ferries can eat in the two restaurants and also have the possibility to camp. 
The great thing about camping there is, that early in the morning and later in the evening, so before the first ferry arrives and after the last one leaves, there are not many people at the beach or on the hiking routes and you can enjoy the beautiful nature all by yourself.

What I really love about these islands is that they have a little bit of everything: white sandy beaches, rugged cliffs, high eucalyptus forest... 
The following photos were taken in the evening and I really like the soft light.

I can just recommend you to spend a night in this magical place! 

Two week ago there was a big Roman festival taking place in the city of Lugo in the north of Galicia, called "Arde Lucus". The old town there is sorrounded by a massive wall and that weekend all the people inside were dressed up like the ancient Romans. Music, parades, plays, traditional food, markets...the place was crowded! 
It was like a huge medieval market, just...well...Roman :D