Prepare yourself for a whole bunch of pictures!
Last week Sabrina and I attended the photography workshop of a photographer from Ribadavia.
(This one on the left and the pictures of me which I posted further down were taken by him. Visit his website:
http://www.garabato-photo.com/ !)
The first five of the six sessions were theory. José told us about different kinds of cameras, how they work, picture composition, do's and dont's in photography, ... and gave us a short introduction to Lightroom which he uses on a regular basis to sort out and work on all his pictures.
On Saturday then we went on an excursion to put into practice what we learned. It wasn't really a good day to take pictures. Very humid and foggy, but still, it has been the best part of the workshop!
Here are some of the outcomes edited with Lightroom:
The old lady who lives in this house is always cleaning the walls and the cobbles. Do you see the clean frame around her home?
Depth of focus!
(Un)fortunately the battery of my camera died right in the beginning of the session (how embarassing...) and José kindly gave me one of his cameras. He later put a close-up lens on and I just love the pictures you can take with it!
I'm blown away by the details this camera is capable to reveal.
On the left you can see Sabrina's rigth eye. Isn't it impressive?
The classical spider's web with waterdrops: delicate and beautiful.
In driftwood you can discover the most unbelievable shapes and figures.
The little things that make me smile:
What happened to our poster? Did someone...wait...what?!
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We decided to call it "Ximo" ;)
Sabrina
The last weekend we have been to A Coruña at the north coast of Spain. Sabrina came back from her vacations in Andalusia and visited Luismi who is studying in A Coruña. I joined them for the weekend and we did some rainy sightseeing during the day and went out at night. I really needed to be in a city for a while (altough A Coruña is not very big). Just stroll through the streets, watch the people, look at he shops...you learn to appreciate those things. Well, despite the stormy (but typical) weather we spent a very nice weekend!
Yesterday we had a meeting with all the people interested in the workshops we are planning to do and the next week we are going to start! There will be weekly classes of English, German and Photoshop and a crash course of Japanese and one of Italian. As the people have to work or study in the morning, we are doing the workshops in the evening. I'm looking very forward to them!
If I don't keep myself busy I become a little grumpy and homesick.
This week I attend a photography workshop from one of the photographers in Ribadavia, José. Finally I can learn some skills from a professional. And I'm proud to say that I don't have any difficulties to understand what he is explaining!
I also finished the promo video for the Youth House! What do you think? Everything you see is self-made and self-taught and keeping that in mind I think the outcome is quite satisfying. These days I still have to create Spanish subtitles and upload a second version.
And to finish this post an "of-my-life-experience":
Yesterday night it poured as if the sky tried to drown us all and I experienced the longest power blackout of my life!
1 and 1/2 hours!!!
This is 90 minutes...
or 5400 secondes...
...without electricity.
Actually very exciting but a tiny little bit bothersome when you just started painting something...
After the wonderful week of sun and rocks and vultures I visited some other volunteers who I met during my on- arrival seminar in Valladolid in May. They work in a small village called Frómista in Castilla y Leon. Miriam from Italy, Clara from Denmark and Tom from Germany. Frómista is part of the famous Camino de Santiago so many pilgrims from all over the world visit the village every day. The three volunteers help out in the tourist office, the care home for the elderly or the culture/youth house.
I accompanied them to their work to see what their EVS is like. My final conclusion was that both project have their good and bad sides. I really liked the actual project work the volunteers are doing in Frómista. It is a bit more diversified and I really enjoyed the morning I worked with Clara in the care home for the elderly. We made little chest nut figures with them. I definitely prefer doing thins like that, where you are active and moving and talking, to doing office work. Furthermore the overall atmosphere there was different. Here in Ribadavia it feels like being actual at work. So I start at 9:30 and finish at 14:30. Punctually. The typical officer worker stereotype.
In Frómista on the other hand I simply liked to help as much as I could and I didn't check the hour. If there still was something to do I wanted to stay until it was done. You truly are a volunteer!
| However I also noted a lot of very positive aspects of the project in Ribadavia. And this is not so much the project itself but more all the other things around it.
General life.
I might not feel like a "true volunteer" here in Ribadavia but therefore I start to build up a real life. With friends and leisure time and sports...I guess in a project that lasts a whole year it might be better like that (Tom, Miriam and Clara are volunteering for 6 month). It is, like I said, a different atmosphere.
Our flat.
It's a little bigger and a little nicer than the one in Frómista. I mean, come on, I have my own bathroom! What more can a girl possibly want ;)
The town.
Ribadavia might be small but Frómista is even smaller. Here we have a lot of events and festivals going on (at least in summer) whereas in Frómisa they celebrate only one annual festival.
The working hours.
Miriam, Clara and Tom have to work a few hours in the morning and a few in the afternoon so that in the end you have the feeling of working the whole day through.
Being only two volunteers.
Nearly the whole day the three of them work and live close together and they come along surprisingly well which is not self-evident. I think because of the fact that they are always in a group I imagine that it is a little more difficult for them to get to know the young people of the village. Being just two girls might make that easier. We have some friends here who have a car so that we can also go and visit other places with them. And this leads me to my last point.
Travelling.
Sabrina and I had a lot of chances to travel and to get to know Galicia. This is something I sincerely appreciate.
I consider it very recommendable to check out other volunteer project to become aware of what you have, what you don't have and what you might be able to change to make it better. Apart from that it is always great fun to spend time with other volunteers!
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During the first two days in Castilla y Leon we had fascinating weather. Due to the landscape, a wonderful high plateau, the clouds drifted very low above the ground and the light was perfect to go on a little foto session. And this is exactly what I did!
I proudly present the results:
This church is worth a visit! The little dots you see all around the roofs are actually figures and all of them are different.
What a breathtaking view! One week with my dad hiking in the Picos de Europa right at the borderline of Asturia, Cantabria and Castilla y Leon. We met in Oviedo, rented a car and drove along the northern coast of Spain to a little submontane town called Potes. I went by train to Oviedo which is (compared to Germany) very cheap but a little more difficult to book, if you want to have the best price. And who doesn't? If you, for example, have to change trains and you've got less than an hour to do so they mark it with big red letters on the website. At home I sometimes haven't more than a few minutes to run from one platform to another. I enjoy discovering small differences between my home country and Spain like this one, for instance. I think it definitely tells something about a country and its people. The Spanish also have a special word for "getting up early" which is "madrugar". So getting up early might be (or might have been) something unpleasant and worth to be especially mentioned and therefore they have an own expression for that. However, these are only speculations! It would be interesting to know where this word comes from.
I guess the best way to tell you about my trip is showing you the pictures! So here we go:
These mountains are simply fantastic and we had a great time! Most of these wonderful pictures were taken by my dad :) If you would like to know some more details about the routes or something else, because you might be interested in going on vacation in the Picos de Europa, don't hesitate to contact me!
Walking trough the light of the setting sun on our way back from one of my best mountain hikes. Tired but happy
After the holiday with my dad I went directly to a village called Frómista in Castilla y Leon to visit some other volunteers. I tell you all about it in the next post!
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