Acting Out

Day 6 Today was the last full day of our exchange and emotions are high. Everyone has a feeling of pride and accomplishment in the work that we have achieved and so today we used our time to work on our Youth pass. Afterwards we went around the circle and made our comments about the performance and about the exchange. It was a very emotional conversation so to liven the mood we went in a circle complementing eachother. Its amazing to see how people can create such a strong bond in such a short time. Tonight we will have our going away party and at 7:30 tomorrow morning we will say goodbye to Ezcaray and make our journeys back home. 

Day 5  Today we woke up and got on the bus to Logroño to get to know our location and to explore the town. We were divided into groups with people from each country in the groups and we were given a map and a list of places to go in Logroño. In each location we were given a word to inspire a photo to be taken there. This was such a fun way to explore the city and it was also the perfect excuse to take fun photos together so that we will remember this trip forever. Before the performance began we did the excerise that we had done on the first day where we looked into eachothers eyes and hugged. It was very emotional this time because our time is nearly up and we have all become so close. However, the sad mood quickly left us all when we started to play warm up games for the performance and people from the street even joined us in our games! We had so much energy for the performance and we really felt that the audience got our message and it had its effect.

Day 4 Today we started the day with a very personal workshop about gender. We were asked to choose how much paint we wanted to put on our hands based on what level we felt of each colour – Blue, Pink and White. This workshop worked so well because, despite only knowing each other for a few days, we are all very close and very comfortable with each other. Later in the day, the groups combined together in the street to rehearse the final performance together. Everyone is so excited to perform tomorrow in Logroño. To end our busy day we decided to organise our own Open Mic Night. Everyone here is so talented and its great to see them be so creative.

Day 3 After a day filled with workshops and rehearsals, we had our intercultural night. Each country had to display a short performance representing their country. The first group was the Irish group, who represented their country through skits about typical Irish things, using the set to their theatrical advantage. Their act was very funny for the audience member who was Irish. Second to perform was the Spanish group who told the tragic story of a Spanish bar closing down. They showed the Spanish culture to the other countries by using flashbacks and ended their performance with a romantic happily ever after. Third was the Italian gameshow where we learnt a few facts about Italy and a lot of things about pizza. The end of the intercultural night was a dance performance by the germans who treated everyone to german biscuits in honour of their national holiday. A great night was had by all.

 Day 2  So today we got up early for breakfast at about 8 am. The Germans hosted workshops, the first one was fun because we were dancing and singing. It was great craic. The second one was an intense movement workshop about gender identity. Everybody devised a movement piece, they were all very impressive. Then we tried to go into the town in the afternoon, but all the shops were closed. The town was beautiful, it was like something lovely out of a storybook. We tried to find somewhere to get hot chocolate but to no avail. We then went into groups to start rehearsing for our street performance on Friday. I loved the energy my group had and I like everything we have done so far. We had to dance in a feminine and provocative way. This week so far has been a great experience. I have never even left my town and now I am up in the mountains in Spain. I have never experienced anything like it before. 

Day 1 Today we woke up from our cosy beds in time for breakfast at 9am and began our first workshop at 10am. We started the day with some icebreakers to build our trust in eachother.   Our first activity was to go to the untouched section of the snow and the objective was to be with yourself and create an image to be seen from above. However, when we began, naturally we started to play instead, which resulted in a snow battle. Afterwords we discussed the metaphor that the activity represented, which was really insightful to see the perspective of others. It made it easier to feel more comfortable being yourself because these activities broke the awkward borders of meeting new people. It also made everyone become closer both mentally and physically. We continued the day by starting a discussion about our definitions of gender. We were parted into 4 groups and each group had to write words related to topic words such as "gender" and "masculine". Then we were divi