Goodbye

Dear students, teachers and families, Yesterday we were sad to say goodbye to our dear friends. We really had a very nice time with all of them in Terrassa and Barcelona. They are a really nice group, all of them, and I think they made the most of their stay here in Catalonia. I hope they all took nice memories with them that will help them keep in touch. It's been a pleasure to organize an exchange with you all. Here you have some nice photos of the last activities we did together. Take care. A very big hug, Anna

Hello there
A small word of the Belgian teachers. We also enjoyed our visit to Bacelona where we were guided by our owm students, by the teachers of the exchange school or by professional guides in La Sagrada Familia and La Perdrera. The Catalan students are very nice and they organize activities to do all together in the evenings. Our pupils are enjoying but can`t get used to the Catalan eating timetables. But we are already adapted! Nice things won´t last forever so we have to enjoy our lat days.

Kati and Catherine

¡Hola Amigos!

¿Como estas? Here the sun is shining again, so we´re very happy! :)

Yesterday we visited the Barri Gòtic, which is a very beautiful neighbourhood. This is a lovely place to walk around and escape from the busy center of Barcelona! You can easily get lost in the narrow streets.

If you are in the center of Barri Gòthic, you see the Santa Maria del Mar. That is a big church arounded by houses.
Santa Maria del Mar was built in the 14th century by the harbour workers. After their work in the harbour, they came together to build the their own money and energy. The workers were very proud of their own church because it was their own creation and not one of the rich bourgeoisie. It´s very impressive especially if you see the grandeur and the beauty of Santa Maria del Mar.
In 1428, an earthquake destroyed a part of the church, but is was rebuilt a few years later.

Of course, we didn´t invent all this! A nice art teacher of the school joined us and explained us a lot. Luckely he went with us, because otherwise we wouldn´t have learned so much.

We really enjoyed it!

See you soon!

Rebecca and Ylenia

Casa Mila/ Pedrera 22/03

Hello everyone

Today we saw La Pedrera , which is the Catalan nickname of Casa Mila.The appartment was build by Gaudi. He got this job bacause the owners, Mister amd Miss Mila, wanted to impress the other bourgoisies of the streeth.
Their appartment was 1300 scare meter large. This appartment was located in the middle of the building, all the others were rented out.
Why it is called 'La Pedrera' is because when the Catalan people saw this house, the began to mock it. It had so much stones in the front that they called the quarry (= La pedrera in Catalan) .
  
We were so lucky to have a guide who explained interresting details of the house. For example she told us that the front-facade was only a decoration because it wasn't needed to support the building.
The roof had to be seen like a hat. The function of it was to capture the rainwater and lead it to all the appartments, this was a very new way of providing water. Gaudi didn't only invent this, he also used the first elevator in a building. It was made of wood and was so slow that he constructed a bench in the lift.

Not everybody was so lucky to use the elevator, the servants had to go by the stairwal all the way to the top. This was constructed of arches, which explaines the form of the roof.
We used the stairs as well and saw that Gaudi was inspired by nature in every element of the building. For instance the doorknobs were ergonomic, the corners were round and the stairwall in total was inspired of a sea shell.

We had a magnificant view on Barcelona from the top. We could even see the Sagrada familia and the Torre Agbar.

To sum up , we can say that although the appartment was built to show that they were rich, it is also a very good example of how genius Gaudi is.

And if you wondered the weather is finally good !

Bye and see you in 2 days,

Flore and Estelle.

Palau del Música

¡Hello!
Yesterday it was still raining in the morning. We visited Barcelona and the beautiful Palau del Música:
it is a magnificent concert hall, which is build in 'Art Nouveau' style. It was disigned by the great architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner. 
This is what David Mackay, professor of natural Philosophy at the University of Cambrige, said
about this place:

The concert hall is one of the most beautiful in the world (...) without exaggeration. It is one of its most important architectural treasures. Its pace, simple, complex, mystical and paradoxical, defies accurate description.

How much we wanted to visit the concert hall, we coudn't because it was to expensive ( €15). However we saw the hall and the cafetaria (where some pupils bought a muffin), this was already breathtaking. We couldn't stay for a long time, because we had to rush to the casa Mila to be on time for our guided tour.

All in all we liked the Palau del Música a lot, firstly because it was very pretty and also because we weren't in the rain for a while.

Greetings from Spain
Nina and Eline P.

Mayor is coming to town!

Hola amigos belgues!

Today we're going to visit Terrassa! An important industrial town next to Barcelona, where most of our hosts live. The school of our Catalan friends is situated here. Each morning we come here to write on this blog and sometimes we even follow an English class.

We'll be visiting the medieval town, which includes the St. Peter Romanesque Churches, Vallparadis Castle, Palace tower, another castle and the Town Hall. All those buildings are part of our tour.

After the medieval town, we'll visit the industrial city. In our opinion we'll like this part of the city the most, because there is a modernist building, called Maia Freixa, inspired by Gaudi. We think this will be very impressive. We'll also be visiting some museums.

We're looking forward to lay back in the Park of Terrassa, because the sun is shining brightly.

Later on the mayor is coming to meet us. We're looking forward to meet him, because he's an important man in Catalonia, a well known politician.Yesterday he even came on the news, but we can't understand Spanish or Catalan, so we didn't know what happened.

Comiat!

Sarah, Wouter and Roxane

¿Finally some good weather?

Hello Belgian people!

Yesterday we had a lot of rain during the visit of Palau del Musica, the Santa Maria del Mar church and la Pedrera. When our visits were over, it stopped raining and the sun showed itself. The sun really knows when it has to shine! :)

After visiting Barcelona, we went back to Terrassa to have a free afternoon with the Catalan students. First, we had lunch with our exchange students, and afterwards we went to a big arcade hall where we had a lot of fun playing bowling. We were divided in three groups, and in each one of them there was at least one person who was really talented for playing bowling (sadly, we weren't one of those persons :( ...).

Yesterday we also realized that we were in the middle of our week, which made us really sad for a moment... Then we said to eachother that we should really enjoy our last three days and be happy of what we have already done here in Barcelona/Terrassa.

Today, the weather is already very nice, there is not even a single cloud in the sky! We could finally put on some lighter clothes, which will make the visit of Terrassa more fun and enjoyable. We will be visiting the mayor of Terrassa today, to make a picture which will appear in the newspaper. We're famouuuuuuuus!

We miss you all, especially Marie-Kell, who should've been here too.
We wish you all a very nice day and we hope you haven't forgotten us yet.

xoxo
Naomi and Eline B.

Sagrada Familia 21/3

hello everyone!!
Yesterday we visited the Sagrada Familia. Unfortunately it was raining the whole day and there was so much wind that we almost couldn´t use our umbrella. We will tell you about the wonderful Sagrada Familia.
We had a guided tour in the cathedral. The Sagrada Familia is a very big church, protected by UNESCO and built by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi. The cathedral is the best example of the Catalan modernism. you can compare this art with the art Nouveau in Belgium.

We´ve learned that Gaudi wasn´t the original architect for the big project. Francisco del Villar started with the project but after a year he quit it. Gaudi worked almost his whole career on the cathedral as a hermit. They still haven´t finished building the church. It is planned to be ready in 2026, that is 100 years after Gaudi´s death.
the Sagrada Familia has three façades, which represents the nativity, the passion and the glory of Christus´ life.
The nativity façcade has been built by Gaudi and was finished in 1904. You can really read the façade like a book.
The passion façade has been built by Josep Subirachs. The façade has a more modern style because it has been built half a century after the nativity façade.
The glory façade hasn´t been built yet.
The inside of the cathedral is very impressing because of all the big pillars, which represent the trees in the nature. There are very big glass-in-lead-windows, where a lot of light comes through. This was the aim of Gaudi, because Jesus said that he was the light.
As a conlcusion we have learned so much about this amazing cathedral and recommand everyone to visit the Sagrada Familia.

Here you see a picture of nativity façade of the Sagrada Familia

Greetings from Barcelona
Estelle and Rebecca