Monday - Spain
Monday for us was like waking up in another world. It was 5:45 in the morning. We didn’t know where or who we were, but we woke up. For breakfast we had something that we didn’t know that even existed, but it was good. We caught a bus for an hour, enjoying the new views, and then we arrived to school, which is certainly bigger than ours. We opened the week with a presentation and some music, and then we went for a walk in Borås, making a tour along the different paintings and sculptures, which were really amazing. There are a lot of modern sculptures in the streets and big paintings on the walls of some buildings. After we finished the tour, where we had to take pictures for a group work, we went back to school for lunch. After that, we were given some information about the growing of cotton, its use for making clothes, the working conditions of its manufacture, etc. This information, with texts and videos, was very useful and interesting and finally finished in some group discussions. At last, we had an “International Food” party: the students brought and shared food from different countries, such as Syria, Sweden, Poland, Spain and others as well.
Monday - Poland
Monday started with pretty nice weather for Sweden. We met at school in the morning to officially begin our Fair Trade project. Then we had a chance to get to know more about Borås and our host-school during presentations made by Swedish students. A city walk in groups was the next activity in our schedule for Monday. We were exploring the neighbourhood and making photos of popular sculptures and murals. After coming back to the school came lunch time. When the break finished the Swedish teachers ran two thought-provoking workshops about FT - one was about growing cotton and usage of pesticides and during the other one we were working with data that we’d gathered earlier. In the evening school was throwing an annual International Food Party. We ate delicious meals from all over the world and had an opportunity to discover new cultures by talking to other students and listening to presentations.
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Tuesday - Poland
Tuesday started with economy lessons prepared by Swedish teachers, at first we all considered them to be a not so interesting necessity but it quickly turned out that even economy can be fascinating if explained with passion. After the lessons were finished we walked to Ryaverken which is a place in Borås where the energy is produced and water is prepared to be used by the inhabitants.
We were given a quick tour around the plant followed by an explanation on how important this place is for the town. Later on we went back to school and had lunch, at this point all of us were impatiently waiting for the meeting with the Spotify co-funder, Mr Niklas Ivarsson. Looking back, it was definitely not disappointing and gave us lots of food for thought. We ended the day with a forest walk and a little picnic during which we had time to get to know other students as well as relax after the intensive day.
Tuesday - Spain
On Tuesday 17th we woke up very early in the morning. First, we had an economy class, which was very interesting; we learnt a lot about fair trade clothes and we could discuss with our colleagues.
Then, we walked to Ryaverket, which is a waste treatment factory that transforms waste into energy. They also supply the town with hot water and heating. The smell was terrible, but the visit was really interesting and informative; we had never seen anything like that before and we enjoyed it so much.
After lunch, we had a two hour presentation on Spotify. The speaker was one of the founders of Spotify. He studied at this school and talked to us about his job and how they became successful; he also showed us the benefits of their application, which is more useful than other ones.
Finally, we went to the forest, we did a one hour tour, we were very impressed when we saw how beautiful was the natural surrounding. We were a little bit tired, so it was great when the teachers made sausages for us, they were delicious.
We took a bus and came back to Borås to enjoy our free time before going home.
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Wednesday - Spain
Today, 18th October we went to school at 9:30. First of all, when we arrived at school we met everyone and we went into our classroom.
We had to look for the paper with our names, and sit with our group. Today's work was to start a short film about Fair Trade. Some groups went out to do some scenes but others preferred to be inside developing their ideas and editing the videos with the computer.
At 12:00, we had lunch, we ate pasta with chicken, it was delicious.
After lunch, we walked to the Textile Museum. We were divided in two groups with one teacher in each.
We visited "Smart Textile" where they showed as how the mix technology and textile to make were useful things, working in different areas: architecture, medicine and health and sustainable development.
We also went to a exhibition were we could see how important are the patterns in the textile and all the uses it can have. It also had pictures, sculptures and explanations about how we take care of the clothes and how the textile industry works.
Finally, in the last and more interesting part of the museums, there are a lot of different machines to work with textiles and we learnt about their functions. They also tried to show us in what conditions our fast clothes have been done and what's the situation and the life of the people who works in these factories.
We also had a workshop where we tried to do a Poster showing our ideas for an Alternative Haul. That means, a haul using second hand clothes, reusing old clothes, create new things using what you have, sharing with friends...
At the end of the day we came back to school and we enjoyed our free time with the Swedish, Polish and Spanish students.
Wednesday - Poland
On Wednesday we began working on the leading exercise of the project: a collection of short films about Fairtrade and sustainable development. We were divided into 8 small groups to carry on with the task. We were given time until lunch at 1pm to shoot and edit the films that we were later going to finish and present on Friday. Later in the day we went to visit a textile museum, where we saw multiple machines that had been used in the early 20th century in Borås textile factories. Moreover, we compared the working conditions of factory workers from Borås 100 years ago with current conditions in Bangladesh. After visiting the main exhibition, we worked on posters promoting sustainable consumption of clothing and went to see a smaller exhibition called Smart Textiles which presented innovative ways of using textiles. After leaving the museum we were given free time until the end of the day.
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Thursday - Poland
On Thursday, Spanish and Polish groups went to do some sightseeing in Gothenburg while the Swedish students had a regular school day. We arrived in Gothenburg by public bus, it took us 45 min. We strolled around the city with one of the Swedish teachers as a guide. We saw the harbour and the opera, a gigantic candy shop with sweets from all parts of the world. Then we saw typical Swedish fish and food markets and an artistic district with shops selling lots of fancy and hand-made products (including delicious and huge cinnamon buns!). We also visited Kulturhuset, which had a fair-trade related exhibitions, and had a glance at Universeum. We topped our visit with a ride to 23rd floor of one of the Gothenburg's hotels to see the view of the beautiful city. We took a bus back to Borås at 16:30 and then had free time.
Thursday - Spain
On Thursday, the Spanish and the Polish students went to Gothenburg, the second most important city of Sweden after Stockholm, meanwhile the Swedish students went to their normal classes in their high school.
Our guide during we visit to the city was Michaela, the Spanish teacher, who has lived all her life in Gothenburg. The city is called sometimes little Amsterdam because of all the dams and canals and little London because the river reminds the Thames. It was founded by Gustav II Adolph in 1623 and we could see a statue of him in the city center next to the Town Hall and the Court.
The first thing we visit was the harbor that was next to the new Opera building that has the shape of a ship in honor to the importance that fishing has in the city from the first years. After that, we visited the Cultural and Business area, with some little traditional shops. Then, we visited a museum about different cultures where we could see some things about fair trade.
Finally, we went to the top of a very high building, called the Gothia Towers to enjoy the view. In conclusion, it was a very good day. Gothenburg is an interesting beautiful city.
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Friday - Spain
The last day of our stay was Friday, 20 October, when we did several things. One of them, in the first period (from 8 to 9: 30) the Spanish people were in the Spanish class with professor Mikaela (Spanish teacher) and we helped many Swedish people with the language and they asked many questions on different topics.
After that, from 9:30 to 12:00 am, we finished making the movies that had to do with fair trade and the posters about fashion.
Later, from 12:00 to 13:00 we had lunch at the canteen.
Finally, from 13:00 to 17:00 pm, the groups of the first day that took photos around the town gave a presentation on that activity answering the questions asked. Besides, we saw the result of our films. It was a fantastic experience to share all the group works with all the students. We had a nice day and it was the end of a wonderful experience.
Friday - Poland
On Friday we participated in different language lessons in the Swedish school. It was an interesting experience, because the lessons were in Swedish and we could barely understand anything, unless the teacher switched to English. Later that day we were finishing all of the work we had been doing the whole week. We were editing the videos on Fair Trade and sustainability and presentations about our city walk as well. After lunch brake came the time for presenting our work. Everybody made a great effort that week and we all had a great opportunity to show the results.
Later that evening Swedish hosts organised an awesome party in a rented room. We had a great time and shared our experiences of the past week. Everybody danced and had fun so it was really good last but one day before departure.
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