Another year another profile

On our second day we thought it would be a good idea to do a Q&A exercise in order to get to know  the people on the trip. This is everything we found out:

Sandra

She is 17, from Logroño and she is studying 2º of Bachillerato.  

Future: She enjoys helping people therefore would like to work for charities or non-profitable organisations. .

Hobbies: She enjoys reading and listening to pop music in particular Imagine dragons. Other hobbies include going to the gym every week.

Family: She has one sister: whose name is Amaya.

Travel:  Sandra would like to travel to Japan or the USA  to get know the different lifestyles.

Animal: If she could become any animal she would be a bird because she loves flying.

Facts: Hates spiders and really loves languages like for example; Italian, French.. She has a lot villages and does Zumba.

10  years time: Would like to be working and married. No children and living in another country. 

Mangel

He is 20 years old and comes form Pozuelo de Alarcon, Madrid. He is in his second year at university studying law and criminology.  

Future: He would like to be a judge

Hobbies: In his free time he likes playing football and watching films in particular horror movies. He enjoys listening to every type of music but his favourite group is Oasis.

Family: He is an only child.

Travel: If he could go anywhere in the world he would go to China because of the difference in lifestyles.

Animal: He would like to be a turtle because they are slow, they live a lot and are always relaxed.

Facts: His mum is the mayor of Pozuelo.

10 years time: He would like to be a judge in Pozuelo with no kids or being married. 

Gavin (the boss)
He is old but feels young. He has two brother and one sister but he is the youngest. He is from Scotland, was born near Glasgow. He spent his primary years near Dundee.

Pets: He doesn’t have any pets but would love to have a dog again.

Hobbies: His two favourite hobbies include DIY´s and reading, he has read hundreds of books, but his favourite genre is fiction based on facts. He like all types of music but his most preferring is heavy rock.

Sports: He likes watching motor sports, football, tennis and golf. Likes to ski, play golf and play tennis.

Films: Favourite movies are Empire of the sun and Shawshank redemption. Non- thinking films are is favourite.

Facts: He drinks everything, but he mostly prefers tea, a good beer or wine. He doesn’t like rude people. His future job is to be retired.

Why Scotland: Because he thinks it’s a great place to visit!

Clara

Her birthday is on the 27^th of July. Has one brother and one sister but she is the younger; ´baby´. She was born in Vigo but she lived in Greece for a year, Mexico for 3 years, Switzerland for 4 years and Barcelona for 5 years. Now she lives in Madrid.

Pet: She has two dogs, a Labrador and a Border Collie cross as well as two horses.

Hobbies: She doesn’t have enough time to have many hobbies but she enjoys taking photographs in particular landscape.

Sports: Her favourite sports include horse riding, playing football, watching horse riding competitions and she used to swim.

Films: Favourite films are Fast and Furious, transformers… action movies in general.

Facts: She doesn’t like fake or rude people. Her favourite drinks are cola-cao and coke- zero.

10 years time: She would like to be a nurse.

Why Scotland: Improve her English and have a new enjoyable experience.

Kira

She is 19 years old; her birthday is on the 21 of November of 1999. Has an older sister, Fiona. She was born in England but moved to Spain when she was 1 year and half. She lived their until she was 12 years, then she moved to England. Now, she will study in Dundee, Scotland.

Pet: No but if she could she would have at least 10 dogs and a donkey.

Hobbies:   She reads a lot. But she wishes she had more time to do more.

Sports: She plays tennis. She used to do gymnastics and played netball.

Films: She likes psychological, thrillers and social experiments documentaries.

Books: She likes the classics. But her favourite types are the ones which include history, for example related to world war.

Music: She likes classics, 80s, rock music and street music.

Drinks: Her favourite drinks are Aquarius, Vodka Coke, tea, coffee and squash.

Future job? Study?: She is going to study Biochemistry. In 5 or 10 years’ time she wants to work in a lab research conservation of animals.

Alfredo

Personal info: 16, 2 sisters (13,8) born in Pamplona but living in Logroño. Prefers Pamplona

Hobbies: Likes to play video games and swimming

Favourites: His favourite food is ajoarriero (Spanish food made of cod, red pepper, potatoes and tomato sauce), his favourite music is Arctic Monkeys and his favo6 of Crows. If he could travel anywhere in the world he would like to go to Australia because it is a different culture which he would like to get to know.

Future: In ten years’ time he would like to be an astrophysicist working in either Madrid or Pamplona

Trip: He came to this trip because he wants to improve his English and learn more about Celtic culture and history

Isabel

Personal Info: 16 (17 on July 20^th) born in Zaragoza but living in Logroño. 1 sister, Maria, 20

Hobbies: She likes being in contact with nature, so she loves going for walks in the forest. Playing basketball and going to the gym are also activities she enjoys doing.

Favourites: Likes pop music as well as reggaeton; Chinese food is her favourite; she really enjoys reading novels as well as watching science fiction or comedy movies. If she had the chance she would love to go to Austria or Denmark because she has heard that hey are beautiful places but has not seen them for herself.

Does not like: Her most hated thing in the world are pigeons because they scare her, and she also doesn’t not like drinking alcoholic beverages or energetic ones.

Future: Although she is not sure at the moment, she would like a job doing something related to science and biology

Trip: Her main reason for being here is that she wants more independence from her parents, but she also wants to improve her English.

Judith

Personal Info: 17, she was born in Alcorcon (Madrid) and has a brother who is 17 and a sister who is 13.

Hobbies: She likes to dance, in particular, ballet and contemporary dance; she loves hanging out with her friends and listening to pop music.

Likes: Her favourite food are beans, says that the ones her grandmother makes are the best in the world. She is really interested in history, specially The Spanish Civil War so she mainly reads books about this time. She is also really into movies, she goes with her family to the cinema at least three times a month.

Does not like: She is against wasting time, she wants to be constantly doing something. She doesn’t like cats either as she is scared of them

Future: She is still unsure about what degree to study, but she does know that she will be doing it abroad as she wants to experience other cultures

Trip: She is here because a friend who already went on this trip recommended it to her and she also wants to improve her English

Nacho

Personal Info: 17 born in Madrid and living in Pozuelo (Madrid). Has two sisters the same age as him, their names are Cristina and Almudena

Hobbies: He really enjoys playing sports, even more if he does it with his friends.

Likes: Likes comedic films, the main one being the Torrente saga. If he could he would travel to Brussels to see the European Parliament as he is really interested in politics. Likes drinking beer and coke and his favourite type of food is Chinese food; although he is not really into reading, he does enjoy philosophical author such as Ortega y Gasset.

Does not like: Ignacio is not really interested in music but he does listen to reggaeton and, as said before, he does not particularly enjoy reading. He also does not like English, in fact, it was his least favourite subject in school

Future: Once school is over, he would like to get a degree in Law and, if possible, get into politics.

Trip: As is the case with most students, he came to Dundee to improve his English but also to leave Madrid which, at this time, is one of the hottest places in the world.

FIRST DAY!

FAST AND SCOTTISH

In the morning all the Spanish students met in the EasyJet counter at the airport, while we were waiting for the flight. Finally, we got on the plane at five pm and we arrive to Edinburgh at 7 o’clock. It wasn’t the perfect flight because there were some turbulences, but we survived!

Then we had to run through the airport with all the luggage. However, Kira wasn’t fast enough, but that didn’t matter because we had to wait for Douglas. Once he arrived, we were told to be as fast as possible because we didn’t have much time left. When we were all in the car it took us one hour to get to the Tesco

of Dundee.

Ignacio: My host families first impression was good and I was exited because I had already met them the year before when I stayed over at Cath’s house (host) with my friend Guillermo.

Alfredo: At first when I met Caroline(host) I was impressed because of her accent. However as I started to talk with her it took me less than I thought to understand her. I love to say that she is one of the kindest people I have ever been with in my whole life. She knows how to talk with shy people like me. I was also surprised that there was a girl living with her. She resulted to be a nice and friendly person who loves Lexi.

Lexi is Caroline’s grandson’s dog. You won’t know any other dog in the world that snores more than Lexi!!

Ignacio and Alfredo

 THE LOGROÑESES

We started our journey from Logroño at 9:00 am to Madrid. When we arrived to Madrid, particularly to the airport we met the rest of the students that were going to be with us.

The logroñenses realised that most of the people were from Madrid, so we spent the journey comparing both cities.

The trip had some difficulties, for example there were turbulences and Sandra shouted because she thought she was going to die. There were also some funny things like for example when we landed in Edinburgh, Isabel couldn’t hear anything because of the pressure!

After there was a one hour delay because the car company was awful and they gave us the vehicle 45 minutes later (Gavin was soooo grumpy). We finally arrived to Dundee and we met our host families. Sandra’s family were very nice, they have two sons. The mother is Australian and Sandra can understand her better than the husband who is Scottish!

Isabel’s family consists of a woman and her black dog. She is a primary teacher so she talks slowly and Isabel can understand her much better.

Sandra and Isabel

ROAD TO DUNDEE

We met at Madrid airport, all of us were really nervous as there were new faces but we all felt exited for the experience we were going to have.

Our journey began! Firstly, we had to check in and made sure our suitcases weren’t over the weight. Then, we went through security quickly. Unfortunately, our flight was delayed. Despite the bad news we decided to go and buy some food. After wat seemed like ages, we were the first ones to board but unluckily we got on a bus and waited for 15 minutes just to drive around to the back of the plane. What about the environment!?

 At 5 we were finally on the plane, and it took a lot of time for it to take off. Once In the air, some of us were sleeping and others were stressing out because the plane wouldn’t stop moving as there were plenty turbulences. After two hours and a half we arrived to Edinburgh. Once we picked up the suitcases, the group got split up: some went to get a rented car, others were picked up by Douglas and a lucky lady was picked up her host family. Eventually, all of us were settled down in our respective homes. The host families were very welcoming, and they made us feel like home. 

Dinner was delicious! In conclusion, we had an amazing first at ad we can’t wait for the rest of the trip!

Judith and Clara

Our trip to Stirling.

To start off the trip we all met up at Dundee’s train station at 9:30, but unfortunately, Pablo was late! We then got the train to Stirling, which took approximately 50 mins.

 As the sun was shining in Stirling we decided our first stop would be Stirling Castle which is one of the largest and most important castles in Scotland. We all thought it was beautiful so we decided to stay there for 2 hours to be able to have lunch in the lovely gardens.

 Some of us also decided to have a traditional Scottish ice cream from a small truck that was parked outside the castle gates.  After that, we hopped on the bus to the Wallace monument which is a huge tower that commemorates Sir William Wallace, a 13th-century Scottish hero. 

We went to the top of the monument up a narrow spiral staircase of 249 steps and 4 floors, all with a different museum.

We went to the top of the moment up a narrow spiral staircase of 249 steps and 4 floors, all with a different museum. Up there the views were amazing and we took some incredible pictures with everyone. 

Later on, we were given some free time to look at some of the city and go to the shopping centre.
We were back in Dundee at 6 o’clock, what a long day! 

Laser tag!

In order to go to ScotKart, which is the place where we played laser tag we had to figure out how to get there by bus, however Mangel, the two Cristinas and me (Nacho) were lucky and got to go in Gavin’s car instead! 

Once we all arrived two instructors explained how all the rules of the game and gave us our safety jackets as well as our (fake) guns.. For the first 30 mins we played practice games in order to get to know the court and the equipment. After that we chose two captains; Rodrigo and Almudena and then they picked teams, the red one and the blue team. 

 The first game we played was capture the flag and everyone got very competitive! Two games later we were exhausted so we decided to have a break and go get a COLD drink as we were all sweating..

 The last game we played was called ‘police station’; one team stayed in the police station while the other time had to the other had to shoot everyone in there in the least amount of time! Unlucky for us (the blue team) the red team were the overall winners. Overall it was a good and extremely tiring day.

St Andrews

On Wednesday we went to the city of St. Andrews. We started our trip at around 12 o’clock when we left the University of Dundee and got on the 29 bus. Around half an hour later we arrived there where we had some tasks to do.

These tasks consisted on taking pictures in different known places of the city, first we went to the University where we took our first picture, then we arrived at the golf course which is famous because St Andrews is he city where golf was born, so we took a picture next to an old bridge.

 St. Andrews Cathedral was next, we took a picture in front of the tombs and with the cathedral itself. Finally, we went to the North Sea and spent a couple of hours on the beach because it was a really sunny day.

As a conclusion, we really recommend going to this city because it’s beautiful and there are plenty of activities to do, like visiting the “home” of golf.

Climbing in a church!

On Friday morning we did very long listening test in the classroom. Then, after having lunch we went to an indoor rock climbing place which was located inside a church in Dundee. 

There were different levels depending on our strengths and climbing abilities. At the end of the day we were all exhausted!!

2018 Student Profiles Week 2

Hi, my name is Carlota and I’m 15 years old. I live in Madrid and I study at the Greenwich School where I’m about to pass into my first year of college. I have chosen the science path as I believe is it the best option for my future. Some of my hobbies are playing tennis with my father well as spending time with my dogs. In addition, I enjoy listening to music, watching anime when I’m free and hanging out with my friends.

My name is Jesus Gomez and I’m 16 years old. I’m currently studying 1 de Bach in my high school which is in El Ejido and is called IES Santo Domingo. In addition to that my hobbies include; playing football which I absolutely love as well as other sports like for example basketball or volleyball. In my spare time I also enjoy going to the cinema. In the future I would like to become professional football player, however that is a very difficult career therefore my backup option is to become a doctor.

My name is Guillermo and I go to school at the Escolapios. I am 15 years old but I will turn 16 on the 5^th of September. I was born in Bilbao but moved to Pozuelo de Alarcon when I was 12. I spare time I  really enjoy playing with my play station. I have one dog called Pippa. If I were a millionaire I would spend my money on clothes, travelling around the world and would probably buy a massive house. When I’m older I would love to become a lawyer, just like my dad or maybe do a marketing course.

Hi, my name is Cristina Acosta I was born the 18th of March, in 2003 what means I am 15 years old. I live in Pozuelo, a small city in the outskirts Madrid, Spain and I study there, in San Jose de Cluny school. I am the youngest of 4 siblings and we have no pets. In ordinary days, I spend my time dancing flamenco and ballet but in summer I’ll spend it going to Cadiz with my family. One of my favourite things are watching films and listening to music. My favourite actor is Wil Smith but my favourite movie is 3 steps above heaven. About music, I love pop music specially Pereza’s songs. I don’t like football at all but if I had to choose a team, I’d take the Atletico de Madrid.