Palm trees, palm trees and more palm trees!
One of our Spanish groups in 5abc had the pleasure of spending a week in Elche, a beautiful town in the province of Valencia in the southeast of Spain, home to 67 orchards of 45,000 date palms and as many palm trees all together as inhabitants – a UNESCO World Heritage Site known as “el Palmeral”. The weather during our stay was perfect, the activities offered by our partner school IES – Carrús a great mix of a cultural introduction to the lifestyle of this part of Spain (a typical “merienda” and beach day organized by the host families, a breakfast of “churros con chocolate”, etc.), informative talks on the city of Elche and our host school, as well as workshops and group activities related to the topics of our exchange – inclusion and sustainability. Not only did we get to try out different water sports at the beautiful, sandy beach of Santa Pola, we also spent a wonderful, relaxing day at “Tabarca”, a small, barely inhabited island just off the coast of Santa Pola, where we enjoyed not only its charming, historical village centre, but also its beautiful, albeit chilly crystal-clear waters. We gained insights into the bilingual nature of the province of Valencia (“valenciano”, a dialect of “catalán” spoken alongside the more widespread “castellano” in the province of Valencia) and also practiced our drawing skills in the breathtakingly beautiful “Huerto del Cura”, the jewel of Elche´s historical palm grove, a splendid collection of palms and cacti from all corners of the world. We learned how to make Spanish tapas and the unique speciality “las delicias de Elche” – dates stuffed with almonds and wrapped in bacon and then fried – and as a final treat got to taste a delicious paella, cooked in huge “paelleras” in the school courtyard. What a treat!
We would like to thank our students for being such amazing travel partners and hosts, their families for their great hospitality during the first part of the exchange, and we would also like to express our gratitude to our colleagues for having been so supportive during our guests´ stay at GIBS. It takes a great team and an extraordinary group of students to make an experience as successful as this one definitely was!
Agni Psilinakis, Eva Hofer-Herrmuth
