Youth Exchange – Love at first sight
Improving English, organizing the trip, recording videos and getting employability skills are the things that young Isabel from Miguelturra, a village near to Ciudad Real, gained during the Youth Exchange in Italy. Despite the broken suitcase in the subway, Isabel brought very good memories from Italy and it is not important that Italy is as well southern country like Spain, Isabel fell in love with it.
1. Present yourself.
My name is Isabel, I’m 25 years old. I’m from Miguelturra, a village near to Ciudad Real. I studied Cultural History because I love everything related to human culture and its forms of expression. Currently, I’m participating in the local association in my village, where we organize cultural events and as well with Mille Cunti.
2. Where did you go for the project?
I went to Cortemilia, which is a very small town in Italian Piedmont, specifically we stayed in Monteoliveto, a restored old house located on the top of a hill. The beautiful place.
3. Was it your first experience with Erasmus+ programme? Tell us more.
No, my first Erasmus plus experience was in August. This last exchange, in which I participated in, was the second part of a huge project consisted of two exchanges and the first was held in August in the same place.
The project was called Medial Social Jobs. During the first exchange we learnt how to record videos and during the second we trained on social networks. As a whole, the most important goal was to improve our skills with social media and then to improve our employability skills.
4. Why did you decide to go for the project with Erasmus+?
Because I have participated in some activities with Mille Cunti, the Spanish association collaborating with the exchange and they asked me if I wanted to participate in this project. I love Italy, in fact, I’m learning a bit of Italian. I also like to discover new countries, travel and meet people from different places. So I thought it would be the perfect project for me.
5. What did you expect and did your expectations meet with the reality?
I hoped to get a new experience and enjoy it as much as I could. And that’s how it was, I enjoyed it a lot, I’ve met great people and I’ve travelled to new and beautiful places. In addition, I expected to learn something about social media and digital communication and this has been the case.
6. What did you learn there?
First of all, about the topic of the project, I have learnt how to make a good promotional video, many tips about the using of camera and some editing programs. I have also learnt to make a good use of social networks to improve my employability, adapting networks to our work interests.
Secondly, I have learnt to manage a trip by myself, I have greatly improved my English because communication with the other participants was in English and I discovered many things about Italian culture.
7. Can you apply all the things you learnt there in your daily life?
Of course, for example, now I’m in charge of the social media of my association and the knowledge that I acquired during the project are very useful for this.
8. Do you have any funny story that happened during the project?
I have many funny stories, in fact, almost all I remember is fun. For example, during the first part of the exchange, my suitcase broke while I was on the subway, the problem was that my Spanish teammates got off the subway and I stayed inside trying to fix the suitcase. I had to look for them and walk back to where they were with the broken suitcase, despite that I laughed a lot when I met up with them again.
9. Would you recommend it to other young people?
Of course, it is a highly recommended experience for young people. You travel, you meet wonderful people, both from your country and from the other participating countries; you discover new cultures and new languages. What more can you ask?
