Student participation The Neterlands

around three o'clock we al met at the transavia gate. we went through the security and checked in for our flight we gathererd around for a drink to discuss about our flight and our fully planned day ahead. pieter and frans stayed at the restaurant to grab a bite we all went to the burger king to also eat a 'decent meal' before our flight. it was quarter past five when we were all waiting to board, it took a little more time then planned but around 6 o'clock we were finally sitting in the airplane. after a 3 hour long flight we finally arrived at the madrid airport. we took the bus to our hotel 'passeo de arte' located in the middle of the city of madrid. they gave us 4 really nice rooms, mick's room even had a bath ! after we were all settled in we meeted in the lobby, pieter and frans went for a meal at the steak house across the road when we walked down the street to the local mac donalds to get a ice cream. after our delicious ice cream and nuggets, we went back to our rooms to get some sleep so we all would be fit for our full filled planning the next day. these were our first couple of hours in madrid!

 

we woke up in the hotel, after we al were dressed we went downstairs to get some breakfast. we al needed to be at the l'oréal fabric at half past 8. it wasn't really a fabric but it was more the place were they invented the new products. it was really interesting on a commercial level but that did not make it less interesting. it was a little bit hard to understand but they tried they're best to make it as understandable as possible for us. they took us on a tour through the fabric. one of the rooms was al full with the products of the line kerastase, this is the room we're they teach the student all about the products and how to adjust to them on certain types of hair. when we were all done we took the cab to the madrid train station to get the train to malaga. it was a 2 hour long drive but the view from out the train was beautiful. around 9 o'clock we arrived at malaga station and we took the bus to the apartment. also this took us 40 minutes to get to the apartment but when we finally arrived the wife's of pieter and frans were waiting for us at the bus stop to walk us home. it was a really big apartment with a balcony garden, 2 bathrooms, a bubble bath, a kitchen and a beautiful view on all the houses on the mountain. we drank the self made sangria that the wife's made for us to introduce us to the spanish culture. after that we all went back to the apartment to get some rest.

the first day of real schooling ! we started with a gathering with all the students in a spanish school nearby our apartment. i took a good look at the school and the first thing i noticed was that the difference between the dutch schools and the spanish schools are really big. in holland you are really free with doing what you want, i got the impression that the spanish schools are a lot more strictly. but that is not the first time that someone told me so. dutch schools are really easy compared with other school in europe. it was a nice experience to follow the lessons in their school building. we were separated in groups, every group had one student from another land. we had 2 spanish, 1 from denmark and 1 from england. our job was to make a film about al the wrong and right things that happen in the salons. for example wearing gloves when you are washing or dying the hair. how to stand correctly in position when you are blow drying or cutting the hair. also recycling was a very important subject, all the chemicals, plastic and papers needed to be separated from each other. unfortunately i got sick in the middle of the day so i helped to make some of the movies but then i went back to the apartment. i got some sleep and i nice bath to calm down my stomach, i really wanted to feel better again because in the evening we would go out for dinner with the whole group. spanish people always really eat late in compared with our culture, we needed to be at the restaurant at 9 o'clock, we dutch people always eat around 6/7 o'clock. because i was not feeling that well i only ate my main course but the starters looked delicious, i think the most people from our group can agree with that. i ate a hamburger, but you had 2 other choices; meat or fish. the fish was a lovely piece of salmon and the meat was a piece of meat filled with cheese and spinach. we all had a great time and after we all had our tummies full with all the food we went back to our apartment to rest out for another big day to come.

 

second day of school, we got teamed up by pairs of two. one spanish and one student from another student. the task was to visit 2 or more salons in malaga with a list with questions. the questions where about how much they thought they knew about the environment. how green there salon was working. we took the bus to the first salon, it was a small salon with only 3 people in charge. it was a really white salon, everything was white it almost burned your eyes. we talked with the owner who was a really nice men of only 44 years old. he runned the place with two other ladies wo not only were hairdressers but also did pedicure. he answers our questions. you could choose out of 3 different levels 1,2,3. 3 was the hardest, 2 slightly less hard and 1 was easy. the owner had chosen some questions in level 2 and a couple in level 1. when we were finished we took some pictures and walked to the other salon who was just a couple of minutes away.
this salon was very stylish, red chairs nice big mirrors with those film star lights around them. at this salon we needed to wait a while about 40 minutes. we took a look around the place, there where a couple of different things at this place. in holland we use a black big cape sort of thing to catch al the falling hairs or paint, just to protect. here they wore something quite similar to a satin bathrobe, really classy. once the woman had time for us we began with the questions, she chosen to all answer them in level 3. i was amazed but after all, she did not really knew a lot of the answers but it was nice she tried. after we finished here we took the bus back to the school. we needed te presentate our day and the salons to the other kids after that we were free to go home. we got back to our apartment to get some rest and chill a bit. in the evening we went out to the beach to eat our dinner at restaurant Gabi. a really nice and tastefull restaurant. had a great evening with everybody. sad to go to sleep to the last day of this fantastic journey!

 

this day we were al going to show our little movies at the rest of the class. we had 4 group but only 3 movies because one didn't could not get uploaded on the computer. in the mean while we where al writing this, a essay about our time in with the project. after a couple of hours we finally could show the movies. everybody did a real good job and had made a couple of really nice videos. around half past 1 we were done, we said goodbye to all the teachers and students. the next time we will see them is in june 2017 in bridge water, england.
we went back to our apartment to swim in our pool on the top of the roof to enjoy our last couple of hours. half past 6 my cab arrived to the airport.

goodbye malaga. i want to thank everybody who made my time amazing. all the effort that the teachers put in this project and the spanish school for having us. i see you soon !