Since we are both Spanish but come from very different regions (one from the north and the other from the south) our goal in this course is to learn about each other’s cultures, traditions, and regional identities.
During this meeting, we compared several aspects of life in the north and the south of Spain: local celebrations, gastronomy, weather,
We also talked about how regional identity shapes everyday life and how moving abroad often makes us more aware of these differences.
By the end of the walk, we felt that we understood each other’s backgrounds much better, and we appreciated even more the cultural diversity that exists within Spain itself.
Compared to our first meeting in the city centre, this session around the lake was much more informal. Walking helped the conversation flow naturally, and we found it easier to share personal experiences and memories tied to our regional cultures.
One unexpected discovery was how many things we take for granted about our own regions. When explaining them to someone from another part of Spain, we suddenly realised how unique they actually are. This made the teaching aspect of the exchange especially interesting, because we had to reflect on traditions and customs that we had never analysed before.
We also noticed that even though we come from the same country, our cultural backgrounds can be surprisingly different. This realisation encouraged us to keep exploring these contrasts in future meetings. etc.
We had initially planned to discuss some more specific cultural topics, but the natural flow of the conversation led us to other themes instead. Additionally, some traditions were hard to explain because we are so used to them that defining or describing them in detail required extra effort. Time was a limitation, as we could not explore every topic as deeply as we would have liked.
While our overall plan was to alternate between structured and informal sessions, we did not follow the detailed outline we had prepared for this meeting. Instead, we let the environment guide the conversation, wich turned out to be very positive choice.
The contrast between our first meeting in tha city centre and this more relaxed also helped us see how different contexts can influence the quality of cultural exchange.
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