La Décima par alia_triki

Without any doubt, the best night in Madrid.

Saturday 24th, May at 9 pm the final match of the champions league began. A very special match composed of two teams of Madrid: Atletico of Madrid and the famous Real Madrid. I decided with two other friends to see the soccer match in a bar near to Cibeles square with a lot of Spanish people.

Even if the Atletico is a good team composed of very good players like Diego Costa, my favorite team is Real Madrid with the incredible Cristiano Ronaldo. When we arrived in the bar the match had begun and the atmosphere was tense because the Atletico had scored a first goal and the Real didn’t seem very in shape. In the second half it was better, and the people sang and encouraged their team in spite of the defeat. And when everybody had lost hope, two minutes before the end of the game, Sergio Ramos scored a first goal and equalized the party. The whole bar was on fire, the happiness was indescribable, everybody was screaming and hugging people which they even don’t know. From this moment, the game of the Real Madrid had completely changed and they became more confident. The goals followed one another until arrive at the finale score 4-1 for the Real. In the bar where we were the enjoyment was enormous and the people rushed in the street to celebrate the victory. We all went to the Cibeles square, planned to celebrate this event.

In the middle of the square, a place was fitted out to welcome the soccer players and in its right the DJ putted some music till the morning. Cibeles became a kind of outdoors night club where all the people of Madrid where dancing and celebrating the victory.

I had never known an atmosphere like that in my life. This night was one of the last but also one of the best and confirmed the reputation of Spanish people: They know how to party.

I knew that during my exchange I should have to write an article about advertising so during all my semester I was looking around me and paying attention to every publicity that could inspire me. And my first impression was that in Madrid, the streets advertisings are not very present. Of course there are some panels in several streets but not as much as in France. The most publicity that I saw were in the subway station and it was simple images for famous stores like El Corte Ingles, Zara or Mango. And I thought that even if these brands are Spanish and very famous here and all around the world their advertising campaign had nothing special, nothing which differentiated them from French one.

So, I began to look on the internet for something special something that really get my attention and impresses me. And I found the advertising campaign of ACF international which promoted actions against the hunger.

My first impression was that it was very cute and touching to see very young children putted in a situation like this one and to observe their reactions. And after having seen it several times I began to analyze it and to think that the idea   was very intelligent.

In fact, we see approximately seven couples of children that are seated in front of two dishes covered with bells and when they discovers it one finds a sandwich and the other one an empty dish. And their reactions even if they are very young are to share their snacks with the other children.

The idea is surprising because they manage to speak very simply about a very difficult subject. And I think that using children as actors were very intelligent because like that the message is clear and simple. And by this campaign the target is very wide because even the smallest can understand it and I think that the reaction will be the same in every country of the world every person will be affected by this image because nobody wants to see its own kid in the situation of the “empty dish”.

As during our exchanges we should see the most places possible with Esther, Paul and Thibault we decided to travel in Toledo, a small and pretty city that all our friends in the university advised us to visit, for 24 hours.

10 am: We set off together with Paul’s car and only one hour after we arrived at destination. Before entering in the city our first impression was that the city looked like a village of the middle Ages with its castles and its medieval architecture. 

11 am: As the city is quite small we parked the car in a parking and began the visits. Our first visit was the Church “San Ildefonso” that we were quickly able to visit because there was nobody in the queue. It was a very nice place, not very big and all decorated in white. 

12 am: We went in a small street where we found a small restaurant where we lunched some Spanish speciliaties: Tortillas y Patatas Bravas.

2 pm: We continue the visit of the city with the church Santo tome, the road of Don QUICHOTE and the Sinagogue of Saint Maria la Blanca. After that we saw something that looks like a little house on the other side of the river and we decided to look what it was.

5 pm: That was our best discovery, a little place with an old well and some graffiti on the walls

And we have had an amazing view of the city

6 pm: We took a last coffee on the terrace of a beautiful hotel situated on a mountain and one hour after we finally took the road of return.

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My third article is about immigration in Spain and more especially about the declaration that France, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Malta and Spain sign the 16^th of April in Alicante.

In fact, Spain and the countries of the Southern Europe have to handle a migratory crisis which takes more scale from day to day. The document will be a base for a discussion between the European heads of State in the request of Spain which knows strong waves of emigration from Ceuta and Melilla.

All this can be explained by the fact that Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Sub-Saharan Africa and South America were old Spanish colonies. It’s the reason why the countries are attached to Spain and their culture are related with it.

Furthermore, the majority of these countries are developing and know strong unemployment rates for example 8, 8 % in Morocco and 10, 3 % in Algeria. Also, 16 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa are victims of food crisis created by drought and civil wars.

So motivated by their poverty, their unemployment and their situation in their respective countries, hundreds of people risks every day their lives to leave their native country and to begin a new life in Spain but also in all the Southern Europe where the countries are more developed.

In the context of economic crisis in which Spain is, it becomes harder and harder for the country to manage the numerous illegal immigrations given that Spain is the closest to the Moroccan border and is also considered as a country of transit.

The University Rey Juan Carlos is a public university and was created in 1996. It’s made of four campuses: Mostoles, Fuenlabrada, Alcorcon and Vicálvaro.

The campuses of Mostoles, Fuenlabrada, and Alcorcon are the most modern and are located in the same area. While my campus, the campus of Vicálvaro, is on the other side of the city and have an architecture more traditional than the others.  

The campus is made of a big Library, three cafeterias, a bookstore, a fitness gym, a bank, a student residence and a car park. Contrary to the ESDES the classroom are for almost 100 students and look like amphitheaters. Depending on the professors, the presence in class is not mandatory and the majority of the classes are lectures. The main difference between the two universities is that in the university Rey Juan Carlos the students come from all around the world and it’s very enriching to talk with them about their culture, their customs…

Our first day in the University began with a presentation of the campus, of our semester and of the all the international relations officers. After that, some “buddies”, which are responsible of the integration of Erasmus students, were waiting for us outside to visit the campus and to explain to us the functioning of the university.

Then, three afternoons were organized by the welcoming staff of the university the first, was a touristic visit of Madrid, the second was a shopping day with a lunch in a tapas bar and the third was a visit of museums. It was a good experience and it allows us to meet a lot of international students and of course to visit the city of Madrid.