Institut Jaume Callís - Erasmus+ 2015-17

Is Italy a green country? in November I travelled to Italy and one of the things I noticed is that they do not recycle at all. They only have one bin in the whole house –my travel companions noticed that too- and the streets were really dirty. I tried to come to some hypothesis of what could be the reason this was so shocking even though we are such similar countries in other aspects. My first thought is that they did not recycle but when I asked my partner she answered that they indeed have been recycling since 2014. Actually, I did some research and in a Swedish guy blog I found out that they even get a tax relief calculated by the quality of their recycling for the ones that do recycle, which is an amazing way to get people to start doing it. So maybe it was me that only saw one bin and they did have several for different products. In my country for example the average Spanish  home has at least four different bins: the organic one for food and kitchen paper, the trash, ...

CRITICAL INCIDENT An uncomfortable time In November 2016, I went a week to Italy with my classmates for an English project. The fifth day, my host partner and I went to her aunt’s house to spend the afternoon because in the evening we had a dinner. While we were at her aunt’s house, my partner said she had to go to the bathroom, so she left me with her aunt and her cousin alone. They didn’t speak Catalan, Spanish or English, they only spoke Italian and I didn’t understand them. I told them, gesturing, that I couldn’t speak with them because I didn’t speak Italian but they started talking in Italian and telling me things (that I couldn’t understand) and I was answering using “Yes” and “No” although I didn’t know what they were saying. My partner, who was at the bathroom and I don’t know what she was doing there, took half an hour there and when she came into the living room I thought: “Finally!” It was a really uncomfortable time and I was dying of shame and nerves. What sh...

CRITICAL INCIDENT “To kiss or not to kiss” The first time I met the italian people, it was a little bit strange. I already knew some things about them, like their caothic traffic or the delicious food they have, but I didn’t know they had different greetings from us. They had just arrived in Vic and when they got off the bus, we introduced ourselfs. Here comes the critical incident. First, I met a girl, and when I was going to give here two kisses (starting from the left), she suddently started from the right. Actually, it was quite funny. But that’s not all. Then I met a boy, and again, I was going to kiss him but he stopped me and just shoke hands with me. After those confusing but really funny missunderstandings, we solve them by making a video about it. For what reason did the italians act like they did? Because they wanted to be rude. Because between cultures there are a lot of differences, and in Italy it’s usual to greet like that. Because they wanted to...

Critical incident: Security first – Fasten the seatbelt! On my week of exchange I hosted an Italian girl. We did not have many differences in our cultures. Both of our countries are in the Mediterranean so, we ate similar food, we had similar ways to greet and our personalities were much alike. We also had similar tastes and we did not have any shameful situation. Although our similarities we were used to different little things like drying our body with towels instead of burnouse, or eating soup with chicken broth with pasta instead of vegetable soup (minestrone). The thing which worried me most was the seatbelt. I did not know if in Italy they fasten their seatbelts on the back seats of the car. The first day on the car she did not fasten it, and I had to tell her that it was better for our security. She said that in Italy they are used to wear the seatbelts on but she got distracted when she came into the car. Some days after, my mum had to carry a girl from Bulgaria and she wa...

An uncomfortable time In November 2016, I went a week to Italy with my classmates for an English project. The fifth day, my host partner and I went to her aunt’s house to spend the afternoon because in the evening we had a dinner. While we were at her aunt’s house, my partner said she had to go to the bathroom, so she left me with her aunt and her cousin alone. They didn’t speak Catalan, Spanish or English, they only spoke Italian and I didn’t understand them. I told them, gesturing, that I couldn’t speak with them because I didn’t speak Italian but they started talking in Italian and telling me things (that I couldn’t understand) and I was answering using “Yes” and “No” although I didn’t know what they were saying. My partner, who was at the bathroom and I don’t know what she was doing there, took half an hour there and when she came into the living room I thought: “Finally!” It was a really uncomfortable time and I was dying of shame and nerves. What should I have done? ...

IS NECESSARY PHYSICAL CONTACT?/ DRIVING SKILLS In Catania I had a few critical incidents, but I remember a special one, when I arrived I didn’t know how to greet my partner’s mother or my partner’s sister, so I avoided physical contact, like hugs or kisses, I just shook hands, and then they were shocked, but I decided to ignore that. What should I have done? a.       Ignore it and shook hands. b.      Talk with my partner about it before I arrived to Catania. c.       Ask how they greet in each situation. Why did it happen? a.      Because our cultures are so different b.      It was a peculiar situation, that only happens in this family c.       Because they thought that our culture is more conservative. Answers: a.      I don’t really think that our cultures are so diff...

The misunderstandings of shaking or nodding your head in different countries Last year I spent a week in Bulgaria, I had never had a student exchange before, so I was really nervous. While I was having dinner with my Bulgarian partner in his house, at first my partner’s mother put the meal on the table, which consisted in   smashed potatoes and a hamburger with some vegetables, I started eating it and I liked it a lot! The whole meal was really tasty. Finally, when I finished eating my food,   I saw there were some more smashed potatoes left and I wanted to eat a little bit more. So, I asked Damian’s mother if I could have some more smashed potatoes. Then she shook her head! In my country, in Catalonia, when people shake their head, it means no! And when people nod their head, it means yes! However, in Bulgaria it’s totally the opposite and I didn’t know that. When Damian’s mother shook her head from one side to the other, I thought I couldn’t eat any more purée becau...