Trips

Wales was the first place where the bilingual group was traveling together. It was July 2009 when this unforgettable experience started.

The main reason of the trip was our participation on the W.Y.S.C.(World Youth Skills Challenge), which was taking place in Llangollen. The W.Y.S.C. was an international project made by the school where it was being carried out (who were staying at the students' houses), involving hundreds of children from all over the globe, who had to participate in different categories.

I remember that the month before we had to choose the category we were participating in. There were like a dozen: Technology, Interpretation, Sports,... Mine were Mathematics, with Rocío, and Technology, among with William.

After that, we just had to wait. The partner we were designated had to contact us by email, so we could know better each other. I receive his a week before the exchange, his name was Nick. We actually spoke very little, he hardly ever was logged in.

A week later, we were boarding, heading to Wales. We arrived at the afternoon to Llangollen, after almost three hours of flight and another two hours traveling by bus. We went to the college, where our Welsh partners were waiting for us. It was now when my first problem came along.

My partner, as I said before, was called Nick, what I think it was boy name. However, he looked like a girl. Do not misunderstand me; what I mean is that he was blonde (as it is usual for English inhabitants), but hi has a really long hair for a boy, and his face didn't help to distinguish his gender (he had a “neutral”, it could be a boy's or a girl's one). That how he gained nickname of “the boy-girl” (el tío-tía, in Spanish). I was very shy of asking, I mean, it would be a very awkward question. Later that day, we met at the school again, and the question started. Some believed it was a boy, some others it was a girl, but me, his partner, the one who was supposed to know, didn't do. It wasn't until nighttime, when we went to sleep, when I finally knew it for sure. We slept in his room so when he had to put his pajama, he dressed off until he was in underwear, put hi pajama on, and went to sleep.

The next day was a funny day, most of the people couldn't believe he was a boy, and the ones who did believe, were laughing at me making gay jokes. It was also the presentation day, and after ir, we had the rest of the day for ourselves and our partners.

During the rest of the week, our competitions took place. The longer ones were the technology one, in which we had four days to make a lamp or an amplifier with a “modern” design; and the sports one, which was actually a league of various sports, so it took all the week. For the technology category I did a lamp (who gave tons of problems at the return) which I still conserve. With all the problems it caused and the time I spent making it, it wasn't worth it to throw it away. Another reason for keeping it is that I like it. Mathematics was one of the shortest competitions. We had about two hours I think to solve some problems. The curious thing about it was that Rocío and I were the team representing Spain. The other countries participating had minimum two teams participating.

The competitions only took place during the morning. At the afternoon we usually went on a tour trip. That's how my second problem started, just by doing trips. One of the trips was to a mountain back the school. I was with Javi, Antonio and Eligio, and we were completely lost. Not all the Spaniards had gone from the schools but all the foreign students. Well all except for William, who was talking with some girls. We started to search for them around the school but we couldn't find them. I don't remember how , but we knew after a while that they were at the top of the mountain, and that we were late, so we started running to the top. Nevertheless, when we were halfway to the top, we realized of one thing: William was still at the schools, “flirting” with some Welsh girls. So we phoned him, and we continued going up, until we arrived to the top, where and old small castle in ruins was, among with all the foreign students. William arrived about thirty minutes later, laughing of what had happened.

The week continued going until the sixth day, when the closing ceremony took place. Some of us won a trophy (it wasn't exactly a trophy, it was a diploma and a medal), some of them didn't get anything (like myself) as we didn't classified or won the final. That evening there was a goodbye party with a motorbike exhibition, a climbing tower and some concerts. Another memorable thing about that evening was Sendra showing of “his blonde”.

The seventh day was the goodbye day. Most of us were crying, they didn't want to say goodbye, but they had. Some of them kept in touch for a while, I don't know if they still do. I my case, I don't; as I say in the beginning, Nick didn't log in very frequently, so in the end I lost my only contact to the place where I had an amazing time.