3-4-2014

MY PORTFOLIO

Mara Jos Vzquez Miquel | Spain

3 april 2014

MY PORTFOLIO

Hello, my name is Mara Jos Vzquez Miquel and this is my portfolio.

I live in a special country called Spain. I have said special because as you will probably know it is very famous for this big unemployment rate and for everything that is related to crisis and suffering. Nevertheless, as we were saying during the presentation about our country there are more aspects that people should be in mind about Spain like the good weather, the fantastic quality of the food and the big humanity of the people for helping other people that real need it.

I live in a small village from Valencia that is called Massanassa and I study a degree to be an English teacher of primary education at Florida University. I will finish my studies the next year, so If I do not find a job in Spain (probably it will happen) this will not be a problem for me because I could go to another country to looking for a job that was related with my studies.

3 april 2014

MY PORTFOLIO

After this short presentation about who I am , now It is the best moment to explain what I am expecting to achieve during these fifteen days belonging to as a member of an European project called IP COI whose topic is Social exclusion and poverty. In my opinion, meeting people is not a problem for me because I am consider an extrovert and open person, it means that like the modeling clay I am able to mold me as far as possible my behavior during the conversation.

However, I think that my weakness is the foreign language that I use to communicate with other people, in this case English. I do not have a good level of English but I am happy because of during this time here I have been learning new vocabulary and I think that now I am able to interact with each other and to maintain a fluent conversation in English. So my main knowing new different

expectations about this project is learning English,

cultures, meeting with new people and coming up to critical thought about Social exclusion and poverty. Furthermore, I want to remember those days like an unique experience in the world for me. I have been living with Portuguese girls 24 hours per day and I consider them as a new friends because we get on very well. They have taught me some of their own culture like food and music. Fortunately, they have helped when I have needed so I feel very lucky. Moreover, we made a trip together. We went to Amsterdam and we spent a beautiful and unforgettable day. For me this is the most important.

3 april 2014

MY PORTFOLIO

During those weeks I was analyzing the situation of homeless people from Antwerp, Bruges and Amsterdam. I have found differences between Spain and Antwerp homeless related to the number of them. In fact, there are not a lot of homeless people in Antwerp, Brussels, Bruges or Amsterdam.

Those are some of the pictures that I took during the trips:

(Bruges)

(Bruges)

(Amsterdam)

When I was waiting the train in the train station from Amsterdam I saw a black boy who needed money to pay his ticket. He was asking for money to rich people and poor people. Only one poor man and two humbles people helped him. Although the rich people could give money they did not want to give some euros. Immediately I remembered the sentence that Almudena used to talk about the poverty and social exclusion " every time more and more the rich people are more rich and the poor people are more poor ".

To continue this portfolio I want to explain things related to this project. I think that working in groups from different countries and fields of study. In my case, we are from Lithuania, Portugal, Spain and The Netherlands and we study one of these degrees: Social Work, Psychology, Education and Law. So, all the groups there is one member of each country and it provide new points of view and new ideas.
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3 april 2014

MY PORTFOLIO

In my opinion, IP ICOI (Interdisciplinary Contributions to Overcome Inequalities) about social exclusion and poverty is very useful because we can learn from each other new cultures, new other organizations which work on the same topic, new suggestions and so on and so forth.

Regarding the work's methodology of this project I use to work in groups where everybody works at the same level. Furthermore, if there is a problem we have to solve it as soon as possible to keep a good relationship among us. For this reason, I think that I am enough ready for working in group.

In relation to all the speeches I think that they have had positive results because those talks about some different approaches as educational, sociological and economical approaches related to social exclusion and poverty.

However, the most useful lecture that I have been during these weeks has been "poverty and social exclusion, some reflections from a sociological point of view". When we talk about poverty we always think about the lack of income and productive resources sufficient to unsure sustainable livelihoods. However, there are some concepts that we should have in mind when we talk about poverty like the case of human hunger and malnutrition; ill health; limited or lack of access to education and other basic services; homelessness and inadequate housing; unsafe environment and social discrimination and exclusion. Nevertheless, I also liked the afternoon in which every country offered information to the other members of the IP ICOI. It was very nice.

3 april 2014

MY PORTFOLIO

This is a brief of my experience in Antwerp: Pharrell Williams - Happy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYmqxvNuc54
The reason why I have decided to choose this famous song is because that is how I felt: happy. Every time I have had the support of my friends, not only Spanish, but also of my friends from Portugal, Belgian , Lithuania, Holland and my teachers. Although two weeks in a foreign country without your family and friends is hard I am happy because it has been a unique and unforgettable experience in the life.

3 april 2014

MY PORTFOLIO

To conclude my portfolio, I am going to say some suggestions to improve it for the next project. One of them is the food, eating everyday the same sandwiches is not attractive for me. So I think that the organization should propose a menu with variety of the food. The other point is the visit to the European Parliament. I think that they should carry out activities within parliament, as this offers many resources like books, illustrations and games.

I do not know if I can participate in other project in the future, If it is not possible I have to say that anyone who wanting to learn, teamwork, meet new people, to visit new places and so on and so forth should have this experience. Because besides everything I said above, participating in a European project improves your CV.