{"id":645,"date":"2019-05-06T18:58:24","date_gmt":"2019-05-06T16:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iesalhama.educacion.navarra.es\/web1\/erasmus\/?p=645"},"modified":"2019-05-06T19:01:04","modified_gmt":"2019-05-06T17:01:04","slug":"why-erasmus-makes-sense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iesalhama.educacion.navarra.es\/web1\/erasmus\/2019\/05\/06\/why-erasmus-makes-sense\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Erasmus+ makes sense"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Pernille Vederso<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Pernille and Cristina take Josefina and Albino for a Yayacleta ride<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After a long process of filling for the Erasmus+ project: we had our
first exchange on September 25th 2017, the partners finally met in 
person in Corella in March of 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By that time, I felt we already knew each other, and meeting everybody 
for real only exceeded my expectations. Here were people with the same 
values as me. It felt like coming home, but I was in Spain. That 
experience was an eye opener to me, because I had been so involved in 
Skype meetings with the partners, to pin down the title of the project, 
what the deliverables were and timing of the visits. The reason why I 
suddenly got what it\u2019s all about, was when I realised that no matter 
what the title had been, no matter what we were fighting for, we were a 
team, of Europeans, sharing values and dreams and a common cause. We 
want to help each other and be friends. The Canadian psychologist, Susan 
Pinker, writes in her book \u201cThe Village Effect\u201d, that people feel the 
happiest and their brains create oxytocin, when we feel a part of a 
group, so no wonder this project made such an impression on me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Luckily, the common dream we share is about cycling and stronger 
communities, I am not indifferent to what Europe looks like when my 
children grow old. But the sense of belonging to a union, the European 
Union, suddenly made so much sense to me. And this was right in the 
context of the Brexit vote. I was sad that the UK is leaving, and happy 
that Denmark isn\u2019t. I was proud of being in the same group as To\u00f1o 
(Spain), Reda (Lithuania) and Jane (Ireland), and all the brave and 
curious students who lived with families that did speak a different 
language at home, but still cared for them as their own families do. 
Like when Lucia fell ill, and her host family stayed at home with her 
and brought her to the doctor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I was blown away by the hospitality: my hosts (Javi and Charo), made me 
breakfast everyday! They woke me up gently, even if I did have my own 
alarm clock, and they asked me with sincere concern if I had been out 
too late, how my visit was going and what was going on in my life. I 
learned a lot from them, I invited them to my summer house and they 
invited me to theirs and I know we will see each other again. I know 
their parents are getting older, I know what they\u2019re concerned about and 
feel like a have another family now, a Spanish one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My conclusion is, I love a Europe that is connected and caring, thanks 
to the Erasmus+ program I now know that friends in Lithuania, Spain, 
Ireland and Denmark feel the same. Let\u2019s celebrate this union and let\u2019s 
fight for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Pernille Vederso After a long process of filling for the Erasmus+ project: we had our first exchange on September 25th 2017, the partners finally met in person in Corella in March of 2019. By that time, I felt we already knew each other, and meeting everybody for real only exceeded my expectations. Here were people with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[20,1],"tags":[56],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iesalhama.educacion.navarra.es\/web1\/erasmus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iesalhama.educacion.navarra.es\/web1\/erasmus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iesalhama.educacion.navarra.es\/web1\/erasmus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iesalhama.educacion.navarra.es\/web1\/erasmus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iesalhama.educacion.navarra.es\/web1\/erasmus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/iesalhama.educacion.navarra.es\/web1\/erasmus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":657,"href":"https:\/\/iesalhama.educacion.navarra.es\/web1\/erasmus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645\/revisions\/657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iesalhama.educacion.navarra.es\/web1\/erasmus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iesalhama.educacion.navarra.es\/web1\/erasmus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iesalhama.educacion.navarra.es\/web1\/erasmus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}