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Day 12 and 13 AxC 2021

Hello every one, here is Andrés and this is the time of the day to comment about the most unforgettable moments during these days. 

Starting with the 12th day of our presence it is mandatory to mention the best memories from this writer’s point of view. Firstly, at 7:30 we sat down together at the plaza and we started to feel sadness inside ourselves. The reason was that we realized about the few days left until our farewell. All the emotions and feelings felt that afternoon due to some speeches of us will not be forgotten until the end of our days. 

Nevertheless, during this day we decided to have a party at night because our facilitator Marc would be leaving this camp the following day. However, that party had a peculiar characteristic: men would be dressed as if they were women and vice versa! That night became instantly one of the funniest of AxC 2021. 

Continuing with the 13th day, our fun was closer to finish. During that morning, we divided ourselves into two groups that will do different activities simultaneously, and then they will eventually change roles. The first activity was about emotional intelligence and the mission was to write down what was its definition…in a creative way! However, that was not the only thing to do. Individually, we had to choose an emotion that shone among the other ones against different situations, and then we would share our feelings in pairs. But what about the other team? Well, during this activity the other team had to escape from an island using plenty of chairs. Unfortunately, they had to go through the fishball facing some issues like evading a dragon who tried to steal the chairs.

And finally, I must mention the improvised theater where we represented a scene with a strange method in some cases like Sci-fi or gossiping. 

We have passed exciting days and we have felt varied emotions, but what makes them special is the fact of living them together.

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Day 11 AxC 2021

Welcome back to another entry of AxC.

We started off day 11 by cleaning the fishbowl as our energizer, since it was cluttered with materials from the past two weeks of working on various projects. After the productive activity, we headed off to the cafeteria for breakfast before kicking off the first educative event of the day. During this time, we were split into groups and learned a new lesson with each rotation. These turns included teachings regarding teamwork, innovation, communication, public speaking, and imagination. Halfway through, we enjoyed merienda, and later lunch. 

After our meal, we had a break of three hours, where we rested for the first, and did the exact opposite during the next two. Wanting to feel refreshed in the strong Toledo heat, we made way to the water. Many of us took part in a pool football game, where we laughed so much, but also practically fought to the death in order to obtain the ball for our team. Marc, our facilitator who also takes part as our lifeguard, basically had to keep us all (including the facilitators) from drowning each other during the extremely competitive game. Challenges definitely weren’t a problem for Maxi though, who didn’t let any of the boys get in his way and helped us girls out all the way  Sadly, the game came to an end as it was time for our second merienda. 

After that, the facilitators talked to us about elevator pitches in order to plan our project presentations. We then had an hour to utilize the information given to us by using the steps to plan our own pitches in relation to the topics chosen. The room was buzzing with excitement as we realized with each moment, we get closer and closer to our real presentations. 

We then had dinner, before engaging in a very complex treasure hunt based on accumulating points off of various events provided by different facilitators all around the camp. These included circus games, problem solving, team building exercises, and simply put: pure fun. As the eventful (and very hot) day came to a close, none of us were reluctant to brush our teeth and head off to bed.

XOXO,

Sofia and Yasmine <3

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Day 10 AxC

Hello everyone!

We are Gerard, Ana and Elvi :)

Today we are gonna write about the 10th day of ActionxChange, 2021.

We wanted to start saying that the day before, the facilitators told us that for the first time in the 10 years of AxC we would be organising the day and the activities. At first, we all were super excited and kinda nervous about that, but we put ourselves to it instantly.

We woke everyone up with some good music (chosen by us) and the energiser that we chose was just dance! Maybe the first song wasn’t the best choice, because we started with Rasputin, which has a very exhausting choreography, but it was super fun.

Then we had breakfast so we could have energy for the rest of the day, which was really important because we started the day with an hour of different sports! We had a friendly tournament of football and then an amazing water balloon fight! We were all having fun and messing around with water, cups... Best idea we have had so far!

We also had a break, and after it, Luis, Andrés and Dani presented their project on this amazing city, we were all speechless due to how impressive it was. Then, we had an hour in which we could work on our projects a little bit and see how it was going.

After all these activities we were hungry, so we had our lunch to recharge our batteries, taking a nap and having a rest time also helped to do it.

We had pool time, which was really necessary, because it was extremely hot outside, we played a little bit and then had our snack so we could have energy for the next activities.

We started with a tutti-frutti tournament that was incredible, we were so competitive because we got really into it.

Then we played capture the flag again so we could see in the daylight, it was a tight fight but after nearly one hour playing, team 1 won due to their fairness in the field.

After this long and exhausting day, we had dinner together (we had hot dogs and chips which was really necessary as well). When we were full, we went outside, talked for a little and then we played “el pueblo duerme” all together, we had lots of accusations!

In a short summary, we organised this day with a lot of effort and it turned out better than we expected so we can’t complain! It was one of the best days here so far!

Gerard, Ana and Elvi

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Day 9 AxC 2021

Hi everyone!

We are Julia and Nerea and we are going to write about the 9th day at ActionxChange.

We start the day with a good breakfast that give us energy for the rest of the day. The first activity that we did was organizing our offices where we are working in our project that are going to be presented at the end of the camp.

Then we played a game with marshmallows and spaghettis that consisted in made a tower the biggest possible, we had two chances, the first one might be the tallest one and the objective of the second chance was making the tallest and firm tower. We spend the rest of the morning listening the talk of the fourth ponent who was the boss of a company call Bridges for billions. He explained us the business model that the companies may use.   

It was time to eat, and the meal was pasta and salad. Then we had free time in which some people were at the pool and others were preparing the costumes for the activity night. 

Later we were playing musical chairs while the facilitators were preparing the evening activity. The evening activity consisted in made a sustainable city in which some groups

had many resources and money, and other groups didn’t have the same. We were talking in groups about the activity.

In the noon we were discussing in our umbrella groups with our tutors.

We had pizza for dinner!

And… then we had a Hawaiian pool party! We were in the swimming pool and there were mojitos without alcohol of course. 

It was such as amazing and tired day so we felt asleep quickly. We can not think about the time we need to arrive to our cities and say goodbye to AxC and our friends so we will try to live the rest of the days very intense, bye!

Love and hugs, Julia and Nerea

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Day 8 AxC 2021

Hello everyone!!

Day 8 on the island ;)

Today we initiated the day with a warmup role-playing activity in order to practice for our later debate about of an example refugee crisis in Spain. The topic was about gay pride and we had to defend the viewpoint of a participant in the parade or someone who is advocating for traditional values. This activity was very different than what we usually do because we had to defend viewpoints we did not necessarily share.

This second activity consisted of representing 6 different groups – either for or against bringing a group of 1,000 refugees into a small fictional town. All of us really enjoyed this activity because it helped us practice real world skills as well as ideas to apply to our own group projects.

Today was Valverde’s (one of our facilitators) 19th birthday, so as a celebratory gesture we had doughnuts during our morning break and a biscotte cake with candles during lunch. Of course we sang feliz cumpleaños ;)

The best was at night – we had pyjama party in the center plaza where the lovely facilitator Max read us a heartfelt bedtime story. Some of us fell asleep watching the stars 

Buenas noches!

Anna, Jimena, and Isabella

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Day 7 AxC 2021

Hello everyone,

We hope that you are all doing great because we are!

On the 7th day of the camp, we woke up at 8 AM as always with a lot of cool songs, then we had to take our sheets off and get clean ones. 

After breakfast we started the activities, we worked on our projects and we made a poster (problem tree framework) with the help of the sentence “fall in love with the problem not the solution”. To relax a little, we played a short/fun game named “chicken glasses”

After a good lunch, we had a break and a lot of people watched the football match: Italy-Spain. When we got our phones back, we spoke to our parents and some of us slept. 

The second session we had, was very interesting: we called a teacher who is an ex-organizer of UWC AxC who explained to us the concept of business using the example of Santa Claus.

As the night activity we had a sort of talent-show where people could show their abilities like music, comedy, magic tricks, poetry... It was a lot of fun and the last exhibition was hilarious.

At 23:30 we finally went to our rooms, to put our pyjamas on.

It was such a beautiful day; I hope that the last week is going to be as cool as this one. Days are getting faster and faster and we feel like we are going to finish this camp before we know it.

Greetings from Toledo!

Rachele R. and Ines D.G.

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Day 6 AxC 2021

¡Hola todo el mundo! 

We hope you’re all doing well and enjoying your time away from your children.

 For this morning’s energisers, we played a complicated game that we don’t know the name of. It involved wearing tails and then running after another time to grab their tails. It was very intense. 

Today’s morning activities involved a short, but efficient amount of time working on our projects and also working in groups, debating and coming up with unanimous answers to controversial statements such as is eating meat is justified or unjustified. The weather on this fabulous day meant many people were wearing jumpers and/or long trousers, the first we’ve seen at this camp.

Just before lunch we had our very first guest speaker, a wonderful UWC teacher from UCW Mahindra. He spoke about the infamous question Who Am I?  and discussed with us the idea of the known versus the unknown. Additionally, we looked at the concept of fake news and how it affects not only us but the population as well.

 After our free time, in which most of us napped due to the late-night prior, we did another activity on the internet and digital safety. We all praised the weather gods when we walked outside to find rain, albeit a little hot rain. During the rain we had our group reflexions and had dinner. 

During that evening we spent around two hours in a very competitive game of capture the flag. Unfortunately, team 1 won, but team 2 won in spirit (we were team 2 by the way).

So all in all, today was a great day. Sending loads of love from Spain, and sympathies for the loss today. 

Anna and Delphine 

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Day 5 AxC 2021

Hi!

We’re Laura Cruz and Luis, and we’re gonna explain you what we’ve done the 5th day in this camp.

Today we’ve got up at 8 o’clock as always, and we’ve played a funny game in the energizers time which was like rock, paper and scissors but with fairies, ogres and goblins. 

After having breakfast, we made like a game with Luis which consisted in dividing in pairs, and one of them had to “hypnotize” the other. It was so funny and, as always, it has an interesting meaning behind.

Then we started doing some activities about our responsibility in different scenarios like with ourselves, our community, our nation among others. 

After the snack time, we made a ranking in groups about which social services we think that are the most important, such as joining to Red Cross, being an inspirational teacher, reading the newspapers everyday…

We had lunch some delicious spaghettis with a spectacular dessert, and then we had the break time. We talked with our families, we went to the swimming pool, we played games together…

After the break time, we tried to find a solution to an invented community, called Ordino, which had a problem and needed our help.

After that, we went with  our umbrella groups and we spent a good time together speaking about different things and playing some funny games. 

Then we had dinner, and after that we went together to the middle of the campside to see the stars. It was so beautiful!!!

We arrived to the camp about 12 at night, some of us had a shower and then we went to sleep.

It has been an intense day!

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Day 4 AxC 2021

¡Hola! Somos Carmen y Paula y vamos a hablar sobre las actividades que realizamos en ActionxChange el día 4 de Julio.

Empezamos la mañana con muy buena energía, los monitores pusieron Just Dance en la pantalla y todos nos unimos a bailar.

Hemos reflexionado quienes somos y hemos analizado el por qué y para qué. Nos hemos propuesto llevar a cabo un cambio a nivel personal y hemos aprendido nuevas formas de analizar situaciones o eventos.

Por la tarde (tras nuestro tiempo libre y piscina) empezamos a desarrollar nuestro proyecto y a buscar a personas que fuesen afines a nuestras ideas.

Durante la hora de tutoría hemos paseado por el casar de la Inesa individualmente para encontrar un lugar único y personal en el que reflexionar cuando necesitemos un descanso. Con esta actividad conectamos tanto con la naturaleza como con nosotros mismos.

Para finalizar el día, hemos hecho un karaoke y un partido de fútbol.

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Day 3: July 3rd 2021

Hola, somos Asia Pernas y Laura Martín Hernández y vamos a contar nuestra experiencia en el día de ayer, el tercero del campamento ActionxChange.

Ayer estuvimos hablando sobre las identidades, tanto sociales como personales. Hicimos varias actividades para conocer nuestras identidades y las que más nos gustaron fueron dos. La primera consistía en que teníamos papeles con diferentes factores que afectan a las identidades (creencias, nacionalidad, clase social, género…) y nos teníamos que posicionar en ellos según que habíamos sentido en diferentes situaciones que se nos planteaban y luego lo compartíamos en vos alta con el resto del grupo. Además, la otra actividad que nos gustó era sobre representar diferentes situaciones difíciles que habíamos vivido, moldeando a nuestros compañeros como si fueran estatuas.

Laura:

Ayer fue un día que me gustó especialmente más, ya que los monitores me dejaron dar una clase de baile por la noche. Creo que todo el mundo se lo pasó súper bien y que todos nos hicimos más amigos de todos. Me encantó ya que pude transmitirles a mis compañeros mi pasión por el baile y hacerles disfrutar tanto como yo.

ActionxChange está siendo de las mejores experiencias que he vivido, ya que estoy creciendo como persona y estoy conociendo a gente increíble y muy madura, ya que se puede mantener con ellos conversaciones que, normalmente no se puede mantener con personas de mi edad. ¡Estoy haciendo amigos que van a ser para siempre y me lo estoy pasando muy muy muy bien!!

Asia:

Algo muy interesante de ayer fue lo que hicimos en el grupo de “tutoría”, que son como unos grupos más pequeños para las actividades con menos gente.

Hicimos una actividad para aumentar nuestra confianza: primero dejamos unos objetos con valor personal en el centro y contamos su historia. Es muy bonito ver la historia que puede haber detrás de un muñeco de trapo o una simple pulsera de cuerda.

Luego nos tiramos por turnos desde una mesa, confiando en que los demás nos cogieran (y nos cogieron claro) 😉

Creo que ahora nuestros lazos son más fuertes y me siento más unida a AxC.