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Day one under the Madrid sun

The German Generation Freedom delegation with Sarah Grandke in the middle, Photo: Katharina Dziuk

After a tiring day of arrivals and thanks to it being a holiday in Spain – The day of Santiago – the first official day of our glorious seminar began a bit later than it will for the rest of the week.  In the morning we got to experience the Spanish version of a Continental breakfast and had the grandiose opening of the seminar. We were greeted by a representative of our host, the CEU Universidad San Pablo’s history professor Milagrosa Romero Samper and given a tour of the university. After that we had our Getting-To-Know-Each-Other games and began the discussion on our main topic –Exile, comparing different definitions given by encyclopedias and dictionaries from the whole continent.  In the afternoon all the participants, coming from all over Europe, had their very first Spanish lunch and siesta, during which some enjoyed swimming in our lavish pool. The latter half of the day consisted of group work in trying to find our own definition for the word Exile and the presentations of the work resulted in heated and passionate debates. Many specifications were needed. However by the end of the night we did manage to find a consensus for the definition and had an introduction to tomorrow’s topic – Cultural Exile.

It has been a long day but the vibrant lights of Madrid, seen from the hill we’re on, keep us energized and hungry for more fabulous days to come.