My impressions of Málaga

¡Hola! My name is Sven Hendricks and I am 22 years old. In Germany I am working as an IT-Specialist for System Integration at the Bull GmbH which is located near the Center of Cologne.

Here in Málaga I worked at the I.E.S Campanillas with my twin brother Mirko. The I.E.S Campanillas is the school which is planning the exchange program with our vocational school in Germany every year. Our job here was to set up a firewall including an Internet gateway with a captive portal and a proxy-server. For that we had to set up a router including two NICs (one for WAN, one for WLAN). We never did such a task in Germany so it was nice and we could learn a lot. After that Juan Antonio showed us some cabling of his house and the school and he taught us how to do it the same way.

Besides our work at the I.E.S Campanillas we had a lot of free time to visit beautiful places in and around Málaga. We visited the botanical garden, the beach (of course) and the whole center of Málaga . Last week we visited Granada and Gibraltar. Gibraltar was the most amazing place we visited in these four weeks. You can't imagine how nice the view from the top of the rock of Gibraltar is if you have never been there. And the fact that there are cute monkeys everywhere made it to one of the most spectacular places I have ever visited in my life. Not only these places were very nice, I think one of the biggest reasons for us that we had so much fun in Málaga was that the people were so friendly and helpful. This year we were very lucky because we stayed in Málaga over eastern and we could watch the whole Semana Santa. For us foreigners it was a very strange celebration because the people were dressed very uncommon for Germans but it was still nice to see.At the end I can say that I never regret just a second here in Málaga and for the pupils in Germany who will get the chance to do the same exchange program next year I want to say – Just Do It!!

Botanical Garden Málaga

Four weeks in Málaga - leisure

Due to the Semana Santa, as the easter week is called in Spain, there was a vacation at the school. For this reason, we had plenty of time to explore the city of Málaga.

The first couple of days, I watched some of the processions, which are really impressive. It takes quite a lot of people to carry the statues of Jesus and Maria, as they are very heavy. Then there are those people with the pointed hoods, who are carrying lit candles, called, if I got it right, Nazarenos.
The children lining the streets collect wax from the candles to form big balls. Also, in the procession, there are musicians and incense is being burned. All in all, it creates quite an interesting atmosphere, especially, if you watch the processions at night. It seemed to me as an mixture of religious festival and fair. On the mornings after the processions, you can see people of the city cleaning scratching the wax off the streets and washing them with high-pressure water blasters.

Jesus being carried during a procession

Nazarenos in Calle Mariblanca

peek at some statues

I also went to the Carmen-Thyssen Museum, which has a nice collection of Spanish paintings.They had on display a painting of Alfred Dehodencq (of whom I actually had never heard before) showing a procession in the city of Sevilla, called "Una confradería pasando por la calle Génova, Sevilla". According to the sign, it dates from 1851. But the processions I watched in Málaga in 2014 looked almost the same.
The same day, I visited the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga. The entrance was free. In the first third of the one floor they have, they showed cartoons by El Roto, who also draws for El País, a big Spanish newspaper. The cartoons were very interesting, criticising economics, politics, etc. but you have to actually know some Spanish, to be able to understand the texts. In the other two-thirds of the hall, there are works of different other artists on display. They even got a picture by Andy Warhol.

Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga

We had some goup activities, too. One of them was a trip to the botanical garden, el Jardín Botánico-Histórico La Concepción, which is really nice.

With a smaller group, we visited the city of Benalmádena. We went there by train, which took us about 30 minutes. The town is the place of birth of Ibn al-Baytar, an botanist and pharmacologist of the 12th/13th century, according to the inscription on his statue.

statue of Ibn al-Baytar in Benalmádena

On the Easter weekend, it started to rain and therefore became rather chilly. But I wanted to visit the Alcazaba of Málaga, anyway. On my way up, I happened to notice a christian service, which was held in the open air theater in the park. I stopped, watching from above for some time. The priest actually was quite good and they had a lovely choir singing.
The Alcazaba is really nice. Inside, there are a lot of fountains and plants and the architecture is really beautiful. I decided to visit again on a sunnier day.

inside the Alcazaba

inside the Alcazaba

There is of course a lot more you can do in Málaga. For examples please view the posts of my fellow students on this blog.

Four weeks in Málaga - work

This year, I got the opportunity to take part in the Leonardo da Vinci-project organized by the GSO Köln and IES Campanillas in Málaga. Together with 8 other apprentices from different companies I went to Spain for a month. For that time we were accomodated in Patio 19, a nice hostel in Calle Mariblanca in the very centre of Málaga. The breakfast is also really good, especially, if there is one of the delicious homemade cakes.

Together with Christoph, I worked at the CEIP Directora Adelaida de la Calle. This primary school was inaugurated in 2011 and is located in a rather new area of the city where a lot of young families are living.

 

CEIP Rectora Adelaida de la Calle

On our first Monday we were greeted by Miguel, who told us, that there had already been some interns in the IT department three weeks ago and who asked us to go on with the work they have started. We could organize our work independently. Basically, it consisted of upgrading memory, changing BIOS batteries and troubleshooting broken hardware. People at the school were all very nice and friendly.

Chris in the computerroom

Because of the Semana Santa and the holidays on 1st and 2nd of March, we had only about 2 working weeks. But even if it had been four weeks of work: I can absolutely recommend the program. So if you get the opportunity: go for it!

Four amazing weeks in Málaga.

Hi, I am Mirko (22) from Cologne. I work at Bull GmbH in cologne and I am really glad to be a part of the Leonardo Da Vinci project. Time flew by and the last days in Málaga have begun. First of all, I want to give a short overview of what I did at work.
The entire period of the exchange, I worked with my twin brother Sven at IES Campanillas, the Spanish school that is responsible for the exchange, like the GSO on our side.  At the school we both have to set up a firewall on an “old” computer. The firewall should be able to act like a proxy and to be able to do NAT forwarding. Relating to the work at IES Campanillas, we both can recap that all teachers we have met were really friendly and helpful to us and we got enough time for the project or to explore the school. 

Besides the work at IES Campanillas, we visit a lot of great places in and around Malaga. Particularly I want to point out the botanic garden and the rock of Gibraltar. The botanic garden was really wonderful and it was relaxed going through it. Gibraltar was just amazing and I guess, it was the best day in the period of time of our stay. The view on top of the rock is so awesome, you can see africa from there. In addition you can see and touch small and fluffy monkeys :).

In addition to our visits, we spend a lot of time at the beach or in the city itself. The beach was very clean and big and we were able to swim too, even if the water was really cold at the beginning. At night Malaga turns into a big party. All the streets were filled with people and you can choose between plenty of clubs, restaurants or bars. Only in the Easter week it was nearly impossible to go out because of the huge amount of people watching the progression of semana santa, a festival Malaga is famous for.

 

In the end I can say the trip to Malaga was very awesome. We learned a lot about Spanish culture, and we refreshed our English skills. I highly recommend this type of exchange to everybody who has the chance to participate.