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?? It\u2019s not about the place, it\u2019s about the people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This is the most important thing I\u2019ve learnt this week. I\u2019ve been working in the pilgrim office for 4 days with three different colleagues, each of them has taught me something.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The first two days I met Jorge, he\u2019s from Ferrol but he has done an erasmus in Bari, where he began to learn italian and now he\u2019s a guide for the groups in the camino both in spanish and italian. As he told me Tuesday and Wednesday are two busiest days of the week because it takes 5-6 days to complete the English way so many pilgrims start on these days to arrive in Santiago on Sunday. Most of them just want to buy the pilgrim credential and want us to make the first stamp with the date, the ones who already bought it come just for the stamp.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0But why is this so important? Going back in time when the pilgrims started the camino from their home, without the certainty to return, mostly for religious reasons, the church gave them protection during the way. To prove they truly went to Santiago, when they arrived, they were given the compostella a paper certificate with your name and the sign of the archbishop of Santiago. Now to get the compostella you have to show your \u201cpilgrim passport\u201d with at least two stamps a day demonstrating that you came to Santiago walking or cycling,and\u00a0 you can get them in cafeterias, hostels, churches\u2026\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Nowadays the pilgrim credential is mostly used as a memory of the camino and all the places in which you passed.<\/span><\/p>\n The next day, in our spare time, Jorge and I had fun doing a spanish lesson jumping from pole to pole, from buenas noches to jamon serrano. I’ve learnt useful things for daily life and also funny things that are nice to remember.<\/span><\/p>\n The pilgrim office is in the port, near the starting point of the camino and in the centre of the city so not only pilgrims come to the office, but also some tourists that are in Ferrol for one or two days and want an overview of the special things to do in the city.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I visited the city quite well now, and after listening to what Jorge said to them two or three times, if the tourists understood English or Italian I was able to manage them on my own.<\/span><\/p>\n The morning after I met Marta, she\u2019s also from here but now she lives in Mugardos, on the side of the sea looking from the port. The day we spent together was so fun, she spoke a little bit of italian mixed with spanish so I tried to teach her some italian while learning some spanish. She was so enthusiastic that when someone came in she introduced me and the project I was doing so that everybody could know that I was a volunteer and I was learning spanish, and sometimes she also asked me to show my achievements. On that day, almost all of them were Italians so it was easy for me but also very challenging to manage all those people on my own.<\/span><\/p>\n The last day I was with Fernando, he\u2019s from A Coruna but he lives here for work now and he\u2019s one of the proudest Galician I\u2019ve ever met. In the morning not a lot of people came so we had time to talk about Galicia and Italy. He was telling me that Galician people are so patriotic and some of them want independence from the rest of Spain. This is possible, unlike Italy, because they have their own language and their own territory, but from his point of view it\u2019s really difficult to obtain it because their economy is not so strong.<\/span><\/p>\n Then he tried to teach me the main spots of Ferrol in Spanish but without great success, and so we started looking for legends and traditions about Galicia for my project’s last exhibition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n At the end each of them left me something and what seemed like a simple job in a tourism office turned into a great educational experience !<\/span><\/p>\n ??\u00a0No se trata del lugar, se trata de la gente.<\/p>\n Esto es lo m\u00e1s importante que he aprendido esta semana. Llevo 4 d\u00edas trabajando en la oficina del peregrino con tres compa\u00f1eros diferentes, cada uno de ellos me ha ense\u00f1ado algo.<\/p>\n Los dos primeros d\u00edas conoc\u00ed a Jorge, es de Ferrol pero ha hecho un erasmus en Bari, donde empez\u00f3 a aprender italiano y ahora es gu\u00eda de los grupos del camino tanto en espa\u00f1ol como en italiano. Seg\u00fan me dijo martes y mi\u00e9rcoles son los dos d\u00edas m\u00e1s concurridos de la semana porque se tardan 5-6 d\u00edas en hacer el camino ingl\u00e9s por lo que muchos peregrinos empiezan esos d\u00edas para llegar a Santiago el domingo. La mayor\u00eda solo quieren comprar la credencial de peregrino y quieren que les pongamos el primer sello con la fecha, los que ya la compraron vienen solo por el sello.<\/p>\n Pero, \u00bfpor qu\u00e9 es esto tan importante? Retrocediendo en el tiempo cuando los peregrinos iniciaban el camino desde su hogar, sin la certeza de regresar, en su mayor\u00eda por motivos religiosos, la iglesia les brindaba protecci\u00f3n durante el camino. Para demostrar que realmente fueron a Santiago, cuando llegaron, se les entreg\u00f3 la compostelana un certificado en papel con su nombre y la firma del arzobispo de Santiago. Ahora para conseguir la compostelana tienes que mostrar tu \u201cpasaporte del peregrino\u201d con al menos dos sellos al d\u00eda demostrando que has venido a Santiago andando o en bicicleta, y puedes conseguirlos en cafeter\u00edas, albergues, iglesias\u2026<\/p>\n Hoy en d\u00eda la credencial del peregrino se utiliza mayoritariamente como recuerdo del camino y de todos los lugares por los que has pasado.<\/p>\n Al d\u00eda siguiente, en nuestro tiempo libre, Jorge y yo nos divertimos haciendo clases de espa\u00f1ol \u201csaltando de poste en poste, de buenas noches a jam\u00f3n serrano\u201d. He aprendido cosas \u00fatiles para la vida diaria y tambi\u00e9n cosas divertidas que son agradables de recordar.<\/p>\n La oficina del peregrino est\u00e1 en el puerto, cerca del punto de inicio del camino y en el centro de la ciudad por lo que no solo acuden peregrinos a la oficina, sino tambi\u00e9n algunos turistas que est\u00e1n en Ferrol uno o dos d\u00edas y quieren una visi\u00f3n general de la cosas especiales que hacer en la ciudad.<\/p>\n Visit\u00e9 bastante bien la ciudad, y despu\u00e9s de escuchar lo que Jorge les decia dos o tres veces (si los turistas entend\u00edan ingl\u00e9s o italiano), pod\u00eda manejarlos por mi cuenta.<\/p>\n A la ma\u00f1ana siguiente conoc\u00ed a Marta, ella tambi\u00e9n es de aqu\u00ed pero ahora vive en Mugardos, al lado del mar mirando desde el puerto. El d\u00eda que pasamos juntas fue muy divertido, ella hablaba un poco de italiano mezclado con espa\u00f1ol, as\u00ed que trat\u00e9 de ense\u00f1arle algo de italiano mientras aprend\u00eda algo de espa\u00f1ol. Estaba tan entusiasmada que cuando alguien entraba me presentaba a m\u00ed a y el proyecto que estaba haciendo para que todos supieran que yo era voluntaria y estaba aprendiendo espa\u00f1ol, a veces tambi\u00e9n me ped\u00eda que mostrara mis logros. Ese d\u00eda, casi todos eran italianos, as\u00ed que fue f\u00e1cil para m\u00ed, pero tambi\u00e9n muy desafiante, manejar a todas esas personas por mi cuenta.<\/p>\n El \u00faltimo d\u00eda que estuve con Fernando, es de A Coru\u00f1a pero ahora vive aqu\u00ed por trabajo y es uno de los gallegos m\u00e1s orgullosos que he conocido. Por la ma\u00f1ana no vino mucha gente as\u00ed que tuvimos tiempo de hablar de Galicia e Italia. Me dec\u00eda que los gallegos son muy patriotas y algunos quieren la independencia del resto de Espa\u00f1a. Esto es posible, a diferencia de Italia, porque tienen su propio idioma y su propio territorio, pero desde su punto de vista es muy dif\u00edcil conseguirlo porque su econom\u00eda no es tan fuerte.<\/p>\n Luego intent\u00f3 ense\u00f1arme los principales lugares de Ferrol en espa\u00f1ol pero sin mucho \u00e9xito, as\u00ed que empezamos a buscar leyendas y tradiciones sobre Galicia para la \u00faltima exposici\u00f3n de mi proyecto.<\/p>\n Al final cada uno de ellos me dej\u00f3 algo y lo que parec\u00eda un simple trabajo en una oficina de turismo se convirti\u00f3 en una gran experiencia educativa!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ?? It\u2019s not about the place, it\u2019s about the people.\u00a0 This is the most important thing I\u2019ve learnt this week. I\u2019ve…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":2333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","paths-english-way","digital_path-volunteer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n