Reflection Assignment 2 Group 5 Trevor and Isabelle
On Wednesday night we had a video call with Girona’s international team and conducted a series of comparisons and exchanges about Melbourne and Girona.
What surprised us a bit was that Girona had some deviations from our imagination, mainly because the Girona team members told us that Girona is actually more like a small town, and the season is the opposite of Melbourne，when we are close to forty degrees in Melbourne, they are only about 8 degrees in Girona. In addition, regarding the number of rivers, we originally thought that Girona and Venice in Italy are similar to many rivers, but they told us that only one main river crosses the whole city, and it is not a particularly complicated transportation system on the river, which is a little different from Venice.
Correspondingly, we imagined that Girona is a relatively leisurely city — which means that there are not too many traffic jams on the road, and there are not many people crowded on the subway station during the peak hours of work. In addition, speculation about desserts has also been verified, Girona’s dessert industry is indeed very famous throughout the Catalonia region, Girona team member Andrea also told us that Girona is actually not much different from our imagination, especially in terms of lifestyle. They are indeed more leisurely compared to Melbourne, and the architectural style is also traditional.
Andrea also mentioned their life in Girona. The school is very close to where they live. It can be reached in about ten minutes. We originally imagined that their city might separate the school from the residential area and make it in a ring shape. In fact, their city is more like a castle, the area is reasonably divided into the prescribed area and is inside the ring. Further more, they also mentioned that they also go skiing during their free time, which is very unexpected because we don’t know that skiing is also a famous sport in Girona.
Then we discussed their imagination about Melbourne and also mentioned our understanding of Melbourne. Isabelle talked about her interest in the ‘gold fever’ mentioned by the Girona team and explained the specific meaning of ‘gold fever’. They are very interested in the history of Melbourne, and we have got some different opinions by reading their impressions. They think that there are very wide beaches in many places in Melbourne，while we explain to them that the beach is mainly in the south of Melbourne. They mentioned that Melbourne is a very suitable holiday city and also mentioned that Melbourne is a “multicultural city”, we also agree with this, because in our own experience, Melbourne has a large number of different countries, and there are Chinatown, Vietnam streets, India streets and different religious occasions, which reflects that Melbourne is an inclusive Multicultural city. They also mentioned that the weather in Melbourne is very good, which is reflected in the long hours of sunshine, which means that there are a lot of sports that are very popular, some running, surfing, and skating, which is more unexpected. Because I don’t know much about surfing and skating in Melbourne, but they can imagine that these two sports are more popular in Melbourne. We also mentioned that the weather in Melbourne is not very stable, and it is often windy, which makes them very surprised.
Through this telephone exchange, we have deepened our understanding of Girona and Melbourne. We all think this is a good way to learn more about an unfamiliar city and to cooperate.
