Club Spotlight: IE Cultural Excursions Club
In this interview best friends and leaders of the Excursion Club, Sebastian Sosa and Javier Torecilla talk to us about their love for traveling, the future plans of the club and a little bit about the history behind everything.
Can you start by introducing yourselves first?
S: I am Sebastian Sosa, a Mexican, 2nd Year BBA student. I am 19, and lived in Hong Kong for 7 years, thats actually how I learned English properly! (laughs)
J: I am Javier Torecilla, 19 years old as well, I am a 2nd year Psychology student. I am %100 Spanish, never lived anywhere other than Spain.
Can you tell me about how this club was founded? What has driven you guys?
J: It was actually a very particular event that triggered us to open up the club!
S: It was because of Javier and this other guy called Augusto, he is not here anymore, but don’t worry he didn’t pass away. (laughs) He transferred universities last year.
J: The way we come up with this was last year when the Psychology department prepared an excursion to the anthropology museum in Burgos, to the North of Spain, we were in need of more people. Our director, suggested that we could include other people from other degrees to fill the bus. So, we suggested the trip to our friends from other degrees and we all went to Burgos with our Psychology professors and other people from different degrees. And in the end, it was weird but also super fun
S: It worked!
J: Yeah, it worked very well so we had this idea afterwards of why not creating this club so that people can discover more places in Spain apart from the typical Barcelona, Seville and Valencia. Basically to discover the hidden gems in Spain.
Where did you guys already had trips to?
S: First we went to Salamanaca and then to Toledo and recently we went to Avila. And lastly we had the trip to Salamanca again to support IE Teams in Trofeo Rector.
How does the selection and preparation process work? How do you guys decide on the cities to have trips to?
J: First of all, everything has to be agreed with the Student Life. At the end, which is, one person, Clint. (laughs) Because you know, in the end he’s the one that supports us, he helps us provide transportation.
S: We normally split the trip into 3 things, as in 3 things we need to take care of, Javier takes care of the technical stuff within IE, I take care of the details in the tour: such as finding the guide and the perfect tour. A tour that is not too long, not too short and that shows us the main attractions of the city. And the third thing is the food and we take care of that together.
The food plan worked perfectly previously in the Salamanca trip, we had a tour that included a menu! In which all the people that was on the trip sat together and ate traditional Salamanca food. But recently it has been getting more complicating, paying for everything all together makes the trips price more expensive and this discourages people into coming. So, we decided to leave the food out and just do the tour, which for us is the more important thing.
A question most of the IE students might have wondered: How do you keep the price so cheap?
S+J: Transportation is provided by IE and the private guide itself is around 130-160€, so when you you divide it for 30 people, it gets really cheap.
J: Actually, if we insist, we can have the trips for free but we see the 5, 10 or 15€ fees as a symbolic price, a way of committing about attendance since we really don't want to see the bus empty.
Any expectations from members/people who join the trips?
J: It is mandatory to be present in the tour, when you sign up in the event you also committee for the guided tour. I know that some people just wants to enjoy the free time but this is a club event so people have to be together at the event even for just a period.
Do you also find it crucial for especially the international students in IE to get to know Spain better?
J: Everyone visits the basic cities in Spain: Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. We really recommend IE students to see the less famous cities such as: Toledo, Cordoba, Bilbao since they stay here for more than 4 years. And all of these cities are so different from each other. You compare the North of Spain with the South and it's a completely different country. They even speak different languages. People shouldn't stick with the 3 basic cities.
S: Last year me and Augusto were asking 4th years how much they traveled around Spain and all of them say that they plan to travel Spain later. Funny thing is that majority of them confessed that they haven't even entered the Cathedral in Segovia...
J: This usually happens though, it doesn't matter if it's a country you live in or your home, you automatically think that you can do the touristic activities later on, since you're going to be there for a long whole. But you end up never doing it. I think that what we do in our club is giving these people the opportunity to do it at that moment for a very low price and you know it's about visiting now or never!
Future destinations planned?
J: Short term plans are Burgos and El Escorial.
S: So, with all the short trips we already had we wanted to show Clint that we’re capable of organizing well so that we can start expanding our route! In the future we want to have train trips to places further away from Segovia with plans to stay in a hotel to get the sense of the city we’re visiting better.
J: Also, next year Sebastian is going to study in Madrid and I’ll be staying here so for the first time club will be running in both campuses.
The favourite destination in Spain?
J: Valencia! A city I visited many times but still, every time I go, there is something new going on.
S: Salamanca or Barcelona. Barcelona is amazing!
Favorite country you have visited?
S: Hong Kong. For sure.
J: Rome, because there is so much to see and do, it's crazy.
Join the Excursion Club on the 22nd of April in their trip to Burgos! Register here: https://clubs.ie.edu/IEUCultura/rsvp_boot?id=300012915
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