I woke up around 7 in the morning, still half asleep. After a quick breakfast and brushing my teeth, Jakob and I headed to school at around half past eight, where we met our coordinator, Alex. From there, he drove us to Edelvives, a large publishing company on the west side of Zaragoza.

Edelvives produces books, textbooks, and notebooks for all of Spain. As we arrived, I felt a bit nervous—it was our first real day, and everything was unfamiliar. Alex introduced us to the director, who then led us to the maintenance office. That’s where we met Jorge, the colleague we would be working with.

We were given our work gear—pants, a shirt with the company logo, and our workbooks—before heading out for a tour. Jorge walked us through the entire production process. Massive machines filled the halls, constantly moving, cutting, and printing. The smell of paper and glue was everywhere. Each stage—printing, cutting, gluing, and binding—had its own building, which made the whole place feel more like a small industrial complex than a single company. The scale of it honestly surprised me.

Then came our first task: building a table. We got straight to work, and everything was going smoothly—until it wasn’t. Out of nowhere, the sole of my shoe started coming apart. Not slightly—completely. While we managed to finish assembling the table without problems, my shoe was basically falling apart by the end.

When Jorge came to check our work, he was impressed with the table. But the moment he looked down at my shoe, his expression changed instantly. He couldn’t believe the state it was in. Luckily, he quickly found me a new pair, and the situation was solved just as fast as it appeared.

After that, we had a safety briefing, and before we knew it, the shift was over. We said goodbye to Jorge and headed back to the apartment.

Tomorrow is another day.