Girona FM interview on 25 Feb 2025
Interview on Girona FM on 21 Feb 2025
MP3 file[edit]
Transcript[edit]
Ryan: Let's get to know you first before we talk about Girona Buddies, just so the people have an idea of who you are. So, where are you from originally?
Paul: I'm from England. I've been living here in Girona for seven years
Ryan: Right, seven years. And what made you want to settle in Girona?
Paul: So, I met my girlfriend in Montreal. I was volunteering as a night watchman in a hostel. And she was there learning French. And we got together. And that was 12 years ago. She told me she was from a place called Girona. And I'd never heard of Girona.
Ryan: She's actually from here?
Paul: Yeah, that's why I'm here.
Ryan: Oh, wow, okay, okay. And so, have you got family?
Paul: So, I have two kids. And they're going to listen to this.
Ryan: Do you want to give them a shout-out?
Paul: I'm going to say hello. Hello, Navin and Ben. They're aged two and seven. They're the greatest kids. I have to say that because I'm on the radio. But they really are. They're really nice.
Ryan: Excellent, excellent. So, that's cool, okay, excellent. So, how did you come up with the idea of Girona Buddies?
Paul: So, it wasn't me who set it up. It was a... Maybe I should start from the beginning. So, I moved here seven years ago. And for the first six years, I didn't have any friends, actually. I had no way to meet people.
Ryan: It can be tough.
Paul: Yeah, and my girlfriend told me about this thing called Girona Conecta. I went to a couple of those events.
Ryan: Yeah, shout-out to Nastya, who was on the show a month ago.
Paul: Yep. And then, like, so last year, I saw a Facebook post from this girl called Denise. And it was something like: "Hello, you! I've just moved to Girona. If you're looking for friends, and you want to go out for a coffee, then just give me your phone number, and I'll add you to a WhatsApp group."
Ryan: Okay.
Paul: And there was a photo of her. And then, underneath that, there were, like, ten comments, and everyone was enthusiastic about joining this group. And at the bottom was a link. So, I clicked the link, and I joined it. And it was called Costa Brava Buddies, and there were already 50 members. And they were talking about—at that moment, when I joined it—talking about going to a picnic in the park.
Ryan: Right, so this is about a year ago?
Paul: Yeah, this was February 26th.
Ryan: Okay, so you're also celebrating a year.
Paul: Yeah, we're a year old.
Ryan: Yeah.
Paul: It's a coincidence, yeah. We're celebrating together. Yeah, so I went to this picnic, and there was a bunch of strangers sitting in the park, on the ground. And I think there were four or five people. And it was a cold day, and we were just sitting on the mud. But Denise was there—this girl from this Facebook post—and she, like, welcomed me. And this guy from Andalusia gave me a plastic bag to sit on, so I didn't get muddy. And they had a bunch of, like, food in the centre in Tupperware, and they shared it with me. And it felt nice. It was a bit surreal, sitting there on a Saturday in a park with strangers. But gradually, more people came. And in the end, we were about 15 people. And there was a guy from Peru, and a woman from Belgium, and a woman from Croatia. And we were all from different countries, and I was amazed. Because I'd been living in Girona for so long, and I had no way to meet these people. And I felt like we were all the same: that we had no way to meet each other until Denise had made this group. And so, over the next few days, people kept using this WhatsApp group. And we...
Ryan: So that's how you keep in touch? Through WhatsApp, yeah?
Paul: Yeah. Girona Buddies. It's a group of WhatsApp groups.
Ryan: Okay, a group of WhatsApp groups.
Paul: Yeah.
Ryan: Alright, we'll get into those later on.
Paul: Okay, cool.
Ryan: And how many members have you got right now then?
Paul: Right now, we have 386 members.
Ryan: Wow.
Paul: I was wondering if Ryan, you wanted to be member 387?
Ryan: Wow, talk about being put on the spot there.
Paul: Of course.
Ryan: Okay, okay. What about Abby, you gonna ask her?
Abby: I don't need to be asked, guys! I'll come along for, you know, a picnic. I mean, come on, that's like the best thing.
Ryan: Cool.
Paul: Okay, so it's not just picnics that we've done. We've done hikes, gone to restaurants...
Ryan: Yeah.
Paul: And we've played—people have played paddle together. I don't play paddle, but I've heard they do it together.
Ryan: Okay, so there's all sorts of different activities that people can do?
Paul: Yeah. There's... So we have 40 different subgroups.
Ryan: Wow.
Paul: And people have told me that's a lot, but...
Ryan: It sounds like a lot.
Paul: We have hiking, food, cycling, climbing, game night...
Ryan: I think I've seen that. Yeah, we're gonna get into that in a little bit. And we'll also talk about... But you're also on Instagram. And I think people can get in touch that way too. But first let's continue on our journey through time with a little bit of music. This is The Who with their song I Can't Explain.
Ryan: Welcome back to L'Alternativa on Girona FM 92.7. And in case you're just joining us now, we have Paul from GIrona Buddies with us today. Now let's back to what we were talking about, because you said it was called Costa Brava Buddies. How did you change the name and how did you take over?
Paul: So, I don't really think of myself as, like, taking over the group. But I asked if I could help Denise out, because she had to leave Girona. She was going to Germany for the winter to go work at a ski resort. And I asked her, "Would it be okay if I organized some events while you're gone?" And she said that would be great. And she made me an admin of this WhatsApp group. And so, when she left, we were about 120 people in this WhatsApp group. And the first thing I thought to do was to change the name, because Costa Brava Buddies seemed too general.
Ryan: And if it's based here in Girona, it makes sense.
Paul: Exactly, yeah, you think the same as me.
Ryan: Of course, absolutely.
Paul: We have similar minds. So, I changed the name to Girona Buddies. I really liked the word "buddies" because it implies friendship.
Ryan: Of course, of course. Because you were saying that you're on Instagram, but you've only been on Instagram for a short amount of time. So in those earlier days, how did people get involved? How were they able to find out about that group and participate?
Paul: We were just inviting each other—each other's friends. And so, after we did the name change, then we opened a Facebook account, an Instagram account, and now we have a Meetup page as well, which is about two weeks old, to try to get new people coming. Because the idea is to have it as inclusive as possible, and to grow it as big as possible. And it's been growing so fast, especially in the past month.
Ryan: Yeah, well, I went to your last meetup, which was in La Rosaleda, in La Devesa, in the park there. It was just on Sunday last. And you had a great crowd there. I'd say, what, between 25—maybe 30—people there. So would that be a typical turnout for one of your events?
Paul: Okay, let me tell you this. So, three months ago, I think four people came to this social event that we do on every other Sunday. And a month ago, we were about 12 people. And then, two weeks ago, we were 20 people.
Ryan: Oh, okay, so it's exponentially growing.
Paul: It keeps growing, yeah.
Ryan: Wow, you're on a roll then, that's great.
Paul: And then, in two weeks, we have our next social event. We've just decided where it's gonna be. It's gonna be in Parc del Migdia. I don't know how many people are gonna turn up. It might just be me, I don't know. But I suspect it's gonna be quite a few people. And everyone is invited.
Ryan: Yeah, of course. That's the nice thing about it. So, I think Instagram is the way that people keep in touch with these things most these days. So, what's the name of your Instagram account?
Paul: So, the Instagram account is Girona Buddies, which is B-U-D-D-I-E-S, Girona Buddies. And if you wanna join Girona Buddies as well, we've made it really easy. Just go to tinyurl.com/gironabuddies.
Ryan: Okay, and then they can find out all the information from there.
Paul: You can join straight away.
Ryan: Okay, brilliant, cool. We'll get back to you in a second. Let's move into the seventies now. We're gonna highlight this cult classic from B-52s, the epic and ridiculous Rock Lobster.
Ryan: We have Paul, of course, from Girona Buddies. We're chatting about the history of the group. That it's a WhatsApp-based group mainly, and that people can follow you on Instagram at gironabuddies. But basically the idea is to get involved and to be able to participate in so many of the different subgroups that you've got, whether it be sports, whether it be musical, whether it be board games, for example. Do you want to tell us a little bit about, just very quickly, the different types of groups that you have?
Paul: Yeah, so it started with just one group, and that was the main chat. And in that, you could talk about whatever you want. But now we have 40. We have one for freecycling, where we give things away for free. One for finance and bureaucracy advice. An LGBT group. A group about sustainability. We have a dog club. And the nice thing is that people can organise things themselves. And some of the groups, people use to give advice as well. So if you have a question about where to take English-speaking driving lessons in Girona, or where you can find a weird Peruvian fruit that no one knows about, or if you've lost your NIE, then you can go on to one of the groups and ask, and someone is going to know, because we have almost 400 members, and we have such a diversity of people that in about an hour you can get an answer to any of your questions.
Ryan: Well, amazing. So, talking about the people in the group, I don't know if you've done any stats, but where are the people generally from? And what language do you guys use the most?
Paul: So the language we speak in is English because it's the international language that we can all understand. But if people want to talk in Catalan, Spanish, or any language really, that's completely fine as well.
Ryan: So what about the nationalities? Are they mainly English people? Or you said there's probably people from South America. Even locals, right?
Paul: This is one of the amazing things. There is no one single nationality. It's such an international thing. We've got people from Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Peru, Russia, Spain, UK, Hungary, Luxembourg, and we had one girl join from Zimbabwe. And it's like people from all over the world, here in Girona.
Ryan: Excellent, excellent. Thank you so much. Okay, cool. We'll be back to you in a second. Let's continue our journey through time. Of course, we've got a bit of music to play. We're hitting the 90s now. This is from 1994, from Green Day's first album Dookie. This is Basket Case.
Ryan: Alright, now, Paul from Girona Buddies. Off air just now you were telling us about a really touching story and I'd like our audience to hear about it. You were telling us about one of the groups that you made and one of the experiences that you've recently had. So what happened?
Paul: So, I have slight autism. Last year I was trying to find a group for adults with autism in Girona and there isn't one, it doesn't exist. I was thinking of creating one but if I had, I wouldn't have had any way to invite people, and I don't think anyone would have come. But in Girona Buddies, I set up a neurodiverse subgroup and two people joined that day. We met up in the park and it was so nice that we could meet up and talk about autism stuff. And now we have 12 members. On yesterday, we had our third meetup in the park and one of the members just got diagnosed with autism. We met up and celebrated his autism diagnosis. And it makes me feel so nice that this group...
Ryan: Yeah, that is fantastic, that is so touching. You should be proud because you're bringing these people together, and now you have a connection.
Paul: That's the idea, we're bringing people together. We have a dog club which only existed two weeks ago. People were posting pictures of their dogs in the Main Chat.
Ryan: Yeah, and you were like, "We don't want that."
Paul: "We want those dog pictures where we don't all have to see them."
Ryan: Let's create a subgroup.
Paul: Yeah, and they met up in the park last week for their first meetup. And they were all so happy to meet people who have dogs as well.
Ryan: Well that's the whole point of having a friendship, that you have something in common, something to share.
Paul: Yeah.
Ryan: You're bringing those people together. Well done.
