Fifth Meeting in Alytus, Lithuania

Ten partners of this Comenius project  met in Alytus, Lithuania on the 11^th of March, 2014. All participants had been guided around three departments of Alytus Vocational Training Center. The guests had the opportunity to get acquainted with the various activities students have at school. Partners visited among others the departments of nursing, beauty, and welder training. In addition, they were guided to Vilnius, Trakai and interesting places in Alytus.  The last day a cocktail party took place. Everybody had a great time while singing, dancing, and chitchating. The photos that follow are from this meeting.

 

 

Fourth Meeting in Paks, Hungary

The fourth meeting took place in Paks, 8-12th October, 2013. The groups from Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Sweden, and Turkey arrived on 8th of October. The official program started on the 9th of October at 9.00 a.m. The Headmaster greeted the guests and made a presentation on our school. The welcome program was followed by a working session at the school for both pupils and teachers. Pupils were asked to complete certain entertaining tasks, like preparing posters of their countries, and filling in questionnaires on Hungary. At midday after having lunch the group visited the Nuclear Power Plant, which plays a very important role in the life of the town as well as the school, and saw the exhibition at the visitors’ center and those over 16 could pay a visit to the visitors’ corridor with a tour guide and see the working area of the plant. In the rest of the afternoon the group returned to Paks and did a bit of sightseeing in the modern part of the town, the housing estate area, where they were admitted into the modern church designed by a famous Hungarian architect, and the basketball hall designed by the same person. Even though the weather did not favour us the hosting students and their guests had a great opportunity to get to know each other better and practice their English.

The second workday started off with a working session, but this time pupils were divided into 3 groups. Each group had pupils from different countries. One stayed at the school's library and worked with one of our IT teachers, the other group went to the local TV and radio station, and were informed about the program making procedures and technical devices of the stations, and they could try out the equipment and in the end they gave an interview! The third group had a chance to visit the local nursery, a kindergarten and an elementary school to get a glimpse at the educational work going on at the institutes and to shoot films and take photos, and make material that could be used for a cooperative product. In the rest of the afternoon we went sightseeing to the old part of the town and visited the Roman Ruins, Lussonium, nearby Paks and the Roman exhibition at the local museum, where pupils could learn about the past of the area and could dress up as Romans. The evening continued with an international pupils’ party, where our guests were asked to perform something, a dance or a song, so the Hungarian pupils could learn a few things about the culture of their visitors. The Hungarian pupils also prepared a folk dance and a folk music performance.

The last day started off with a visit to the Major’s Office, to the Town Hall reception followed by a walk at the riverside. After the morning working session at school they had lunch and we travelled to the seat of Tolna county, Szekszard, to do a sightseeing tour, and the teachers had chance to try the wine this region is famous for. To learn more about Hungarian folk culture we went to Decs and saw the folk museum, tasted a speciality of the area, pastry with sour cream and we even danced to folk songs  and folk music together. In the evening teachers had a farewell dinner at one of the cellars in Paks, the pupils spent their time together.

October, 12 was the day the guests departured. All in all the meeting fulfilled its aim. Pupils worked together, communicated in English, learned about each other’s cultures. The teachers could also discuss some important issues about the project work.

Below are some photos taken during the meeting.

Third Meeting in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain

A description of the meeting in in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is coming soon.

Second Meeting in Coimbra, Portugal

In January 2013, the small village of Almalaguês hosted the second meeting. The weather was rainy but with all the excitement due to the arrival of some 60 new people to this place the rain looked like sun shine. Then here they came. Some were blond and tall, other  short and black haired. They suited all tastes and wishes. Our pupils were fascinated even if the language was a barrier sometimes. But soon we discovered that the smile and the look in someone's eyes is the same everywhere on the world. And pupils started to gather. They gathered around tastes, clothes, music, food and both brief and eternal friendships were born. Even if some are FB friendships... We visited Almalaguês, Coimbra and the roman city of Conimbriga. Only the damn weather stopped us from going to Figueira da Foz, to the so called beach of Coimbra, some 40 km from here.  And some more ideas for the project were also born. We decided about thematics, schedules and some objectives.
More than one year ago has gone and those tall and blonde and short and black haired are still remembered in the little village of Almalaguês were some hearts were broken and some tears were also shared.

The international party of the meeting was a particularly successful event!

During a walk in the old town of Coimbra.

First Meeting in Matera, Italy

The first meeting of the project took place in Matera, Italy, 16-20 October 2012. This was a meeting with no pupils as it was a preparatory meeting. During the meeting we decided what would be the official logo of the program. The logo was designed by a pupil of the Slovakian partner:

In addition, the partners laid out the priorities and the activities that should take place in the upcoming meetings. The photos below had been taken during the meetings.