The second Newsletter

Comenius Project Newsletter Visiting France February, 2012

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Reflections from the Spanish Team

Reflections from the Spanish team The visit to France has been our second contact to work together in our project and now we didn’t feel so expectant or nervous like in the first contact , we were calmer and looking forward to share our experiences .

For us has been a quite positive experience for several reasons. In first place because it was the first time that we shared our work with students, our students and the students from other countries. For our students it was the first time of some experiences as: to travel abroad, to be far away of their family, to see the snow and touch it, to practice other different language, to live with other different people and culture...In spite of our students didn’t have a high level of English but they were able to communicate perfectly and they have recognized and valued the importance of Knowing languages for greater communicative exchange.

The Spanish Group.

Aurora, Ana, AndrĂŠs , Mari Carmen and our students.

We want to thank to French group everything They have really enjoyed doing all sorts of sports activities: handball, hiking, table tennis, swimming. And on the other

they have done for us, thank you for your

hand they have learnt to recognize the essentials ideas of the

hospitality, for your kind cooperation, for your

sport: fair play, sportsmanship, honesty, to know winning ad

attention, you really have worked hard to

losing...and besides knowing beautiful towns and landscape

prepare so many activities related with our

of Provence. Another peculiar aspect that has attracted our

project.

attention and has enriched us all, is to know how to work with students who are preparing for different jobs and how to work in the primary school with a single class with different levels of knowledge.

About the experiences of each country presented in the

Again we sincere thank you for all you have done, we truly appreciate your work and help.

Reflections from the Latvian Team

Reflection from the Latvian Team had handball and table tennis tournaments. In handball my team got the last place, and in table tennis I lost in the first game. But in general I liked the day, and really enjoyed the activities. On Thursday we went to the local nature preserve. There also was a museum of the France

Jurassic period in the region. We also had a hike around

My journey to France was a great opportunity for me to

the mountains. In the early morning of Friday we went

meet new friends and explore new places. I was in

by train to Paris. We went up the Eiffel tower, explored

France for a week, and five of the seven days I spent in

other landmarks, like the Notre Damme cathedral, the

Bevons - a small town in the Pre-Alps, near Marseille. I

Louvre (from the outside), Arc-du-Triomphe, and other

stayed in a boarding school a bit further from the town

places. I liked my stay in France, and for me it was a

that was for children aged 12-18.

very good experience.

On Monday we went to an old fort called the Sisteron

- Valters VAGOTINS Jurmala Alternative School

Castle. We didn’t get to see a lot of it, because part of it

(Latvia)

was closed. I didn’t have any big impressions about it, because I got to see only the outer walls of it.

On Tuesday we were meant to go to the If castle on a small island off the coast of Marseille. But it was too windy, so we went to a city near Marseille, called Aixen-Provance. We explored the museum of arts, and saw artworks by Pablo Picasso and Paul Cezanne. I personally thought they would be a bit more impressive, but still the place was worth visiting. On Wednesday we

“My journey to France was a great opportunity for me to meet new friends and explore new place”Valters Vagotins, Jumala Alternative School, Latvia

Comenius in France This is a review of Comenius project in France. The whole thing happened in south of France next to Marseille. The school was very nice and the teachers were very kind. I enjoyed most of al the nature of France because it is so beautiful.

I think that EREA has found a nice place for their school.

Nationalities • Turkey - Turkish people were very nice, because they participated in all activities and they even gave us (Eduard) and Walter a gift.

• Spain- Spanish people were kind, and one of the boys was very active. The only bad thing was that…at least the girls who participated in English lesson didn’t know English very well.

• Romania - Romanians... well they stayed in a hotel, not school, so there were some activities that they didn’t participate, but I think that, if they would stay or spend more time in school… I would get to know them better.

• France - French people were kind, nice, understanding, because they let us and everyone stay at their place for free. As I started to make conversation with them they responded and they weren’t rude.

• Food - The food was… wonderful, tasteful, I really ate some traditional food from France and that was for the first time in my life. I really wish that our Trips • Museum of art - I loved the museum, because now I have seen real Picasso’s art.

• We went to geological reserve with a Jurassic museum. In the park… there were many exotic plants and a big waterfall.

Eduards Ezers (Eduard Lake) from LATVIAJurmala Alternative School (Latvia)

Friendly, sporty, surprising days in France…

According to our Project schedule, EREA School in France was the second destination to be visited. This time two students and two teachers from our school had a wonderful opportunity to enjoy our stay in Bevons in southern France. Considering that the visit was planned in February, we escaped Arctic cold in Latvia (at that time -30C) and were lucky to experience much warmer weather in Bevons (up to -9C only).

The coldness outside was compensated by many activities at school thus providing really comfortable stay in a friendly, active and joyful atmosphere.

In the course of five days we experienced warm welcome by French team, which made us feel at home.

Staying in a boarding school for 5 days, enjoying everyday and traditional French meals in a school dining room and participating in everyday sports activities let us feel the school atmosphere. Our students and we (teachers) had a chance to communicate and make friends Besides, we could make sure that the message of the Comenius Project slogan “EAT smart, Work more and BE healthy” has been fully carried out. Seemed, that for this particular school the expression WORK more, could be easily replaced by SPORT more thus showing the school’s focus on sports.

While staying in Bevons we experienced several surprises, which we’d like to share with you. The first surprise was made by French team on the day of arrival - each visitor received a colorful and accurately designed booklet stating all the information about our stay in Bevons, including activity worksheets for registering our sport achievements and new information to be learned throughout our stay. Another surprise was to discover several totems representing the Comenius Project Logo in several places within the school building. They were made of wood and metal by French students. Considering that the design of Project logo was elaborated by one of the students of our school and in the result of competition recognized as the best one, it was really impressive to see it so far away from Latvia. This seemed like an obvious example of cooperation between students of different schools being thousands of kilometers apart.

More surprises….one day in the school dining room we could read a menu written in 5 languages of all participating project schools. In addition, they served the meal consisting of healthy food from all project member countries. As for our country, we could taste Dārzeņu zupa (Vegetable Soup) cooked in France – Superb!

To continue with surprises, there was organized a Sports Day Championship and our students were really happy seeing real cups and medals for the best contestants. In the result of international championship, our students could bring home a cup admired the clearness of typically blue Provence sky, but and two medals, which later on were shown to their schoolmates and classmates as reminders of successful handball and table tennis tournaments.

During our stay we enjoyed the wonders of nature in Geological Reserve and the mountainous landscape.

Every day we in Aix-En-Provence and Marseille, in its turn, we witnessed the beauty of frozen fountains and glowing icicles - so untypical for the southern Provence.

To sum everything up, thanks to the enthusiastic and responsible work of Valerie, Letizia and the whole French team, we experienced five days full of positive emotions and fruitful experience . Looking forward to meeting you in Spain!

Friendly greetings, Inga

France trip I travelled to a country that I had heard a lot but never had the chance to see. There we lots of place to see and peopleI wanted to meet.

I was very excited while I was travelling by the plane.

I looked mywatch again and again. It was really Difficult not to lose patience. The clouds that I could see from the window of my house were just under my feet hanged on the sky like a white smooth cover.

Mountains seas, were like little models from the sky.

At last we landed on to France. Marsielle was marvellous. It wasn’t difficult for us to find our hotel.

There were lots of old and beautiful buildings in the city. I met with the other partners and students at the hotel. After a wakeless sleep we went to French partners’school on Monday. They welcomed us very nice. Their food was different from ours but I tried and liked them. As long as we stayed in France our students attended lots of enjoyable activities.

Especially the ones include sports were students’ favourite. Because of the bad weather conditions we couldn’t have the chance to travel more.

We went to a geological place and the students experienced their first geological research. It was very informative and fun. After that, we visited a museum and there were lots of different kinds of fish and marine species. They were wonderful.

When the time to leave came, I felt sad. Because it was difficult for me to leave this place that I had known for couple of days. After saying goodbye to everyone, we left there with the nice presents in our suitcases Visiting such a welcoming country and meeting such warm people was a real pleasure for me. Hope to visit again. Tuğçe Kumova

Reflections from the Turkish Team

My Trip to France I was so excited to see France at first. After a long preparation day I was very excited. We set off at one o’clock at night and arrived İstanbul in the morning. I was quite exhilarated to fly on a plane for the first time in my life. After two and a half hours flight we landed in Marseille. We spent our first night at a hotel and then went to our partners school’s dormitory. First day , we visited Sisteron Castle. They arranged a welcome party on Monday. We went to museum on Tuesday. Unfortunately we weren’t able to visit İf Castle because of bad weather conditions. Wednesday was sports day. After some class activities we completed all activities. We learned their culture and tasted their food but most importantly even if our countless differences, we got on really well with them. Turkish Student.

My France trip went very well. I saw new places and had new friends. I learnt different cultures. I learnt different sports. I liked playing handball very much in France. I was glad to learn the table tennis. Having been to France was a different and enjoyable experience for me. I took a lot of beautiful photographs in France.

It is nice to have been in France. I learnt playing handball, some new sport activities, table tennis and had nice time. I went to an interesting photography museum. I had good days in France.

France is very nice country. Furkan Guney

My Trip to France First day we went to hotel.We stayed in hotel one night. Second day Letonian and Spanish friends came to hotel. We ate breakfast with friends. After we went to school. School was very good. I liked it. We went to Sisteron Castle. İt was very famous in Sisteron and it was very nice. İn sport day we played handball with friends. I was very excited. The day was very very nice. I was enjoyed. İt was a really nice experiance for me. I learnt new things, I’ve got new friends now. Mert Yilmaz

After our visit to France I travelled by plane for the first time in my life.First, we went to Merseille and we went to a nice hotel. It was nice to find out Turkish restaurant. Our French partners came and took us in the morning.We went to school together with other partners.

We had lunch at school.Our French partners gave a Welcome Party in the evening.They gave us nice presents.The next day we went to Sisteron Castle.It was beautiful.The weather was cold and snowy so we couldn’t go If Castle.We went to the Granet Museum.There were nice paintings and sculptures. The sculptures were really successful.Wednesday was activity day and we made Bosphorus Bridge from clay.Then we played handball game about fourty minutes.It was a lot of fun.On Thursday, we visited the Japanese Garden.We did some archeologic experiment.This activity was exciting but we were bored.It was the first time for me.We met with Özgür.He was a Turkish boy.Özgür said , he would come to Turkey next year .We were very happy.I’m sure, Özgür misses Turkish meal.As all partners we learned about a new culture there.We ate different meals.We had many new friends.Fransa is a very beautiful country.Unfortunately I couldn’t travel to Paris.But Marseille was nice too.To sum up, it was very enjoyable, we met new people, we had a chance to practice and improve our English.

Zeynep Özcan

France Trip I am very happy because I saw France. We went there with eight students and five teachers as Turkish group . First, we went hotel and stayed that hotel for a night. We got up early and had a nice breakfast after that we met our partners in the morning. We went to Bevons. We visited Sisteron Castle. It was really beautiful. French partners arranged a nice

The other day we turned back to Marsille after to fly to Turkey. I am very happy because I saw French people, culture, the other partners; I ate different foods. Thank you very much for everything France. Elif Bucak

Welcome Party for us. We ate different foods , after the party we were very tired. The next day we couldn’t go to If Castle ; because the weather was very cold so we went to Provens instead of it. We went to Art Museum there. We saw human statues and we saw famous painters’ works of art. They were perfect .

Wednesday was Sport Day. We played handball we had a good time. Our team came in second. We took secondary cup.

We were very happy. After that, we went to Japanase Garden. The weather was very cold and

Reflection of my trip

snowy. We saw human statues and we saw famous

France was very beautiful. I met new friends.

painters’ works of art. They were perfect.

They were very nice and friendly. I liked the school. Because it was very big. We went to Sisteron Castle. It was very beautiful and big but

Wednesday was Sport Day. We played

the weather was very cold. So we couldn’t go

handball we had a good time. Our team

around it. We played handball. It was very fun and

came in second. We took secondary cup.

nice. We took medal .I was happy. I enjoyed very much in the party. I liked very much the presents

We were very happy. After that, we went to

given to me. This is a wonderful behavior. My

Japanase Garden. The weather was very

France trip was very beautiful, nice and fun.

cold and snowy. We saw different fish

Thank You, Elif Durmus

there, after we turned to school.

Reflections from the Romanian Team