Top School Calendar Events ESTONIA

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Palermo 4

The fifth day was the first excursion day. Italian teachers had made the plans for the school trip and had chosen for this day to visit Selinunte, Cave di Cusa, Marsala and Segesta. Teachers also reminded us to be punctual, that we could see all the sites, but still we leaved from Palermo a bit later than 7.30.

The first site, Selinunte was 123 km far from Palermo. During this long drive, students sang together and used this time to get to know each other. Selinunte temple was founded around 650 B.C , so there was a very ancjent and mysterious atmosphere.

The next place which we visited was Cave di Cusa. It is the place, were Selinuntinians took the

stones for the constructing their temples.

47 km from Cave di Cusa is Marsala, which is by inhabitants one of the biggest city in Sicily. In Marsala we saw salt deposits and Marsala wine shop. We also had our lunch in Marsala, in " Trattoria Garibaldi".

After the lunch we continued our excursion to Segesta. Unfortunately it was rainig heavily, so we didn`t walk close to the temple and we admired it from the bus. Because of the rain, we didn`t see the Greek Theatre either. Despite of rain, everybody enjo

yed the trip and didn´t let their mood going down.

Palermo 3

The first part of the day was dedicated to presentation about the Mafia . First presentation was perfomed by the Italian teacher whose presentation started with the sentence :

"Until less than forty years ago , many people in Sicily still used to say about Mafia:"Mafia? Have you ever seen the Mafia with your eyes? No , believe me: Mafia doesn´t exist"

Then he talked about the history of the Mafia . The most important men to sicily were Falcone and Borsellino they were the national heroes to Sicily because they fought against the Mafia, both were killed by the mafia in a car bomb .Falcone and Borsellino were particulary respected and even loved by common people ,who had learned to appreciate their intelligence ,their rectitude and their courage .The common people had powerful reaction:thousands of citizens participated in Falcone´s and Borsellino´s funerals and many voluntary organizations arase in those days by citizens who wanted to contrast the mafia system and feel free :one of such voluntary organizations is "ADIO PIZZO"

PIZZO - a payment imposed by Mafiosi to the traders - and if you don´t pay the pizzo we will destroy your shop....ADDIO= bye bye .Italian teacher ended his presentation with the sentence

...but in Palermo there are no more shots in the streets and above all nobody says any more "Mafia? What is Mafia? Oh....Mafia doesn´t exist".

And then the students made a presentation about mafia. Mafia is not a funny joke in Italy some of my friends are still afraid of the Mafia its not a joke Mafia is real.

After the presentations we went on a trip to Mondello .There we had a lunch and a lot of free time .The carnival was about to start at Mondello but we went away before the start .Mondello was a amazing place with a amazing view to the mountains .The water was a little bit cold and many of estonians were sick thats why we didn´t go swimming . It was a niice day after Mondello we went home .

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Palermo II

Fourth day.

The first part of the day was dedicated to presentations. All the foreigners had to show their presentations. Fortunately for us we were last and had the most time to prepare ourselves.

We had a pleasure listening to Portuguese, Turkish and Polish presentations and their songs. It was an interesting and educative morning. Then it was time for a coffee break, we had no time to relax as we were up just after the break. It was quite busy and stressful half an hour because we had some technical difficulties and at the end we still couldn`t show some videos + we had to sing the first verse of the National Anthem of the Republic of Estonia. Luckyly for us, we had some videos on the flash disk and we were able to show self-made clips about our school and school events. They were the most popular among the audience.After the most stressful part of the trip we had a lecture about Selinute, Marsala and Segesta- the places we were about to visit on the next day.

Then it was time for a lunch at „Focacceria S. Francesco”. The food was good, though we had some misunderstandings at the restaurant.
After eating we had enough energy to deside if we wanted to go home or go sightseeing with the teachers. Only very few of us desided not to go with teachers.

We saw very beautiful places and buildings around Palermo, but most of the students, estonians included, desided to stay behind and spend time playing some "football". Taavi also had lots of good time showing everybody his skateboard tricks, some Italians tried to do the tricks.

We were outside till it got dark and then it was time to say good bye. Some of us went to play bowling and had a great time, but I had to go home as my host`s father needed the motorcycle and we had to take it home..

Then I had delicious dinner, and I guess we all did, and that was it for that day..

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Palermo

Third day

We got together in their school around 9 o'clock. The day started with a lecture of Palermos art and history, followed by lectures about carnival's and their traditions, which were very interesting. Then we had a little coffe break, it lasted about 30 minutes. Well, I wasn't able to indroduce me in italian before the Italian language mini lesson, which was made by Italian students.
After the lectures

we went out to see the Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele, which is the biggest in Italy and 3rd in Europe. It was really enourmous, with 7 tiers of boxes it seats 1350 people. We had a tour around the theatre, we had a chance to see the vip box and a room with perfect acoustics.
When we left the theatre we went to have lunch. We went with our hosts to taste traditional food, molto bueno ! We really liked it, althought it didn't look so good.
After the lunch we had a little free time to visit market's and then we gathered again in the school to a lecture about Italian national events and celebrations, which were made by the students, and they were interesting to watch. The lecture didn't last long and soon we were off to the homes, where we had, atleast i did, very good meal. And we were off to bed, where i fell asleep immediately.

The beginning of the trip

First day.

The departure from the front of the school was at 5.45, so we had to wake up at about 5 o'clock, which wasn't easy. Fortunately nobody slept in and we reached the airport right on time. Flight to Riga lasted for 40 minutes and from Riga to Rome for 2 hours and 50 minutes. When we reached Rome, a taxi was already waiting for us. We took our belongings and drove to the hotel where we were staying. After we had settled in, we decided to go sightseeing and our primary destination was the colosseum. We didn't have chance to see it from the inside so we did pictures of the colosseum from every outer corner.

From there, our direction was Vatican, where we also visited some souvenirshops. Before heading hotel, our teacher wanted to show us Spanish steps and I'm glad that we went there, because the view was very beautiful. When we arrived back to the hotel, everybody was tired, so after taking showers we fell asleep immediately.

Second day.

Our day started with packing our bags together again and then we drove to the airport to fly to Palermo. The flight didn't last long and when we reached Palermo, our tension was at highest point because we were about to see our hosts for the first time. After we had introduced ourselves to everybody, we went to meet the rest of the families. We had some free time before we had to gather again in their school. When we got there, the Italian students made some presentations and after that we had free time.

All the students got together in the English Garden nearby, where we chatted, laughed and had very much fun. When it got dark outside and it was about the time to have dinner, everybody left and that is how the second day ended.