Monday, the seventh day

In the morning we gathered to the school, where the first plan was to listen to and make the presentations about our country. Of course, as always, first we had to wait for about an hour, not knowing if anything is happening or not.
In there timetable there was 3 hours for 5x20 presentations. Seems enough? Eventually we didn't listen to the Portugese students' presentation, as we had run out of time. But the performances that we had time to listen to were all in all funny and interesting.

Italy had made 2 funny sketches and a fantastic Italian song, that we had a bit later an opportunity to sing as well.(still, in English)

The Polish students had made a little introduction of their home area, but unfortunately it was really hard to understand them. Then they showed us a video about maturity ball, the school event that our students will have an opportunity to participate in, as well. The ball seemed really a fantastic event, but the video was a bit too long.

Turkey had made their presentations about the main sights in Istanbul. We could also see panorama videos of these places, that made the presentations quite exciting. They also danced typical Turkish dances and they even wore their national costumes. After that, they also gave some Turkish delights and souvenirs to us.

After eating and waiting there was time to go to Viseu, the county center, to see the town and visit a huge shopping center. First, as everybody was already a bit tired of churches and excursions, we had about an hour of free time in the town center. We had to meet each other at half past 5, but Aida came at 6 o'clock and we were just waiting for her for half an hour. She had had some problems with the bus, but we were still upset.

Then we went to a shopping centre and had 1,5 hours of free time there. First it seemed to us, that it was absolutely too little, but actually the shop wasn't that impressive and huge as it seemed.

On this day we had an opportunity to eat at home. We had 4 different types of meat and 6 cakes!!!
After that we went outside with the others and had a nice night:)

Thursday - the third day

We were supposed to go to school at half past 8, but we were all a bit late. It seemed that nobody wasn’t upset because of that.Triinu and I (Grete) went to our host’s Portuguese lesson, but as everybody did not appear, teacher only gave them some homework- we had been there only for 10 minutes. Next we had principal’s welcome at school, we all got small presents, traditional candies from Portugal and teachers also got champange. Students from Portugal ( Filip and Carlos) performed with few songs which were very nice and we all understood them because they were in English. After that a huge cake was brought for us, there was a map of Europe on the cake and all the countries that took part of the project were shown.





After eating the cake we had some free time and we went to see the exhibitions which were made by the students of Moimenta’s school. We also checked the Biology lab, where were exhibitions for the cultural week.





In the evening we had major’s reception in the Town Hall. It was quite short – the major told that he was glad to see us and hopes that we enjoy staying in Moimenta etc. After that we visited very interesting and very beautiful places with amazing landscapes called Lapa and Barragem.


When we arrived back in Moimenta, we had a party in the school. The Portuguese celebrated their Republic’s Anniversary. There were a lot of people – students, their parents, teachers. And also all the Comenius Project’s students. We spent a little time there because we all were very exhausted from the trips and wanted to sleep. So we went home to have a rest to start a new day with full of enthusiasm!

Portugal: Days 1-2

The morning was early, we left Kadrina at 04.30 and left Estonia at 07.00. By the time we arrived to Lisbon we had already been awake for about 12 hours. The girls yelling "Palm trees!" when sighting them did not, however show any signs of fatigue. After arriving and checking in at the hostel we took some time and went to see the city on our own. We had dinner and took a ride with the metro to see the city a bit more. When we got back to the hostel we met the Polish students, a bit later also the Italians and the Turkish. This was the end of day one.




The second day started with a breakfast, obviously. After that, the bus from Moimenta da Beira arrived with some of the Portuguse students and we had the official tour around Lisbon. We visited the amazing Jeronimos Monastery (Vasco da Gama's resting place) and the famous Belem Tower. Near the monastery we tasted some delicious small cakes, which were originally made by the monks. We drove around a bit and we were told about some other sights such as the 25th of April bridge.
After lunch the long drive to Moimenta began. Everyone was excited because most of us hadn't seen our hosts yet. We arrived quite late but that did not matter. The dinner was served and after that we spent some time in school where the cultural week activities were taking place (Karaoke that evening :) ). Everyone went home with their hosts at some point. That was it for the day.

Conference of the Estonian language

It took place on 18th of March. On this day, students from 9th – 12th class had no usual lessons. It was dedicated to our mother tongue and we had many activities during the day. In the beginning, we had to be in the hall at quarter to nine. School had invited two famous people Erni Kask ( an actor in Rakvere Theatre) and Loone Ots (PhD, lecturer in Tallinn and Tartu University) to talk about different things related to Estonian. During these speeches, students had to take notes. I think this part of the day was very interesting and educative. After that, we were all invited to Kadrina church to watch a play written by Loone Ots.



This was about one religious man Reiner Brocmann, who worked in Kadrina church centuries ago and who is also famous for passing along the Estonian language. So, it was really meaningful for us.




When this play was over, we went back to the school hall. We all were aware of this day coming and every class had to prepare one play. These plays had to be taken from famous writers’ books. So it was our time to perform. The best play got an award. It was performed by form 12b and based on " Names in Marble"
















The jury also chose the best female and male actor. This was worth an effort. In conclusion, this day wasn’t just about getting a day off, it was about learning new things and appreciating our mother tongue.

Italian week 29th March to 6th April

Like we had Turkish week some months ago, now we had the same but with Italy and the main concern was on Sicily.
While walking around in the school, little labels with Italian words were greeting everyone. People really enjoyed the phrases.
The students of the Comenius project made posters about Italy and the themes we had discussed in the class. All the posters went on exhibition and later, an online quiz could be done based on the information found on them.
The students who went to Palermo, had to talk about their trip in different classes. Firstly, they talked about the places they saw, people who they met and so on:D Then time for questions and finally the quiz.
People had the chance to see some of the trip photos which where on the wall, in the library there was a book exhibition about Italy books and Italian authors and listen to Italian music from the school radio.
On 30th March, we had a chance to listen to Daniela Martini, the culture and commercial attache from the Italian Embassy. Also, the students, who had visited Sicily, made a presentation about it. They showed us a video about one flower carneval, which was really magnificent :) And for the grand finale they played their favorite Italian music, which also was kind an anthem for the trip :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4JwHWlVul4&feature=player_embedded

Video clips from Italy

Watch videos by Taavi on Vimeo!

http://www.vimeo.com/10845448

Video - CARNIVAL IN ACIREALE

http://www.vimeo.com/9918503

Videos - PALERMO and TRIPS AROUND SICILY

http://www.vimeo.com/10390417

http://www.vimeo.com/11399511

Slideshows

Due to technical reasons we will now have links to the pages with slideshows. Embedding from the page slideshare.net causes difficulties opening the page.

Food in Italy

Better late than never :-)



http://www.slideshare.net/merikekk/presentation1-3438965