Comenius trip to Lefkosia, Cyprus 2.3.-7.3. 2015

2.3. Monday

Our journey started early in the Monday morning from the Helsinki-Vantaa airport. There was three of us, two students and one teacher. We had two stops on our flight, first in Munchen and second in Athens. Travelling to Larnaca took the whole day, but we enjoyed it. In the Larnaca airport we met the Portuguese team and drove with them by a minibus to the school in Lefkosia. From there our teacher went to the hotel and we, the students, went to host’s homes. Our host families were really hospitable.

3.3. Tuesday

On Tuesday we woke up in our host families’ house and the host mothers made us sandwiches and snacks. In the school we met local students that were very friendly and open. There we also did some team activities with all the Comenius members. Later the headmaster showed us the `green’ line. After that we got a tour of Lefkosia with a guide and visited Agios Dometios Municipality. We got to know many interesting facts about the history of Cyprus. On our free time we students spent a lot of time with our local class. The teachers had a dinner at a tavern.

4.3. Wednesday

We woke up early on Wednesday morning. We went to the school, and we were prepared for a long day and lot of beautiful views and new places to see in the island. We got to a bus that led us to Choirokoitia, place with a mountain and ancient round buildings, Curium, an ancient occupied city in Cyprus, Apollon Ilatis temple and Petra tou Romiou, the birthplace of Aphrodite. They were all amazing places to see. Then we got free time in Limassol, a nice town at the beach. There we ate traditional food that was delicious! We got back to the school and we got couple hours host family time. This day we saw the classmates in a café and we had a lot of fun. In the evening parents association offered the Comenius group a dinner. We all danced together, even the headmaster did, and we ate really mesmerizing Cypriot food.

5.3.Thursday

On Thursday we arrived to the school and started to cook traditional dishes of our home countries.  We made Åland pancakes. The cooking was nice. Everyone introduced the dishes and told something about the foodculture in their county. Then we got to taste the dishes and everything tasted so good.  Next we went to see a traditional wedding performance performed by the local students. They danced, singed and acted the wedding in an ingenious way. It really showed us how great and versatile their culture is. In the afternoon we got to see Melios Zoo with our hosts’. It was huge and it had many different spiecies. Later we went to the city centre of Lefkara to shop and go to a café with our hosts’.

6.3. Friday

In the morning we went to the school. From there a bus took us to the Lefkara village. First we visited a donkey farm and a wax museum outside of the village. After that the bus took us to the center of Lefkara. There we had a tour around the village. We were told about traditional lace, silver and gold handicrafts. The village was really wonderful and idyllic. After that we went to the Governors beach and had lunch there. The weather was great and it was nice to walk a bit around at the beach. Then we returned back to Lefkosia. We had some free time so we, students went to the mall of Cyprus with our hosts and their classmates.

7.3. Saturday

Everything fun has to end on time, so had our trip. Early in the morning our hosts took us to the hotel and from there a minibus drove us to the airport. Rest of the day was practically just travelling. We had again two stops, first in Athens and second in Frankfurt. When we arrived back to Finland we were tired and already slightly missing Cyprus, it's warmth and the people.

Comenius trip to Malta 23.10.-28.10.2014

23.10     We flew to Malta in two parts,  9th graders flew first to Munchen,Germany and 8th graders flew to Rome,Italy.  When we arrived to Malta we went to hostel and looked around.  At the evening we went to a shopping centre and later we went to a nice restaurant. There was a beach next to the restaurant and for Finnish people it was really exciting to walk on the beach in October, because it was snowing in Finland at the same time.

24.10     The next morning we went to a Maltese school for boys.  School’s headmaster introduced every country and we got a handicraft gift. One boy took us around their school and told us about their school system. In the afternoon we went to Valletta by bus. At first our group went to see an old church and after that we went to see a Knight museum. We ate and went shopping, again :D In the evening we arrived back to our hostel. Later that evening we went back to the school.  There were got some Maltese traditional food, which was really different from Finnish food but it was still really delicious. Most of us ate snails for the first time. After the meal we got to hang out with teachers and pupils and the night was overall really fun.

25.10    In the morning our group went to an old capital city of Malta, Mdina. There was some kind of treasure hunt.  There we saw more buildings and exotic places.  In the evening all the Comenius people went to the airport to eat. After that there was a local festival for a church. Maltese pupils told us that there were festivals for every church in the summer. There was a band that played well, pretty lights and fireworks. That was also new to us because in Finland we usually have fireworks only at the New Year’s eve.

26.10   On Sunday morning we went to Gozo by a ferry. In Gozo we visited couple museums. Later that day we went to eat lunch to a farm. First they showed us the place and we saw different animals, for example chickens, pigs and ostriches. We also ate there organic food which was totally one of the best meals of our trip. We went to a beach and there were very high rocks. After that we went to a museum which used to be a jail. View near the museum was amazing. Later that evening we ate in restaurant and then we came back to Malta by the ferry.

27.10  We went to the school again and gathered to the school hall. Every country had prepared performances, including traditional dances and songs. We had fun watching the performances and dancing together. Later that day there was a football game between teachers and students. The game was exciting and we saw the rest of the students. After the match we made local breads by ourselves. Then some of us went shopping and the rest went to the hostel. Our dinner was in a restaurant at seashore.  At night we said goodbye to everyone and went to the hostel to pack our bags because we were leaving the next day.

Overall our trip was totally wonderful and everything went as planned. It was so warm, views were gorgeus, food was excellent and the people were very friendly. We learnt a lot about different cultures and saw new things.  We made lots of new friends, especially the Maltese pupils were incredibly kind and amazing. Thank you all!

Love,

Finnish group

Comenius trip to Durham 22.5.-27.5.2014

Day 1

First we went to the airport in Helsinki and our flight took 3 hours. We landed to Manchester and traveled by train to Durham. When we arrived we went to our hotel and checked in. A little later we went for dinner at the Italian restaurant that was next to the hotel. In the evening we went to town and walked around.


Day 2

After we had had our breakfast we went to the school of Shotton Hall. We all were given a partner who was a student of the school. Them we had lunch with the students and after that they showed us around the school. We left the school and went back to the hotel. In the evening we went to Oldfields restaurant. After that we hung in our hotel rooms.

Day 3

We visited the Durham cathedral and walked around the halls. Some parts of the Harry Potter films were filmed there too. Then went to the Beamish museum. We walked aroud there for a while and had our packedlunches that our pairs had made for us. We also had a chance to go to the old mine. After that we headed back to Durham and we stayed at town and went to Dinner later that night at a Lebanese restaurant.

Day 4

At sunday we went to the Raby castle and walked the fields that surrounded the castle. Then we had our lunches and went inside the castle. Then we went to the mining museum, it was very interesting and we had fun. And after that we went back to the hotel. In the evening we went to Indian restaurant.

Day 5

In the morning we took train to Newcastle. In Newcastle we went to the Centre of life. In there we went to the Bodyworlds and had our lunches. After that we went shopping at the shoppingcentre and said goodbye to the students as they left earlier that we did. after we had done all of our shopping we went to the trainstation and went back to Durham. We had dinner at the same Italian restaurant as the first day. Some of the teachers from Shotton Hall were with us. In the evening we packed our bags and wet to sleep early.

Day 6

We started our travel to Finland by going to the trainstation and took a train to Leeds where we had to change the train ans went to another train that took us to the Manchester airport. We waited for our flight and had lunch at Burger King. Our flight took 3 hours and we landed to Finland at 22.30 and our bus took as back to Riihimäki.


The Comenius trip was awesome. We had so much fun and it was nice to meet the english students.

Bulgary, Sofia 23.-28.4.2014

Little bid over one week a go, two blond girls and one teacher get known bulgarian people, food,nature and many different sights. Our trip began from the Helsinki-Vantaa airport.We flew to our destination Sofia, Bulgaria via Munich. Our host familieswere already waiting for us when we got to Sofia.
There were many students from different countries, for example: Malta, England, Romania and many other countries.The weather weren't the best as possible, it was raining like every day. Expect that day we went to Plovdiv, it was so warm that we took sunbathe.

In 24th day, we went to the local school and told some things about our coutries to different countries students. Also actual presentation of the project were held. After that we went to school yard and played different games, like basketball. Then we just walked around the Sofia and get known the biggest sights on center.

25th day we went to Tsali Mali Grad mountains. There were so cold that i felt like freezing. That whole trip took 12 hours.

26th day was shopping day and the day we went to Plovdiv and one old town.

Suddenly wild klown attacked in Plovdiv.

27th day was freetime day, we had to do anything we wanted to, so we went shopping for example souveniers, in center of Sofia.  In the evening/night we went to some abandoned high-rise and just look at the beautiful view of Sofia.

Between 27th adn 28th day we didn't sleep because our airplane to Finland left so early on the morning. We left to the airport at about half past four in the morning. So... we slept on the airplane :)
It was lovely to notice we were back home. We think that the trip was really great and broadening experience.

Jenna Virtanen and Pinja Heinonen

Tallinn, Estonia 6.-10.3.2014

A couple weeks ago we spent a long weekend in Estonia, Tallinn. There were seven girls and two teachers from Finland and students stayed in host families. There were participants from ten different countries which belong to Comenius project. 

       Thursday we went to Tallinn by ship and host families were waiting us on the port of Tallinn. They took us to families and we spent the night with them getting to know each other. In the Friday morning we woke up early and went to the school. We went to the Sea Museum and checked out the Titanic exhibition. After that we came back to school and there were a welcoming ceremony where Estonian students and a dance group had made a performance about every country of Comenius project. After ceremony we had free time with host families - someone went to do shoppings and someone went to bowling centre. 

      On Saturday we traveled around the city by exploring water fall, old town and Kadriorg park. Again we went to school and there were some ecological workshops and every country performed their light pollution PowerPoint. 

     On Sunday we spent much time with host families and with their friend and our friends. We did did shoppings and went to restaurant. Monday was our last day and we played some unplanned games with all the participants. It was sad to leave because we had just got to known some nice Maltese guys. It was nice to get known the host family and we have chance to see our new friends because of the short distance. The school, Tallinna Kesklinna Vene Gümnasium, was Russian school so the students didn't speak Estonian at all so we had to communicate with English. In families they didn't speak Estonian either. 

     On Monday night we came back to Finland and it was nice to come back home. The whole trip was awesome!

Finnish girls and Maltese boys

 

Church in the Old Town

Finnish group in Kadriorg park

Landscape from Old Town

Portugal 23.-28.1.2014

The first Comenius trip abroad that students took part in was a trip to a city called Leiria in Portugal. There were participants from all the ten project countries, four students and one teacher from our school. In Portugal we lived in host families.

On thursday the 23rd it was time to travel. We had to wake up very early to catch our flight which departed at 6.30 a.m. We were in Lisbon in the afternoon. The weather was incredibly warm with about +15 Celsius degrees compared to the frosts we had had. A couple of hours later we headed to Leiria with a bus full of students and teachers from different countries. It was already dark when we arrived to the local school. There we met our project matches for the first time and after that we left with them to our host families.

Friday was the only day we spent at the school. In the morning there was a presentation game held in the school library. After that we went to the sports hall of the school where we played some traditional games of some countries in teams. When me had eaten the lunch we had arts and crafts workshop and the presentations of the project schools and countries. In the evening we had a "Colorful dinner" at the school. There we got to taste many types of traditional portuguese food.

We spent the weekend with our host families, so the weekend was really different for us. Saturday night we went bowling to Leiria with our matches and some other project mates. On sunday two of us went to Coimbra, which is a university city. There we participated in a sightseeing tour on foot that was led by the Portuguese English teacher. 

On monday we had a bus trip to Lisbon. We went to Oceanário which is a big aquarium. After that we said goodbyes to a few people who left and continued our trip. We were at host families' home very late.

Tuesday morning it was time to say goodbye. It didn't work out without tears.

The whole trip was amazing and we really enjoyed our time in Portugal. There were friendly and hosbitable people, beautiful views and delicious food.

- Heta Ylitie,  Anni Kivikangas, Nina Hautala, Nea Kurkela

Comenius project meeting at London 28th -31st of October 2013

First Comenius meeting of our project “Colour my World” was held at London.  Mr Risto Tanninen, teacher of biology and geography, travelled with me a long way to Hotel Clarendon in Greenwich. We arrived just in time because there was a big storm coming. Estonian partner’s flight was actually delayed for next day because of bad weather. First evening we had a dinner were partners get to know each other better. At night there was windy but not any flying cow’s was seen.

At Monday morning we started early with formal meeting. Happily we had a very big breakfast before that.  At the meeting we planned next steps of the project and had conversations about the details. Every school presented their country, school and educational system by powerpoint or/and video. After meeting we had a dinner together at hotel.  And after that I felt really tired.

Tuesday morning we went visiting House of Parliament. My train trip didn’t start well because my “oister card” refused to work and I had to put more money in it. After first train trip it worked well but it left me little suspicious about it. At Parliament we saw many interesting things and heard stories for example about king Henrik VIII playing tennis there! After House of Parliament we had free time and some of us were really lucky. We were just planning to go tube when the traffic was cut instantly. I sensed that something special was to happen and I was right. The Queen Herself came inside Her car, back seat of course wearing hat and something red or maybe fuchsia might someone say.

Rest of the day we had time to see some sightseeing’s but in the evening many of us had a dinner together.  At Wednesday we continued with formal meeting. There were still many issues to deal with. But eventually everything was settled. Last picture together and then planning of next day. Thursday we mostly travelled towards home: train, tube, express strain, airplane, express bus and local bus. Before midnight I was home and getting ready to early wakening of working day at Friday. Thank you especially to Mr Ian Kell and Shotton Hall School who organized the meeting!