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