HTG
Comenius Project
Exchanges
The Comenius week in Scotland took place from 4th November until 9th November 2013. There were 5 students and a teacher participating from Estonia: Elisabeth Küttim, Minna Ots, Ander Peedumäe, Anu Jaagosild, me and Triin Ulst. Groups from Iceland, Norway, Belgium, Hungary, Scotland and Germany were present as well.
The school we stayed in was Wallace Hall Academy in Thornhill. It was quite big and very new and beautiful. We spent most of the time there doing project work. All the students were divided into mixed groups and every group had a topic concerning the use of resources. At the end of the week each group presented their work.
Besides project work we had some interesting tours as well. We visited the Transportation Museum in Glasgow and Caerlaverock Castle. During bus trips everyone took a lot of photos, because the nature was very beautiful there.
Each foreign student stayed with a Scottish host during the week. Most of the evenings were free and everyone spent them with their host families. On 5th November many students celebrated Guy Fawkes Night and went to bonfires or watched fireworks.
Thursday, 7th November was the last day when everyone were together, so we had a cultural night and food court. Each group had to bring some of their country's traditional food and then everyone could try different things. After that each country had to preform as well. Many danced their traditional dances, some sang, played an instrument or showed a video. It was a very fun evening and everyone went home with a smile on their face.
On Friday, some delegations already left. Us, Estonians were given a school tour and we could take part in a lesson. Some of us went to a French lesson and the others to an English lesson. In the afternoon all the remaining groups drove to Ayr. We played laser tag shooting and bowling there and then it was time for us to leave. Our group stayed in a hotel that night, because we had to start our journey back home very early next morning. That didn't stop us from going on a town discovery in the evening, though.
We spent the whole Saturday traveling back home. It was a little bit sad to leave, because everyone liked Scotland very much. It was an amazing week, we made new friends and had a lot of fun.
Mariann Võhmar
Germany In september 2012 five girls: Kaisa, Birgit, Evelina, Elisabeth and Sandra went for an exchange trip to Germany. In addition to us there was also Scottish delegation. Our trip started early from Tallinn airport. We had two flights: Tallinn- Riga and Riga- Stuttgart. For some of us flying was a brand new experience. When we arrived in Germany, we rushed to the train station to catch our train to Ulm, but it delayed for 3 hours. Since we arrived late, we could not do much and spent our evening with the host families. On the second day we saw the school and started our project work. The topic was water. Our outcomes were Powerpoint presentations and articles for the Glossy magazine. In the evening we all went to see a castle called Lichtenstein and a gothic church with a very colourful interior. We worked on our project every day, but we also had time for leisure activities. For example, we went to see how apple juice is made at the cider press and in the evening we went to an andventure park. On the other day we went to a bakery and learned how to make pretzels. We served them with our own national dishes during the international dinner. After presenting our project work we said goodbye to the Scottish delegation and then went to a city called Ulm. Unfortunately, the weather wasn´t very good so we could not do much sightseeing , but we were able to see and climb to the top of the Ulm cathedral. Everybody had a chance to buy souvenires for their families. Our last day in Germany began quite early. We had to take the train to Stuttgart and then hop on a plane to Riga. Soon after that we were back in Estonia. Luckily there were not any problems with travelling, so we reached Tartu late in the evening, as planned.
Birgit Kuslap
Estonia
Germany
Scotland
The exchange began on the 30th of September and ended on the 6th of October when the last people had to leave. The participants were from Estonia, Belgium and Norway. The main topics of this exchange were water and forests.
On the first day the Estonians welcomed their guests and the day ended with a nice family evening. On Tuesday we had to be at school at 8.30 to take part in the school tour. Afterwards all of us went to the gym to play some ice-breaking games which was a good way to connect everyone. The rest of the day was spent on learning more about the project work and we were given our tasks. The group was divided into teams who had to make a digital story about a certain topic. In the evening we had a superb time playing laser tag.
On October the 2nd the Estonians taught some basic Estonian to the others. After lunch we went on a bus trip to Palupõhja Looduskool, which is a place where young children can learn more about nature, go on hiking trips and so on. We had a guide who took us to a bog where it was possible to see Estonias unique and untouched nature sites. We sailed back to Tartu on a big barge. The ride lasted almost 5 hours but it was great and we got to see amazing landscapes, birds and animals.
The next day we had to focus on our project work again and at the end of the day we presented our digital stories. All of them were unique in their own way and gave a splendid overview of the issues concerning the environment. In the evening we had farewell dinner at La Dolce Vita where we ate huge amounts of pizza and had a great time.
On Friday the Norwegians had to leave in the morning by bus. The Belgians stayed here and got to take part in some school lessons. On Saturday they had an opportunity to visit Tallinn and see its most famous sites. Finally, on the 6th the Belgians had to fly home by plane from Tartu.
All in all it was an exciting, busy and fun week where we had a chance to talk about the problems concerning the environment, made lots of new friends and had an amazing time.
Minna Ots
Belgium
The final meeting of the Comenius project took place in Waregem Belgium from 28th March until 4th April 2014. There were 10 different delegations from 9 different countries: Estonia, Poland, Germany, Hungary, Scotland, England, Iceland, Belgium and Norway. In total there were more than 150 students and teachers participating.
The project work started on Monday and lasted until Thursday. Students were divided into 16 groups. Each group had their own theme and the purpose was to get to know your theme, make a presentation or a video about it, and then present it to others. On Thursday everyone could have a look at what their friends had come up with. The results were great and the project work was very successful.
The project work was not all we did during the week in Belgium. On the first couple of days everyone could spend a lot of time with their hosts and get to know them better. Estonian students noticed many interesting differences between Estonia and Belgium. For example, in Estonia many people live in apartments, but in Belgium almost everyone has their own house. Also, Belgium people eat a lot of bread and it is normal to eat just one piece of bread with Nutella in the mornings. In Estonia, people don't eat so much bread and Nutella. In Belgium, french fries are very popular and very tasty, too. We ate them a lot and of course, we tried the famous Belgium waffles as well.
On Monday everyone could eat some more delicious food, because we had a Food Court. Each delegation brought something that people eat in their home countries. For example, the Norwegians brought fish and the German delegation offered us different sausages. We brought some Estonian cheese, sausage, candies and rye bread snacks.
During the week there were many interesting trips, too. On the weekend many students went to Ghent and to Oostende. There we could just relax, spend time with friends and enjoy the extremely warm weather. We visited Brussels and Ypres as well. In Brussels we saw it's beautiful old town, the European Parliament and Atomium. In Ypres we were told about the First World War and we could see what the trenches looked like. The Last Post in Ypres was very interesting, too. On the last day we got to know, how the European Union has changed our everyday lives and it was quite interesting.
Our amazing week in Belgium ended with a barbeque at school. It was sad to leave Belgium, because everyone liked it there very much. We met a lot of great people and we hope to meet them again someday.
Mariann Võhmar and Kaspar Plaat
Norway
The Comenius week in Norway took place form 2nd February to 7th February 2014 in Sykkylven. There were three of us and our teacher: Alice Klaus, Birgit Värv, Laura Tammiste and Triin Ulst. There were also students from Scotland and Belgium.
We did our project work at Sykkylven Upper Seccondary School. It is the only local high school and there are over 300 students. We were devided into seven international groups and each group had their own subject, focusing on resources. Alice’s group’s topic was recycling clothes, Birgit’s group did research on green tourism and Laura’s group introduced the topic of second hand stores in different countries.
Our working days weren’t too long, so we actually had loads of free time. We got to do a lot of activities. We went to the movies, went to dinner one night to have pizza, had a movie-night at Alice’s host and stayed in a cabin at the mountains at Birgit’s host. One of the most memorable moments was when we went hiking. We were about 400 meters above ocean level and the view was breathtaking. We could see the whole town of Sykkylven lighting up in the twilight. When we got back down, it was absolutely dark and we were tired, but it was worth it.
With the whole Comenius group we spent one entire day in the mountains skiing and had a picnic on top of the Roalden mountain. We spent our last day of the Comenius project in Alesund, which is a bigger city nearby. We visited the Aquarium, where we saw and got to touch some of the fish. After that we had free time so we, Estonians, went to see the city with our hosts. We also climbed the famous stairs that have 418 steps and saw an amazing view once again.
During the time in Norway we really got to experience their everyday life and see how it is different from our everyday life, Norway is obviously a more wealthy country. All of us were very lucky with our families, we felt very much at home and we would definitely like to visit them again in the future, we felt really connected. What else really had an impact was the nature. It was really beautiful and no matter where you were, you would experience a mystical view over the snowcapped mountains.
On the day we left, we felt like we did not want to leave and we will definitely take this experience with us. We are thankful for the warm welcome.
Birgit Värv & Alice Klaus
