Bilateral Meeting in Hungary: Final Thoughts

By Hannah Roscoe, 

IES Julio Caro Baroja BHI Comenius Language Assistant.

When I first sat down to write this ‘final thoughts’ article I had no idea how to describe my experience. I’m extremely lucky because I was able to see the exchange from several different viewpoints, each one having had its own impact on my final thoughts. There is, however, one viewpoint that stands out more than any other. For those of you who don’t know, I study languages at university in the UK. I’m currently in my third year, which I have to spend abroad in the countries where my languages are spoken. The exchange with Hungary and Poland allowed our students to travel to a foreign country, live with a foreign family, and practice a foreign language. I was so happy to be there whilst they experienced that, because it’s exactly what I am experiencing right now in Spain. For them to have an opportunity like this is incredible. I had to wait until I was 21!

To be completely honest, when I first heard about the trip to Hungary and Poland I had no idea what to expect. It was the first time that I had the chance to take part in an exchange programme, so I had no previous experience to relate to. But it certainly wasn’t something I was going to turn down. When you are presented with an opportunity to travel to new and exciting places you’d have to be crazy to say no! It didn’t take long for me to decide that Hungary was the place for me, and I can’t find the words to describe how right I was.

I had the most amazing company in Carlos and the students (most of whom I teach at the school). We spent an unforgettable week in Budapest and it will always have a special place in my memory. Summing up how incredible the trip was is going to be difficult, but here goes…

As you can expect, we did a lot of sightseeing whilst we were there. Some of the most important sites we visited included the Houses of Parliament, the Castle District as well as Heroes’ Square. There were also opportunities for us to learn a little bit about Hungarian history; especially in the House of Terror Museum. This visit proved to be both an eye opening and shocking experience for everybody. As a teacher I was able to do even more things when the students were with their Hungarian partners. Carlos and I were treated to dinner almost every night, meeting people who will remain firm friends. We also visited the National Gallery for an exhibition on Impressionism and were spoilt with a trip to the theatre. Time well spent!

But it wasn’t just fun and games – the students were there for a more important reason. The objective of this exchange was to share information; more specifically, information about how festivals are celebrated in different countries in the European Union. The students had several workshops during the week where they had to compile information about festivals in both countries. They then worked in groups to prepare PowerPoint presentations explaining what similarities and differences they had found between Spain and Hungary. This activity proved to be extremely useful for me as well as for the students. I had no idea what Aste Nagusia was when I arrived in Spain, but I can now say with confidence that I know absolutely everything about it.

Hannah Roscoe's Final Thoughts

Obviously the common language of the exchange was English. For me it wasn’t a challenge as I am a native speaker. I am very proud of our students for practicing their English as much as they did, and for trying their best to improve their skills. I know how difficult it is to be thrown in at the deep end and I am very happy that they enjoyed their time in Hungary as much as I did, and as much as I am enjoying my time in Spain.

Bilateral Meeting in Thessaloniki, Greece

Our Comenius week started on Sunday with an excursion to Vergina and Litochoro.

The first is home to a museum which contains the tomb of King Philipp, Macedonian king and father of Alexander the Great. He died in 336 B.C.

We were lead by a tour guide who showed us many of the precious artefacts which were found when the tomb was discovered in 1977.

The latter, Litochoro, is the closest village to the Olympus mountain range. After a short walk towards the peak we all had a fantastic meal in a local tavern.

On Monday morning, we started to work on the project. The cooperation between the students was good, as you can see in the pictures.
Later that day, the German students were given the opportunity to visit an English lesson at the host school. They were warmly welcomed by the non-Comenius students in the class.

Project work commenced on Tuesday. On that day, the students received caps and rucksacks from the local Goethe Institut.
They were so excited about it that they posed for yet another group picture, ;-)

After the last project work session on Wednesday morning, we embarked on a bus tour through the city of Thessaloniki.

The starting point was the so-called White Tower, which is now grey. Having completed the tour, we walked along the inner-city seashore towards one of the many beautiful Byzantine churches.

The presentation of the national holidays was scheduled for Thursday morning.  The students presented the results of their bilateral group work. The presentations included many interesting facts which helped to understand each other's culture and heritage.

Bilateral Meeting in Thessaloniki

Still to come: the highlight of the week, the National Evening.

BILATERAL MEETING IN POLAND

 At 8:30 on Monday morning we came to school and started the Comenius Project after a warm greeting from the Headmaster. 

First, to get to know each other, we did a presentation of Polish 

and Spanish people using games or matching unknown people from 

our two countries.

         After that, we divided into groups to work, designing our posters and creating powerpoints. The local TV came to interview us.

         In the afternoon, we went to McDonald´s and finally we went to the ``AQQ club´´ to dance and finish a beautiful day. 

OnTuesday the first thing we did in the morning was a treasure hunt. We looked for ten things all over Wrzesnia, our town, to win the competition.

We worked on the project, and all the groups finished with the powerpoints, the posters and the documents to give the presentation. After that a local newspaper come to interview some of us. In the evening when we left school, we all went bowling for a hour, then we went to have dinner to a restaurant where we ate hamburgers and pizza.

On Wednesday  we had a trip. At first we visited a Factory of Christmas balls in Gniezno. There each of us got a christmas ball with our names. After that we went to visit Toruń. Later we went to a restaurant and had pancakes. Then we went to a special museum where we baked and dekorated gingerbreads. Finally we could buy some souvenirs and then we came back to Września. Except of bad weather everybody were in good mood.

On Thursday morning we finished the presentations and then we showed them in front of the rest of the Comenius participants. 

     After lunch we started to work in new groups writing a report for our website, making a photo show, creating a presentation about the Comenius Project, preparing an evalution  form and writing a blog. 

     In the evening we took part in the National Evening prepared mainly by Polish students. We tasted some traditional Polish food made by parents, tried to say some Polish tongue twisters, watched a photo show and had good fun together.

     On Friday morning we finished our work. Then we went to the domatory to listen to our headmaster´s goodbye. Also the Spanish people got some gifts from the major of our province. It was a great suprise for them and an opportunity to take the last photo of our group in Poland. 

     All of us enjoyed the stay in Poland so now we are looking forward to our meeting in Spain.

Bilateral Meeting in Poland (Nov. 2013)

Comenius 2013-2014: Bilateral Meeting

Our eight participant countries in the current Comenius Project -France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Turkey, Spain-The Basque Country- are having the Bilateral Meetings  in Greece, Hungary, Norway, Poland and Turkey from November 18th to November 22nd.

They all have previously worked hard in their schools sharing information among binational teams. At present all the students are looking forward to the date that will let them meet and share not only their sense of being Europeans but also a life experience.

In the following Power Point we can see the students from these countries posing for the picture or preparing activities.

Comenius Binational Meetings 2013