***
Our project
teams met again, this time in a wintry Lithuania. Yet, we didn’t feel cold, our
friends’ warm hearts made our stay pleasant and unforgettable. Here is the
record of this stay:
Each of us
agrees: it was an amazing experience!
During the
meeting in Lithuania we had a very busy and interesting program. We had some
technical sessions at school during which we planned the schedule for the next
project meeting in Turkey. We also discussed details about the final meeting in
Spain.
We visited
the school and both students and teachers from partner countries had a chance
to attend some lessons with the Lithuanian students based on a plan our hosts
prepared. Apart from this, our students were involved in an educational
activity in which they played roles in a performance totally designed and acted
by themselves. They practised English in context and had a tremendous fun with
their peers from abroad. They also took part in an interesting debate over the
advantages and disadvantages of using the Internet and ICT at school.
Beside
these activities, we were also involved
in cultural activities, for instance visits to the local museums where we
learned how traditional houses were organized and saw many similarities between
traditional houses in Lithuania and other countries involved in this project. In
particular, we visited an open-air village museum in Anycsiai, where the houses
resembled very much the Polish traditional wooden houses. There, we learned how
traditional bread was baked and we had a chance to practise some outdoor
activities.
The
Lithuanian team organized a cooking workshop for us in which all the partners
cooked traditional noodles which we later on ate and we danced traditional
dances at the party our hosts organized at school. After that, we had fun
together at a school disco which was attended by students and teachers from all
8 partner countries and host families.
***
We all
participated in a documentary visit to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, and
Trakai, a medieval castle, where we saw some outstanding historical and
cultural sites and admired the beautiful architecture of the city. Here, too,
we could notice similarities in architecture with cities from our countries.
This is a proof that we are not so different, on the contrary, there are many
similarities between our cultures.
We also saw
the amazing Tree Top Walking Path and the largest stone in Lithuania called
Pantukas.
We also had
a dissemination session with local officials, the headmasters of the schools,
teachers and librarians from local Lithuanian schools. On this occasion, the
headmaster of the school presented us with the examples of Lithuanian campaigns
for promoting readership and we also showed our presentation on readership in
Poland, which met with a great enthusiasm.
On the last
day of our stay in Panevezys, we
received the certificates of participation and our host school prepared a short
performance which impressed everyone.
***
We
appreciated very well the efforts our hosts made to organize such a varied and
interesting program for the meeting in Lithuania and we all learned a lot about
Lithuania and its warm-hearted and hospitable people.
We were
leaving Lithuania with sadness as with great friends time passes by very
quickly. Yet, we will keep our lovely memories with us and we will always come
back to Lithuania with a great nostalgia.
Now we are looking forward to meeting again in Turkey next spring.
***
Asia, Iza,
Aga, Tymek – teachers and Karolina, Klaudia, Mateusz and Jan – students – the
Polish team
