EUROTEAM IN THE USA - WASHINGTON

During our eight-day stay in the USA we decided to take at least one whole day trip. Besides Philadelphia and New York we also wanted to see another city. We were thinking of Boston, Atlantic City or Washingtonem and finally our choice was - the capital of the USA, Washington. we had to accept almost five-hour journey there and also back, but the hours spent on the bus were worth going there! Our first stop was, of course, near the White House. Then we continued towards the Washingtonov Monument, which is a tall marble column, together with Capitol the dominant of the city. From here we could watch the places know from the films such as Forest Gump or Hair, but also the White House and the Capitol nearby. Our last stop (if I omit a traditional break at McDonald´s) was the Capitol. We walked through a beautiful park to the Capitol Hill and enjoyed the peace and calm of the city. By the Capitol we took a few last photos and along Pennsylvania Avenue returned back to our bus. Washington seemed to me, and I think not only to me, very pleasantly, peacefully, and this is a good place to live in, I am sure. působil Compared to New York, there is not such a big rush and so many people here. We had a really nice day! See you again sometime in the future, Washington!!

EUROTEAM IN THE USA - NEW YORK

The second part of our sightseeing trip to the States is devotede to the biggest city of the USA nicknamed Big Apple, Melting Pot, The City that Never Sleeps etc. In New York we spent 5 days and we managed to see many interesting things. The most of the time we spent on Manhattan, where we walked near Ground Zero, along Broadway, Wall Street, The Fifth Avenue, by the Rockefeller´s Centre or Chrysler Building. We also decided to see New York from the 86th floor of the Empire State Building! The view was really amazing!! We were also interested in visiting Central Park, so we arranged our time for a walk there, too. Well, and the last two days were devoted not only to shopping but also to other parts of the city, for example Greenwich village. Our hotel was situated in Queens and from the restaurant on the roof we had an amazing view of the whole Manhattan. On Friday we sailed to Staten Island and on our way there we took lots of photos of the Statue of Liberty, of course.  We also visited Chinatown, the Chinese borough where we had a relly delicious lunch! Our stay in New Yorku was really interesting for us, it was quite unusual for us to walk among buildings that have tens of floors, a man can feel really small and lost, however, after two days we got used to it and we did not find it strange any more. Travelling in New York included mostly subway. Well, in some stations we felt like in Vitkovice or Trinec steelworks, compared to Prague or London underground it looks a bit "worse". During our stay in New York we did not go only to two boroughs, Brooklyn and Bronxu. Maybe next time, who knows, hopefully we will get back to "Big Apple" again :-)

EUROTEAM IN THE USA - PHILADELPHIA

Euroteam sends the best greetings from the Eastern coast of the USA, from Philadelphia. Our "seven" arrived in Philadelphia yesterday evening, we accommodated in the Comfort Inn Historic Area Hotel and after a short rest the older part of our group set out for a walk to the city centre, while the others decided for a rest. This morning we went for a walk again, we visited Liberty Bell, walked along Market Street to the skyscrapers in the centre of Philadelphia. There we could watch the celebrations of St.Patrick's Day so we stopped for an hour and watched the parade and the show. On our way back we mad another historical stop by the Independence Hall to see the place where more than two centuries ago the Declaration of Independence was signed. Now we are back at the hotel and in the evening we are going to return to the city again. Tomorrow we will say good bye to Philadelphia and move to New Yorku where we will stay until Saturday. Bye bye from the USA!!

LEONARDO DA VINCI - SWEDEN

Six of our students together with the coordinator of the project, Mrs.Parchanska are spending their three-week practicail training in Trollhättan in Sweden! "Here are at least a few words from them!

"Yesterday afternoon we had a meeting in the shoping centre, as all of us work in a different part of the town. This week we work together with the Swedish students but the next week there are spring holiday at their school so we will work alone for two days. For the rest of the week the Swedish students decided to

join us at work again no matter they have holidays".

Everything is going very smoothly, the girls enjoy the time in Sweden and the practical training is really very useful.

PROJECT COMENIUS - TURKEY - DAYS 6,7

Without the French team which is already on their way home, all the others set out for a historical trip eastwards. The first stop on our journey was Perge, an important ancient place. There we could see everything which remained from those times and then continued on our journey to Aspendos. Here we could see the ancient theatre with great acoustics which is often used for various opera and other performances. After a short break on a beach near Side (some of us took advantage of the time and had a short swim in the sea) we moved on to probably the most famous tourist place of the Turkish riviera, to the town of Alanya. There we visited a small cave and spent a part of our free time walking in the city. On our way back we stopped at a five-star hotel in Belek for wonderfull dinner and went on to Aspendos. The last part of the programme was a dance performance called  "Anatolya in fire". After midnight we returned to Antalya and went to our beds. There is only one more day of our exciting stay in Turkey and the meeting will be over. 

Sunday - all the team spent their time according to their wishes, we sais good bye to our Turkish friends on Saturday evening, so the programme was up to us. Some decided for the last shopping in the basaar, some prefered to have a rest on the beach. Our team voted for the swimming in the morning and afternoon and walking on Kaleici and shopping in the evening. We finished our last day with our last kebab and a five kilometre walk on the Konyaalti beach. There our students with their host families were waiting and after midnight we got on taxis to the airport and then went back home via Istanbul to the Czech Republic. The first meeting was very successful and we all will have beautiful memories from Antalya. See you in March in France again!

PROJECT COMENIUS - TURKEY - DAY 5

The official programme of the first meeting of the "Seven wonders of culture" project is successfully over! In the morning we met at school for the last project activities and the closing ceremony. First the students worked in mixed international groups and discussed the issues of racism and immingration problems. Our girls were quite active and more or less coordinated the groupwork. After the presentation of results we moved to the small hall where the official closing ceremony took part. The afternoon programme was quite interesting, first we visited a village school where some participants tried to cook one of traditional Turkish meals - gozleme. Both Zuzka and Diana did it quite well, they would not be lost in the Turkish kitchen. Then we answered about eighty times to small pupils the question "What´s your name?", got on the buses and moved 30 km further to a village where we were supposed to see a traditional Turkish wedding. Not only we tasted some more specialties and drank several cups of coffee and tea, but we also danced and even tried to find one of our students a groom! :-) Although the "groom" and his father played their roles quite well and the price seemed to be also acceptable, our student did not support our joke and decided to stay single :-) Tomorrow morning the French team is leaving, the other teams are going to enjoy the whole day trip and hopefully a sunny Sunday! Bye bye to the Czech Republic!

PROJECT COMENIUS - TURKEY - DAY 4

Today we started the second half of the project meeting, the weather changed again, so the sun arranged the temperatures about 26C. In the morning we met at school and set out for a trip to history. The first place to visit was the Karain cave where we had to climb a bit. The second stop was Termessos, where we could see ruins and an ancient theatre, took some photos and shot some videos. Today´s lunch was prepared by the parents of Turkish students and we could taste several traditional Turkish meals. After the return to school all the teachers and students participating in the project had some free time, so some decided for shopping, we prefered staying on the Konyaalti beach and enjoyed one of the last swimming in the sea this year.  However, in the evening we went to the city centre and as usual we spent some time weaving among the stalls in Kaleiči. There are two more days ahead and Sundays "free" day. Regards from Turkey and we wish you as little snow as possible in Karvina! :-)

PROJECT COMENIUS - TURKEY - DAY 3

Hallo, hallo from Antalya! Those who did not like our swimming photo yesterday, will be pleased a bit now, the weather still keeps its forecast, so whole the morning it was raining quite hard here. Luckily school programme was planned for the morning, so we did not get wet much. The programme started with a school workshop, the students were learning to dance traditional Turkish dances and in the afternoon there was a lecture given by the dean of the local university on issues of racism. Afterwards we went to the museum and visited the house of Ataturk here in Antalya. Then the students split for a walk in the city while the Czech teachers decided for sightseeing Kaleici. In the evening we had some kebab and then were invited to the house of our friend and Turkish leader, TJ. Half of the first meeting in Turkey is over and besides project activities we are looking forward to visiting some historical places and an exciting programme in the countryside. During our project work we also agreed on the dates of the next meetings in France and Spain. Good evening from Turkey!

PROJECT COMENIUS - TURKEY - DAY 2

Today is the second day of our project meeting in Antalya. In the programme there is a cultural-historical excursion. In the morning we got on the bus and set out for a journey to historical sights on the south coast of Turkey. Our first stop was in the Phaselis where we saw the ruins of ancient port. In the shore we posed a bit for the Turkish television, our girls had a short interview and then we went on to Kekova. The weather here is rather changeable with short sprinkles, luckily the blue voyage", our sailing on the boat, was in sun and during our short stop some of us also had a swim!  The afternoon part started in Myra and continued in Demre where we visited St.Nicholas´ Church. We also planned to climb up Mt.Olympos to see "chimeras", long-lasting fires inside the rocks, unfortunately the weather did not allow us to go there. The forecast we read in the paper before our journey is 100% true, so the two rainy days should be Tuesday and Wednesday. Never mind, we are not in Turkey for the last time, chimeras have been there for centuries so they will wait for our next visit. And those who will not see it may take a look at our photos from one of previous project meetings in Antalya. So, today´s travelling day is over and tomorrow´s school work with both workshops, dance and discussion ones, ahead. The weather forecast for the second part of our stay in Turkey says "sun with temperatures around 26 C". Regards from Antalya!   

PROJECT COMENIUS - TURKEY - DAY 1

Merhaba! Hallo from Antalya, Turkey, where we started a two-year Comenius project called "Seven wonders of culture". After quite tiring travelling and accommodation both at the hotel and in families we all met on Monday morning in the Turkish partner school. After the official opening ceremony all participating schools showed their presentations and we learnt much interesting information about the places of the future project meetings. We had our lunch at school (trout and lots of vegetable) and then we went to the town hall for a short meeting with the Lord Mayor. The afternon programme finished and we, teachers walked in the old part of Kaleici while the students had their individual programme with host families.  In the evening the last group, the Finnish arrived so everybody is here now! Tomorrow we are going to visit historical places west of Antalya. The weather here is quite pleasant, about 25 C. However, we have not had time to have a swim in the sea yet :-)

YOUTH IN ACTION - SZCZAWNICA - FINAL

Nine days in Poland are over and our sport and tourist project is finishing. The last day of the project meeting consisted of various evaluation activities, the pantomime presentation (by the way, absolutely wonderful!!) and a disco (or rather a try of a disco) On Wednesday afternoon we got on our bus again and set out for a four-hour drive back home. Generally, the project in Poland was really very interesting, we saw a quite nice part of the country and in spite of some project shortnesses (such as using English during the project...) we spent wonderful time in Szczawnica. Most Czech students took part in such a project for the first time, so they could try what it is like to be at a project meeting.... and next time they wil hopefully travel to another country to meet other teams. Bye bye, Szczawnica, bye bye Youth in Action in Poland.

YOUTH IN ACTION - SZCZAWNICA - DAY 6

There are just two days remaining till the end of the project meeting. Since the morning it has been raining and raining so the formerly planned health run together with disabled people from Szczawnica has been cancelled and instead of this the organisers prepared several sport games and activities here in the centre. In the afternoon four Czech and four Polish students continued with preparatory work on the pantomime while the rest of our team played a funny game called "the town of Palermo" and table tennis. After dinner the programme went on with the topic of "regional culture" - the Polish students presented typical folk costumes and some of us even tried them on. A few students also took the risk of dancing folk dances and then we split into our rooms. The last day of our stay will be focused mostly on evaluation of all activities of the project.

YOUTH IN ACTION - SZCZAWNICA - DAY 5

Ooops! The weather went a bit wrong through the night. There was some rain so the sport programme had to be modified somehow. After breakfast a bus took us for a five kilometres long walk in Jaworki. Luckily the rain stopped, at least for the rest of the morning, so the walk was quite pleasant and we enjoyed fresh air! In the afternoon a part of our group stayed in the tourist centre and the second part went for a walk in the town. Finally we had a bit of time just for ourselves, so our "seven" started with some shoppings in street stalls (yet the big shops were mostly closed) and then we sat for a while in a pizza hut. The third, evening part was again at the tourist centre where we played some games and worked on pantomime. Unfortunately later on it began to rain again, but we do not mind so much, all our today´s activities are over....

YOUTH IN ACTION - SZCZAWNICA - DAY 4

Saturday.... After breakfast we set out for a trip to the outdoor museum in Nowy Sacz where we could see the typical regional life a hundred and fifty years ago. The museum looked like the Museum of wooden houses in Rožnov, similar buildings and probably a similar way of life. We were looking forward to doing some sightseeings but we were not taken to the town, so maybe another day. Just after the visit of the museum we went back to Szczawnica. Afternoon workshop was focused on first aid. Some of us tried to bandage an injured person, the others heart massage and artificial respiration to a "dummy". In the evening we all enjoyed a wonderful barbecue party!

YOUTH IN ACTION - SZCZAWNICA - DAY 3

Our team sends the best regards from Szczawnica again! In the morning after breakfast we set out for a walk to the cabin car in the centre of the town and it took us up to Palenica. After a short walk in the mountains and several photo-stops with a view of High Tatras we walked down to the Dunajec river. There a part of both our groups stayed for a rest while the others decided to walk on along the river. Within an hour and a half we managed to visit the Museum of the Pieniny National Park, sit by the river and watch raftsmen with Slovak tourists. The surroundings of Szczawnica is really nice, the place of the project was chosen very well. After our walk we also had a few minutes of rest and then we walked back to our tourist centre. The afternoon programme consists of an embroidery and other handcraft workshops... In the evening we should take part in various games and sports. Tomorrow we are going to Nowy Sacz. Summer weather still remains, which is greeeeeeat! Bye bye from Szczawnica!

YOUTH IN ACTION - SZCZAWNICA - DAY 2

Today our project continued with sport activities - we took a "short walk" through Szczawnica, a short run in the forest and then we continued towards the spa centre where we tasted local mineral springs. Most of us chose a spring for good digestion or a "diet" spring but only in really small cups :-) Lunches at the sport centre might take care of our digestion, too, today the meat did not leave our plates.... After a walk in  Szczawnica and a short rest we are continuing with project activities now, at the moment we are creating sport posters and tonight there will be some sport matches. The weather here is still great and as we have the three following days filled with recognising the area, we hope that the "yellow ball" up there in the sky will be in a good condition! Byeeeee from Szczawnica!

YOUTH IN ACTION - SCZCAWNICA - DAY 1

Hallo from Poland, from Sczcawnica! Yesterday an international Youth in action project started and our students take part in it together with their Polish friends. The journey from Karvina to Szczawnica took about five hours and in the evening, after the arrival and a short rest we spent our time with project work – the first point of our meeting was focused on ice-breaking games. This morning, just after breakfast we set out for a cultural trip, we visited the Niedzica castle and the ruins of Czorsztyn, which we reached after a short sailing on the lake. The afternoon programme was focused on various quizes of the European Union and after some sport activities (at least a try to play volleyball) we are now working on banners for tomorrow´s "Health run" The weather here is very nice, the Pieniny and the Dunajec river surrounding is also beautiful, we are accommodated in a sport centre, where we have a building just for ourselves, double rooms with TV sets (only 3 programmes though - tvn, Eurosport and Viva, but still something….), food is also delicious, so we all feel satisfied here :-) I hope that such weather will remain until the end of the project and we will enjoy the days full of sport and project activities. Our big team – 16 students of the 1st - 3rd form and 2 team leaders – Martin a Sandra send their greetings from Szczawnica! Tomorrow we will write again and if possible, we will add at least a few photos! We wish you a nice evening from Poland!

VIDEOGREETINGS FROM YOUTH IN ACTION IN FRANCE

YOUTH IN ACTION - DENMARK, FRANCE

This summer was not only a holiday time for the members of Euroteam - after the Tutti Frutti project and the meeting in Pawlowice 12 students and 2 team leaders went for another Youth in Action project to Denmark and then 5 students together with 1 team leader spent ten days in France. The towns of Svendborg and St.Raphael were the places where Euroteam had great time with other students from Spain, Turkey, Denmark, Romania, respectively Italy, France, Hungary and Portugal. The programme both in Denmark and France was really interesting and we all enjoyed the stay abroad. New friends, sunny weather, kayaks, games, excursions, beaches in Riviera, trips to St.Tropez, Cannes or Monaco - this all you can experience with Youth in Action!! :-)

YOUTH IN ACTION - TUTTI FRUTTI 2010

International project Tutti Frutti 2010 -Explore all the fruits of Europe organised by fundation Educa together with a non-formal group of students, teachers and graduates called "Euroteam" took place in Horni Becva at the end of June and beginning of July. Students and team leaders from Czech Republic, Turkey, Denmark, Romania, Portugal and Latvia took part in this Youth in Action project. Photos from the meeting can be found on the website of the project www.tuttifrutti2010.webnode.cz.

On the Euroteam blog you can also find a few words and photos from another Youth in Action project held in Pawlowice in Poland. Euroteam was represented here by two students - Katka Szeligova and Renata Kralova.

COMENIUS - SEVEN WONDERS APPROVED!!!

Our application for a new Comenius project called "Seven wonders of culture" was approved! This means that in the years 2010-2012 we will meet our friends from Turkey, Spain, France and Finland! The project is focused on various parts of culture and it also includes discussion workshops, sightseeing and above all lots of fun! There will be 7 meetings during the two-year period and the first of them will take place in Antalya in October 2010!

ZABRZE 2010

At the end of June our partner school from Zabrze organised a similar conference as few days ago in Reggio Calabria. Our school was represented by three teachers - Z.Parchanská, M.Frolík and P.Olšar and 2 students - D.Orszulik and T.Kruczek. On the first day all teams presented their short videos dealing with sport in their towns, then the organisers took all participants for a sightseeing tour around the town to show various sport halls, stadiums, facilities etc. On the second day the team leaders from all participating schools from Poland, Germany, Czech Republic had their speech about sport events and sport opportunities in their towns. A long-distance hallo from Italy and Ukraine was also an important part of the conference. And the competition? The boys from our team won the bronze medal for their video about sport in Karvina. We will be looking forward to the next year meeting in Zabrze again!

PREMIO INTERNAZIONALE - DAY 5 - BERGAMO

This is the last day of our Italian stay, in the morning we said good bye to other teams and before noon we left Reggio Calabria and moved to the North of Italy, to Bergamo, where we are going to stay overnight. After the arrival at the Bergamo airport, accommodation at a hostel and a short rest we went together with our guide Cristina (my schoolmate from Dublin) to the old town. We were walking in medieval lanes, had some pizza and delicious "gelato", visited the cathedral and chapel and learned something of the history of the town. Bergamo is a very interesting historical town and it is definitely worth visiting! Now we are back at the hostel getting ready for tomorrow´s journey back home. From the news we know that we are going from the sea to water, from sun to rain, which does not bring good mood to us. Our project journey is over, arrivederci Italia!

PREMIO INTERNAZIONALE - REGGIO CALABRIA

DAY 4

The final day of the project meeting of VIII Premio Internazionale Marco e Alberto Ippolito was again mostly working. In the morning we all met at school - we kept our system that somebody does not manage to get on time.... this time our girls came a bit later.... Finally we all met there at school and the programme could start. Whole the morning we listened to various speeches and project outputs presented by the teachers from all participating countries. In short breaks we could also see performances of some students from the Italian school. The organisers prepared one "surprise" for this morning - language. Not only I was slightly forced to present my speech in the Italian language but I had to interprete simultanously from the polish language to the Italian, too.... Ufffff, I managed somehow..... hopefully thanks to this we can expect an invitation for the next year..... At least we erased our two late comings.... Some of the speeches (particularly the Bulgarian one) would rather matched the idea of "Survivors" programme :-) Anyway, we managed everything without a loss of a flower and consciousness.  After lunch we had some time for sightseeings and then we all met at the university for a ceremony of announcing the results. This year we got the third price for photography (Aneta) and a special prize for story-writing.  After the ceremony we ended up whole the four-day programme at the hotel terrace, tomorrow morning most delegations will be leaving. The meeting in Reggio was really successful and we will be looking forward to the next year of Premio Internazionale! See you in May 2011!

PREMIO INTERNAZIONALE - REGGIO CALABRIA

DAY 3

Friday morning programme began at the local school called Liceo Scientifico Leonardo da Vinci. First the students from all participating countries - Italy, Spain, Romania, Bulgary, Germany, Sweden, Poland and the Czech Republic presented their works (our school was represented by Dominika) and after Italian teachers´ speeches we all worked in mixed international groups. Some of the teachers (both of us, too) coordinated the work in groups. The outputs from the work were proposal of solutions various situations dealing with the problems of relationships family - school - student. In the afternoon we had a chance to visit a museum or walk in the town. Now after a small dinner we will move to the theatre where local artist are going to sing famous opera parts and where the results of the first of the competitions should be announced. Our school is represented by two students - Aneta Chromická a Natálie Bajtková and we are really curious whether we get the first prize as in the last year. After this programme the third day in Reggio will be over and after a traditional evening walk we will prepare for Saturday´s project work. Buona sera!  

PREMIO INTERNAZIONALE - REGGIO CALABRIA

DAY 2

This day began in a quite strange way for us. While all the others, including our two students, Dominika and Jana, after breakfast got on a bus and set out for a whole day trip around Calabria, our alarm clock stayed sleeping together with us. After a very tiring day before we woke up about half an hour after their departure. Fortunately the receptionist got us in touch with Leonardo who was going there later and so he could pick us at the hotel. In his car I could practise my Italian and answer his question, e.g. do you like my driving? - it was at the moment when he was overtaking two cars at the same time, one of those was a police car.... We got to the right place even few minutes before the bus. In the mountains over the south coast of Calabria we had an excursion to the area called "zona grecanica". The most interesting part of our trip was a typical calabrian lunch in a village. Everything was home made and quite delicious! The atmosphere was even improved by local musicians, and we also had some dance. Now we are free for a while and at eight o´clock there will be a meeting at the terrace of the Lungomare hotel. The main working part of the programme will start tomorrow morning and students will work in their working groups whole the day. The weather here is beautiful, at about noon the temperature must have been around 30 centigrades, azzuro, no clouds on the sky, really summer weather. Here in Reggio people are used to even 40 centigrades, so there is no problem to meet someone in a sweater. We wish you a nice evening from Calabria!  

PREMIO INTERNAZIONALE - REGGIO CALABRIA
DAY 1

Hallo from the south of Italy, from the town of Reggio Calabria, where 8th Premio Internazionale di Marco e Alberto Ippolito competition is beginning. Our yesterday´s programme started just after midnight when we moved to the Katowice airport so that we could leave together with the Polish team for this meeting in Italy. In Rome we had several hours to do the sightseeings as our flight to Calabria was scheduled for 8 p.m. We organised our Rome programme on our own. While the Polish team started in Vatican, our first steps led to Fontana di Trevi and then to Spanish stairs. After midday we went to Vatican and the rest of the day we devoted to walks along city streets and we managed to get to Colosseo which was our final place to see. At five p.m. we met the Polish group at the railway station again and before eight o´clock we said goodbye to Rome and left for Reggio. While the weather in the afternoon was quite nice, before our take-off it started to rain a bit and our flight was not so comfortable. After one-hour flight we saw the lights of Sicilia and we know that in a while we would land in Reggio. In the Lungomare hotel we met all other teams and this was the end of our long, tiring day.

PROJECT COMENIUS - ITALY - DAY 5

The last day of our meeting in Italy and the last day of our two-year-long Comenius project is over and we are back at home. The Wednesday programme began in the morning at school where all teams showed their cultural performances, either dance or singing. Our girls sang one of famous Czech songs and left other, a bit changed songs for another occasion. The cultural part was organised in the school gym without any musical instruments. The programme was influenced with one - for us well known - bad situation. One of the Portuguese girls lost her passport.... After cultural performances we all met at the school hall where the results of EcoPuzzle competition were announced. And that was the time to finish whole our ESEC project. After midday the first team, Poland, had to say goodbye, and the other teams went for their last trip - to Safari park in Fasano. There we got on a bus and went through the zoo with free lions, tigers, giraffes, ostriches and other animals. In the second part we travelled in a smal train to see hippos, bears or rhinoceroses and afterwards in a caged train to the range of baboons. After the visit to the Fasano park we went to Polignano where we could enjoy some time by the Adriatic sea. After arrival in Noci the students went to their host families while the teachers for a dinner. For all participants this was the last meeting within ESEC project. Our team had to wake up quite early, at five o´clock and at about quarter past seven we waved good bye to Bari. Our Comenius project definitely came to its end. Goodbye EcoSport, EcoCulture and ICT!

PROJECT COMENIUS - ITALY - DAY 4

This morning we all met at school where the students competed in eco-quiz. After lunch we had some time to walk in the town and at four p.m. we met again in front of the school. There was a bus to Putignano waiting for us. There we could see how typical masks for a traditional Italian feast are made as paper maché. We visited a small museum of the carnival and then we went to see how all the masks are created. From Putignano we continued to Alberobello, a beautiful town near Noci. Alberobello is one of the UNESCO towns because of their typical trulli houses. Unfortunatelly we could spend there only over one hour. So we walked in the streets, tasted several liquers and other products and bought a few souvenirs. The end of the day was devoted to a local pizza restaurant where not only teachers but students, too enjoyed delicious dinner. Tomorrow morning the official programme ends with cultural competitions and the official ending of our two-year project. After lunch we will be taken to the Safari Park in Fasano and hopefully somewhere to the see. Regards from Italy!

PROJECT COMENIUS - ITALY - DAY 3

We are almost in the half of our stay in Italy and there are just two project days ahead. This morning students were free with their host families while the teachers worked on project tasks, particularly on final reports for their National agencies. Together we checked what has been fulfilled, what should be done yet and we evaluated the project activities. After lunch we met all students and via Putignano we went to the caves of Castellana. We had no idea there might be something like this here, when we got down we were amazed with giant caves hidden under the ground. We walked through the caves, our walk took about two hours and was really very interesting. We walked and watched the beauty of the caves. After our climb up we bought a few souvenirs and went back to Noci. In the evening we could enjoy the festival in the town, the centre is amazingly lighted, there are lots of street stalls, crowds of people and busy streets. Tomorrow we are going to see the school labs, work on project tasks in Putignano and visit marvellous town of Alberobello.  Good night from Noci!

PROJECT COMENIUS - ITALY - DAY 2

This morning we all met at school where we were welcomed by the headmistress of the Italian partner school. The girls shared their first impressions of the families, everything is all right and the girls finally enjoyed their first day of our stay with their families in the town, they did not go to the sea. After finishing official parts of the school programme we walked to the town hall where all delegations were welcomed by the lord mayor of the town, and the team leaders were given small presents. Afterwards a short walk through the historical centre of the town followed and we walked towards one of many churches. In the park nearby the host families prepared a picnic for all participants. So we tasted lasagne, pizza, steaks, tiramisu, cakes, fried cheese balls and lots of other sweets. The last point of our programme was a visit of a monastery and then we returned to Noci again.  Evening programme is individual so dinners will take place in different parts of the town. The weather stays the same as yesterday with pleasant breeze. Tomorrow we are supposed to visit caves near Noci, the teachers will also work on project materials for their National agencies. We wish you a nice evening from Italy!

PROJECT COMENIUS - ITALY - DAY 1

Hallo from the last meeting of the Comenius - ESEC project in Italy. After a long journey via Bratislava and Roma we arrived in the place of the meeting, to the town of Noci in the south of Italy. After our arrival in Roma yesterday evening we managed to take a look at least at Colosseo, then we had to go to the bus station and take our night bus to Puglia. Six-hour journey was quite comfortable, so we managed to get to Noci without trouble. The girls are with their host families now (probably somewhere by the sea..) we, met our colleagues in the town centre and our common programme will start tomorrow morning. The weather here is wonderful, hot, sunny, simply azzuro. So we hope this will last whole the next week!

YOUTH  IN  ACTION  IN  POLAND

A Youth in Action project "Bringing youth together" was approved! This means that 2 team leaders from 5 participating countries - Poland, Czech Republic, Turkey, Italy and Estonia will meet in Pawlowice at the end of June (28 June - 2 July) to exchange their ideas of project work and prepare another youth project for autumn 2010.

TUTTI FRUTTI 2010 - APPROVED !!!

Youth in Action project "Tutti frutti 2010 - Explore all the fruits of Europe" WAS APPROVED! This means that at the end of May team leaders of each participating organisation will meet in Karvina to discuss the details of the camp. The project meeting itself will take place from June 28 to July 6 and the list of participating countries is the following: Czech Republic, Turkey, Portugal, Latvia, Romania and Denmark. Six students and one team leader from each country will come to our country for 9 days.

EUROTEAM IN LONDON

Five members of our Euroteam spent their holiday in England again. Five days in London, doing sightseeings, walking in London streets and enjoying the time. Our programme was quite time-demanding but we managed to do all we had planned. On Sunday, February 28 we flew from Brno to London-Stansed and then took a bus to Baker Street. We decided to stay at the same hostel as in the last year, near Kensal Green, so we just bought our week tickets for London transport and went to the hostel. On Monday morning we went first to Piccadilly Circus and then to Trafalgar Square where we visited National Gallery. The entry is free, you don´t have to pay any money to get in unlike other sights of London, so we went there to see paintings of world famous painters, such as Goya, Van Gogh, Monet.... Later on we continued towards Big Ben, took some photos on Westminster Bridge and walked on along South Bank. This time our walk was a bit shorter, we gave our walk up by the Millenium Bridge. Near St.Paul´s Cathedral we got on a bus back to Piccadilly and to the hostel. Our programme continued in the evening which we spent in Bayswater. Tuesday started in Madame Tussaud´s Museum where we met lots of interesting people. Well, only their wax twins :-) From there it is just a short way to another famous museum.... Those who know Baker Street must have guessed where we continued, meeting not only Doctor Watson. The museum part of the day finished there in the Museum of Sherlock Holmes and then we split. One group went to Oxford Street and the other to the Tower Bridge. The third day of our stay was quite clear - shopping. We started in Oxford Street, continued in Harrods (well, there it was only an excursion for all of us) and at the end in Fulham. On our way back to the hostel three of us decided to go for a football match. No, we were not going to play, just watch the international match between England and Egypt in the Wembley Stadium. Amazing, exciting, breathtaking!! Over 80,000 people watching the game! That was a really wonderful end of the day. Thursday was our last "programme day" so we started it in the morning in Piccadilly Circus (as usual), walked in St.James´s Park where we fed some squirrels and pigeons and at about half past eleven we stood in front of Buckingham Palace. This time we were not lucky, the Changing of Guards was not scheduled for that day. We slowly walked on towards Westminster Abbey and the last stop on our way was the Museum of Natural Sciences in Kensington. After an hour and a half we split for the last shopping or walks and met again at the hostel. Friday was just the travel day, so we had to leave the hostel, move to Marylebone, wait for the bus to Stansed and "look forward" to snowy weather in the Czech Republic. Our five-day trip was very nice and as there is still much to see in London, I am sure we will come back again!

OUR FUTURE PLANS

Time is running very quickly and our two-year Comenius project is approaching its end. There is only one meeting left, in Italy at the beginning of May. We decided to apply for several projects again and in the forthcoming months we will be impatiently waiting for decisions from National Agency. We applied for a new Comenius project called "Seven wonders of culture" together with partner schools from Italy, Turkey, France, Latvia, Finland and Spain. The project will be focused on various parts of culture as well as communication tools and matters of human rights. Our EUROTEAM applied for a Youth in Action project for June/July 2010 together with partners from Turkey, Portugal, Latvia, Denmark and Romania. If we succeed with the application, 6 young members and 1 team leader of each partner organisations will come to our country for a nine-day project meeting.. EUROTEAM also accepted invitations to similar projects from partner organisations in Denmark, Turkey, Italy, Lithuania and Poland, so there is quite good chance for our members to participate in such activities. Now we are having a short "time off" as the results will be announced by the end of March. The next programme - Leonardo da Vinci will start in April when 6 students will go for their practical training to Sweden for three weeks. And the last project we will take part in is the competition called VIII Premio Internazionale di Marco e Alberto Ippolito in Reggio di Calabria. Two students and two teachers will join the meeting in Calabria in May 2010.

EUROTEAM IN ENGLAND

Four members of our Euroteam together with one team leader are going for a short trip to London again! As in the last year we are going to do the sightseeing, visit some museums, monuments and galleries and enjoy London´s life! This time we are going to stay only in London (a trip to Ireland is not planned for now), so in few days you will find some photos and narrations here!

YOUTH IN ACTION - summer 2010

We received good news from Denmark, the organisers of a summer project under the Youth in Action programme chose our EUROTEAM as one of the partners of the project. The competition was quite large, the Danish had to choose among 75 applications from 17 countries. Now we have to keep our fingers crossed - if the project is approved by the Danish National agency, 12 students and 2 team leaders will be able to take part in the project meeting called TimeXpress in days July 30 - August 6 in Denmark!

EUROTEAM became also a partner of other two projects in Turkey and Poland planned for summer 2010. If those projects are approved by National agencies, 4 students will get a chance to participate in a project meeting in Izmir and other 6 students in Poland. These teams will be led by 1 team leader as usual.

PROGRAMME OF THE 6th COMENIUS MEETING IN FINLAND

The 6th Comenius - ESEC meeting will take place in days January 31 - February 5 in Perniö in Finland. Our team is composed of 3 students: B.Dadejová, V.Rusková and M.Janulíková and 2 teachers: M.Frolík and J.Janík. The finnish organisers prepared the following programme for us:

January 31 - arrivals, transport to Perniö
February 1 - welcoming at school, cultural programme, project presentations - Seven brothers
February 2 - lessons, volleyball tournament, outdoor activities in Teijo (cross-country skiing, ice fishing)
February 3 - lessons, Eco Art competition, excursion to Salo
February 4 - European literature quiz, work on wiki, sightseeing Turku
February 5 - sightseeing Perniö, work on Moodle, closing ceremony, departures

5th COMENIUS MEETING IN KARVINA

The fifth meeting of the Comenius - ESEC project took place in Karvina in days November 29th to December 5th.  21 students and 13 teachers from Italy, Finland, Sweden, Portugal, Romania and Poland took part at the meeting. The programme of the meeting was quite colourful, our guests first introduced their school, town and country at their presentations, they competed in badminton, floorball, English quiz and creative writing, visited a few lessons and took part in a sightseeing programme - excursions to the Darkov spa, whole day trip to Hradec nad Moravici and Ostrava. There we organised the second excursion - to the Mining museum in Landek. All foreign guests together with our teachers and host families met in Juventus for a cultural programme which was accompanied with The day of National quisine. The fifth project meeting is over and we let our guests to evaluate the week spent in the Czech Republic. There are just two meetings left in our ESEC project - at the end of January we will meet in Finland and the final meeting will be organised by our Italian friends in Noci at the beginning of May.

YOUTH IN ACTION - ANDRYCHÓW

At the same time as the Comenius project meeting our students participated in a Youth in Action project organised by a Polish group in Andrychów. The project was called The quisines of regions of Europe are the key to the hearts of young Europeans. After wonderful experience with this kind of projects wherever we were - in Turkey, Spain, Luxembourg or France, our Euroteam accepted an invitation from the orgranisers and became one of four participants of the project together with the Polish, Slovak and Turkish teams. The team leader of the Czech group was our graduate, Ingrid Zupnikova who brought 5 other students to Poland. Three of them were from our school - A.Morcinkova, M.Janulikova and K.Czudkova, and two students from other schools completed our team. The participants spent great time in Andrychow - all the teams made presentations of their school, town and country and every afternoon one of the countries was chosen to cook their national meals. Cooking, baking, frying or stewing all kinds of meals was really interesting and the meals the students prepared were quite delicious! All Czech students appreciated the work of the organisers as well as the atmosphere there and everybody will be looking forward to meeting at any other Youth in Action camp.

PORTUGAL - DAYS 7,8

The project meeting itself is over and our team together with the Romanian are the only that stayed here in Portugal. Our students are enjoying Family days and we teachers spent Saturday in Lisbon and today we are having a lunch with our Portuguese friends and then we are going to Sesimbra to walk along the beach, have a coffee and a short swim and take advantage of last sunny days of the year. Our stay in Portugal is almost over and tomorrow we are leaving. We all enjoyed the time in Barreiro, Lisbon or Palmela but it is time to go back to our schools. The next meeting will be in Karvina in the Czech Republic and then Finland will host the partner schools. So, good bye Portugal, good bye, our friends, we will be looking forward to see you in Karvina soon!

PORTUGAL - DAY 6

This morning we all met at school where a presentation of software Alice 2.2. for the students was prepared. The teachers worked on the project details - especially the final report from the meeting and ideas concerning a future project. In the afternoon the students mostly stayed in Barreiro and the teachers in Palmela. We said goodbye to the Polish group, tomorrow three other groups are leaving, and only our group and the Romanians are staying over the weekend here in Portugal. We are going to arrange our weekend programme by ourselves, so our plan is to visit Lisbon again, walk in the city centre, enjoy the excursion at the Oceanarium etc. As for Sunday, the last swimming in the ocean would be great! It is ten to midnight here in Portugal so good night, we will add some photos tomorrow again.

PORTUGAL - DAY 5

We´re alive! The whole day "trip" to the National Park was scheduled for Wednesday first but because of weather the Wednesday and Thursday programmes were changed. So today we had a touristic day. On the paper everything looked fine and easy so all the teams decided to take part in this "walk", nobody wanted to give it up and go to Setúbal. We had no idea what would this tourism look like. In the first phase we almost ran up through bushes (forget something like tourist signs or a path) until we came to a terribly steep slope. Probably we could choke down the slope but the terrain was even worse. For another hour and half we climbed up on all fours, crawled on a stony scree and wondered who would be the first to fall down and break something, hurt or who will simply be hit with a falling stone. We grabbed anything that appeared it could stay at the same place for a while and climbed step by step up the hill. Well, I think that a mountain goat would never choose that way up. Fortunately nothing serioue happened and we all got up to the hill. I will omit further coments here even it is after 10 p.m. here in Portugal now :-) The first break was at the top where everyone was trying to get new energy from the snacks. The weather at the top was amazing - black clouds at one side, the fog coming up from the other, so - choose what you want. The way down the hill was more pleasant as we "only" crept through dense bush area for two hours picking up those who fell down and looking forward to the end of the "walk". After some time we ran into a road! Even with a view of the Atlantic ocean! Our enthuasism finished after five minutes when we had to turn to the woods again. Me and my collague then decided to take our speed, picked up a lying student for the last time, and hurried forward in pair. We overleapt something, ran through something, sometimes dropped a branch on each other or just hit the branch with our head, anyway we managed to get to the road again quite quickly. It was just another kilometre to the ocean so we took only a short break and continued on. In another twenty minutes the two of us together with some other teachers and students came to the shore. From that time on it was better, we enjoyed salty water, some played beach volleyball and after that we had a barbecue. This exhausting day finished at about nine o´clock in Palmela. The most important fact is that we are all alive - tomorow we will see if we are also able to walk.