Lengyel kapcsolat

Comenius in Krakow, 2008. 04. 07-13.

In April, 2008 we had the opportunity to participate in an international event organised by the Comenius Project. This year the host country was Poland, the guest countries were England, Germany, Belgium, Norway and Hungary.

7^th April, 2008

We left for Cracow on Monday morning. The trip lasted for 8 hours that we passed very pleasantly. When we arrived at Cracow, we felt quite excited as we were to meet our hosts. Some of us had already known his/her host through some emails, but for the others it was the first time they had met them.

In the school we were picked up by the hosts and we were taken home. We spent the evening with the family and had a dinner together. Every host-mother waited for the Hungarian student with a typical Polish dish (I tried a very delicious Polish vegetable soup).

8^th April, 2008

As the first programme was on Wednesday afternoon, we organised some private programmes for Tuesday and Wednesday morning.

Visiting Auschwitz in Tuesday morning was the programme that everybody was afraid of. Even though we were told the historical background on the bus and we were prepared for the terrible sights, it was a shocking experience. We visited many barracks and we spent half an hour in the Hungarian barrack remembering our victims. We were in such a low spirit that it was very difficult to get back our lively mood in Cracow.

In the afternoon we visited the Wawel Royal Castle. We were very interested in it, because according to a legend, the model of the castle was the Royal Palace of our great Hungarian king, King Matthias. We were amazed by the magnificent tapestries and the coffered-ceiling of the throne hall depicting human faces of different origins.

9^th April, 2008

In Wednesday morning, we took a pleasant stroll on the Main Square of Cracow visiting the Mariacki Church, the Market Hall and the tower of the former town hall (which is the only part that remained from it). We also had the chance to visit the Jagello University, where the great Polish astronomer, Nikolaus Kopernikus studied.

In the afternoon we had an "integration evening" where we first met the students of other countries. In order to help us to start the first conversations, we played different games, e.g. we had to talk for one minute to a foreign student about a given topic, like music, food or pets. Later we were taught Polish words and even a Polish jawbreaker, which ended in complete failure.:)

We also set up an exhibition. A few months earlier a competition had been announced in different categories: painting, drawing and photo. Every country brought the best works of his students to Poland and exhibited them in the hall of the school.

10^th April, 2008

In the morning we were given a presentation about the history of the school in the "museum room". After the presentation all the students from the same country were separated in order to form international groups for the sightseeing. There were 6 groups of 5 students from different countries, and every group had three Polish student-guides who led us to a given part of the city. It was a thematic sightseeing, so every group visited different parts of the city, e.g. "green zones of Cracow", "Cracow of the burgesses", "the Jewish quarter of Cracow", etc.

During the sightseeing tour our task was to collect brochures of the sights that we visited, because when we got back to the school, we had to prepare a placard of what we had seen.

This day was perfect for practicing our English. Although we spent most of the days together with the other nations, working in these groups was a little bit different, as there was nobody next to us to whom we could talk in Hungarian during the whole day.

11^th April, 2008

The official opening took place on Friday. We gathered in the hall of the school, where we were welcomed by the headmaster of the school. The school-choir finished the opening ceremony with a magnificent performance.

On this day we really had to work as every country had to present his problem topic. The students made a presentation about an environmental problem which was somehow connected to tourism. We presented the problem of the famous Sziget Festival, which is organized in every August on the Hajógyári Island in Budapest. The Festival attracts thousands of tourists, especially youngsters, but it has several negative effects on the nature. Having presented our problem, we tried to find a solution together with the other students (I have to tell that there were very good ideas that we had not thought about). We also listened to other presentations, I had the chance to get to know more about the fjords of Norway, that, unfortunately, are getting more and more polluted by the increasing number of cruisers.

After the presentations every country planted a tree in the courtyard of the school.:)

12^th April, 2008

On our last day we made a trip. Our first destination was an eco-farm, where we saw several types of vegetables and herbs growing in smaller gardens and greenhouses. Besides, we also saw energy-sparing methods of the farms which have a great contribution to the clean environment. We made a candle from honey-wax and we also painted a wooden bird with different colours of eco-paints.

In the afternoon we went to the Wieliczka Salt Mine. After going down on ... stairs, we finally got to the mine itself. The temperature was quite pleasant (maybe because it was very cold outside) , and the view was fascinating. It was a mine museum, where there were statues representing how the miners worked a long time ago, but my favourite was the statue of St. Kinga of the Hungarian Árpád-house. According to the legend, she lost her engagement ring in a salt mine in Transylvania, but later it was found by a miner in the Wieliczka Salt Mine.

We said farewell to each other on a party where all the foreign students and the Polish hosts had fun together.

2008 április 8-13. között Krakkóban voltunk a Comenius-program keretében. A program résztvevői sokféle nemzetiségűek voltak. Megismerkedhettünk angol, belga, német, portugál és lengyel diákokkal, és persze mi magyarok is fontos részét képeztük a társaságnak.

Ellenben a többi ország diákjaival, akik szállodákban voltak elszállásolva, mi lengyel fogadó családoknál laktunk, így is közelebb kerülve a lengyel szokásokhoz, a nyelvhez és a kultúrához.

A minket fogadó iskola rengeteg színes programmal várt minket és barátságos „hostjaink" is szerveztek nekünk egy kis városnézést, nem is egy alkalommal.

Már érkezésünket követő nap kis kirándulást tettünk Auschwitzba a délelőtt folyamán, és, hogy délután valamivel jobb hangulatba kerüljünk,elmentünk a Wawel-be.

Másnap ellátogattunk a város főterére, ahol megismerkedtünk a Mária-templom történetével és bementünk a posztócsarnokba is, ahol rengeteg ezüstből és borostyánból készült ékszert lehet kapni.

A főtér után a Jagello egyetemen kaptunk szórakoztató idegenvezetést.

A következő néhány nap viszont már a prezentációkra való készülésből, plakátkészítésből, meg persze csapatépítésből állt, hogy mindenki jobban megismerje egy kicsit egymás szokásait, kultúráját.

A hét csúcspontja volt mikor pénteken minden csapat előadta a prezentációkat és később együtt próbáltunk megoldásokat találni egymás környezetvédelmi problémáira.

Sajnos elérkezett az utolsó közös kirándulás napja, mikor is először az eco-farmra mentünk, ahol kicsit tanultunk a régi lengyel gazdálkodásról és életvitelről, majd pedig ellátogattunk a Wielizkai sóbányába, ahol részletes angol nyelvű idegenvezetésben részesültünk és lélegzetelállító látványban lehetett részünk.

Utolsó este már mind együtt szórakoztunk és másnap új barátságokkal tértünk haza. Mi nagyon élveztük és örültünk, hogy ennyi különböző emberrel ilyen gördülékenyen együtt tudtunk dolgozni a megoldások érdekében.