German students about the week in Cyprus

This one week in Cyprus was ... awesome.
There were so many things we did. Except from going to an other country, we were able to visit a new school, to see impressing emblems like the temple of Apollo, or walk through tiny little villages where the time seems to stand still and the world is good.
All the interesting facts we learned about Portugal, Spain, France and Poland, but especially about Cyprus, were nice, we saw beautiful pictures and listened to touching stories. As we spent the time in Cyprus we also got to know the culture of this fascinating country where the sun always seems to shine and everybody is open to strangers like us, friendly, helpful and happy. Thank you especially to the wonderful family I stayed with, who let me live with them like a family member and integrated me completely.
But the most important thing for me and for us in general were the people: We got to know many friendly and amazing people from all over Europe and without the Comenius Project we would probably never have met them. I guess this is the reason why we do this: To find new friends from other countries and to get closer together.
I hope to see you all again one day, you and the beautiful and interesting island Cyprus.
Christina Freise


Before spending a week in Cyprus, I was so excited and I couldn’t imagine what would happen. Altough I took part in another Comenius project in England I was sure that this time everything would be different. How would it be to live together with a foreign family ? How would we spend the days ? How would the weather be? How would the mentality of the Cypriots, the French … etc. be like? These were so many questions I couldn’t answer. This is why I was a little bit nervous and uptight, but in the end there was no reason to feel in this way.
Everybody was very open-minded and polite. That’s the most impressing thing I observed, so I really felt familiar and associated.
My first impression of the island was very strange. From the airplaine the countryside seemed to be very dry and unvaried, but after getting closer I was surprised that there were so many things to explore, e.g. the untouched nature, ancient villages, a huge variety of fauna and flora. So it’s such a pity that the inhabitants of the island cannot live together in harmony.
With regard to the other participants of the Comenius projects I was also surprised in a positive way. From the first time everybody was sympathetic and was interested in each other. We had lots of fun and were so sad to say goodbye after this fantastic week. Maybe we will meet again one day ?
All in all this week was unforgettable and another great experience for me. I am so grateful that my host family took care of me in such a friendly way and I wanted to say Thank You to the ones who made it possible to meet.
Julia Kirchhoff, German student


Before reaching Cyprus and meeting our Cypriot partners me and the other Germans were worrying about how it would be like. To me personally living in a family which I don't know was new and I did not know what to expect.
Since the first moment that I got to know my Cypriot family I was sure that I was going to have a good time, because everybody was so friendly and I felt so welcome and integrated into the group of friends and family.
Cyprus is a beautiful country with a huge culture and lots of traditions. I learned many new things about different people from different countries who were friendlier and more open minded than I would have expected. It was impressing to get to know how fast new friendships can develop. Most of all I liked the people around me and the mentality.
I would especially like to thank the family I stayed with that made me feel like a part of it and made me have one of the best weeks I ever had.
Haider Abdul-Wahab

Video with MEP from Germany

German students Alex Klassen, Haider Abdul-Wahab, Julia Kirchhoff and Emil Kreja interviewed Jan-Philipp Albrecht, German MEP for the Green Party. You can watch the video: http://vimeo.com/22491085

SPANISH FEEBACK

After so much work and enthusiasm put into the work that we had proposed to Comenius Project, at last the moment of truth (7th December) came as we have so long desired.

That morning, the students (Isabel, Jose Manuel y Anastasio) and teachers (Mabel, Beatriz y Juan Enrique) met happily with a big smile on our faces. Geneva (Switzerland) was waiting for us and we were all ready to fly in spite of the air controllers.

Flying as high as our hopes we arrived at our destination, very quickly, after one hour by bus, we arrived in Chambéry (French).

We were very nervous as everything was new and incredibly exciting, we finally met the wonderful families who hosted us during our stay in France.

We have to thank all the attention and kindness the families had with the three of us, in fact, they have been more than hosts for us and we still keep contact with them, and hopefully, we will in the future.

This first day was just a relaxing family day, just to get used to it and show us around .

On Wednesday, we went to school and had to do our presentation, our work on power –point. There, we could meet the other participants of Comenius. They were from Germany, Cyprus, Portugal and Poland as well as the rest of the French partners. We had our first lunch at the the High School and spent the morning doing a lot of funny activities. That morning we made a presentation about our country. This presentation was quite a big success. Then, we went to have lunch with our French correspondents and some friends of them. The food was not very good, but the company was very nice. In the afternoon, we visited "Annecy", a city with a river and a beautiful mountainous landscape. There, we could visit some churches and even an ancient prison. We will not forget the evening in the city, the mountain turned beautifully reddish . The following day, we attended a Spanish lesson in which we laughed a lot. After completing the lessons, we went to attend a lecture about the history of journalism. In our opinion, this lecture was very boring. In the afternoon, the participants of "Comenius” were splited into different groups and made the cover of a newspaper. We really enjoyed this activity. In the afternoon, all participants in the "Comenius" had dinner at "McDonald’s. " It was a perfect dinner, we got to know everybody a lot better and we laughed with each other.





On Friday morning, early in the morning everybody was ready for a beautiful morning trip.We visited the town of Chambery . Later in the afternoon, we arrived at the school, lycee du Granier, to have lunch. Then we headed to the conference room, it was time for the questions to the Member of the European Parliament. It was six o'clock, we went back home exhausted but happy.

Finally, on Saturday, it was the last day. After getting up and we sadly had to say goodbye to all our new friends. We left Chambery and spent the day in Geneva (Switzerland), We took the last flight and we flew towards Spain to meet our families.
THANK YOU TO EVERYBODY FOR THESEWONDERFUL DAYS!!!

Feedback by the German students

Our opinion about the Comenius trip to France

When our teacher told us that we’d go to France, our first impression was that we weren’t sure if this would be a great trip. The following days we got to know our exchange partners and we were pleased to write e-mails to them. We had to introduce ourselves and to strengthen the relationship before our arrival. On the 7th of December we met at Hanover Airport early in the morning and we took the plane to Zurich. There we had to wait for a while and afterwards we took the plane to Geneva. There, we rented a car and went to Chambéry. Immediately we were impressed by the idyllic environment and especially these huge mountains. We started to take a lot of photos, because there is nothing similar here in Germany. We arrived at the “Lycée du Granier” to meet our exchange partners. It was already afternoon and we were tired from the trip, so we just went home with our partners to eat dinner and go to bed.
Two of us stayed in one family and one other had to change two times so for him it was a bit chaotic. We were satisfied with our families, because they welcomed us in a very friendly way and cared for us well. The other exchange students of the foreign countries we got to know were really open minded and kind. Some others were unfortunately very shy so we hadn’t the chance to get to know them. But they seemed very friendly, too. Especially the French students were really interested in our German life, so we had a lot to talk about.
The communication was okay most of the time, but sometimes the English of some people was difficult to understand. Only few people were able to speak French. The daily school life first seemed a bit strict, but the mood of the students was almost always really good. And the relationship between students and teachers seemed relaxed. The trips we made to Geneva and Chambéry city were really interesting, but unfortunately we hadn’t enough free time to buy souvenirs.
To sum up you can say that we were really satisfied to make these new experiences and to get to know so many friendly new people. We’re sure to remember it and we can really recommend a trip like this.

Amrei Sender, Alexander Rößeling

Comenius au lycée du Granier à La Ravoire - Savoie

Comenius au lycée du Granier à La Ravoire -Savoie
Enviado por alasdairwatts. - Descubra mais vídeos sobre vida universitária.

Presentation

We started with the premise that Europe enjoys insufficient support in terms of its image and identity at a time when the place it occupies in the political, economic and socio-cultural lives of its citizens has never been greater. Our aim is to make our pupils reflect on the importance of the role Europe plays in our everyday lives, its construction and to better understand the reality from a local perspective.

To start this two-year project, each school will initially collect information and present information to explain how their country has shaped and been shaped by closer European integration over the past fifty years. In the meeting in France each country participating in the project presents its work.

In the first year of the project we will also select and rank buildings in the vicinity of each school in terms of their importance to inhabitants allowing interesting comparisons to be made during the second meeting in Cyprus, which will focus on regional identity.

In the second year of the project we shall create a common questionnaire on the prospects offered by closer European integration aimed at local business leaders enabling conclusions to be drawn regarding economic identity.  We shall also examine the causes and consequences of poverty in each of our countries. This time the meeting will take place in Poland. 

Finally changes in cultural identity will be studied by organizing interviews between pupils and elderly people to find how popular culture in each country has evolved over the last two generations. We shall conclude our project in Portugal where meetings between pupils and artists based close to school will happen.