(Valencia International and Business News)
A “Che” team speaking Czech!!
Saturday, 05 June 2010
IES Campanar Crossing Frontiers
Five students and three teachers from IES Campanar in Valencia have just come back from a visit to the Czech Republic. We will not easily forget such a pleasant stay and the positive experiences we all had in Lipník nad Bečvou after four days of non-stop activities, all of them very interesting, like visiting the beautiful university town of Olomouc, the impressive Punkva caves, and the ancient Helfštýn Castle.
Our host school this time in the EU Comenius project we coordinate was the Gymnázium Lipník nad Bečvou, which worked hard in the preparation of this successful trip. The students did not want to leave Lipník, but all of them will keep in touch in this project we share. Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Spain: five countries, five languages, one soul.
Fernando Escuin (Coordinator of “The School as the Integration Engine”), Mª Eugenia Baquero (Head Teacher) and Mercedes de Villegas
It has been awesome and a unique experience for me. I have taken part in other exchanges but being with young people from so many countries has been very, very interesting. Prague was wonderful, but Lipník is such a beautiful little town and its people, particularly the teachers, students and my host Katerina, were really kind and nice. I also find Czech boys (and girls) more open and frank than Spanish ones.
It was also great fun to be able to speak a bit of Czech! We also enjoyed preparing a PowerPoint presentation on Lipník before the visit because the Czech students helped us too through e-mails. The currency was difficult for us because we had to calculate the equivalence in Euros (4€= 100 Czech crowns).Also, I loved the activities we had together and the lessons at the school and, my favourite, the outing to the caves. Well, I liked everything. Even the weather was OK because they had had floods ten days before our arrival.
Paloma Roig (1º Bachillerato B)
I think it was a great experience. In this kind of visit you have to speak a lot but it was not embarrassing because we all spoke English as a foreign language. Paloma and I also managed to speak some French with the Swiss students.
I loved knowing new customs, for example they usually go to bed earlier than we do, or the fact that they like eating meat and chicken so much. We tasted Czech beer too and it was not strong, but it was served in big glasses!!
Czech boys are very handsome and they seem to love brown hair and brown eyes! They are talkative but I think Spaniards are much more talkative. All the Comenius students went out together after the official activities every night and I can say that in spite of all our national differences, we are all very much the same. My favourite moment was the farewell party because it was held in a place that could have been taken from a fairy tale: a river, green pastures, a lake, the sunset… and the best-known Lipník band –in which some of the school students were, playing for us.
Sara Olivares (1º Bachillerato B)
