ROOTS project meeting at Karviná

Roots project meeting in Karviná 28.2.-4.3.2020

We arrived in Karviná on Thursday evening and met our hosts at the hotel where the teachers were staying at. After the first meeting and small talk we headed back to our hosts, met their parents and went to bed.

The first official day was Friday and we went to the regional library in Karviná. There we were given a presentation of the Czech school and their school system plus different presentations from each partner school. Unfortunately Italy and Cyprus couldn’t be there with us so we just saw presentations from Turkey, Czech and Spain. After the presentations and lunch we went to the Chateau in Karviná and met the towns representatives. After that we learned about the culture and visited a church and a belltower. Then later on we had freetime so we got to know our hosts and members of the Roots group better.

Saturday was a long and tiring day. We had an excursion to old and historical places in Olomouc. The excursion lasted almost the whole day.

On Sunday we went to Ostrava, a town near Karviná. There we went to a science and technology centre and us students went sightseeing while the teachers had coffee and went to see a musical later on in the day.

Monday we had presentations/ surveys and videos on music and dance in the times of our grandparents and ancestors in general. After that we had lunch and went to the gym for sports activities. It was pretty fun since we got to play what we wanted. Later on we had the day of national cuisine. We got to taste different foods from all the countries that were able to participate. After the school we went to see a hockey game in Havířov with the Roots group and just hung out for a while until it was too late and we had to go back to our hosts home to eat.

On Tuesday we had a workshop called “Living in Erasmus+ world”. After that we had a coffee break and quizzes on music and dance and other different things. After the quizzes we had lunch and an escape game. There were too many people so they split us into two groups and the other group waited while the other was in the escape room trying to figure out how to get out. My group went last but we won and it was a new experience for me and I’m sure many others as well so it was a lot of fun. After the escape room we had a coffee break and another workshop on music and dance and more specifically folk dance. We had to also dance the folk dances which was hard since the dances were very fast paced sometime.

Wednesday we started early with a lecture about traditions in the Czech republic and the roots of its culture. After that we headed off to Marlenka, a cake factory about 15-20 minutes from the school. We learned about the factory, its owner and history and how all the sweets are made. After tasting all the different sweets Marlenka had to offer we went back to the school and had lunch. After the lunch we had a very nice farewell dinner with good food, dance performances and and cake. At the end of it we got out certificates of attendances, said our goodbyes to the Turkish students since they were leaving early and went to hang out with the Czechs and Spaniards.

We left really early Thursday morning and met the teachers and other students at the hotel. We waited for the car to come and take us to the Polish airport so we could fly to Germany and back home to Finland. Leaving the Czech republic was sad but we all had a good time there in the end, even with some doubts and concerns.

Alexa Töykkälä ja Venla Hinkkanen