Blog of the 2nd student exchange

1st day, Monday 4^th February 2019

Monday some time before 8 in the morning all the Erasmus students and teachers arrived excited and curious to the train Station San Filippo Neri and walked then along a lonely road from which a charming landscape could be seen. In front of our way a few mysterious sand-colored buildings could be noticed behind the typical Roman pines standing lined up at the top of a hill. The view was an advance of what we would be going to experience for the next days in this peerless city.

We arrived to the Liceo and were received by our Italian hosts in the main classroom, where the headmistress of school addressed to us some friendly and institutional words of welcome.

Afterwards we began working with the Myths we had prepared in our schools. Although students were a bit nervous while speaking in front of the rest of students, for they were still not familiar with the rest of the Erasmus team, they gradually became more self-confident and explained the marvelous national myths, the legends and symbols they had been working on in their own schools to everybody. We saw wonderful landscapes, we heard fabulous stories full of magic and sometimes lead by terrifying characters. The legend about the origins of Rome made us all laugh for the special implication of their actors in its performance. The babies Romulus and Remus made a hilarious interpretation of their role in the play.

Before lunch we went walking to the area of those mysterious buildings hidden by the pines we had noticed early in the morning. They appeared to be even more fascinating when we reached them and knew that they had held a former mental institution. They were surrounded by an enormous variety of trees and other plants. This place was a fantastic spot to do a scavenger hunt. The students were divided into international groups and a list of challenges to accomplish was given to them. All teams started the hunt and for an hour teachers had the opportunity to exchange experiences, ideas (and laughters) under the tender sun of Rome in those nice surroundings.

In the afternoon two different activities started, the preparations of the debate and a performance of the national stories. Some of the students began a brainstorming for the debate following the system learnt in Poland and the other group chose the tales to work with and eventually act. The debate will be carried out on Thursday likewise the story performances.

All of us had a pleasant evening and enjoyed exchanging first day’s impressions with the rest of the teachers.

The Spanish teacher team, Beatriz and Pilar.

Students' summary:

When we arrived, the first thing we did was to go to the cafeteria. There we met with all the Erasmus group. Some teachers were also there, asking questions, curious about our first night in Italy, later, we started meeting a lot of people and we liked that a lot as we had the opportunity to meet people from other countries.

After a while we walked to a big classroom, full of chairs and a big screen. There was a small presentation, and straight after that we proceed with all the presentations from the countries involved in the project. One by one, presentation by presentation, at first, we felt a bit embarrassed but as the morning went by, that shame disappeared and we began feeling comfortable. After that we walked to a beautiful park no too far away from the school. There we started the scavenger hunt. For that the teachers gave a coloured ribbon to each student in order to divide us in groups of 7 persons of mixed nationalities more or less. We had to do things like taking a picture with a dog, picking up leaves from 5 different trees or taking a picture with a woman wearing a skirt. At the end the blue team won, and the price was a typical Italian food.

Later we got back to the high school, and some theatre plays were performed. During all the day we started knowing people better and we realised that we were making really good friends. After that, it was the time for the free afternoon which we spent with our hosts to get to know them better.

Our impressions of our first day were varied as we were nervous but we were also having fun, but what we are all in agreement is that from the first day we knew that it was going to be an unforgettable experience.

(Andrea, Virginia, Guillermo and Diego, Spanish students)

2nd day, Tuesday 5th Feb 2019.

Today, on the second day of C.H.A.N.C.E project meeting in Rome, we have been blessed with a very nice, sunny weather. Our students had the activities at school since early morning. From 8:00 am until 11:00 am they had lessons in History, Latin and Psychology. Teachers also attended school classes of the Italian colleagues. At 10 we had a teacher's meeting, which was held by Hungarian teacher Mrs. Ildiko Tokaji. She presented tasks we have to do before the project meeting in Spain.

During the teacher's meeting we tasted some Greek delicacies, brought by the teachers from the Greek ERASMUS team. With good Italian coffee and Greek sweets it was very easy and delightful to work, but that' s not all. Before the meeting finished, our Italian hosts gave us one more present, a pencil, colored in the colours of Italian flag, with a small Pinocchio on the top. That really cheered us up. People who say that small details make life more beautiful are definitely right. Meanwhile, while teachers were discussing and making plans for the future meeting in Spain, students continued their debate workshop untill the lunch break.

After the meeting, we had lunch at school. Pasta and all other food was delicious, which is no surprise, because Italy is the homeland of pasta and pizza.

Afternoon was booked visiting the Capitolini Muesum. We saw collections of ancient Rome and old Egyptian sculptures. It also consists of a big amount of ancient Roman sculptures, latin captions and many other artifacts. Also, we saw a colletion of Medieaval and Renaissance arts, a collection of bijoux and jewellery, coins and many other items. The size of the museum is 12.977 m2, and the most famous artifacts are: The Capitoline She-wolf, Bust of Medusa, Capitoline Venus, The fortune teller (Caravaggio), etc. Students and teachers were pleased with the exibition and they really enjoyed this stunning Museum visit. During and after visiting the Museum, we all realized that the history of Rome is very long and rich.

Our day finished in the best way, in a restaurant "La Maddalena". We enjoyed in a local, famous Italian cuisine, in the old city center, next to the Pantheon, discussing about the day gone by, with a glass of tasty Italian wine with our dear ERASMUS friends.

(Croatian ERASMUS team, Vesna & Ivo)

3rd day - 6th February, Wednesday

All of us had been looking forward to the day when we can explore Rome, the Eternal City. We took a tram to the Largo di Torre Argentina where we met our guide, Eleonora, and got the small radios and headsets for the day. Eleonora first spoke about the ruins found in the square in the 20th century.

Then we started our long march in the ancient Rome.

After the Pantheon we crossed the Jewish Quarter to arrive at the Forum Romanum after having passed the Victor Emmanuel Monument.

If it does not sound exhausting enough students had a homework, too. They had to take a photo that represents the old and the new, the ancient and the modern Rome for a photo contest. At this point we were at the two thirds of our programme. After a refreshening lunch we visited the Colosseum.

It was an unforgettable day! We saw a lot, learnt a lot, walked a lot and above all enjoyed being together.

This is how a selfie becomes a group picture in a second showing our amazing students: after such an “action-packed” day they are happy and ready for the evening programmes.

The Hungarian team

4th day Thursday, 7th February 2019_Greece

9:00 a.m. Participating teachers and students met at school

Andrea gave further information on the photo contest whose winner was announced on Friday 8th of

February at the farewell party.

9:15 a.m. The students were once again split into groups.

Final rehearsal for the dramatization of myths and the realization of the debate (the drama group worked under the guidance of Andrea, while the debate group worked with Anna and the coordinator of each partner country). The host school allocated three classrooms for the work; one for the dramatization and two for the debate groups who worked on the presentation of their arguments.

A female Spanish student, named Andrea, was chosen as the narrator of the story, which presented the myths as a jointly constructed play. It was decided that the order of the myths would be presented as follows:

1. The golden duck (Poland)

2. Narcissus (Greece)

3. Romulus and Remus (Italy)

4. The lamb with the golden fleece (Hungary)

5. The myths of Croatia and Spain were already connected and it was decided that they would be the

two final scenes of the play.

The rules for the actors were announced:

1. Face the audience

2. Talk loud

3. Talk slowly (points 2 and 3 being the most important)

Meanwhile, the debate groups were informed once more of the rules and the presentation of the arguments for the debate. The judges watched a video concerning the Oxford style debate and discussed the marking criteria. The participating students wrote arguments on the board concerning the topic while working in teams.

12:15 a.m.: break

14.00 a.m.: back to work

Tales Dramatization following the aforementioned order

14.40 – 15.15 debate on the topic: “Myths are outdated and young people do not understand the meaning and usefulness”

The opposition team were the winners and, furthermore, two members of the opposition team, who

followed the rules closely, were given the title of the best speakers.

Free afternoon

We would really like to thank all the participants and, more importantly, the hosts because not only did we share interesting ideas with everybody, but we also felt very welcome. The whole experience was lifechanging both for us and for our students who felt what it was like to be members of a group of young people, all striving for the same purpose while having loads of fun!

Thank you all!

5th day: 8th February, 2019

Yes, it is true. On Friday, the second students’ meeting of Erasmus + CHANCE project came to its end. It must be stated, though, that the last day, just as the others, was packed with interesting events. Roman railway workers strike started (which turned out not to be true). We visited the Vatican museum and St. Peter’s Basilica, so – divided into two groups – we visited another country on our list – Vatican! The collections in Vatican are so numerous that we only had time to see the most important treasures, such as, among other things: The Laocoon Group, Apollo Belvedere, enchanting Cortille della Pigna, Sistine Chapel with Michelangelo’s masterpiece, collections or tapestries and unique antique maps, and also something connected with our school patron – Jan Matejko: his impressive painting Sobieski at Vienna, the biggest painting that belongs to Vatican collections. Later we went to St Peter’s Basilica (Pieta by Michelangelo and many other magnificent works of art. There was some time for a moment of reflection in front of the grave of St. John Paul II.

After leaving the Basilica, we were lucky to witness the changing of the guards of the Swiss Guards at the gates to Vatican.

Then – packing and souvenir shopping (we couldn’t come back home empty-handed). In the evening, our Italian partners prepared a dancing farewell party. Our “Italian parents” excelled themselves at preparing various types of delicious food and drinks. Apart from dancing to any kind of music you can imagine, some awards were granted: for the best speakers at the debate - Martina Di Nunno (Italy) and Patrizia Lukić (Croatia). The Hungarian team received a special award from Italy for their stage version of Pinocchio. The author of the best photo presenting historical and contemporary Rome turned out to be from… Poland! Congratulations, Mikołaj. The party was great fun, it was really hard to say ‘good night and good bye”.

Next day, still full of emotions and memories, after warm farewell (a bit wet, as it wasn’t a shame to shed tears), we flew back home. Undoubtedly it was an exciting week.