- Ad fontes rerum Europeae -

A Comenius project uniting students and teachers from

the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Great Britain and Turkey

The visit to the Czech Republic from 11-17th October 2010

We would like to share our thoughts and impressions after spending six days

in the beautiful Czech city - Brno.

From October 11th to 17th four students from our school, Gymnasium no 4 in

Gdynia

1.Klaudia Bzdzikot,

2.Karolina Reiter,

3.Klaudia Hinz,

4.Paulina Zaborowska

took part in the meeting of the Comenius project in Brno that they and other

students from different countries are going to work on for the next two years.

We are going to cooperate with Hungarian, Czech, British and Turkish

students. The subject of our interests includes history, culture, literature,

music and many other fields of the above-mentioned countries.

We're going to become experts after two year work on the project.

DAY ONE - OUR ARRIVAL IN PRAGUE AND BRNO

After a long journey by car we arrived in Warsaw early Monday morning.

Warsaw wasn't our final destination because we still had to fly to Prague and

then to Brno. The flight was a thrilling experience for all of us because we've

never flown before.

After arriving in Brno, we went sightseeing with one of the Czech teachers

who showed us all the attractions of the city. It was very exciting and we

found out many interesting facts about the historic buildings here.

DAY TWO - ROMANY MUSEUM

There are many areas in Poland which are poor economically but what we

saw in Brno was an indescribable experience for all of us as we had never

seen so many devastated buildings, poverty, lots of children hanging out with

their peers and adults listening to loud music and smoking cigarettes in the

same place.

We also had an opportunity to talk to a Gipsy

woman who answered our questions.

Some of her answers were a surprise for us -

e.g. most Gipsy children don't go to school at all

because their parents don't see any point in

education, as none of them will get a job in the

future.

We then took part in workshops led by another

young woman. She is a person who wants to

improve the standard of living of Romany

families and wants them to believe that they can

control their own lives. She and a few other

Czech people received some fund from the EU

to provide Gipsy kids with proper education

which means that they don't spend all their time playing outdoors now beyond

the control of their parents.

DAY THREE-WEDNESDAY

Taking part in several different types of workshops, gave us a great

opportunity to find out and enrich our knowledge of a number of European

languages and our historical connections.

We were divided into two groups: a history group and a literature group.

The history group went to Olomouc with our history teacher, a few Turkish

students and the Czech history teacher-Mr Tomasz accompanied by his

assistant-one of the Czech students who was also his interpreter.

Since Poland and the Czech Republic are near each other, our history is

closely connected. We learnt about it during our trip to Saint Wenceslas

cathedral - a fine Gothic building from the 15th century which was a

fascinating experience for us even though we've got many similar buildings in

Poland. We also found out that Olomouc was one of the most important

settlements in Moravia and the seat of the Premyslid government, ruled by

one of the princes. In 1306 King Wenceslas III stopped there on his way to

Poland, where he fought Wladislaus I the Elbow-high to claim his right to the

Polish crown.

Before we started our trip Ms Kasia told us about the Polish king Jan III

Sobieski who stopped in Olomouc on his way to Vienna in 1683 to feed the

soldiers' horses.

The recent history of Olomouc was also connected a bit with Poland: during

1942-1943, the remaining Jews were sent to Theresienstadt and other

German concentration camps in occupied Poland.

John Paul II visited Olomouc several times which underlined even further

Polish and Czech relations.

We are glad that the Comenius trip provided us with an opportunity to extend

our knowledge of Polish and Czech history. It's much more beneficial when

you can experience history with your own eyes. We enjoyed our trip to

Olomouc very much.

The literature group worked on the origins and similarities of many different

Polish, Czech, Turkish and Hungarian words.

We realized that some words are so similar to Polish ones that it was even

hard to distinguish which was Polish or Czech. We had to listen very carefully

to tell the difference between some of them. However, it was quite

challenging and funny to say Hungarian words which seem to be impossible

for us to pronounce. Obviously we were not the only ones who tried very hard

to pronounce words properly.

The same was true for the Czech and Hungarian students who wanted to say

Polish words. We all had a lot of fun during the workshops.

DAY FOUR - SLAVKOV and SURVEY

Today we swapped groups, the girls who the previous day worked with the

history group worked with the literature group.

The history group

We went to Slavkov by Brno; in German: Austerlitz. We learnt that it is a

country town east of Brno in the South Moravian Region of the Czech

Republic. The town is widely known for giving its name to the Battle of

Austerlitz which actually took place some kilometers to the west of the town.

After the defeat of the Teutonic Order in the battle of Grünwald, the town

became the property of a number of noble owners until, in 1509, the local

gentry family of Kaunitz assumed control for more than 400 years. We all

know this place from our history classes. So it was good to see it and imagine

what it would've been like at that time.

The literature group

Two of us worked with the Hungarian students and teachers on

questionnaires concerning Czech famous people, poets, novelists. Before we

came to the meeting we'd prepared a presentation about Czech history so

that's why it was easy for us to design a poster and to devise questions. After

drawing them up we went onto the streets of Brno to get them completed by

asking, at random, Czech citizens the questions we'd prepared.

Afterwards, we discussed the outcome of our survey with the Hungarian

students. We have to admit that the Czech people didn't disappoint us. They

knew a lot about their national

'heroes' and what's more

important they're genuinely

friendly people. There wasn't

anyone who refused to answer.

Visit to Brewery

We all know that Polish beer is

said to be the best in the world

but honestly we have to admit

that Czech beer is very popular in

Poland too. In fact, many people

agree that Czech beer is the

second best. That was the main

reason we wanted to visit the

Brno brewery. Our guide told us

that lots of beer was exported

from Brno to Poland before World

War I. As souvenirs we all bought glasses with the logo of the brewery on

them.

DAY FIVE- PRAGUE

On our way to the Czech capital we stopped over in a mini museum of Josefa

Lady who illustrated 'Good Soldier Svejk' which is a very popular novel in

Poland- there's hardly anyone who hasn't heard of this character.

Then we went to Vaclavskie namesti where we saw a statue of Saint Vaclav

with other patrons : St Agnes, St Prokop and

St Wojciech and learnt about the legend of St

Agnes. She was canonized by the Polish pope

in 1989.

The Charles Bridge was the next stop on our

visit to Prague. It was something that we

were looking forward to seeing. It's beautiful

and we would've liked to have stayed there

for longer but as the weather was gloomy we

moved on; the National Theatre - a Neo-Renaissance building which was truly

impressive. On our way we passed the cafe

in Prague where coffee was first served.

This delicious drink was shipped to Prague

from Turkey.

Since we were a bit short of time we went to

Hradcany. There were good views from the

castle which is the biggest in the world. It

reminded us of another large castle which is

located not far from Gdynia - a castle in

Malbork where Teutonic knights used to live

in medieval times.

Tired and a bit wet but happy and full of new experiences we returned to our

bus.

The Bowling Evening

We all got together at a club where all the students had the opportunity to

have a go at bowling. Since we don't do it very often, we weren't very

enthusiastic about it. Finally, we were convinced by our teachers to prove to

ourselves that we were good at it. While bowling we talked to many students

which was great because at last we overcame our shyness in communicating

with other students. We all wished we had had more opportunities to talk to

them. All in all, it was great fun and again we learnt something new, not only

about ourselves, but also about our peers from other countries.

DAY SIX - WORKSHOPS

The last day of our meeting was full

of artistic activities. All students

had to collaborate with one another

which was a good opportunity to

get to know each other better.

During the lunch break we

exchanged presents that we'd

brought from our countries and

said ' thank you' for being with us

over the six days of the meeting.

Some of the students gave a final

presentation showing all of the

work they'd done. The presentation began and ended with a Czech student

beautifully playing the piano.

We had a lot of fun making pottery,

especially as we have never before had

any experience of doing such

challenging and creative things. At our

school in Gdynia we only have painting

and drawing classes. That's why it was

such a pleasurable activity for all of us.

For sure, all participants had a

wonderful time and got a lot of

enjoyment.

We also learnt the Czech dance called 'Polka'. It's amazing that the name of

this dance means ' a Polish woman' so this is the reason that almost everyone

in Poland thinks that Polka originates from Poland. Obviously only a few

people know the truth about it. We loved dancing it as it mirrors our Slavic

temperament. In fact, we weren't the only students who enjoyed it. We saw

that students from the other countries liked it a lot as well.

During the workshops we also had to prepare colleagues which showed us

that all our peers are very talented young people who for sure will surprise us

in the future with their creativity and artistry. We found out that one of the

Turkish students sings extremely well and the Hungarian one plays the piano .

They showed us their special costumes that they brought with them to Brno to

present their folk dances. We really felt sorry for them because there was no

possibility for them to do that in front of the other participants of the meeting.

The high point of the day came when all the students showed what they'd

made or had learnt during the workshops to everyone.

FINAL OBSERVATIONS

What was so surprising for us was the quietness in the school - every time we

came to visit our teachers. Even though sometimes we turned up there in the

early mornings, we still couldn't hear any noise, any unwanted sounds - the

only thing we could observe were lots of young people who were hurriedly

walking to be on time for their classes.

It was absolutely unbelievable not only for us but for our teachers as well!

They keep saying that we make a lot of noise, but most of us disagree with

them. It was hard for them to get used to such quiet and well-behaved

youngsters who differ so much from Polish teenagers, only in our teacher's

opinion ;)

While we were travelling on the trams many times a day they announced the

stops on the way. So we heard them lots of times every day. As a result after

five days we were able to recognize familiar words that sounded like Polish

ones but whose meaning was entirely different.

We learned about Czech family life and their customs which seem to be quite

similar in many ways to Polish ones which was a bit of a surprise for us as

we'd imagined that being in a foreign country it would've been different.

Another thing that was quite strange for all of us was that you couldn't get

any sweet things, like cakes, in restaurants and cafes.

One day we were desperate to have something sweet to eat. Unfortunately,

after 'doing some research' we discovered how hard it was to buy a piece of

cake in a café in Brno. As a result, we gave up and went back to our families'

houses where at least we had something nice in the fridge.

Surprisingly for all of us, there are still a lot of public restaurants and cafes

where you are allowed to smoke. You get the impression that Czech citizens

don't care about their health at all. They still smoke a lot these days whereas

in other EU countries, the majority of people gave up smoking a long time ago.

Even in Poland, which is considered not to be as civilized a country in that

matter as, for example, Sweden or Norway, people have realized that

breaking the habit of smoking is essential if you want to keep your health in

good condition. At the same time you let other people who are next to you,

breathe fresh air.

In Poland there are only a few places where you can still smoke without

punishment.

It was an unforgettable visit and we are going to remember it for a long time.

Especially that we met many new people, learnt a lot of new facts about the

Czech Republic and gained experience not only of team-working but also of

being in a foreign country - far from our families and having to rely on

ourselves which was a valuable lesson in our lives.