From the 15th May to the 20th May the fourth meeting in the framework of the Comenius project “Legends of my town” took place in Gdańsk. Our school hosted 19 teachers and 26 students from Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Spain, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia and Turkey. We worked out a very extensive programme to show our guests the best things in our school, in Gdansk and in us. The festival of cultural diversity, joy, tolerance and friendship lasted 5 days. Both students and adults were totally committed to their work during these days.
We started Wednesday with a meeting with the legend of our town and Solidarity, the president Lech Walesa. It was a great surprise for our guests, who couldn’t believe that they met such a famous person.
After a short conversation we were divided into two groups and we started visiting the Old Town with the guides. We visited the Town Hall and St. Mary’s Church. After dinner we met in Town Council with the deputy chairwoman. After the solemn and very nice meeting we continued our sightseeing of Gdansk. The walk lasted long because our guests stopped very often to admire the beauty of Gdansk. Actually we also felt like tourists, visiting such a beautiful town, which looked very impressive at this time of the year. |
On Thursday we invited the guests to our school, which was specially decorated with national flags and notices in all languages of our partners. In the first part of the meeting, which started with the dance Polonez, performed by the students from the third class, the official welcoming ceremony took place. The guests were really happy to hear the words spoken by our students in their national languages. They also liked a dance called Krakowiak and the song “Kashubian Notes”. However, thunderous applause received the school choir, which presented a pot-pourri of the songs from the countries of our partners.
After that our partners visited the building of our school, we also saw a show prepared by PE teachers, which included karate show, acrobatic feats and ballroom dance in the school gym. After dinner the students took part in a quiz about our partners. In the late afternoon young actors from our school performed Polish legends. In the first part they presented in English the story about the meeting between people from Pomerania and Stolems. The second part of the performance which was a pantomime and a ballet told us a story about the princess Jurata who fell in love with a poor young fisherman. That day full of impressions students finished in the bowling centre. |
On Friday we went on a sightseeing trip to Malbork.
It was a sunny day and the castle even from the distance looked really impressive. We were visiting beautiful chambers, exhibitions and displays for two and a half hours. Everybody liked the exhibition of ambers. We might probably listened to the guides, who were talking about the history of the castle and its citizens, for a long time but we were also to see PGE Arena, where Croatians and Spanish football teams will play their matches during Euro 2012. After a walk around the stadium and photos taken against a background of it, we got back home tired but happy and full of positive feelings. |
On that sunny day we took a ship to Sopot. Our guests really liked that beautiful town. While walking along the pier we took a commemorative photo. It turned out that it is not so easy to fit our international Comenius group, consisting of nearly 80 people, in a frame.
From Sopot we went to Galeria Baltycka to do some shopping.
From Sopot we went to Galeria Baltycka to do some shopping.
Our meeting slowly came to the end. On Saturday we said goodbye to our partners from Czech and Spain and on Sunday the rest of the groups left Gdansk. It was so difficult to part with them. After their departures we felt emptiness but it was not sorrow, quite opposite we were satisfied with the good job we had done. All our guests sent us thank-you letters for the time they had in Gdansk. They were impressed of the people they met, they praised our hospitality, the programme and organization of the visit as well as the charm of the places they saw. We, teenagers and adults altogether, went through the days which were full of meetings, conversations, events; days full of good and unforgettable impressions.
To sum up the meeting in Gdansk we can use the words said by one of the person, who took part in it : Now we are not partners any more - we are friends.
To sum up the meeting in Gdansk we can use the words said by one of the person, who took part in it : Now we are not partners any more - we are friends.