from the German school magazine Lesson
Comenius
Trip to Poland
Off to our
next Comenius trip:
In the week after the autumn holidays 2012 (oder: after fall break), we hit the road. The German travel team consisted of the teachers Mrs Schöndorf and Mrs Elbert and four students. Other groups from Austria, France, and Spain got on their way as well. This time, we were headed to Gorzow Wielkopolski in Poland, which used to be Landsberg an der Warthe before World War II.
In the week after the autumn holidays 2012 (oder: after fall break), we hit the road. The German travel team consisted of the teachers Mrs Schöndorf and Mrs Elbert and four students. Other groups from Austria, France, and Spain got on their way as well. This time, we were headed to Gorzow Wielkopolski in Poland, which used to be Landsberg an der Warthe before World War II.
On Monday,
October 15, 2012 at 9:00 AM, we met at the Neuwied train station. We had to
switch trains in Cologne, Berlin Ostbahnhof, and Frankfurt an der Oder. From
there, a taxicab took us to Gorzow. Altogether, it took us about 10 hours to
get there.
We used our
time on route to prepare for the International Quiz that was supposed to take
place on the last day of our trip. How do they say “Guten Tag” in Polish again?
This is really difficult!
At 7:00 PM,
we finally arrived at the hotel for the teachers, where our host families had
already been waiting for us. It was very exciting: Who is going to stay with
whom? Are they friendly? First impressions: It’s going to work out just fine –
at least for most of us.
On Tuesday
at 9:00 AM, we met at Gymnazium Nr. 7, our Comenius partner school. We received
a very warm welcome and everybody was talking all at once: “What’s your name?
Where do you come from?” Our communication in English went quite well.
We were
divided into groups with one representative of each country. Each group got a
laptop where they were shown pictures of different kinds of food such as
tomatoes, ginger, cucumbers, rice, etc. Every group member wrote down the names
of the different foods in their language. That way, we created an international
dictionary!
At 12:00
PM, we went to a cooking class. We watched a short film that taught us how to
make traditional Polish Pierogi, dumplings of unleavened dough stuffed with
potato, sauerkraut, or ground meat. Then, it was time for us to form groups and
cook ourselves: Roll out the dough, cut out the pieces, stuff them, form them
into dumplings, and cook them. After everyone finished cooking, we went to a
dining hall where we enjoyed our meal: It was delicious!
Afterwards, we had some time off. A group of people went to a pizzeria for dinner and they were stuffed like a Pierogi!
Afterwards, we had some time off. A group of people went to a pizzeria for dinner and they were stuffed like a Pierogi!
For
Wednesday, we had planned an excursion. First, we visited a baroque castle with
a beautiful park and ancient oaks. Then, we went to Poznan (former name:
Posen). We got to explore the city in small groups and we saw the famous goat
statues on top of the city hall tower. The legend says that they escaped there
to save themselves from being cooked. In the evening, we took the bus back to
Gorzow and arrived there at around 9:00 PM.
On Thursday
morning, there was an official reception at the Gorzow city council where
speeches were held and we were shown a film about the town. Afterwards, we went
to an outdoor museum on an old farm and looked at old farm equipment and
furniture as well as artworks made of salt dough that are produced for a
competition every year. Later on, a talented baker showed us how he created
numerous different shapes and forms with bread dough. Eventually, he baked
bread in an old oven. We made a bonfire and grilled sausages and marshmallows
that we ate along with the freshly baked bread. In our free time after the
museum visit, we walked through Gorzow and had dinner by the Warta river. There
is always something going on, as the new river promenade with its restaurants
attracts many people.
Friday was
the day of the International Quiz. Students from all five countries were
competing against each other. They had all handed in questions and solutions
for several different categories (e.g. famous people, history, language, etc.)
in advance. Now, the teams had to show what they had learned and how well they
had prepared for the quiz – however, a little bit of luck with the dice and the
questions was helpful as well. At the end, the Austrian team was the winner!
After the
quiz, we went to our respective host families and baked cakes and cookies for
the farewell party. We met at the school at 5:00 PM and the principal gave a
speech and showed a video of our cooking talent. Then, we ate cake and in the
evening, we went to the river with all the students. Everybody was in a
melancholic mood as they had made friends and didn’t want to say goodbye – who
knows, if we will see each other again? We hope so...
Saturday
was the day of our departure and we said our goodbyes and extended warm words
of gratitude to our host families. We arrived in Neuwied at 8:00 PM that day.
My
conclusion: Those that are open-minded
and curious about other countries, cultures, languages, and people & able
to integrate and adapt themselves to new and unknown situation will learn a lot
about themselves and others through their Comenius experience.
(Merita Dehari)
(Merita Dehari)