Press release - meeting in Ourense (Spain)

Here are some extracts from the local press:

La Región - Xornal Escolar, 26th november 2008

Profile Héctor

Hello everybody,

My name is Hector and I’m 16 years old. I live in Spain, in a town called Orense. I live with my parents and my sister, she is younger than me. We live in a house in the country.
I think that the three better words to describe me are: friendly, funny and cheerful.

I like animals, so I have dogs, cats and horses. I ride my horses but now I think that for me, is less enjoying than before.
I like sports, especially, football. My favourite team is Real Madrid, but this year they aren’t winning too much matches. Some time before, I played in a team, but now, I haven’t got enough time, so I play it with my friends at weekends. I also play basketball with them.
I like rock music, like Red Hot Chilli Peppers, AC/CD, Linking Park...

Profile Sandra

Hello!

My name is Sandra. I'm 16 years old. I from Spain and I live with my parents.
The three better words to describe my personality are: merry, reliable and a bit shy at the beginning.

In my free time I go to the shopping center with my friends, often to see a film. I like listening to all types of music, meeting friends, playing basketball and some times going to the gym.
My favourite dish are pizza and spaghetti.
My favourite subjects are Maths, Chemical and English.
In the summer I spend my free time in different cities with my parents and also in my village where I have friends of different cities so we can chat about subjects that happen during the time that we are separate.

I dislike people that are egoistic, that boast a lot and the worst are who lie.
I dream with going during some months to another country like Ireland, Belgium... To improve English and know new people.

I think that this is an a very interesting project because I can know people of other countries and improve my English.

Profile Malva

Hi!!

I’m a sociable, funny and friendly person that likes going out with friends, meeting new people and I love music and Twilight (the movie and the book). I like a lot of music, especially rock. I also like playing videogames, reading books and surfing on the internet.

I live in a flat with my parents, my brother, my cat and my dog.
I love travelling but I haven’t travelled a lot.
I hate butterflies and spiders, they scare me. I also hate arrogant people.

A friend told me about COMENIUS and it attracted me because I think it’s very interesting.

Profile Adrian

Name: Adrián González Barbosa
Age: 15 years old
I was born 24th February, 1993

I’m kind, friendly and sometimes lazy.
I live with my parents and my little sister, she is 5 years old and I spend much time playing with her, but at the end we always get angry and she cries.
I live in a small town and we haven’t got too many things to do so we usually go to the cinema or play football, but we aren’t very good so I only play to have fun and not to win or lose.

I like painting (oleo) and I have many pictures decorating my flat.
I like English and I’ve been studying it for 13 years, and I try to practice it when I travel.
I don’t practice any sport so in my afternoons I go out with friends or stay on the messenger because I hate being alone, and if I’m alone I take the phone and I call anyone. I like so much music, all kinds of music and now more hard rock like ac/dc or my favorite group “Linkin Park”.

My motivation for the Comenius is to meet other people and visit other countries with their cultures.

Profile Susana

Hey!!

My name is Susana. I’m 15 years old. I live in a flat with my family in Ourense. I have a dog, he is a ShitTzu.

I’m a friendly, funny and sometimes lazy person.
I like to go out with my friends, surfing on the internet, drawing, reading books and to play with my dog.
I like swimming, but my favourite sport is basketball.
I love music, especially rock and pop. My favourite groups are Linkin Park, Evanescence and Paramore.
I love travelling to other countries.
I love chocolate =). I also like Italian food, especially pizza.
I dislike egoist and arrogant people.
My favourite subject is information technology.

I think that COMENIUS is a great opportunity to know the countries and cultures.

Profile Sara

Hey, my name is Sara and I’m 15 years old.

I have two siblings, one sister and one brother, both are older than me. I live with my parents and my siblings in a flat in the city centre. My sister and my father are studying German and my brother studied it. All the members in my family talk English.

I have been to Vienna last October and I have been in some cities of Portugal.In my free time I like going out with friends, listening to music (rock, hard rock, alternative rock, grunge, reggae...), going shopping, chatting with my friends...I have played football for three years, I have danced, painted and played basketball for one year and I have been in a theatre group for two years.I like animals and I have had some pets. Now I haven’t got any pets in my house because I want a dog and my mother doesn’t want dogs at home. I have a dog in my village, his name is Roy and he is one year old. Unfortunately he is a little bad-mannered because when he was young I wasn’t there to educate him.

My favourite subjets are Biology and German.

Profile Roi

Hi, my name is Roi and I’m 16 years old.

I’m in the first course of “Bachillerato” at IES As Lagoas in Ourense (Spain). I live in a flat with my father, mother and sister. I think that I’m friendly, reliable, bit lazy and shy with the people that I don’t know.

My hobbies are going to the cinema, theatre and technologies like lighting and sound. I’m in two different groups of theatre, in one as a technician and in the other as an actor. Besides this, I work in an association called “ATCC” as a camera and technician of lighting. We have some projects in process like a TV series and a film. We did a short movie and a big performance in the youth centre of our town, called “The house of terror”.

My motivation for the Comenius project is to know more about the other cultures, improve my English and travel to other countries.

Profile Candela

Name: Candela Rivera

I’m a sociable, funny and very friendly person that likes going out with friends, meeting new people and loves listening to music. I don’t have a favorite kind of music because I want to keep my frontiers opened, but I especially like rock and punk. I also enjoy playing videogames, reading books and surfing on the internet (fast line, please).

I live in a flat with my parents, my brother and my rabbit Tortitas.
Traveling is a pleasure for me; I went to UK (London and Swansea), Italy (Rome), and Austria (Vienna).

I hate spiders with all my soul; false people and bad politicians.
I’ve heard about COMENIUS project in my Germany class, and it really attracted me because I’m thirsty for knowledge about foreign countries and I think it’s important to learn about different cultures going abroad.

Profile Olalla

Name: Olalla Alonso Pérez

Date of Birth: 10-02-1992
I am: funny, sociable, dreamer and cooperative.
Hobbies: I go swimming five times a week and I am in my town’s team, I also like playing tennis.
Favourite music: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Lenny Kravitz, The Kooks, The Killers, Coldplay, Aerosmith, James Blunt, Joaquin Sabina…

What a like to do: I love travelling and reading, I like going out with my friends and listening to music, I really enjoy learning new things.
What I dislike: I can’t stand artificial people or people that tell lies.
Travel: I have been in several countries: England, France, Germany, Finland, Russia, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland and Portugal. I travelled to those places with my parents and I also go two years to York in England and one year to Dublin in Ireland alone in summer and I stayed with a family.

Dreams: I would like being a translator and interpreter and I would like travelling around the world and meeting many people.My motivation for the Comenius project is living a new experience and getting to know many people. I think that I could learn about those people that I will know.

Profile Sara

Hello!

My name is Sara,
I’m 16 years old and I live in Ourense, with my parents, and I haven’t got any brothers or sisters.

I describe myself as a very extrovert, optimistic, original and hard working person.
My hobbies are reading books, writing poesy and songs, going out with my friends, go shopping and listening to music.

My favourite kind of music is the American new punk, and I love bands like Panic! at the Disco, My Chemical Romance or Simple Plan.
I also like singing, and I’m the singer of a punk girl’s band called ‘No Sense’ and I enjoy it a lot. We have our own songs and from time to time we have concerts. The girls of my band are my best friends and we spent a lot of time together.

I’ve travelled to some countries like Ireland, France, Czech Republic and Austria, and I loved them very much. I find travelling very interesting.
In the future I aim to became translator because I love to learn languages, and I also aim to write my own book, it’s a kind of dream I have.

My motivation for the COMENIUS project is to meet people from another country, to know about their cultures and countries, and improve my level of English or French. I think this will be a very positive experience for me. I’ll enjoy this a lot!

Profile Carlota

Hi there!

My name is Carlota and I’m 16. I live with my parents in Ourense, I have a sister too, she is older than me, but now she is living in Santiago de Compostela because she’s studing at university to become a judge.I regard myself like an extrovert, outgoing and friendly person who enjoys dancing Ballet, hip-hop and contemporary dance. I really like watching dance shows in the theater. I like meeting my friends and going out with them to have a coffe or to go out on Saturday night (in Spain it’s common to go out at night until late). One of my favourite hobby is reading interesting books especially of Saramago (a portuguese writer) and poetry books.I love spending hours with my iPod listening to my favourites artist: The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, The kinks, The Ramones and Spanish groups and singers whom play pop-rock music with produced lyrics.

One of the things that I like most is to travel. I find it imperative. I’ve been to Toronto (Canada), Dublin (Ireland), London (England), Frankfurt am Main (German), Vienna (Austria), Lisbon and Porto (Portugal) and Los Angeles and San Diego (California). I would like to become a journalist who can be able to travel around the world, meeting people with different cultures and traditions. That’s why I know that I’ll maximize the project.

Profile Cintia

Hello, my name is Cintia. I am 15 years old and I live in Ourense in the west of Spain.

I talk a lot, I am open-minded, friendly, simpathetic and I very fond of getting to know a lot of people!!

My favourite subjects are German, Biology and English.

In my free time I like to go out with my friends, listen to music, and spend a lot of time on the internet, with my friends and to go out shopping.
With my friends I usually go out for dinner and to celebrate parties in pubs and cafés. Before going to the disco we meet outdoors and drink something.

I love films, and specially about World War 2!
I love to travel!
Bye

Sportgarten Bremen

"Sportgarten“




source: http://www.bremen.de/sixcms/detail.php?id=338036

The "Sportgarten“ is in the Pauliner Marsch near the “Weserstadion” in Bremen. The accessibilty from the city is very good. The “garden” is made for young people and their sports activitives. In there you find the following facilities:
• skate area
• skate-hockey ground
• artificial turf grounds
• basketball courts
• Beachvolleyballground
• Climbing wall



source: http://www.skateclub.de/bremen/sportgarten/
The park is very popular among skaters in Bremen. A lot of people like the climbing wall, because the wall makes fun. The garden is almost all day open (9:00-23:00) . The admission price is very reasonable. All things which you need can be borrowed for a small price in the Sportgarten.

by Dennis

Profile Stefan

Age: 18 years
Date of birth: 27 November 1990
I am: funny, friendly and cooperative
Hobbies: to play soccer and tabletop soccer, billiard, to meet friends, to play videogames on the Nintendo Wii with friends, sometimes going with friends to the disco or to bars or restaurants
Favorite music: Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Pillar, Fort Minor
What I like: home-made hamburgers, music, creating videos, my cats, Frankfurt, Bremen, SV Werder Bremen, sport, my balcony, cars, Barack Obama, to eat tasty food
What I dislike: spiders, cheese (unless gouda), slow computers (in school),
Politics project: I am involved in MUN -> Model United Nations, Kiel
Delegate for Federal Republic of Ethiopia
Travel: I have been to Turkey (Anlanya, Side), Spain and the Netherlands
Pets: 2 cats (Jack & Joey), 2 rabbits
Dreams: Living and working for a few years in far east, traveling around the world.
My motivation for the Comunius project is getting to know new cultures and meeting new interesting people from other countries.

Profile Yagmur

Hey folks,

my name is Yagmur and I’m 17 years old.
The three powerful words to describe my personality are
friendly, trustful and sometimes lazy ;)
So, now I tell you about the things I like or dislike. I like to go shopping. I love it! And I like to meet my friends or to go to parties. I like to call my friends or family.
Always I talk too long and my phone bill is rising and my daddy’s killing me.
My favourite food is Iskender Kebab that is from Turkey it’s with lamb meat with a kind of special yoghurt. I like to play badminton it’s my hobby but I don’t play in an association.
My favourite music is r’n’b, black, house, electro and sometimes techno.
At the moment I live in a big house with my mum, dad and my fifteen years old brother. Sometimes I hate my brother because he annoys me.
Oh, I also have pets. A dog, her name is Minnie and a bird, his name is Spikey.
Last year in autumn I was in the USA, Florida with my grandmother and grandfather. It was a very good experience for me. And I met very nice people there.
My plans for the future are to go to Berlin and study there. I like Berlin ;)
I have read the internet homepage of COMENIUS. There is a lot of information on it. What kind of program it is. I think it is a good program that can provide an excellent experience for us.
My interest in traveling with COMENIUS is very huge. It can be a very good experience for me.

Profile Jessica

Hey..my name is Jessica I’m 16 years old and live with my mother, father and my twin-sister in a house in Bremen. My parents come from Poland and my whole family lives there. I have many friends there and we drive often in the holidays to my relatives.
I’m an authentic, truthful and jolly person. I like to spend the time with my friends going to the city, to cinema or going clubbing. Because I have always been a passionate dancer and enjoy dancing I started to dance hip hop in an association one year ago. Generally I like everything that has a combination with music. I am fond of listening to r’n’b or house music. For example Chris Brown, Taio Cruz or Bobby Valentino.
I can’t stand it when people are boring only sitting in their house and watching TV because I’m always on the way. I dislike rain or cold weather I love it when it is warm and sunny sitting in cafes or going to the ‘Weser’ - the he river that flows through Bremen.
I absolutely like to eat no matter if it’s sweets or not, but I’m prefering the Polish food it’s very delicious and healthy =). My favourite dish is pizza and Polish specialities like ‘Pierogi’ or ‘Ptasie Mleczko’.
I have a lovely dog his name is Samy, it’s a mini Yorkshireterrier. He’s two years old and still a baby. Small and cheeky.
My family, friends and I drive yearly to Denmark. Additionally I was in Italy, France, the Czech Republik and very often in Poland to visit my family. I would love to spend some time in Australia.
I attended 6 years a comprehensive school. I was there in a music class playing instruments and organising concerts. We had a lot of performances. At the moment I go to the ‘SZ Grenzstraße’. My favourite subjects are German and Sports.
When I have done my higher education entrance qualification I want to study and to have a good job and get on the top of a company. ☺
Besides my dream is to go for a year in another country to get some experience, to practice my English and to be independent.
Therefore I am highly motivated for this project. It connects students from different countries and I can get to know their culture, daily routine and life. I take a great interest in this project.. I would get much positive experience and improve myself. I look forward to doing a school exchange.

Profile Hümeyra

Hey...
My name is Hümeyra.
I’m 17 years old.
I was born in Germany but my parents come from Turkey.
I have a brother and a sister.
The three powerful words to describe me are: I’m friendly, helpful and self-confident.
In my free time I go often shopping (“I LOVE IT”), listen to music R’n’B, pop and soul, spend time with my friends, chat with my friends and play handball and so on…
My favourite dish are pizza and spaghetti. I am vegetarian.
I dislike egoistic, arrogant people, persons who tell lies and sneaky people.
My favourite subjects are Maths and Spanish.
I traveled to Turkey, France, Netherlands and Switzerland.
The most important thing for me is universal peace.

Profile Jennifer

Age: 16 years old (17 March 92)
Hobbies: volleyball and football (soccer)
Free time: playing with my dog, meeting my friends
Person: adventuresome, cheerful and optimistic
Hello I'm Jennifer but everybody calls me Jenny. Born on 17th March 1992, so I'm 16 years old. I live with my parents and my two years younger brother in Bremen, near a lake with many fields. There I can play with my dog, who is now 10 weeks old. In my free time I have played volleyball in a club for five years and football, in a women team, for one year. So you can see I'm a real teamplayer and very sporty. I always want to bring my team to winning. I also like to meet my friends and laugh a lot ☺.
In my summerholidays I love to go camping with my family, but only to countries in the south. I've been to Croatia, Italy and France. There I enjoy it to chill with a book on the beach or to go by our little boat to a little remote island and stay there the whole day. In the evening I like to drink cocktails or going to a disco. All in all I enjoy the free life underneath the sun in my holidays.
For my future I want to start a career in business, where I have to deal a lot with other countries and with other languages.
My motivation for COMENIUS is to meet other people from other countries and to get to know the countries and cultures. I'm also very much interested in improving my command of English and if it's possible also of Spanish.

Profile Irma

Hello !!
My name is Irma.
I’m 19 years old.
I’m from Lithuania, but I have lived in Germany for about 4 years.
My parents are divorced and I live together with my mother and my too sisters who are twins and are 20 years old.
Another member of my family is my cat Alisa.
The words which describe my personality the most are: clever, friendly, reliable and sociable.
What I like is: To spend time with my friends and my family, listen to musik, play the piano, to go shopping, to go out with my friends, to chat with my friends from Lithuania, to read books, to jog, to play with my cat and so on…
What I don’t like is: people who lie, sneaky people, egoistic people, to get up early and so on..
My favorite dish is Lithuanian food. I listen to all kinds of music. I went to music school for 7 years.
My favorite subjects are Maths, Spanish, English..
I like to travel. I have been to these countries: Spain, Russia, Poland.
I think the Comenius Project is good for me, because it is a great opportunity to get to know people from other countries.

Profile Olesja

Age: 17 years
Birthday: 11 November 1991
Birthplace: Kazakhstan
Family: I live with my parents and have 2 sisters and 2 brothers
I’m a person, who likes to laugh and to make other ones happy. I always try to be optimistic and always see the good side of life.
My hobbies are to read books, to play with little children, to bake or to cook and to play the piano. So I have been playing it for almost seven years. I enjoy it, because it makes me happy. And when I’m in a bad mood I just play a little bit to get better.
I go every Thursday, Friday and Sunday to Church, where I’m singing in a youth choir and playing the piano for it.
I’m glad about being good at school. My favourite subject is English, because I love the pronunciation and I like to speak English with my other relatives in the US. Furthermore I’m able to speak German, Russian and I’m learning Spanish at school.
I like to learn languages so I enjoy this project, because I hope I will improve my English. Furthermore I would like to travel to other countries and maybe to Spain in the year 2010. Where I could check whether I learned Spanish well or not.

Profile André

Age: 16
Class: 11
… I’m an optimistic, cheerful, decent and kind boy…
I’ve got one brother, he’s 18 years old.
I like to read subject journals (e.g. on train networks, technical progress…).
Recently I read an article on the safety of the ICE technology.
ICE is the German equivalent for TGV(France) or AVE (Spain).
Furthermore I like to listen to the radio, I like Pop and R’n’B.
My favourite Sport is to ride my bicycle.
I like to do something with my family in the nature. I like it when we walk in the park.
My favourite-meal is Hawaii-toast.
I like to visit different cities. I am interested in the public transport network and that’s why I travel a lot by train.
My budgies can fly freely in our apartment.
My dream
- to do a good graduation
- to improve my English
- after my graduation, to get a good training in a company
- establishing a family

Profile Anna-Lena

Age: 17
Date of Birth: 04.06.1991
Family: parents are married, half-brother
• cheerful, energetic and quick-witted person
• actively involved in social projects: the German Red Cross
• twice a year: travel to interesting places -> e.g. France
• in 2005, I went on a trip to Nantes for a student exchange
• talents: connecting music with sport: passionate dancer
• but my most favourite hobby is swimming -> training: twice a week
• love to eat and laugh with friends, e.g. going to pubs, bars and restaurants
• My favourite subjects are German and French
• I dislike bad weather because I can’t go rollerskating with good
friends
• For the next 10 years, I hope to get my high-school qualification to be allowed to go to university. Then I would like to become a tax consultant.
My motivation for my own COMENIUS project is to get to know new amazing cultures and exciting people!

Profile Christopher

Age: 17 Date of birth: 28th Dec. 1990
My traits: sporty, funny, helpful, uncomplicated
Hey folks!
My hobbies are soccer, basketball and to meet friends. I play soccer in a soccer club. The name is SV Buschhausen. And I am also coaching kids two times a week. I like them a lot.I´m proud to be their coach, because every day they learn a bit more. My favourite food is pizza, pasta and I love it when my mom makes eggs for breakfast every Sunday.Furthermore I like to listen to r´n´b and black music. In addition I got two little sisters and three older brothers. My future plan is to graduate from school. My dream is to become a banker. I am proud to belong to the COMENIUS project. Hope to see you all soon…

Profile Melanie

My name is Melanie and I was born in Germany, Bremen.
I’m sixteen years old and live with my parents and my twin-sister in Bremen. I’m Polish, all my relatives live in Poland and we are driving there almost all holidays.
sport: I love to dance <3. One year ago I started to dance in a dance school. We dance Hip Hop. And I love it. Besides I go to the fitness centre, two or three times a week. about me: I’m an honest, authentic, funny and sometimes lazy person. My family and my friends are the most important things in my life. I dislike rain, I hate it when it’s cold outside and I don’t like testy and sniffy people. hobbies: I love to spend my time in the city going shopping or going to cafés. I like to party, to meet my friends and to phone. music: I listen to R’n’B and a little bit of house. My favourite singers are Taio Cruz, Ben Franklin, Chris Brown, Bobby Valentino and Kanye West. food: I love to eat no matter if it’s sweet or not, but my absolut favourite candy is chocolate <3. I could eat it everytime. And I love the Polish kitchen, there are so many traditional dishes and they’re all delicious. pets: I have a little dog, a yorkshire terrier, his name is Samy and he’s two years old. He’s so cute.☺ school education: Now I’m in the eleventh class and want to make my higher education entrance qualification. My favourite subject is German. After that I want to take up a commercial education. Maybe I am going to study, but I’m not sure. motivation: I think COMENIUS is a good thing. It connects pupils from different countries and you can get to know their culture and how they live there. I would like to travel to another country, it’s a good and interesting experience. ☺

Profile Dennis

Age: 17 (10.11.1991)
Class: 11
Competitive sports: Rowing
Club: Bremer Sport Club_Rowing
My favourite Sport is Rowing. This sport is a team sport. I have performed this sport for four years. I train 4- 7x a week. In Bremen we have the Weser and the Werdersee. The Werdersee is a very good training place for us. The lake is 4.3 km long, sheltered of wind and the trainer can ride by bicycle and give us brief orders. During a season we have 5- 7 regattas. The regattas take place in Köln, Hamburg, München, Bremen, Münster, Leer, Duisburg.
Music: pop, house and all up-to-date music
Character traits:
ambitious, kind ☺,tolerant, reliable, sociable
Family life: one younger brother
I Like: Werder Bremen, Party,Obama,When I have time I like to go to parties and to have fun with friends.
Travel: I have been to Spain, Italy (Rom, Venice, Lago di Garda…), Switzerland, Austria, Greece, Poland, France
I like to travel and to "discover" new countries and new big or interesting cities of the world.
Politics Project: I am involved in MUN → Model United Nations
MUN is a simulation of the UN (United Nation). The simulation takes place in Kiel with 430 students from Germany. From my school 5 students participate. We are in the simulation delegates for the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.
My dream: good job, family, a wonderful life
Motivation COMENIUS:
My motivation is to discover the countries and the cities. I want to get to know new people from other countries and improve my English.

Minutes of the Comenius Conference in Ourense

19th – 23rd November 2008

Participants:
Ourense (ES) Elisa Alvarez, Raquel Pato, Hortensia Alonso, Almudena Alonso, Carmen Babarro (and various others)
Chateau du Loir (F) Stéphane Duarte, Patricia Guitton
Aywaille (BE) Collete Franck, Jacqueline Vanstalle, Sabine Rennotte
Bremen (D) Andrea Holzinger, Christian Braun, Saskia Laackmann, Werner Fabisch
Agueda (Portugal) Eleuterio Santos

AGENDA
Presentation of video made by Spanish students in cooperation with Casa de Xuventude
Opening of meeting
Fixing next meetings
Organisation of student exchange
Discussion of project outcome and communication exchange

A group of Spanish students who run an association for promoting and making short films presented their short film (Sueños reales – Real Dreams). They informed about their associaton, their future projects and cooperation with the youth center "Casa de Xuventude“. There followed a discussion with them about the finances and the total amount of time they spent for realizing this film and for work in their association. They then explained also some other films of them which are accessible on You tube (http://es.youtube.com/user/Symonathus) and also on http://www.producciones-atcc.blogspot.com/ .

Meeting opened by project coordinator Elisa Alvarez.

France: week from 17th to 25th January 2009
Germany: week from 9th to 16th May 2009
Belgium: 11th to 15th November 2009
Spain: final meeting in 2010 (including a trip to Portugal which was sadly not admitted and the initiating force of the project)

3 to 4 students chosen by the partners accompany the teachers. Students accommodate each other. As some German students might be slightly older the Belgians also offered to accommodate them in their homes for the Belgium meeting in case there are difficulties. The students should be chosen not just by their language ability but by social skills, their dedication, freetime interest or social background. Students will be prepared for their visit by an exchange of personal profiles written by them. This should inform about their leisure interest and practice too.

Spain distributed a questionnaire on leisure activities. The schools will continue working on that, maybe readjusting it for their purposes and exchange the results. Belgium further suggested to widen this with incorporating others than students (e.g. relatives, parents...).

Concerning the future final product we suggested to exchange our work via a blog. Elisa will set up the blog and send us the password. This allows all the participating countries to put on their material. We also decided to have a "What’s On“ category for an exchange of information of current activities of the region. This allows the users to decide freely on the material they want to study further and students can access it in their freetime as well. During the exchange students should write diaries. The idea of a diary on leisure activities will be taken up further and can be realised in different ways according to teacher’s or students’ interest and needs. (audio, audiovisual or written form)

All the material produced in those 2 years can then be put on a CD-Rom or DVD with a user-friendly navigation.The idea of using Skype for students’ communication was discussed. It is dependent on the student’s timetable and their technical equipment. That’s why we decided to keep this in mind for future but prefer for now to let them communicate via a chat. This also can be an option once the students got to know each other as our experience tells us that they initially prefer to write in the foreign language.

Germany asked the partners to regularly communicate via email to shortly inform others about their present work (not in detail) because otherwise we will maybe quickly lose the communal spirit in the daily routine.

Apart from this meeting Spain did a great job in this initial meeting. They managed to let the partners get to know each other in a very relaxed and friendly atmosphere. They gave us an insight into their school and the freetime activities of the region plus we got to know the associated partners. We were not just informed but experienced Ourense. This was done in a very hearty way and we were never stressed out but inspired. So the foundation for a good project is laid and it is up to us what will be the outcome.

by Andrea Holzinger

First meeting in Ourense - November, 19th - 23rd

PROGRAM 1st MEETING IN OURENSE

COMENIUS – 19th to 23rd november 2008

With our best thanks to:

- Concello de Ourense, Delegación de Educación

- Casa da Xuventude (Rosa and Benito)

- Escola de Gaitas

- Escuela Oficial de Idiomas (Francisco J. Trevejo, Teresa Villar)

Remember Ourense 2008

See you soon,

Colette Franck

COMENIUS Project

"European Leisure among Youngsters"

2008 - 2010

Multilateral Partnership

Coordinating school:

• Spain - IES As Lagoas (Ourense)

Participating schools:

• France - Lycée Racan de Château-du-Loir (Pays de la Loire)
• Germany - Schulzentrum des Sekundarbereichs II an der Grenzstraße (Bremen)
• Belgium - Centre Scolaire Saint-Joseph Saint-Raphaël de Sougné (Remouchamps)

Summary

“European Leisure among Youngsters” — ELAY
The different schools will do some research work on how the European youth spend their leisure time (the good and bad ways, like the “botellón”, gang culture/behavior, the abusive use of new communication technologies), enhancing the regional, local or national characteristics and richness of those activities, as well as their own resources (musical instruments, choreographies, typical or traditional instruments). At the time of the partnership visits, the Comenius teams should engage in practicing and sharing these leisure activities (music, dance, sports…) showing the diversity of their cultural habits. The students should ask their older relatives (and other community members) about their ancient leisure activities, in such a way that everybody will participate and be involved in the project.

Context and motivation

Most youngsters spend their free time with technological gadgets. This way they are not only isolating themselves from the real world, but also missing some of the sanest ways of socialising. Most of their behaviour is imported from the American ways. It would be interesting to learn which other ways there are to spend one’s time, especially beyond our closest borders.
Most of the project schools are set in semi- rural areas, welcoming growing immigrant communities. These students’ opportunities of spending their time aren’t many; some take wrong turns and choose the hardest path.
Also they have a rather stereotyped and theoretical knowledge of the European experience.
With this project we intend to expand our knowledge on Europe as well as develop our sensitivity to everything that is European, by trying to understand how youngsters spend their leisure time. These cultural habits will give us a clear picture of each national youth identity, as far as free time is concerned.
- This project intends to attract attention to the range of young people’s leisure activities, either the healthy ones (music, dance, sport, foreign languages, etc.) or those that are not healthy ("botellón", indiscipline, abuse of new technologies – mobile phones, videogames, Internet, etc.).- The project will (more easily) allow the integration of foreign pupils, who will have opportunity to contribute culturally by presenting different ways of occupying free time, the knowledge of which will stimulate curiosity, acceptance (more than tolerance) of these 'new' activities.
- To know the free-time activities of the involved countries means to have the opportunity to know the geographical, climatic, social and economic characteristics of these countries; it means to get acquainted. And the connection, the European Union is achieved or improved through the knowledge, the curiosity, the interest, the dialogue and the affection that this project allows and fosters.

Aims
- Know the dimension of the European diversity, as far as leisure and free time activities are concerned, through the multicultural interaction of all the participating partners;
- Learn about each country’s dominant/favorite free time activities, as well as the reasons which have conditioned that behavioral pattern;
- Get to know the cultural differences and learn to accept them; namely by acknowledging other ways of spending one’s leisure time( which will be jointly experimented by all the partner school members, dealing with musical instruments, taking part in sport and cultural activities;
- Attempt to merge the European youth activities into a final joint product.

Issues / Problems
- Consider free time activities as a means to promote the European Knowledge and experience.
- Reconsider the unhealthy activities as a means to reeducate youngsters in a perspective of a more discipline, organized and worth life.

Approach
Take advantage of the mobilities to learn about each visiting school and country’s cultural identity, and to divulge our own;Promote an information exchange routine, so as to expand the cultural knowledge of the European dimension, which is the aim of this project. And also to reach all the aims above mentioned.