WELCOME TO BARCELONA!!!

Our Comenius Project is a bilateral school association from September 2008 to June 2010 between these two schools: Escola Pia Nostra Senyora from Barcelona and Tornedalsskolan from Haparanda, an upper secondary school in Haparanda, Norrbotten, northern Sweden on the border to Finland.

Swedish and Catalan are two minority languages which are spoken in the northernmost and southernmost parts of Europe. We aim at studying their vitality in teenagers’ lives, together with the difficulties they face in two territories in which they aren’t the only spoken languages. Bilingualism is a common characteristic of both Barcelona and Haparanda’s every day’s life. Therefore, we’d like to study how these minority languages manage to survive in our teenagers’ worlds, what resources they have available in their societies and what challenges lie ahead of them in the near future.

The approach to these similar yet obviously contrasting realities will be done, not only by learning the basics of each minority language, but mainly by using English and ITC skills to learn about the different aspects of teenagers’ lives in the Catalan and Swedish contexts. Observing differences and similarities in teenagers’ lives in the northernmost and southernmost European countries in the context of their minority languages will help students to strengthen the idea of a European network from which to learn and to form lasting friendships for the future.

Students in the rural area of Haparanda in northern Scandinavia will meet students from Mediterranean Barcelona in October 2008 and will learn to deal with their everyday activities in a hectic city centre. Likewise, Catalan students will discover what it is to live in snowy Scandinavia in February 2009, trying activities and various sports connected to snow.


How was your comenius experience in Barcelona?

Wednesday, 29 October 2008

29/10/08 - Sitges under the rain and Farewell Party




The last day of the Swedish students in our country was in Sitges, a nice village located in the south coast of Catalonia. Unfortunately, it was raining all day and we had to go to a small gym in Escola Pia Sitges, but theoretically, we were supposed to go to the beach to do a sport circuit. So, in that aspect, we were a bit unlucky. There, in that school, we did a lot of activities and we played different games that we organized at once. It was very funny, and the Swedish students were very enthusiastic. There were musical instruments and we did a music game (the typical musical chairs but with shoes) with a piano, played by different people who knew some funny songs that matched with that game. The other activities were “limbo”, the “cow’s game”…


When we saw that it wasn’t raining heavily, we went to visit the village (we went to the beach, some nice streets…).


The same day, at eight o’clock in the evening, we did the farewell party with the Tornedalsskolan students and all the Catalan families. First, the Swedish students repeated their presentations of Sweden, and Karin, one of the exchange students, sang one of the typical songs of her country (the other students also collaborated singing with her). They had really impressive voices! After that, we had dinner (we ate a lot of tasty canapés), and everyone went home!


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