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?

Tuesday 10 February 2009

10/02/2009 - Cultural morning

On Tuesday 10th we met at school at 8:10 to get on the bus to Kukkolaforsen. Kukkolaforsen is a nice campsite where the water of the river was still running despite the low temperatures, a special characteristic that impressed us. First of all, we visited the typical Swedish saunas and the “Fisk Museum” (Fishing Museum), where we learn new things about fishing in Sweden. Then, we made use of our cameras to take photos of the beautiful landscape that surrounded us. We enjoyed the place because there was a lot of snow and it was sunny.

After that, we took the bus again and we went to visit a computerised farm. There the farmer explained to us how the farm works every day. We could also see how the cows are fed and the farm technology. Later we took the bus to Övertornea, where we had lunch in a school called “Centralskolan”. There we could taste good food including salmon, the typical Swedish fish. When we finished, we visited the Church of Övertornea. A guide showed us the churchyard and then we went into the church. While we were looking at the different pictures of the walls and the structure of the church, the guide explained to us its history.

After this last visit, the bus picked us up and we returned to our guest student’s home, to have dinner. Then we didn´t have programmed activities and we did different things with some friends.
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