13/02/2009 - Last goodbye

The last day, all the host families went to Kemi’s airport to leave their student. Some of them went to school before to have a small lunch or some food. When all the students had arrived at the airport, some host families stayed there to say goodbye. The students also said goodbye to all Swedish people and they thanked them for all the experiences that they had made possible. At 1 o’clock, we took the small airplane from Kemi to Helsinki. When we arrived at the airport, we had free time and we took a photo of all the Spanish Comenius group. An hour later, we took a plane to Barcelona and we arrived at nine o’clock. This day closes the first year of the Comenius project, a project with a lot of new experiences, with a lot of new friends and, of course, with a lot of contrast between the northern culture and the southern culture of Europe.

12/02/2009 - An original castle

The day started with ordinary lessons with the host students, and at 9.15 we had Swedish lessons.
Later, the Swedish group played a special trivial pursuit game; they had to answer questions about Catalan customs, and all the things they had learnt while they were in Barcelona. After giving a prize to the winners, we all went to have lunch at school.
Later on, we took the bus to Kemi in order to see the Snow Castle, where we really had fun and saw many interesting items made of ice.
At five o’clock in the evening we had a Farewell dinner at Tornedalsskolan, a very special dinner for the last night in Haparanda.
We heard the speeches from the headmaster and the teachers (Swedish and Catalan), talking about the experience that we all had lived, ones in Barcelona and others in Haparanda, and thanking everybody for the hospitality and kindness that we had been given during the exchange. Two Swedish students (Emilia and Meiju) also made a very emotive speech about how very good friends both Swedish and Catalan had become during those days and about all the emotions and laughts we had shared.

On the one hand, it was a happy dinner full of laughter, but on the other hand, it was also sad, because it was the last night in there for the Catalan group and none of us wanted the project to end.

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.

09/02/2009 - Reindeers' island

On Monday we met at school at 8.10 in the morning. We took a bus which drove us to Seskarë, the island where we could see the reindeers.
There we met a reindeer keeper and his reindeer Jerry, which we could touch and feed. There was a fire in the snow, and we sat there and had coffee and a special coffee cheese. It’s a typical cheese that the hunters eat while hunting as it brings a lot of energy. We also tried lassoing, and some of us succeeded in it!
The place was very nice and we had good weather. Some of us had a snow war there!

Then we went back to the school and had lunch. In the afternoon we went to the sports center in Haparanda, where we played football, volleyball, badminton and also floorball, which was new for us. We also went to the arts room and printed our own t-shirt with a very nice picture made by Meju, which symbolized the project.

After dinner some of us met in the cinema to watch “Twilight” in the Haparanda cinema.
This was a very nice and long day!

08/02/2009 - Bad weather and lots of snow

This day we went to the river at 12 o'clock to do some activities in the snow. We did activities like sleigh races, went with snowmobiles, we went down on snow mountains, and in theory we went to the river to do fishing but because of the bad weather we were cold and all the Catalan students became frozen.
This situation made us go home very early. At half past one, everybody stayed with their families or with the friends for the rest of the day.

06/02/2009 - Haparanda’s history & Hockey

Friday 6th of February all of the Catalan students went to take Swedish classes in Tornedalsskolan for three hours, very early in the morning. The two first hours were classes of our exchange partners, and the last was the Swedish class for us, in order to learn something more of the language of that country. Then, around half past eleven, we went to take lunch at the hotel of the village where our teachers were hosted, “Haparanda Stadshotell”, and the food was delicious. After that, we went to a conference about Haparanda’s history. The place was really close to the hotel.
In the afternoon, all of the Swedish and Catalan students went to “kobenhavn”, the unique ice hockey stadium of the village, and there we had an incredibly nice time together.
Finally, at night, some of us went to the “Station”, the youth council, and we enjoyed all of the games like pool, trumps, computer games… A very wonderful day!!!

05/02/2009 - Santa's home

We arrived at Tornedalsskolan at the same hour as everyday. The sun was starting to rise and we took the school bus that would take us to the Finnish city of Rovaniemi. The trip was approximately three hours long but it wasn’t boring for anybody, we had a good time with our friends: playing cards, listening to music, sleeping or watching a movie. Like in every activity, some of the Swedish students came with us: Elin K., Linda and Linnéa.

Before going to the famous house of Santa Claus, we had a guided visit through Arktikum, the greatest museum about Lapland. The guide showed us lots of elements related to Sámi culture, like clothes, tools and some specific animals from the area.
After that we had lunch there and then we watched a video about northern lights and some spectacular Nordic views.

We took the bus again and went to Santa’s Village. It was really amazing but so was the cold. That same day we reached the shocking temperature of -30º C. We entered into the main house and we finally saw Santa Claus and took a picture with him. He was a big old funny man. He also knew something about Barcelona, its football team and Catalan language.

After the picture we went shopping around the thousand stores that were in the little village and we left completely frozen. It was a great unforgettable day.

04/02/2009 - Ski, football and sausages!

On Wednesday 4th of February we followed our Swedish students to their ordinary classes. Some had Religion and Maths, others History and Science…After two hours of hearing Swedish only and understanding nothing, we went to our special Swedish lessons. We learned how to introduce ourselves, the days of the week, the name of the months, the colours and how to tell the time. Even if it was too soon for us to have lunch (11:30), we went to the school cafeteria and we had pasta and a sausage (Swedish bread, butter and salad too). Afterwards, we walked to Polarica, where Disa’s mother works, she explained to us how this company works and what they do. They sell reindeer, kangaroo and elk meat among others. We were given lingonberry and blueberry juice, both of them very tasty. She also gave us a small orange bitter fruit that contained the same amount of vitamin C as 8 oranges!!.
Each one of us left to have dinner with their families and we met again at eight o’clock at the skiing facilities. There we borrowed skis and boots from our host families and had a go on long distance cross country skiing. Despite being harsh for the beginners, Spanish students caught up very quickly and finished the track with no problems. Meanwhile, some teachers prepared a barbecue, where we roasted sausages and drank pear juice. A football match on the snow and a snowball fight followed the supper. We had lots of fun!!.

03/02/2009 - Sunny day in Haparanda

Tuesday began with a sunny day, a strange thing there in winter. The Comenius group of Haparanda said that it was a warm day but the temperature was nine degrees below zero.
All students met in the morning in the auditorium, where the Tornedalsskolan’s headmaster, John Waltari, and Britt Inger Lindfors, who belongs to the Comenius teachers group, gave us their warmest welcome. They explained some things about the days we were going to stay there and they promised more snow (a curious thing because heaps of snow were shining outdoors).
After a perfect welcome, we went straight to do a guided tour of the school, which was explained by the teachers and the students; Tornedalsskolan was very equipped with new technology, a biology area, a bar and the whole of the school was prepared to study comfortably.
When the tour was finished, we stayed in a Swedish class to compare the level between Sweden and Spain.
Our hunger was increasing because of the lessons, so we had lunch, which was very different from our lunch because of the time we had it and the food.
Afterwards, we took a bus to go on a guided tour of the local area of Haparanda and Tornio, Finland. We also visited the Church of Haparanda, which is different from our church because of the religion, and the Aine Arts Museum in Tornio, the exhibitions of which weren’t finished.
The afternoon was relaxing. Most of us went to a bar and tasted some typical foods from there before the big dinner that we had in the evening in a Japanese restaurant, where most of us ate a pizza. This was the welcome dinner and all of us were there.
The day concluded in a youth local that is built in Haparanda, where young people stay and spend time playing games.

02/02/2009 - Day of trips

The first day of Comenius project was 2nd February. The meeting point was the airport. There the 21 students and 3 teachers started the trip. There we said goodbye to our parents. After that, for two hours, we waited inside the airport to go through the security controls.
Later, we took the plane to Helsinki, which lasted 4 hours. We stayed in Helsinki airport for 2 hours to take the last plane to Kemi. It was boring but we knew that the experience was gonna be amazing. The journey was complicated because the plane was old and little. It was amazing, three people were changed of place to balance the plane and not to crash.
In Kemi, at 6 o’clock, we met parents and our Swedish friends, and each one left with their host family.

Trivial Rules

Hi! As you know, we are Vince and Albert and we are going to explain to you the trivial rules.
This Trivial game is about Barcelona and your Comenius experience of October.
First of all, we want fair play, so please don’t cheat. It’s very easy to play. Every group starts in the same place, in the middle of the board. Each group will throw a dice every turn and will answer the questions that we have prepared for you about your trip. We have five kinds of questions: Food, Sports and Entertainment, School Facilities, Catalan Language and Architecture.
If you answer correctly, you will throw again, if not, you will lose your turn. If you answer correctly some special squares, you will win the award of the respective category. The first team who collects all the awards, wins the game and will receive a prize.
If you are ready, let’s start. Has anybody got any question? Ok. Let’s go.

Presentations

WELCOME SPEECH

Hello and good morning! We are Sofia and Clara and we would like to welcome you to our school, not on behalf of the Comenius students but from all the students in the school.

We are very happy to have you here with us and to be able to work with you in this interesting project. We know that there is hard work to do, but we hope we will enjoy this time together and at the end it will be a great experience.

We also wish you a very exciting time in Barcelona. We hope you feel comfortable here in spite of the differences between our city and Haparanda. We would like to say that if you have any problem, don’t be shy, just tell us and we will try to help you as well as we can!

Now, we want to thank all the Swedish and Catalan teachers for working so hard to make this possible and giving us the opportunity to take part in it. The Comenius is a really good chance for us to get in touch with people from a very different and distant country and improve our English and knowledge.

Finally we want to say again that it’s fantastic to have you in our homes and share them with you, and we hope that you enjoy the activities prepared and that the experience is as good as you expected.

We wish you again a wonderful stay in Barcelona and that you can make it a bit of your own home!
That’s all from us. Have a nice day!

Sofia & Clara

FOOTBALL IN SPAIN

I’m here to tell you some things about football because it’s the most important sport that exists in my country. The majority of the Spanish people know important things about football because it’s very usual to talk about this here. There are other sports but they aren’t as famous as football, for example; basketball, handball and hockey to name a few.

Football can move millions and millions of money and millions and millions of people. A lot of teams or football clubs spend a lot of money on good players. Most of the important clubs in Spain also spend this money on young players at our age ( not as much as the older players if we see the professional teams).

Most Spanish boys, when they are young, play football and it´s their illusion and their dream. Most of them dream to be a famous football player one day. I don’t know if in Sweden it’s the same dream for the young Swedish boys or not…you will explain to me later if you want.

Ok, the league, our league, LFP, liga de futbol professional(in Spanish, professional football league,(translated into English), ),our league and it consists of 20 teams, 38 games for every team each year, and it has got the best derby around the world, F.C. Barcelona versus R. Madrid. These games are the most spectacular and exciting games that you can watch in your life.

Moving on to another topic. Bars in which the fans watch their teams play.

It’s a typical aspect of football in Spain,the full bars when some famous team plays, it’s a good experience and you have to attend one of these bars. For some people it can be stressful (if you don’t like football) because usually people smoke a lot and all the bar is full of smoke and people are always shouting… it can be fun and stressing at the same time!


- Catalonian Teams

There are two important teams in Catalonia that you need to know, they are as follows; FCB, the majority of you know this already, and the other team, the rival team of Barça is always present, when they play there is another “derby”, its name is Espanyol. The most important player of Barça nowadays is Lionel Messi, who most of you would know and for Espanyol, it is Raul Tamudo.


- Famous Swedish players known in Spain
Ibrahimovich and Henrik Larsson are the two most popular players known in Spain, especially Henrik Larsson because all Barcelona fans love him. So, we know these players and something else, I hope you know we are European champions and Xavi Hernandez is the best European football player ( a Catalonian …) …Xavi is from Barcelona team too, ( I have to say it because, here, there are the two best Barcelona fans… my teachers…and I have to say it to keep a good relation with them, ok?)
I want to tell you a paragraph about the meaning of football for us, ok??
First,in Spanish and I’m going to translate this afterwards:

"La Liga sabe diferente. La Liga es otra cosa. La Liga sabe a domingo, aunque se juegue en miércoles. Sabe a caravana de vuelta escuchando la radio, y a lunes en el trabajo. Sabe a nombres curiosos, como los de los árbitros, siempre con sus dos apellidos: Undiano Mallenco, Condón Uriz, Mejuto González. Y los estadios: Lasesarre, los Pajaritos, la Nova Creu Alta, la Condomina,. La liga sabe a cinco de la tarde, a Derbi, a nervios, a partido de infarto, a cábalas, al cuento de la lechera y la cuenta de la vieja. La Liga es la Liga. Si no has ganado una Liga, no has ganado nada. La Liga en la tele; la Liga en la radio; la Liga en el campo. Como en el campo, en ningún otro sitio, donde la Liga huele a hierba, y a cal, y a red. La Liga es la vida."


“The league has a special taste. The League is another element. You can feel the freedom of a bright sunny Sunday when watching the games. When the results are commented on the radio you can feel the satisfaction or disappointment that the players feel. There is a sense of curiosity as so many famous names are mentioned on the television, large names, names with many surnames: Undiano Mallenco, Mejuto Gonzalez,... . The stadiums’names are also well-known too and bring back so many memories to the fans: Lasesarre, los Pajaritos, la Nova Creu Alta, la Condomina. When a derby is played, you can feel the competition that the players feel. The league is THE league. If you have not won a league, you have not won anything. The league on TV, the league on the radio; the league on the field.
Nowhere else can the feeling or the smell of fresh cut grass be found but on the pitch… In La Liga.
…] Football is not a game in Spain, it´s life [ …] thank youuuuuuu!!!

Eloi

CASTELLERS

Today, Amanda and me are going to tell you about “Castellers”. This consists on a catalan tradition in which people who belong to a group climb ones upon others to finally build a human tower with different levels of difficulty.
It has its origins in the traditional valencian dance in which people performed dance, music and finally a human tower. Obviously, we can tell that this has ended up in beeing just the towering part, as the main and most important part.
Each tower consists on tree parts: “La pinya” in this part we place a great number of people who will be in charge of supporting and lifting the tower, it acts as the fundation.
An other remarcable part is the: “tronc”, the visible part of the tower, the one that lifts to the air. There are two more supporting parts: The “folre” which helps the “pinya” to support the “tronc” and the “manilles”, a group of people placed on top of the “folre” to help in the supporting of the highest steps of the “tronc”.
Typical casteller’s clothing consists of white trousers, a black sash (faixa), a bandana (mocador) and a shirt, that changes it’s colour depending on the team. For example, the Barcelona’s Castellers wear a red shirt while the Vilafranca’s Castellers have a green one.
The sash is the most important part of their outfit, because it makes force in the lower back and is also very useful for other castellers to hold their foot or hands while they are climbing up the tower. This piece changes in length and width depending on the casteller's position inside the tower and on his or her personal “taste”. It’s length can be between 1.5 meters and 8 meters. It’s usually shorter for those who climb higher up in the castell. Performing castellers usually go barefoot so that they do not hurt each other as they climb and so that they have more sensitivity in their feet.
The castellers arrange themselves into a structure with different tiered, sometimes as high as nine or ten people. A young child known as enxaneta climbs to the top of the tower. Accidents are unusual, but they sometimes occur: on 2006 a young casteller in Mataró fell off the castell she was forming and she died, but before this, the last fatal accident was in 1981.

Amanda