we are in the NATO head quarter

fotos of Bernadette

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Lots of love...

Bernadette De Cat

Evaluation

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It are spontaneous , playful, creative and certainly not officially meant reactions.

But ... they mean a lot to me.

Thanks!

Bernadette

Final meeting

11 March – 17 March 2012,

Heist-op-den-Berg

 

11.03.2012

We were warmly welcomed by Bernadette and our hosts. Students spent their day with their host families. In the evening teachers, hosts and all partners had a lavish welcome dinner at Restaurant Bergbos. It was a precious opportunity to meet all the lovely and enthusiastic people taking part in the project.

Welcome dinner with our hosts and partners :-)

12.03.2012

In the morning after being welcomed by headmaster of HHS all the delegations presented themselves. After that students and teachers spread to 5 lectures on different issues. All the lectures were engaging and thought- provoking.

In the afternoon the group visited Breendonk National Memorial. That was a moving event where we could experience the cruel, humiliating, shocking circumstances of this concentration camp. The stories we were told by the guides and the spots we visited had a deep impact on all of us. We all felt devastated. Everbody had to realize how precious PEACE, FREEDOM and FRIENDSHIP are!

The barracks

The ’bedrooms’

Breendonk National Memorial

13.03.2012

That was the day of nature, sport and teambuilding in the Ardennes. Students had a very exciting day at the Adrenaline Park in Comblain-la-Tour with Peter Lamberts while teachers could visit the caves of Remouchamps and could explore the geographical features of the Ardennes. Philippe Kemp guided us with  his excellent expertise. In spite of cold weather both teachers and students had a very good time there.

Bernadette – organizing the trip to the Ardennes

German and Hungarian friends :-)

Remouchamps Grottes

Remouchamps Grottes

We are in the same boat…

 

14.03.2012

We spent a pleasant day in Antwerp. An excellent guide showed us around Bonaparte dock, the impressive building of the MAS and the marvellous historical centre of the city. We saw the masterpieces of Rubens at the Cathedral.

Sightseeing in Antwerp

The Norwegian team at the MAS

In Antwerp

The Hungarian students

In the evening a fantastic pasta meal was offered to hosts and guests by Jan de Bie. After dinner Bernadette organized the Market of the nations where each delegation could promote their homeland by presenting local products. Meanwhile students could participate in an exciting circus training.

Market of the nations

The Norwegian stall

The Ischian stall

The Berlin stall

La Spezia stall

15.03.2012

We visited the European Parliament and NATO Headquarters in Brussels. We could learn a lot about both institutions and their roles and missions in the fields of peace and stability of Europe by listening to lectures given by the ambassadors of Hungary, Italy and Norway.

In Brussels

Visit to the European Parliament

16.03.2012

Friday was the Day of creation. The students were divided into two groups and with the guidance of Dieter Dresselaers they were asked to create a piece of art. The theme of the painting was: The kiss by Gustav Klimmt, since 2012 is a Klimmt year. In one room they painted the woman with circular shapes while in the other room they painted the man with rectangular shapes. This workshop was an excellent opportunity for cooperation!The masterpiece was displayed at the Town Hall.

Dieter Dresselaers

Creating a masterpiece

Creating the Man

The Hungarian part

The Italian part

Then in the afternoon students prepared their essays about their experiences and feelings during the Final meeting in Heist-op-den-Berg. They had a lot to write about this memorable week of peace and friendship.

Students engaged in writing their report

Anikó and Edit- enjoying tranquility at HHS

After having written the reports the whole group walked to the Town Hall where each delegation gave a performance to express their gratitude to the official organizers of the Final meeting. The group was offered an official reception by Lord Mayor Luc Vleugels and other members of local authorities. During this closing ceremony students and all participants were given their certificates.

At the Town Hall

Hungarian folk dance

Gyöngyi – the choreographer – and the six of us

Belgian and Hungarian friends :-)

Spring sunshine In Heist-op-den-Berg

The last evening Bernadette organized a very special Flamish evening for the teachers, hosts and partners at Restaurant Hof van Riemen. That was a good opportunity for us to exchange ideas about our experiences during the week.

Farewell dinner

Travelling home

 

We had an unforgettable week in Belgium. This week had an immense effect on our students' personality: a brand new world has opened up for them in which they could experience the similarities of their peers from all over Europe. They have made friends with  a lot of students and on Facebook they are sharing photos and comments on their experiences and they are planning their next meeting. This week was an excellent opportunity for communication as well. It is unbelievable how enthusiastic our students have become about talking in English!

We all felt very sorry that this successful project had to come to its end.

Finally, we must express our gratitude to Bernadette for her devoted care and exceptional coordinating work done all through the unbelievably busy week of the Final meeting and the whole project!!!

17.03.2012 Törökbálint

                  

 Edit Báderné Wilhelm  - on behalf of the Hungarian Team

Comenius baby

Hi friends!

Lars is a happy papa. Linn is born at the 2nd March 2012, 10:10 a.m., 3200g and 52 cm.

Common goods and a lot of peace

Maybe I should introduce myself first. My name is Anja Naacke. I study biomedical science at the University of Rostock. I’m glad that I took part in the project “Common, Goods and Peace-Ischia”: The people of this Island Ischia belong to one of the chaotic but loveliest of the world, which I ever got to know. On Ischia motoring is a tough sport but fair. The streets with maximum 2 meters width are not made for 2 cars at the same time. But a demolished mirror and absence car door are not a reason to leave everything behind and to have a cup of coffee together. Material things are not as important as human relations. That was the first impressing I saw when I arrived on Ischia.

The topic of this weeks’ program was ‘water’ as a common good. Questions about water-saving in everyday life, wellness and the ocean came to my mind and I couldn’t wait to jump straight into the sea. The coast of Ischia is a variety of gorges, mysterious caverns, hidden bays and long beaches with small colorful pebble stones. At these picturesque corners of this paradise the water of the sea compounds with many thermal springs. We had the chance to visit ‘Parco Castiglione’, a thermal bath with various thermal treatments. Usually it is a place to relax in the wowing calmness but we did an acquagym lesson. That’s definitely one of the exhausting things I’ve ever done: Up and down, forwards and back through the whole swimming pool and there’s no end in sight.

But even better is to experience water in its utmost purity within a skin-dive in one of the many national marine parks of this island. Our discovery tour next to a low coastal plain and rocky sea beds, led us to the colorful playground of marine life. This trip was the most inspiring for all project members of all this different EU-countries. Earlier we had heard about the importance of saving marine life in a conference given by the marine biologist Valerio Zupo.

During our stay we had a lot of different speeches and lively debates about the importance of water. Each partner school had the same assignment of tasks given by the teachers. But somehow everybody understood the definition of the project in a different way. Everyone prepared something else and so it didn’t get boring at all. That’s the fantastic thing about EU-Comenius Projects: It was an original composition!

The human relations we built during our stay on Ischia will persist lifelong. Beside the official project we met each other in the evening to hang around and to get to know our partners more personal. The time we had at ‘Maronti Beach’ was amazing. Some of us were baptized to become a part of Neptune ocean kingdom: Lucky ones who could escape this crazy Norwegian rite.

Ischia, we miss you: the sun, the sea, the traffic and most of course the people. Even if we, according to our host sister, always made “strange faces” when we didn’t understand her but with a mix of German, English and Italian it was a funny time!

Ischia

An UNFORGETTABLE experience

25-30 September 2011

Sunday 25th:
Yes today is the day! We met each other at 11.55 a.m. in Zaventem. We were all very excited! Our plane left at 13.55 p.m. so we were in Napels at 16.15 p.m. It was very hot.

We took the bus to ‘Porto di Massa’. By boat we went to the island of Ischia. On the boat we already met some Italians and Hungarians. The view with the sun and the landscape was amazing! We passed an island ‘Procida’, which was very picturesque.




Procida


After some time we arrived in Ischia. Our families were waiting for us. Everyone went to his family and was well received. We got a lot of food and a beautiful place to stay. We went to sleep, it was a tiring day but the week cannot start soon enough!



Monday 26th:
We get up at seven o’clock. We had breakfast (this is not usual for Italy), so we were lucky :-)! After a crazy ride in the Italian traffic, we arrived at the library. A part of the group was not there yet, so we went to the sea to enjoy the beautiful view.



When everyone was there at the meeting point, the headmaster of the school of Ischia welcomed us and gave a presentation of the weeks’ programme.


Then there was a presentation by each partner school and we did ice-breaking activities with whole the comenius group to getting know each other. Finally there was a conference given by Marine Biologist Dr. Valerio and he talked about the importance of saving marine live and different things about the ‘Park of Nettuno’. The explanation of the biologist was definitively interesting. But after a while it was a bit boring, because we had to sit there and had to be quiet the whole morning ;-).

Belgium
La Spezia
Savona
Dresden
Novi Ligure
Hungary
Berlin
Norway





Then we walked to an Italian restaurant (‘Zio Peppe’) for lunch, which was offered by the headmaster (!). First there was a starter: pizza, pasta, bruschetta,... We ate a lot, because we thought it was the main dish ... But a few minutes later, they brought the real main dish: pasta with different sorts of fish and then the most important dish in Ischia, dessert :-) . The ‘lunch’ was delicious, but too much!
To recover from the meal we went to a coffee bar at the castle and drank a real Italian espresso.
Restaurant ‘Zio Peppe’


After that we had enough energy to visit the beautiful Aragonese Castle (Castello Aragonese) in Ischia Ponte. The castle is built on a rock near the island. The rock connects to the island with a stone bridge. The walls of the castle defended the inhabitants against the raids of pirates. Today the castle is the most visited monument of the island. A guide told us the most important historical things of the castle and showed us the most beautiful places overlooking the sea and the island. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy (but hot) day.








At the afternoon we had free time for shopping in Ischia Ponte (=souvenir markets) and we ate a very special yogurt with all kinds of chocolate and ice creams. It’s a specialty of Ischia.

After that, we went home, we took a shower and prepared us to go out ;-) . At 8 p.m. we met whole the Comenius group at an English pub. That was awesome to get know each other (in a little different condition ;-) ). Everyone could speak English very well, so we could talk a lot with each other. We drank a Belgian (!) or Scottish beer and ate a panini (at 10 p.m.!). Then we went for a walk with whole the Comenius crew and then we had to go home at 11.30 p.m. :-( . When we were home, we went to sleep immediately, because we had to get up very early the next day .



Tuesday 27th :
We met at school for a interesting presentation about radon. Lien (Belgian girl) also did a presentation about school and life in Belgium. After this we went to Parco Castiglione.

There was a guided tour of the thermal department. Our guide was Michele, his father is the owner of the park. After the tour we had a chance to follow aquagym lesson. Everyone participated and had to wear a bath cap, that was so funny! :-)



We made a lot of fun ! We had also free time to swim in the park’s pools and in the see. There were baths of 40 degrees and also baths of 5 degrees, these were very cold brrrr..



There was offered a delicious lunch by the park’s management, with sea view! After a lot of pasta, bruschetta’s, grilled vegetables and a fantastic dessert we need a powernap. The platform on the see was the perfect place for a little nap in the sun!




At 6 p.m. we went back to our own families. For dinner we met each other in a restaurant in Forio, a cozy village on the island. There we paid 10 euros and we could eat pizza all night! The chefs prepared pizzas and continued to make pizzas until everybody’s belly was full. After this pizzas there was a pizza with nutella, maybe you cannot believe us, but it tasted delicious!
It was a beautiful day!


Wednesday 28th:
At half past nine a guide was waiting for us at the Villa Arbusto. Villa Arbusto is an archeological museum where a lot of ancient objects, as specially pots, are collected. One hour later we went to another interesting museum which also was an archeological one. We went in a kind of basement where people found more than just pots. Here we could see little urns for dead people, very old furniture and many more.






This ended at half past 12 what meant we had an hour free to watch at the mushroom rock or to go shopping. We had a very interesting conversation with Eric (a German boy), who explained us the system of the German school.



In the noon we had some good lunch at our host family. After that, we went to the school’s gym to celebrate the European Day of Languages.

First there was a workshop from the theatre group off the Liceo Scotti-Einstein and Salvatore Ronga who performed songs and dances. Later the whole Comenius group had to perform their act, which was really funny. Then it was the guest schools their turns. Every guest school had to present a song, a poem or a short sketch in their own language. We had a great night with Norwegian poem and dance, Italian songs, German sketches, and many more!


A dance group from Ischia came to finish the European Day of Languages with an incredible dance act.

Ooh no our last day! :-( It's already over tomorrow): Today we went to Sint Angelo but first we had to sit a long time on the bus. We stopped in a little city to look at the view and we took a lot of pictures. Finely we arrived in Sint Angelo, the weather was very good. Normally we went to the city but we decided to go snorkeling. It was very nice. We touched a sea eagle, a sea star and we swum trough a school of little fishes. There were some problems with the suits but after a while everybody had one.


After the snorkeling we went with a little boat to the other side of the coast and we had lunch at the hotel of the family from Leonilda (the host of Thomas). The food was delicious; we were given a seven-course menu! A plate with fish, pasta, a fantastic dessert,... .

In the afternoon everybody went to the beach and we had a lot of fun there. The German guys had prepared a little game and it was very funny.




In the evening we did something different. It was very sad that we didn't do something with everybody 'cause it was our last evening together. But after all it was very funny (;



Friday 30th:
We don’t want to go home! :-( Why all the good things have to end? We took the boat at half past 9. We said goodbye to Ischia, to all the wonderful people, our hostfamilies and to our lovely teacher Bernadette.
With the other 2 lovely teachers we went by boat to the airport, there we talked about the great experience. We also bought a pound of real Italian mozzarella. The Norwegians took the same plane as us so we had a nice flight. In Belgium we said goodbye to them and went to our parents.




This was not the end of an unforgettable, instructive experience. We will always stay connected, we mail, write letters, maybe in summer we go back or we will meet the Germans again,...
This experience taught us to broaden our view, to look farther than our own life, village and culture. To see that there is more in life than ‘ourselves’. Now, one month after the excursion, I became another person. I see the world like one big family, we are so different and actually so the same. I don’t want to live as Belgians, but as brothers of Italians, Norwegians, Hungarians and Germans.
Thank you Ischia, Bernadette De Cat, all the teachers, Italians, Germans, Norwegians, Hungarians, for us to realize!

Bye Ischia, We will always remember you!

The Belgian delegation: Thomas Van Woensel, Sanne Bellekens, Nicky Claes, Stephanie Beckers en Lien Verbeeck
Our teachers: Peter Lambrechts, Louis Van den Meutter, Bernadette De Cat