GREECE

april 2018

As students from the 4th High School of Serres, Greece, we participated in the Erasmus programme. The Erasmus programme is a programme which involves exchanging among students from all around Europe. The purpose of this programme is for students to
learn the tradition of different countries and also it is clearly based on the refugees problems that its country has.

In our project there are four countries from Europe. Twelve students, four from each country, came here to Greece and we hosted them. Meeting new people for us will always be an unforgettable experience.

First of all, we haveve collected so many interesting information about the culture of every country and obviously we had so much fun! We had discussed every detail based on the refugees problem that every society faces nowadays.

As the main reason of this exchange, one day we visited the camp that has been set in our town for the refugees. While entering the camp, every member in our group felt a little anxious because of the strict measures that have been taken there. I can surely say that the whole program was something remarkable but one thing that really amazed me were the people living in this camp. We talked with many of them and we felt for sure how much tired and scared they still were, because of the state of war that has been set in their country. They did transferred many things about them to us, the way that they now leave and what they want to do in the future. When we were about to leave, we all felt a little sad because we really wanted to help them in every possible way.

We visited so many places with our Erasmus group and we clearly had one of the greatest time of our lives! But one thing that still remains in us is helping everyone, from refugees to usual person.

Greek host students

This spring we had the opportunity to go to Greece with our school. With the Erasmus project we were hosted for five days by the students of Greece who took part in the project. We arrived in Thessaloniki by plane, and we took a bus to get to Serres, where the boys were waiting for us. It has been five fantastic days full of adventures.

Among the various adventures, the first day, we took a bike ride on the shore of the lake "Kerkini", admiring a beautiful view, and then we took a boat trip. The second day we were at the high school in Serres, where the children who hosted us studied. The first lesson was about the migrant crisis, in the afternoon a party was held in the school auditorium, where they showed us the traditional Greek dances. But we also had an educational experience, because in the afternoon we visited the refugee camp of Serres. The third day we left with the bus to "Alistrati" where we visited the cave and the gorge of Agitis river on foot, and after we visited the archaeological place in "Amfipoli" - and we took a guided tour in the museum and area. The fourth day with a bus that took us to Thesaloniki we visited an archaeological museum and the "White Tower", then we returned to Serres, and in the evening we were together with all the boys to greet us. The last day, we are left for Italy.

This experience has helped us to improve our English, and the comparison with the other guys has also helped to relate to other people who have a different culture. Greek food was very different from Italian food, and as tourists we were open to all their traditions. Even though the food was different from the traditional Italian one, the taste and smell of it were fantastic. This was a magnificent, unforgettable opportunity that made all of us grow.

Italians students

While sightseeing the area of Serres we could learn a lot about the history of Greece, its relicts, literature and culture. We saw a gorge which I have never seen before, beautiful Alistrati cave and a spectacular sea in Thessaloniki. We had a bike trip around the lake and we took a boat to see it closer. We met refugees and we were able to see their camp. At Greek school many children were excited to meet Polish people!

In the evenings… The time we spent with our project friends was amazing. We met so many people and we laughed together. We always cameback home late. :)

When we saw a refugee camp we were very sad. There were small houses and they looked like a war camp for me. We have heard about those people, they came from Sudan and Iraq. It seemed to us impossible that those people were able to swim across the sea just to escape from the war! We believe they must be very strong mentally.

This project was great because we got to know Greek culture inside out. We met many interesting people from Greece, Italy and Bulgaria. They liked us too, I think. :) We saw beautiful places, tasted super food and could see many nice Greek traditions. We visited also the second biggest city in Greece, Thessaloniki. In our opinion this project helped the students to know themselves better, and to know English language and Greek culture better as well.

Polish students

BULGARIA

december 2017

The first meeting of the project was in Sofia – we were guests of 120 Primary School „G.S.Rakovski”.

We came to Sofia on December 10th and for the next three days we were talking and discussing about all the elements of our project.

The teachers taking part in the meeting were:

Polish team: Urszula Klimaszewska, coordinator of the project and Damian Woźniak, teacher

Greek team: Emmanuel Aliprantis, coordinator of the project and Georgios Tasioulas, teacher

Italian team: Maria Giovanna de Maio, coordinator of the project and Elide Spacciante, teacher

Bulgarian team: Varbinka Dimitrova, coordinator of the project, Vanya Maximova, Silvia Georgieva, Nadezhda Nedyalkova, teachers with Cvetanka Toneva, the headteacher of the school.

The meeting in Bulgaria was about discussing and establishing the most important elements of the realisation of the project. All the coordinators decided about:

- dates of the meetings (we discussed the elements of the school year in every country, like feasts, national exams, celebrations, other projects, etc.),

- detailed information about the documents we need in our project,

- decisions about the activities every country needs to do,

- decisions how to choose the students to our project in every partner school,

- talks about the questions we need to put to our survey,

- talks about work with Mobility Tool.

We also had a chance to meet a representative of the Ministry of Education, Mrs Greta Gancheva, who told us about the arrangement in the law and documents for the refugee students. She presented the way in which the refugee students are integrated in the Bulgarian educational system.

When we finished, then we could spend some time on walking around Sofia and enjoying her pre-Christmas, lovely atmosphere.