Goodbye

It's time to say goodbye. Our school year ends on 31. of May. We are going to change school to upper secondary school or to vocational school. But first we have our holidays, it lasts about 10 weeks.

We want to thank you for everything. You have been so friendly, and we enjoyed the time with you. The trips went so well, that we would not like to change anything. We hope that we will see again (probably some of the girls will visit Portugal in the summer :D)

We want to send greetings to everybody especially to Vicktoria and Paula from Spain, and to Nuno, Andreia, Joao, Jorge and Diogo from Portugal. We will all miss you so much, let's keep in touch!

Take care of your self, see you later!
Goodbye with love from Finnish group

Our trip to Portugal<333

We were in Portugal last week.
It was so great experience.
On Monday we arrived to Porto on the afternoon and went straight to the school.
We have a very funny and lovely week there.
All of us had really nice families, and the week went too fast!!On Tuesday we went to the shcool to their classes. On wednesday we showed our presentations in Auditorio. After thar we went to Porto by train and had a time for shopping. On thursday we went to see difrent cities by bus. On the first of them we went to see old castle. It was raining in the morning but in the afternoon the sun started to shine. On Friday morning we went to see some traditional portuguese things and we went to eat to Pizza hut. Just want to say thank you again about everything that we did and got from you!

We miss you so much already and hope to see you someday=))!!!

Thursday in Portuguese: CULTURE

History, beautiful castles and cathedrals, nice food, some rain and sun – we got it all during Thursday. The bus took us in the morning, both students and teachers, and we went for a whole day trip to the surroundings of Forave. At first, we visited Guimarãe, the city where Portugal was born. Then we travelled to Braga and had some walking and lunch. At the afternoon, the bus drove us up to the mountains next to Braga. Great views, sunshine and fresh air! Last stop before getting the stdents back to the school and the teachers to a well-deserved dinner was made in Ponte de Lima. There we enjoyed of the charming little town where the river Cheia passed the city and left the centrum on the other side and a beautiful garden on the other. Now we finally got a real sunshine! ☺ The evening was completed with a marvellous dinner at Josés home. What a variety of dishes… Just perfect!

Once again, the day was filled with laugh and smiles, everybody enjoyed the tour and the hospitality and kindness of our Portuguese friends. Well, some of them have quite a strange jokes but the more days we spend here, more we understand them! So beware, we might not be as blue-eyed as we appear, at least not anymore… Oh and can you believe, the Portuguese guys learned how to pronounce ”sähköpääkeskus”, ”hässäkkä” and other weird Finnish words! Congrats!

Wild wild Wednesday

What a show yesterday! The local students had prepared a evening show for us Comenius guests and the whole school. Singing, dancing, fashion shows, little something to eat and nice decorations made the evening unforgettable. Thank you for that!

Before the show we Comenius teachers went for a dinner in a beutiful restaurant called Ferrugem. The real fireplace spread warmness so the athmosphere was sophisticated, calm and peaceful. The whole restaurant was made one purpose in mind: to taste different foods and wines. A hint: if you take your dearest ones to Porto, you must go and visit this restaurant! It is definitely worth the drive at the countryside. It was a real nice way of relaxing and enjoying the good company after a rather long day full of meetings and discussions concerning this project and surveys.

Once again, the day had been successful and when we finally got to the hotel at 12pm, it was not hard to find the sleep. Although Finland had just started the exciting game against USA, we could not stay up and watch it. But the first thing in the morning was to open the computer and see the HAPPY result of the game.

First days in Porto

Porto
Wednesday, 14th of May 2008

Southern athmosphere rules!

We have now been in Porto for two days. The weather is not exactly what we expected but hey, we are not here for the weather. Our hosts have already made us feel more than welcome. Nice sightseeing tours, good food, excellent company and interesting discussions are filling our days. So quite frankly, even though we love our work and students back home in Finland, this beats normal routines 5-1. Kind of like what Canada did to Finland in the hockey game two days ago…

At this very moment, Harri and I are sitting in a train on our way to Lousado, where the school of Forave is located. Today we are going to stay at the school watching the local teachers at work and if we get lucky, there will also be some meetings for all the Comenius teachers that have come here. And we are quite a many! Italy (Sardinia) came with six representants, Spain (Tenerife) with three and Finland with us two. The local, Portuguese teachers are naturally with us so all together, we are almost twenty.

During the day, we will also be enjoying the company of our students. They all have prepared some presentations of their own countries, cultures, hobbies and other interesting themes. It’s a nice way for us all to get to know more of the others.

What about the days that passed already? Ok, some words of them also… Monday was a free day so we were just taken to the hotel by the hosts. Then we had a little walk in the beautiful city of Porto and stayed at the hotel giving grades to the students in Finland. Great thing we have the computers and the internet!

On Tuesday morning we took the train to Lousado and stayed at the school until lunch that was taken in a factory of Continental tires near the school. The afternoon was spent in Serralves museum of modern art and in the pretty park next to it. We got there from the school by bus. It was a nice sightseeing tour with the city of Trofa on our way. All the balconys were filled with flags of the local fotballteam that just made its way to the 1 division for the first time. The whole town was clearly really proud of the players and the team! After Trofa and Serralves the bus took us to the centrum of Porto by driving by the sea. We saw how the river Douro has Porto town on the other side and Gaía town on the other. All the coastline of the sea is filled with pretty houses, fishermen, boats and golden sand. The coastline of the river, however, is deep in the valley and the river is here and there crossed by huge bridges. Quite amazing views! The evening consisted of a long walk in the city (with our local hosts explaining different historical events and places) and a perfect dinner in a nice restaurant called Tromba Rijo.

Right now, the train is arriving at Lousado railway station. It’s quite cloudy but it’s not raining. So it’s time to work now, just hoping that we find the way to the school. Well, you can see the building but with the narrow streets, you never know…

Hellouuuuuu

We have only 3 weeks left of this school and then we're out!!!!! We are going to schools where we applied to, if we get in there. After these 3 weeks we have summer holiday<3 Our summer holiday lasts 2 and a half months. On summer holiday some of us are going abroad and some of us are working.

Some of us went to Portugal today.. And you should know who came there... We have nothing else to say so byebye!

Hulabaloo macarena!

Hello!

First we want to tell greetings to Pitti. It was so great to got a letter from you!!!
We think that we have wrong e-mail adress, because we can't send any letters to you.
So if you can send your adress again some how??

It is summer so soon.
We have planned what we gonna do then.
Our summer holiday is too short it's about 2 and half months long.
How is yours?

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