LSA Presentation in Mealhada, Portugal April 4th, 2011

Comenius trip 3 Portugal Day 5




Students at Mealhada Professional School busy at work on their last day of school before Easter break

The closure of the project took place at the school and included a variety of activities for us, a coordinator’s final meeting and a trip to the beach!

Sport plays a massive role within Portuguese school life and we were able to experience this today, there were many activities that were made available for us to participate in including a zip wire, rock climbing and sack races. We were then challenged to play a football match against pupils from the school resulting in a resounding victory 6-1.

At lunchtime we said our goodbyes to our new friends who we will no doubt continue to keep in touch with. We hope to keep in touch via the eTwinning site and other networks but it will be nice to see all the work done by each country and the photos that everyone took.

The weather was outstanding- reaching a temperature of 32 degrees!

The soft golden sands were complimented by the roaring waves. Teachers were soaking up the sun while we were standing by watching Mr Prescott battle the gigantic waves!

Our last night with our new friends began to slowly come to an end as many departed very late! We said our goodbyes and shed many tears.

Comenius Trip 3 Day 6

Our adventure started with blue skies and Joaquim collecting us with the school mini-bus to take us to Averio for some shopping.

Tomorrow we will be making our way back to Porto before our late Sunday night departure.

This Comenius trip was an unbelievable experience and we feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to come to Portugal and participate in such an amazing project!

Thank you for reading about our week and we hope you have enjoyed following the events.

Comenius Trip 3 Portugal Day 4

Today we all got on the coach and made our way Coinimbriga ruins and museum, we were led around the museum by a tour guide and given a few minutes to have a look around in one room. The museum contained things that they had dug up on site, things like tools, coins, statues and various other artefacts.

After having the tour of the museum we were taken outside to have a look around. We were given a short talk about how they restore marble/limestone tile paintings. Then we had a short walk around the site where we were shown all of the remains of the different buildings which was tiring to say the least.

Then we had a buffet that contained salad, meat, cheese and bread. Most of us sat outside where we had an outstanding view of the hills and ruins. We also had a nice dessert. According to Jay this was the best meal of the trip.

Then we walked into the hilly town of Coimbra, we had a 20 minute walk/tour. The town of Coimbra is very steep and hilly but when we reached the bottom we were given 2 hours of free time.

In this time we went shopping bought some chickens, and had a ice cream/drink.

We then returned to the hotel to change and head to the school. We had a lovely meal from school before heading outside to play/watch football. Then we were all invited in to listen to Fado music. The musicians wore big black cloaks which is because it is very academic orientated and was created in a university. The Fado music was much more preferred by the older people although some of us found it interesting. We all thought it was good but it went on too long.

Comenius Trip 3 Portugal Day 3

Today we spent most of the day in the city of Porto. The guide told us all about the history and significance of various monuments and buildings throughout the city. It was incredible having the beach actually in the city, something we had never experienced before!

After being shown round part of the city we were given a short amount of time to look around and go into some shops. All of us bought some Portuguese souvenirs to take back to England.

We then had a three course meal for lunch in a Porto restaurant. They served traditional Portuguese food including sausage meat, pork, salad and bread. We sat with students from all different countries getting to know them and making more new friends.

At 3:00 we took a boat tour on the river Douro. The person on board told us all about the sites we were passing. It was particularly interesting to see all of the different bridges that connect the city.

Following the Boat trip we visited the Porto wine caves. We had a guided tour and were able to taste the traditional port wine of the region. Far better to what we have in England!

We returned to the hotel for a quick change before heading back to the school. We had dinner at the school, followed by a samba dance evening from two different samba schools, their costumes were very elaborate and it was a great experience as it’s very different to what we have in the UK.

Day 2 of the 3^rd Comenius trip

The first thing we did today was attend a reception at the town hall of Mealhada. We met the mayor and the co-ordinators gave him gifts from their countries. Then we all had a group photo outside the hall. It is very warm about 26 degress today.

We went back to the school and listened to the remaining presentations, which were very informative about other countries’ spring holidays. Part of Hungary’s presentation was a tradition they have that involves boys spraying girls with perfume in exchange for chocolate.

The Romanian students demonstrated a part of their culture that involved the painting of hollow eggs. The patterns were very intricate and detailed and it was very interesting to watch.

After lunch we got on the coach to the Costa Nova Beach. On the way our guide took us around the city of Aveiro and told us very interesting facts about the architecture and history. We then spent around an hour at the beach with picturesque views of the spectacular ocean.

Then following a quick stop at the hotel we went to visit the ‘Cave Messias’. In these caves they produce local wine and we were shown all of the stages of production. After the tour we had dinner at the caves and really enjoyed meeting people from other countries and making new friends.

Kezia

Jay

James

Abbie

Comenius trip 3 Day 1 - Visit to The Bussaco Palace and Forest.

The Professional school Melehada, we had our picture taken as a group in front of the schools Comenius board which contained information about each nations participation in the project. The presentation's then followed with each country giving us an insight in to their holidays and celebrations which we all found very informative.
Whilst everyone was in the auditorium two of the schools older students demonstrated to everyone a dance. It incorporated traditional Portuguese and also flamenco dancing. They were both fantastic performers and it was clear from the audience's reaction that everybody was very impressed!
After lunch we went on a coach journey to Bussaco Forest and Palace. We had a guided tour around the forest and it was very interesting to find out the number of different species of trees, plants and animals there were. We also planted a tree when we were in the forest to commemorate the comenius project.
To finish our day, we went back to the school and was treated to a performance by a local traditional folk dance group. Their unique dances gave us a greater understanding of pastimes in Portugal. We were also given an oppurtunity to join in alongside the dancers which was a very interesting experience.
James, Jay, Kezia and Abbie...Keep following for more to come...we have a slow internet connection but will keep you posted when we can....