P y h ä j o e n K u u l u m i s e t – 2 8 . 3 . 2 0 15 sivu 5

BY BIANCA RASMUSSEN, DENMARK,

WITH LEFTERIS TRAMBAS, GREECE,

AND BIANCA VANNUCCI, ITALY

Bright lights. Glass walls. Flas-hes of Facebook on the Mac-book screens. We're on the second floor of Ørestad Gym-nasium in Copenhagen, atten-ding math class with our host. It's all still so new - the open spaces, the relaxed atmosphe-re, calling the teacher by her first name. Looking around the classroom, we notice that eve-rybody is looking down at their screens. The teacher is explai-ning something in danish, which kind of sounds like a less brutal version of German, sprinkled with french. Apart from her voi-ce, all that can be heard is the sound of about 300 fingers tapping on their respective keyboards, apparently listening and taking notes about linear functions.

During the break we go to the banister of the huge beautiful staircase. It really is magnifi-

cent - how you manage to drag yourself up and down those stairs every day is beyond us. We seldom have more than two floors, since we are only about 300 students at our respective schools. Everybody gathers along the banister and conversation starts floating off into the open space above the canteen. The air is filled with the sound of funny non-rolling r’s that you somehow produce at the back of your throats. One of the danish students tells us about Ørestad’s famo-us fire alarms as we watch the other classes slowly filing out of their class cages. We have come to learn that breaks are meant for your favorite hobby: people-gazing. “What is that guy doing?”, we ask our host, and point at a guy in one of the Fatboys. “I think he’s doing homework”, she says after a while. “Or sleeping, you know, whatever.” It is really amazing to us how free you are - both with all the open learning areas, but also when it comes to the choices you have and what is

expected from you at school.

It seems like Ørestad Gym-nasium is like the synonym to freedom and modern teaching. You guys have access to so many things - Laptops, media equipment, more than three bathrooms (!!) and a world full of information right at your fin-gertips. Even the subjects that you are bad at, you can choo-se at a lower level and focus on your favorite subjects instead. Imagine that! It’s like taking a time machine into the future.

The teacher calls us back in and gives the class some math problems to solve. With the help of our host’s translations we solve most of them by the end of the lesson. Surprising-ly the class is not given any homework. The rest of the students seem oddly relaxed, considering they have been working intently on solving math problems the past half hour. Or what? As perfect as Ørestad Gymnasium looks, it almost seems like your society

gives you... Too much freedom. You guys have all the means to study, endless possibilities and wonderful, interested teachers, but somehow it seems like you don’t fully realise and appre-ciate how lucky you actually are.

Of course too much freedom is a luxury we wish we had. Øre-stad Gymnasium is like a dream come true for us - it’s going to be hard to return back home. Free WiFi really grows on you. And that "flæskesteg" thing? Delicious.

Hopefully we can learn from your ways of thinking, and you can learn a bit from ours as well.

Thank you for hosting us all - it has been a wonderful experi-ence. We think we have enough selfies to last us for some time now.

But hey, the whole “school-without-paper”-thing? Nice try. We saw it! You’re officially busted.

THE SCHOOL WITHOUT PAPER

A.V.I.T.A.E

A.V.I.T.A.E

BY: MEAVE BUCHIGNANI & SOFIE BRØ-

BECH HEDAM HANSEN

Thanks to this AVITAE project we have gotten to know many different people from all over Europe and made enough me-

mories to last us a lifetime.

Getting to know each ot-her through group work.

When we first got to the airport we only knew about

each other and the only thing we knew was more or less our names. On Monday though, thanks to our Index group work sessions, we have come to know not just each other, but some-one from every country. In the groups you needed to talk with

AVITAE – A LOT MORE THAN AN INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCE

someone you have never met before and we had to find a way to get our heads together and fix the problems in front of us. At first it was hard. Everyo-ne had their own opinion, their own idea, of how the problems should be fixed. But we found

our way around it by discussing our different ideas, and at the end we found a solution eve-ryone could agree with. Thanks to the group work we have gotten more and more friends. The very first evening we were out for dinner with the entire Italian group, both guests and hosts, but the next days we were all hanging out together. An example could be our little trip to McDonald’s on Wednes-day night, after our din-ner at Riz Raz. There we were people from Den-

mark, Italy, Spain, Finland and Greece, just enjoying each ot-hers company. We laughed a lot and took many great pictures. Even on Thursday night, when there was an orientation night at school, where everyone could come and see if Ørestad Gymnasium was the school for them. All of us people from the AVITAE project stayed toget-her and joined the fun, while all the hopeful Danes were going up and down the stairs getting the true Ørestad experience.

Learning through our new connections

We do have to say though, that also getting to know each other we learned new things thanks to the Index groups. We really got to know how to sol-ve problems and be innovative. We also learned how to brand and how to promote ideas to our target groups. But what

we learned wasn't just school related. We learned about new cultures and countries, and off course some new words in all of the different languages. The Italians learned danish, the Danes learned Greek and so on. We tried learn each other some useful things to say, but they were not the things that we remembered the next day. Tho-se were usually the swearing words and funny sentences.

Thanks to the Index sessions and all of our many new expe-riences from this week at Øre-stad Gymnasium, everyone is now talking to everyone. The first day you wouldn't have seen a group with people from 7 different countries, but now you can easily spot a girl from Spain talking to a guy from Ita-ly or a Slovakian sharing their food with a Dane.

Spring 2015

P y h ä j o e n K u u l u m i s e t – 2 8 . 3 . 2 0 15sivu 6

Denmark

Saccharomyces Carlsbergen-sis is a yeast used to produce lager beer, and was discovered by the Dane Emil Christian Hansen during the time he wor-ked at the brewery Carlsberg Bryggeri. This type of yeast was bottom-fermenting, which means that it sinks to the bot-tom of the beer when the fer-mentation is finished, and takes place at quite a low tempera-ture, 5-15 C. Saccharomyces Carlsbergensis is now used at breweries all over the world.

Spain

The expansion of the telepho-ne started in Spain (between 1877 and 1924), after being late with the expansion of other inventions like the railway and the telegraph.

Finland

The meeting of estates, where they decided to tie ‘the Finnish markka’ (= the currency before the euro in Finland) to gold.

Greece

The Hellenic Red Cross is being founded by Queen Olga.

Italy

The so-called “Coppino Law” (after the name of the propo-sing Minister) makes education

compulsory for children aged from six to nine all over the Ita-lian kingdom.

Slovakia

It was time of national move-ment, one of most important poets and national revivalist Janko Matúka died

1877 AD

Denmark

Nothing specific happened this year, but it was the time of the Vikings in Denmark. We raided several cities in count-ries like Ireland, Great Britain and the Netherlands. The Vi-kings invented and built many different types of ships, that enabled them to travel to dis-tant places, even as far as the USA.

Spain The Emirate of Córdoba, in

Al- Andalus was ruled by Abd al-Rahman II. He was an eru-dite man. Between 833 and 834 he extended the Mosque of Cordoba, a masterpiece of art and splendour.

Finland

Vikings traveled along coast of Finland to bring for examp-le weapons wealth to Finland. and after that go to Russia.

GreeceThe Byzantine emperor,

Theophilos , a great Christian and fervent iconoclast, dec-lared Ioannis Grammaticus as archbishop, who lead to the resolution of the issue.

Italy

Lothair I, son of the Carolin-gian emperor Louis the Pious, is king of Italy. In northern Italy and Tuscany there is evidence of organized estates, where te-nants also had to work without pay on the lord’s demesne, an area whose produce went en-tirely to the lord. They produ-ced a sizable agricultural surp-lus, which the estates’ owners often sold in the cities.

Slovakia

Two big Principalities were connected, Moravian principa-lity and Nitra principality and the Great Moravia was crea-ted. It was the first major Slavic state at all.

833 AD

Denmark

In 1918 an electoral system was introduced in Denmark and also this year the first wo-men in Denmark were elected for the Danish Government. Danish women had only got-ten the right to vote a few years before, in 1915.

Spain There was a very

important epidemic, known as the Spanish flu. The number of dead people in Ger-many, Britain France… was minimised, so that the soldiers’ morale wouldn’t be affected. As Spain wasn’t at war, the number of dead people was announced freely, that is why it is

known as the Spanish flu.

Finland

The previous year Finland became inde-pendent.Civil war in Finland. The reds and the whites (the So-cialists and the Right-wing) fought. The Right wing won.

Greece

A truce is being sig-ned in salonica bet-ween the Allies (Triple Entente: the UK, Fran-ce, Russia) and Bulga-ria. The Bulgarians are obligated to withdraw their troops from the Greek and Serbian grounds.

Italy

the “Manifesto of the Italian Futurist Party” is published. Trade Unions (FIOM) obtain the reduction of working hours to 8 for metalworkers. The ILVA Steel Company is founded. 375,000 Italians die of Spanish Fever.

Slovakia

The establishment of the Czechoslovak Re-public. The Czecho-slovak declaration of independence was proclaimed on Octo-ber 28 in Prague. The establishment of the Constitution of 1920 installed a parliamen-tary system and repre-sentative democracy.

1918

Denmark

In this period of time (Pre-Roman iron age) in Denmark the people discovered bog iron, and they started to use the material to make stronger and better tools and weapons - thereby the name of the period. Around 500 BC, the first villages were founded in Denmark.

Spain

After Carthage’s defeat at the hands of Rome in the first of the Punic Wars, 265-241 BC. Carthagecompensated for its loss of Sicily by rebuil-ding a commercial empire in Hispania.

Finland

In Finland we learnt to make items from iron, for example weapons and

Greece

Eumenides I, the ruler of Per-gamum , in Asia Minor dies. He freed Pergamum and rebuilt it. Parallelly, the 3rd Syrian war between the successors of Alexander the Great, Seleu-cids and Ptolemies ended.

Italy

the First Punic War ended. The Romans strategically defeated the Carthaginians. Thanks to this victory they built their first fleet and started to travel and trade through the Mediterranean Sea.

Slovakia

Significant flow of Celts into Carpathian hollow

241 BC699 BCDenmark

In Denmark from around 1700 BC.-700 BC, we have bronze-age.

The raw material of bronze as well as gold and other objects found in Denmark testify to long-distance trade network especially with eastern Europe, Mediterranean and Southern Germany. This change in this period regarding agriculture, trade, religion, techniques for building boats and more, even though the metal bronze is too soft for making real tools.

After the bronze-age follows the iron-age (500 BC-800 A.C.). Iron is hard enough to be use for tools and weapons, and thus changed peoples everyday life. A number of innovations occurred during this age, one of the most interesting is the bog iron.

Spain

Phoenician traders settled in the mining areas of what is now Almería and Granada (south of Spain).

Finland

Finland got cultural influence from Russia and Sweden.

Greece

The defeat of the Spartans by the people of Argos in the battle of Ysia. Also Peisistratos becomes the archon of Athens.

Italy

In the VII century B.C. the Et-ruscan civilization developed in the centre of Italy, spreading an innovative culture that was in-fluenced by many contacts with other Mediterranean popula-tions, like the Hellenics, Magna Grecians and Phoenicians.

Slovakia

Slovakia began to develop ex-traction of iron, gold and salt. For the first time there was appeared a potter’s wheel ap-peared.

1543 AD

Denmark

Nothing specific happened in 1543, but in 1546, Tycho Brahe was born. Brahe was an astronomer, who ended up changing our perception of the universe and his discove-ries about the constellations are still used today. He built a lot of groundbreaking instru-ments and both Newton’s and Kepler’s work was heavily influenced by Brahe’s disco-veries.

Spain

There was a Naval battle

in Muros, on the Cantabrian Sea. Spain governed by Char-les I defeated the French and after that Spain got control of the Cantabrian Sea. 1881 Pablo Picasso, a very impor-tant painter and sculpturer, was born on 25 October in Malaga. His family was liberal people but very poor. They moved to France.

Finland

The first ABC book was pub-lished by Mikael Agricola. The ability to read became very common. It was the first Fin-nish book. Lutheranism also became popular.

Greece

Continuous piratical raids against the Ionian Islands.

Italy

Nicolas Copernicus publis-hed his treatise De Revolu-tionibus Orbium Coelesti-um (The Revolution )

Slovakia

Territory of Slovakia in Hun-garian Kingdom was occupied by the Turks. The Turks took and occupied Esztergom and the archbishop of Esztergom moved to Bratislava.

1881

Denmark

Around this time the Danes was producing milk but not anything further in that cate-gory. But then they started using new methods of how the processed the milk cultures. This started Denmark early success in export. This success happened because now the Danes could export not just milk, but dairy product such as cheese and butter.

Spain

Pablo Picasso, a very impor-tant painter and sculpturer, was born on 25 October in Malaga. His family was liberal people but very poor. They moved to France.

Finland

Railway network grew and Finland started to be indust-rialized.

Greece

Arta is liberated from the Turks. the river Aracthos forms the natural border between the free land and the part still under occupation. They had to wait until 1913 to be liberated too.

A.V.I.T.A.E

Slovakia

Slovak society Detvan in Pra-gue was foun-ded by Slova-kian students. The main activi-ties were cultu-ral and educa-tional, later also political.

Italy

The Gotthard tunnel is opened and new trade rou-tes are established. The first installment of C.Collodi’s “Sto-ria di un burattino”, the nucleus

of future novel “ P i n o c c h i o ” , comes out. An-gelo Giuseppe Roncalli (Pope John XXIII), and Alcide De Gasperi (Prime Minister in the aftermath of WWII and one of the founding fathers of the EU) were born.

THIS IS A TIMELINE

OF IMPORTANT DATES IN OUR PARTNER COUNTRIES. EACH COUNTRY CHOSE TWO DATES THAT ARE IMPORTANT TO THEM AND EVERY COUNTRY WROTE WHAT HAPPENED IN THEIR COUNTRY THAT YEAR. FOLLOW THE AR-ROWS AND YOU’LL GET THE DATES IN IN THE RIGHT ORDER. UNFORTUNA-TELY CYPROS WAS UNABLE TO PARTICIPATE.

P y h ä j o e n K u u l u m i s e t – 2 8 . 3 . 2 0 15 sivu 7

Denmark

Nothing specific happened in Denmark this year, but in 1340, Valdemar Atterdag was crowned king of Den-mark. Valdemar is remem-bered for his great efforts in uniting Denmark again, as it had been split up by his father. He made some harsh but wise decisions, which in the end were very beneficial for Denmark, and his clever way of trading and selling off parts of the land ended up securing Denmark as a nati-on.

Spain

James II , “The Just” was ruling Aragón, Valencia and Barcelona, one of the powerful kingdoms at that time. He conquered Sardinia in 1323.

Finland

The peace treaty of Päh-kinäsaari. The fighting bet-ween Sweden and Novgo-rod ended 12/8/1323 and Sweden Finland established its borders. The border went through Pyhäjoki.

Greece

The lighthouse of Alexan-dria, one of the seven won-ders of the ancient world, is being

Italy

Saint Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and the father of Medieval Scholasti-cism, is canonized by Pope John XXII

Slovakia

Fiscal and monetary re-forms of King Charles I

1323

Denmark

Skype, created by the Dane Janus Friis and the Swede Niklas Zennström, is a telecommunication appli-cation software, that enab-les users to make voice calls, video chats and send instant messages, including pictures and files, via the internet, free of charge. It runs on computers, tablets and mo-bile devices, and has helped connecting the world a gre-at deal, since it was the first software to offer video con-ference for free.

Spain

José María Aznar, the Spa-nish president supported the US invasion of Iraq, clai-ming there was evidence of nuclear proliferation in Iraq. Most of the Spanish popu-lation were against this war.

Finland

The mobile phone manu-

facture of Nokia was suc-cessful. It brought wealth to Finland.

Greece

1st January Greece takes over, for the fourth time, the Presidency of the Euro-pean Union.(Government of Konstantinos Simitis)

Italy

Gianni Agnelli, FIAT’s main shareholder, dies in Turin. In Rome 3 mln people de-monstrate against the war in Iraq, but the Parliament authorizes military interven-tion; so, 28 so diers are kil-led in Nassiriya-Iraq by a car bombing: it is the greatest attack to the Italian Army since the end of WWII.

Slovakia

Slovakia approves joining the European Union in a re-ferendum.

2003

1936 ADDenmark

We didn’t really have any inno-vative things in 1936, but in the year before, 1935, we finished the bridge called, the Little Belt Bridge. Now people could tran-sport themselves from Funen to Jutland.

In 1970 a new Little Belt Bridge was built. Today the Old Little Belt Bridge is still used mostly by light traffic, bikers and hi-kers.

Spain

1936: Spain was a republic at that time. A group of soldiers did a coup d’état and for this reason a Civil War began in Spain. General Franco won and Spain was under a dictatorship and isolated from the rest of Europe for about 40 years.

Finland

There was an election of par-liament. The Socialists and Ag-rarian Centre party succeeded well. Finland had co-operation between these blocks.

Greece

Ioannis Metaxas, with king

George’s II support, adjourns the Parliament and declares Greece a state of emergency. He held all power. It was a self-coup.

Italy

Cinecittà (the Italian “Hol-loywood”, in Rome), PUF (the Fascist Ministry of Propagan-da), the Rome-Berlin Axis and the FIAT car “Topolino” were born. Mussolini proclaims the birth of the Fascist Empire: King Vittorio Emanuele III be-comes Emperor of Ethiopia. An-tisemitic campain starts off in the journal “Il regime fascista”. Mussolini sends troops to sup-port Franco during the Spanish Civil War (10,000 men). Nobel Prize for literature Luigi Pirand-ello dies in Rome.

Slovakia

The first congress of Slovak Writers expressed fidelity to the “struggle for freedom and-great ideas of mankind”. Cong-ress was the most serious and the most important event of Slovak writers, scientists and journalists, which had an im-pact not only on the Slovak literature and culture, but also supported the struggle against the growing menace of fascism.

1496 AD

Denmark

In this period in Danish his-tory, the first Danish univer-sity was established in Den-mark, at first being run by the church, but this was the start of educating scholars and cre-ating innovations.

Spain

The Arabs surrendered Granada and handed the Alhambra to the Christians Kings, Isabelle I and Ferdinand of Aragon. It was the last pos-session of the Arabs in Spain, and its conquest meant the beginning of a great Empi-

re. The Canary Islands were conquered by these Catholic kings in 1496 too.

Finland

“Viipurin pamaus” was a big explosion, which scared Rus-sian soldiers when they were trying to conquer the city of Vyborg.

Greece

An attempt of the Greeks to revolt against the Turks under the leadership of the Dyrrachion archbishop, An-drea Palaiologo and in Epirus

and Thessaly by Konstantinos Arianitis. The Greeks were slaughtered and the country was looted.

Italy

Leonardo da Vinci unsuc-cessfully tries to make a flying machine work; in the same year he starts his “Last Sup-per”

Slovakia

Jan Thurzo built copper smel-ter factory for separation of copper from silver near Banska Stiavnica.

Denmark

The year 1185 the Danes led by King Knud the 6th finally conquered the Venders led by duke Bugislav after 85 years of war. We soon lost the area again, but the Danish kings kept the title “De Venders Fyrs-te”, in latin Rex Sclavorum until 1972 where Queen Margareth the 2nd was crowned. The title was only for kings, not queens!

In the medieval periode, a lot of changes took place, inno-vations in agriculture and the structure of society changed radically from the Viking age.

Spain

Abu Bakr Ibn Tufayl, an im-portant Muslim doctor, ast-

ronomer and philosopher from Andalusia died in 1185. He was a scholar, philosopher, ast-ronomer and physician.

Finland

Swedes made crusades to Finland. Finland became part of Sweden and they brought the Roman Catholic Church to Finland.

Greece

The second fall of Salonica by the Normans. Alexios Vranas Komninos defeated them in Di-mitritzi, near Amphipoli.

Italy

Frederick I, Holy Roman Em-

peror, also known as Frederick Barbarossa, once again moved into Italy, this time joining for-ces with the local rural nobili-ty to reduce the power of the Tuscan cities. His supporters became known as Ghibellines (Ghibellini) and were often those whose wealth was based on agricultural estates, whi-le the Guelphs supported the Pope and tended to come from wealthy mercantile families.

Slovakia

Hungarian monarch is Béla III invaded the Byzantine Empire. After Andronikos I fell in Sep-tember, Béla signed a peace treaty with the new emperor, Isaac II Angelos. Isaac married Béla’s daughter, Margaret

1185 AD

Denmark

In the start of the year 1200 a new important trading cent-re starts being used – the strait between Denmark and Sweden called Øresund. This trading centre gathered Tra-desmen from all of Northern Europe. This brought new product to Denmark and gave income to Danish King by sel-ling salted herrings and other Danish/Swedish products.

Spain

Maimonides was also an im-portant doctor and philoso-pher in the Middle Age. He was born in Al-Andalus. As he

was Jewish, he had to leave Al-Andalus. He died in Al-Fustat in 1204.

Finland

The Danes made a military expedition to Estonia and Fin-land. The pope gave them a permission.

Greece

The fall of Constantinople by the Crusaders. Directly af-terwards, Michael I Komnenos Doukas (a nobleman, relative of the emperor) founds a new state in the west with Arta as its capital.

Italy

The sack of Constantinople marks the end of the IV Cru-sade as well as the triumph of the Republic of Venice: from now on nothing will prevent Venice from dominating mari-time trade in the Mediterra-nean.

Slovakia

Ondrej II. became a king of Kingdom of Hungary. He was directly responsible for the beginning of the feudal anar-chy which led to the extinc-tion of the Árpád dynasty at the end of the 13th century

1204 AD

1957 ADDenmark

1957, First time Denmark competes in the Eurovision song contest. Denmark was the first Scandinavian country in the Eurovision. It has opened up for the cultural awareness of Scandinavia. By competing in the Eurovision song contest we have made Denmark more kno-wn all over Europe.

Spain

The last colonial war that Spain faced happened in that year. The newly independent Kingdom of Morocco wanted to control the northern part of Western Sahara, which was a Spanish possession. Spain left the area.

Finland

Jean Sibelius died. He was na-tional composer of Finland. He composed the Finlandia.

Greece

1957: On 13th February, at

noon, everything deadened in Greece as a protest against the British about their policy in Cyprus.

Italy

On 25th March 1957 two tre-aties were signed in Rome. The first gave birth to the European Economic Community (EEC), also known as the ’Common Market ’; the second was an ag-reement on the production of nuclear energy for civil use. The EEC changed the ways of trade across Europe by allowing the free circulation of goods among member States.

Slovakia

Antonin Novotny became a president. He was a hard-line supporter of Stalinism. In the Czechoslovakia of Novotny, people continued to face strict government regulations. A new fully Communist constitution was approved.

A.V.I.T.A.E

P y h ä j o e n K u u l u m i s e t – 2 8 . 3 . 2 0 15sivu 8

BY MARCUS AND MICHAL AVITAE-

ARTICLE30/1/15

Copenhagen is the city, whe-re it all started; it is the capi-tal of Denmark and the current host for the exchange-program Erasmus Avitae; a program made by a bunch of teachers to exchange young students from the countries of Greece, Den-mark, Spain, Italy, Slovakia, Fin-land and Cyprus to learn about other countries and their view on ancient entrepreneurship.

Michal was sitting on board of a plane to the Copenhagen Airport on the afternoon of the 25. January. Sitting there, he noticed things to every de-tail. That is to say that Michal is a blogger; he writes and ta-kes pictures on the subjects of travel, gastronomy and archi-tecture. Every time Michal goes to a new country, he creates ideas on how to enjoy the city as much as possible. Therefore Michal hopes for a city filled with astonishing buildings and delicious food – and of course a stable Internet access.

One hour later he landed on Danish ground and already met difficulties in the form of a cash-exchanging machine. The currency of Denmark is not euro, although Denmark is a member of the European Uni-on. But he managed it as best as he could. Then he was ready to enter Denmark.

As soon as he saw his host, he knew he was not going to be homeless for the week. Michal had to stay at this unknown host for 6 nights on a flat mat-tress. At first, it seemed to be very uncomfortable, but then it turned out to be a real ad-venture. In the daytime, he was out exploring Copenhagen, taking pictures as rabidly as a true tourist. With the school, he went to places that he had never seen; like Christianshavn, Roskilde or ‘The Blue Planet’: an aquarium of scale. Most of the touring were done out-doors in the January cold:

“The weather is smacking my face all the time, because it’s so windy,” he said after walking in Roskilde for several hours. But even though the weather made the trips difficult to enjoy, Michael felt compelled to the beauty of the old and historic architecture of the capital. He made many posts on his blog, capturing a lot of the modern buildings, the food and (of course) the Disney Shop.

It was the teachers from Ita-ly, who first came up with the idea for AVITAE, but after in-cluding teachers from other countries it involved into so-mething much bigger than what the Italian teachers expected. The project is therefore always evolving, making every plan al-ways changing. Every day was

like a surprise to the students, because they never knew how much the scheme would chan-ge. It was stressful and chaotic, but also a sign of how many ide-as, that emerged from all being together.

So when not exploring Co-penhagen, Michal had a great time at school. He was amazed of the style of the school and the special kind of educating. The program contained the main themes of innovation and entrepreneurship.

The students from all the countries had to collaborate in workshops, preparing prototy-pes of an innovative product. The teamwork went through multiple stages: creating the idea, making personas and even the branding of it. Michal made a telescope with his group; the idea was to show exchange-students an innovative product from the Renaissance. At last the product was presented to all the other classmates and te-achers.

The week went by quickly. Michal went home with a bag-gage full of new experience and social connections. He had learned a great deal of new in-formation on subjects such as Danish history, architecture and culture. Now he is looking forward to repeating it with the small difference of being host himself, when the AVITAE goes to Slovakia.

A PORTRAIT OF AN EXCHANGE STUDENT

A.V.I.T.A.E

Even though Greece and Den-mark are placed on the same continent and both are mem-bers of the EU, they are two completely different countries. The two countries, including others, met in Denmark for the Avitae project. In the following article there will be an interview with a Greek guy and his expe-rience with the Danish school ‘Ørestad Gymnasium’.

The first thing that popped in Stauros’ mind was “Am I in the right building? This is like a ho-tel!”. When he arrived at the gymnasium for the first time, he noticed the special design of the school and how the big stair combined the four floors. He was really surprised by the many different facilities, the school is offering their stu-

dents. The cafeteria, the open classrooms and the modern way of learning with iPads and computers. Stauros was impressed by the the school cafeterias’ capacity and its size. When the lunch bell rang, it was only in a mat-ter of second before the cafe-teria became full. Students who didn’t get a seat, had to find another place, to eat their food they bought in the cafeteria. The cafeteria was big, but it couldn’t hold all 1200 students and teachers.Later on, when Stauros was being shown around at the school, he saw a different way of teaching. He saw how the te-aching environment was desig-ned to improve the students' concentration and group wor-king skills. ”Oh crap” that was the first thing that flew out of

Stauros’ mouth when he saw the how the architects used glass instead of bricks to make walls. The open classrooms allow the students to work in groups and create something special and innovative,which haven’t been seen in Gree-ce before.All the students sat with their computers and ipads,instead of the traditional book and paper. In Greece,the main way of learning is by liste-ning to the teacher,but in Den-mark the new,innovative way of learning has taken its place and the students have to learn by doing. The Avitae project gives foreign young people the opportunity to explore a diffe-rent way of living, learning and of course meeting new people, from all over Europe.

GREECE-DENMARK

Tuesday the 27th, everyo-ne from the AVITAE program went to Christianshavn.

The students took the metro from Ørestad Gym-nasium at 2pm. They stood off at Christianshavn, whe-re they needed to wait for some people, who did not get into the metro, at Øre-stad. Klaus then told them about Christianshavn and how it was a man made is-land, by the Christian the 4th, or rather he made the command to make the is-land. The Students were taken to see two churches, befor going to the Danish national naval archive.

Then the students went to the Danish national na-val archive, where they only had 30 min to look through the museum. The students walked in groups, host with their guests. The museum held models of ships, old ship parts, and other things that had to do with the navy, from historical time, to the present.

One of the things the student saw, was this remarkable half finished ship. The Danes are good at building ships, which you can see from this model. Even Though the ship is only half finished, it’s still a great example for the Danish ship-building

Another thing the student saw was an old map of Copen-hagen, before it was as big, as it is today. As you can see it has this big wall around it, like a big fortress. The walls were necessary back then, because they protected the city from the invaders.

There was also this really im-pressive map of europe, that caught the students attention. It ’s done with remarkable accu-racy, especially considering the time it was done. It was used to travel through eu-rope back in the day. The map was a long process to do, because they needed to travel

along every coast to note how it was going.

Along the Museum there was an old cannon, which was the weapon they used for the ship, to attack other ships along the way. But this is a very old can-non, so it was only used on the wood ships, so it was long befo-re the industrial revolution.

The museum was very inter-esting, and it showed Denmark in prime time, when we ruled the seas, and when we had one of the strongest naval armies in the world. How the Danish people build the ships, and how they used them, how their har-bors worked, and everything they did with their ships, past and present.

THE DANISH NATIONAL NAVAL ARCHIVE

Made by Elias Hirvikoski and Jeremia Toppari from Finland.