No. 10

April 2016

Impressions from Lugoj

Inside this issue:

Impressions from Lugoj 1

Getting to know each other 2

At the University 3

A trip to the Danube 4-5

Visit to local companies 6

From classroom to stage 6

Timisoara, history & present 7

Let me begin this by telling

you that last week was one of the

most incredible weeks of my entire

life. The adventure in Lugoj began on

17th of April, with the arrival of the

almost 60 foreign students and teach-

ers in our city and, unfortunately

ended on 23th of the same month.

Even if the meeting was short,

it was enough for us to make some of

the most funny and beautiful memo-

ries in our lives. Together we didn’t

just work and share our knowledge in

different fields of economy, but also

we bonded

friendships

that will last

more than

just a week.

We

learned how

to be a team,

as we were

gathered in

mixed groups

with students

from every

country, we

also developed our social skills, but

most important we got to care about

each other. This meeting was also a

good opportunity for us to exercise

our English skills and to find out

what needs to be improved and also

some sort of knowledge quiz. All the

activities had an educational purpose

and were meant to teach important

and useful things in life.

The whole week was great, I

could say almost perfect, but we

know nothing is perfect, so all you

need to know is that I would like all

the weeks in my life from now long

to be like that.

Meeting people, beautiful peo-

ple and getting to know them and to

make memories that last forever

with them, see how many things

you can have in common with peo-

ple you’ve never seen before and

actually get to care about them in

such short time and remain friends

maybe for life, that is, from my

point of view,

one of the most

important

things in life.

I must con-

fess, the depar-

ture of the

teams was

deeply sad as

we had to say

goodbye to

each other af-

ter having such

an amazing

week together, but we were happy

to have met and certainly we will

keep in touch.

Raluca Trandafir,

Romanian team

Meeting in Lugoj—facts 8

International teams outputs

All days impressions

All activities described

P a g e 2 E S C A P E N E W S L E T T E R

„We had a lot of fun.

Moreover, the game

helped us build up

friendships”

Getting to know each other better

We started the

Escape journey in

Lugoj flying in the bal-

loon of jobs. We were

divided in six groups,

representing different

jobs: economists, sec-

retaries, cashiers, ac-

countants, PR experts

and editors.

Each group

consisted of six to eight

students from different

countries. We finished

together the definitions

of the jobs which con-

tained the letters of the

word ESCAPE. All the

jobs were related to

economy, which was the theme of our

project.

To get to know each other bet-

ter, we played a game which was called

Human Bingo. During this game we

managed to identify some characteris-

tics of our team mates. We had a lot of

fun. Moreover, the game helped us

build up friendships. Then we were

asked to build a paper-bridge together,

which taught us how to work as a team

and how to accept

the opinions of oth-

ers.

Later on

Monday, we had the

chance to know the

friendly mayor of

Lugoj. We met him

at the cinema and

we watched a short

movie about the

city. We also saw

that people in Lugoj

are happy because of

Pharrell Williams.

This is the

way we started our

unforgettable experi-

ence in Lugoj.

The economists

N O . 1 0 / A p r i l 2 0 1 6 P a g e 3

“We learned a lot

about products and

prices in the other

countries. ”

At the University

After lunch we went sight-seeing in Lugoj. Our guides, the Ro-manian students, showed us the city’s monuments. We were so ex-cited! The first landmark presented was Traian Grozavescu Theatre. This is a beautiful building close to

“C.Brediceanu” National College. After that, we went to see three stat-ues of important people who lived in Lugoj: Coriolan Brediceanu, Ion Vidu, Traian Grozavescu. We took a walk across the Iron Bridge and vis-ited some places next to it: the Or-thodox Church, the Greek Catholic Church, the electric clock, the statue of the man with the rifle, the city

hall.

Then we went to the Euro-pean University “Dragan” and the guide gave us a presentation of the place. But the main reason of our visit was to participate in the joint symposium “Local versus imported

products”. The students from the university offered a pres-entation of Lugoj from an economic point of view and then each team drew a comparison between the local and international products that can be bought in their countries. We learned a lot about products and prices in the other countries. At the end of the presentations, the guide showed us “Aula Magna” and the library of the university and told us a few things about them and about the creator of this place, the economist, jurist and philanthropist prof. Josif Constantin Dragan, PhD. Finally, we took a group photo in front of the university

and then we went to have dinner.

That was a promising, very

busy first day.

The secretaries

P a g e 4 E S C A P E N E W S L E T T E R

„Piatra Scrisa, a

monastery built on

the place where a

Holy Trinity painting

was discovered on a

rock“

A trip to the Danube

On Tuesday morning, on a cloudy and cold day, we started our trip to the Danube. A big bus and two minibuses gathered almost 80 ES-CAPE participants for their journey to adventure, history, geography, art and ... mechanics.

Our first stop was at Piatra Scrisa, a monastery built on the place where a Holy Trinity painting was discovered on a rock, while the workers were cutting the mountain to build the Caransebes -

Orsova railway. The builders adjusted the project and moved the tunnel a few meters to the west and, in 1929, a small chapel was raised to host the painting.

We left the European road E70

to enter Baile Herculane, a thermal

bath, officially certified in the Roman

age, under the name of Thermae Her-

culi (Ad Aquas Herculi Sacras).

Besides the high temperature of the

waters in this region, their chemi-

cal composition (containing sulfur,

calcium, sodium, chlorine and oli-

goelements), makes them very ef-

fective in the treatment of rheu-

matic, circulatory, respiratory and

digestive disorders. The traces of

the Roman aqueducts and statues

are still visible, but most of the impos-

ing buildings that are beginning to be

renovated were built during the Aus-

trian Empire, in the 18th century. Em-

perors and empresses visited Hercules-

bad for centuries. In 1852, the emperor

of Austria considered it “the most

beautiful spa on the continent” and

after spending an Easter week here,

Empress Elisabeth (Sisi) wrote a

charming description of the place in

her diary.

But our trip’s final goal was

the Danube, which we reached in the

afternoon. We spent almost an hour in

the Iron Gates Museum, where we saw

pictures and items collected from the

small island on the Danube called Ada

Kaleh, mostly populated by Turks,

island which was submerged during

the construction of the Iron Gates hy-

droelectric plant, in 1970. But after the

exploration of the past, it was time for

the present.

A trip to the Danube

P a g e 5 N O . 1 0 / A p r i l 2 0 1 6

„The big attraction

of the day was the

statue of Decebal,

the Dacian king who

fought the Romans.

It is the highest

stone sculpture in

Europe.“

We used the elevators to descend and

see the turbines of the hydroelectrical

plant and listened to the guide’s expla-

nations about technical parameters.

The Iron Gates hydroelectric

(Serbian Хидроелектрана Ђердап) is

the largest hydroelectric power plant

on the Danube River and has an in-

stalled capacity of 1080 MW. It is op-

erated in partnership with Serbia. The

Romanian and Serbian power plants

Iron Gates I cumulate 2160 MW,

while the Iron Gates II accumulate 500

MW. The maximum capacity of the

turbines is 8,700 m³ / s. Central Iron

Gates I is located 15 km upstream

from the town Drobeta Turnu-Severin

and the plant Iron Gates II 60 km

downstream.

Danube navigation is ensured

through locks made on both sides in

both goals. Together they have a han-

dling capacity of 52.4 million tons /

year for sluicing on one end and 37.2

million tons / year for sluicing both

ways.

The Iron Gate area has a rich

archaeological, historical and tourist

potential. To protect its natural habi-

tat, the region was included in the

Danube Gorge Iron Gates Natural

Park.

The big attraction of the day was the

statue of Decebal, the Dacian king

who fought the Romans. It is the

highest stone sculpture in Europe.

The philanthropist, businessman and

historian Iosif Constantin Dragan,

born in Lugoj, had the idea to pro-

mote and fund this work, performed

during 1994-2004 by 12 sculptors –

climbers that faced heights, heat and

vipers. Decebal's face is 55 m high

and 25 m wide.

Unfortunately, the engine of the boat

that had to take our big group on a

cruise on the Danube broke down, so

we had to postpone that adventure

for another visit.

The cashiers

The Romanian team

P a g e 6 E S C A P E N E W S L E T T E R

„we talked and

learned about

interesting topics,

and we were

informed about

nature problems.“

Visit to local companies

On Wednesday we visited two companies in Lugoj. First, we went to Honeywell where we saw the process of producing safety products. Honeywell is an American multi-

national conglomerate com-pany which produces engi-neering services and aero-space systems for a wide vari-ety of customers, from private consumers to major corpora-tions and governments. It in-novates and integrates thou-

sands of products and software and offers services to advance and more easily de-liver safe, efficient, productive and com-fortable transportation experiences worldwide. The company has a global workforce of approximately 130 000, of whom approximately 58 000 are em-

ployed in the United States. We were impressed by the number of employees there and their hard work. Then we visited a company called Mondial. It is a Romanian company which produces sanitary objects. It belongs to the German group Villeroy & Boch. The com-pany has the capacity of producing 1.25 million sanitary ob-jects a year. In 2004 it was the greatest producer of sanitary objects in Romania. Mondial offers sim-ple solutions through smart products for improving bathrooms.

It was a pleasure for us to see both

of these companies.

The accountants

From the classroom to the stage

On Wednesday afternoon our PR team had two lessons. The first lesson was held by the teacher Elisabeth Hasi-weder. We talked about what we need in order to set up a business. Firstly, we wrote our ideas on small cards and after

that we discussed them.

The second lesson was held by teacher Molnar Andras. This time we talked about the importance of bees and the alarming fact that they are disappear-ing. At the end of the lesson we had a quiz about the text we read. The teacher also brought Hungarian honey, so we

could taste it and notice the dif-ferences between this one and

other types of honey.

Other groups attended different lessons, about salt and its journey from the sea to the supermarket, about wine mak-ing, the fairness of the trade and

how crops get from the field to the market.

After these lessons, we had a great time enjoying the 4th edition of the talent show “Ourselves for our school”. This was a charitable event for collecting money and it was organised by the students of the National College “C. Brediceanu”. We were very excited about the perform-ance of this school’s students and their talents like dancing, sing-

ing and playing musical instruments.

To sum up, Wednesday was a good

day as we talked and learned about interest-

ing topics, and we were informed about na-

ture problems. In addition, we had the

chance to see many beautiful and talented

children of Lugoj and we also had fun. PR

P a g e 7 N O . 1 0 / A p r i l 2 0 1 6

„ visiting Timisoara

was quite an

interesting

experience for us“

Timisoara—history and present

Timișoara is the capital city

of Timis County, and the main social,

economic and cultural centre in west-

ern Romania. Timisoara is also known

as the city of roses and parks, and it is

very rich in vegetation, especially in

spring, when tulips abound. Some call it

little Vienna, because of the similar ar-

chitecture and the number of museums.

One of the largest Romanian cities ,the

third most populous city in the country,

with a population of 319,279 inhabi-

tants, Timișoara is considered the infor-

mal capital city of the historical region

of Banat. The city is a candidate to be-

come the 2021 European Capital of cul-

ture.

The first thing we visited was

the Maria Theresia Bastion. It was built

between 1730-1735 and is the largest

preserved piece of wall of the old citadel

of Timișoara. Today it is used as a pas-

sage, but it also houses commercial

spaces, restaurants, bars, a disco and a

library, and two permanent exhibitions

of the Museum of Banat: the Informa-

tion and Communications Technology

and "Violin - a passion for life". The

bastion is included on the list of histori-

cal monuments in the Timiș County.

Timișoara Orthodox Cathedral

left a lasting impression on us. The ca-

thedral is the seat of the Archbishop of

Timișoara and Metropolis of Banat. It is

dedicated to the Three Holy Hierarchs,

Saints Basil the Great, Gregory the

Theologian, and John Chrysostom. It

has 11 towers, of which the central and

the highest is 90.5 meters.

The Metropolitan Cathedral is

listed in the National Register of His-

toric Monuments. The cathedral was

raised between 1936 and 1941. The

building's style is Neo-Moldavian,

based on Romanian Orthodox,

late Renaissance, and Ottoman styles,

i n c l u d i n g e l e m e n t s s u c h

as niches under the eaves, ribbed

star vaulting in the interior,

and lacquered discs in a variety of

colors.

The Union Square is not only

the oldest place in Timisoara but the

most attractive as well. The place was

named Hauptplatz, Domplatz and

Losonczy. During the 18th century,

this was the city's commercial centre

and the venue for numerous military

processions and religious ceremonies.

In conclusion, visiting Timisoara was

quite an interesting experience for us

during which we had the great oppor-

tunity of learning more about Roma-

nia and its culture.

The editors

Meeting in Lugoj – facts

With the support of the Erasmus+

programme of the European Union

The European Commission support for the produc-tion of this publication does not constitute an en-dorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of

the information contained therein.

The 5th teaching / learning event of

the Erasmus+ project ESCAPE took place in

Lugoj, Romania, between the 17th and the 23rd

of April 2016. It included a short-term ex-

change of groups of pupils and a short-term

joint staff training event. There were 55 par-

ticipants: 14 teachers and 41 students from the

partner schools accompanied by 15 Romanian

teachers and 22 students from Colegiul Na-

ţional “Coriolan Brediceanu”.

The programme included activities in

school – group activities for students and

meetings for teachers, speci-

men lessons taught by partner

teachers and attended by par-

ticipating students, presenta-

tions of the students work, a

poster competition and sport

activities –, a guided tour of

Lugoj performed by Romanian

students, a visit to the European University

“Dragan” where a joint symposium was held,

visits to local economic objectives –

“Honeywell life safety Romania” and

“Mondial Lugoj” –, a meeting with the Mayor

of Lugoj, who described city’s present eco-

nomical situation, a documentation trip to the

Danube that included a visit to the “Iron

Gates” museum of the electric power plant

and a trip to Timisoara, where the participants

attended a guided tour presenting the centen-

nial history of the city and admired the begin-

ning of the flower festival

“Timfloralis”.

Thank you all for

coming! We’ll be happy to

host you again!

The Romanian team