Slovakia2010-11

MEMORY 2011 SLOVAKIA-IRUN

Slovakia

Friday, March 18th

We woke up at 6 o’clock. We put the last thing in our suitcases and we put them in the car.

We had to meet at 8 o’clock at the airport. We were very nervous, and after saying goodbye to our families we took the first plane to Madrid. We arrived at 10.30 more or less. It was a good flight. But we had to spend 6 hours at Barajas airport.

We ate in the McDonalds; some students, such as Beñat, bought six hamburgers because he was hungry. Then, since we didn’t know what to do, some students filmed a video with a trolley running through Barajas. Other ones went shopping in the airport or walked around.

We took the last plane to Vienna at 4 o’clock more or less, and we flew for 3 hours. We arrived at 7-8 and it was already night in Austria. After eating in the McDonalds, again, we took the bus which brought us to Namestovo. We spent 5 or 6 hours on the bus, a very long time where we slept a lot. It was snowing.

Finally we arrived at school at 2 o’clock, after midnight. We met our partners at the school and then we went to their houses to meet the families, and as it was very late we went to bed as soon as we arrived. We had a very tiring Friday.

Saturday, March 19th

We woke up at 9 o’clock and we had breakfast. Then we talked more than the day before with the family; some students met their partners’ little brothers and sisters, because the day before they were sleeping.

Afterwards we went with our partners to get to know their village. Some students went to a cottage. Others went shopping, others met people from there and their partners’ friends. Others played ping-pong and basketball.

Then we went back to have lunch, and we ate a lot, because Slovakian people like eating a lot, they were always eating cucumbers.

In the afternoon some people went shopping in a commercial center near Namestovo, where they bought some presents for their families. Others hung out with their partners’ friends, meeting more people and talking about their life and learning Slovak.

Some people went to play paint-ball in the forest, it was really great, and everyone had a great time.

After having a shower and dinner, very early, we went to Namestovo to meet people from there, and our partners’ friends in a bowling club. Then we went to the best pub of Slovakia, Fino, and we met a lot of Slovakian people there. Then we went to other pubs like Chaika or Musa. Finally, we went back to home to rest.

Sunday, March 20th

It was our second day in Slovakia and visiting the Polish salt mines was the first activity all the group did together. The Basque students were nervous and we really wanted to meet again and speak about what we did the day before.

The day started when we met at Namestovo’s school. After a few minutes commenting on our first impressions about the ‘extrange’ customs of this far away country, we started the trip to Poland. It was about one hour and a half in the bus, and each Basque student had to sit near his Slovakian partner. At first, the idea of sitting so long in a bus trip near a boy or a girl who was from the other side of the world was frightening, we thought this could be boring because we didn’t know anything about their country and their traditions, and we really didn’t know what to speak about!! Then, we understood that this was a way to get to know our partner better, and to learn a lot of interesting things about Slovakia. In spite of all this, some people spent the entire trip sleeping, because we had to wake up very early!

We arrived to Poland and we were waiting to enter in the cave. Our new Slovakian friends told us that the mines were very nice, and when we saw it we

understood it. We walked down 54 flights of stairs and we were tired when we arrived at the lower level. Inside the mines we found very big rooms where important classical music groups used to play. There were also rivers and we crossed bridges one hundred meters underground! For me the best of these mines was that you could taste the walls, and they were salt! We left the cave using a very fast lift.

When we were outside the mines again, we ate a packed lunch. Then, we went to Krackow. There, we had free time around the city and we discovered that it was a very interesting place. We saw a very big castle and a dragon figure which spit fire!

This was the end of the day because after that we went back to Namestovo and we had lunch.

Monday, March 21st

We started the day at 5.30 in the morning. The sun was already shining, we had breakfast and we got ready to go to school. We had to take the bus very early because we had about a 45 minute trip from our houses to get to the school.

When we arrived at the school they gave us a little presentation. Then, they showed us the school and its grounds. They had very strange animals, like a snake. After this we went to have lunch in the school canteen at 11 o’clock. To drink, they only had a strange water with flavour, it was disgusting.

In the afternoon, we went to see the Orava dam, it was a bit boring and the smell was awful. When we finished this we took the bus and we went to the Orava Castle. It was a castle built in the 13th century and it’s considered one of the most beautiful castles in Slovakia. We entered and we had a guided visit through the old building. They told us a story about a crazy ghost that lives in the castle. From inside the place was very beautiful and big.

Then we returned to Namestovo and we had the rest of the day free. Most of the people stayed in Namestovo and went to different pubs like Fino, Mussa and Cuba or had something to eat in the pizzeria. But some others went to walk around Mutne but it was very dark and there weren’t lights, so it wasn’t a very good idea.

Tuesday, March 22nd

The day we went to Auschwitz:In the morning we went to school to take the bus. In the bus we were speaking

about Auschwitz; some people wanted to go because they thought that it would be interesting, but there were others who didn’t want to go because they thought that it was going to be hard. It was a long trip of 3 hours.

When we arrived, we ate some food for lunch and we took photos of the entrance of Auschwitz. In the entrance there was an inscription saying “ARBEIT MACHT FREI” which meant “the work will give you the freedom”.

After that, we went inside the first Auschwitz’s concentration camp. A guide explained to us the history of the camp and the life there. They lived in bad conditions and they hadn’t enough food. There weren’t beds for the prisoners and they used to sleep in bunkhouses like animals all together.

In the museum we saw a lot of belongings of the prisoners. It was so impressive and hard because the things had belonged to people who had been killed; also children’s shoes, clothes, toys,…

We saw the place were the Nazis executed people. The front of the builiding was full of flowers and was soulful. Some people cried there, it was an emotional moment.

In one of the buildings there were pictures of all the prisoners during the first part of the Second World War. The pictures were sad because the people looked tired and because we knew that these people suffered.

At the end of the visit we saw the gas chambers. We saw the evolution of them from the beginning to the end.

Then, in the afternoon, after visiting the main camp of Auschwitz, we went to another concentration camp. The name of this smaller camp was Birkenau.

There, a guide explained to us the history of that place: who lived there and in what conditons, what they did there… Then, the guide left us free to see the electrified fences (although nowadays they are not electrified) the huts, and inside them, the beds where they slept…

Seeing all these things, the sensation which we had when we were inside the camp was very strange. We felt like a prisoner

because the atmosphere was very sad and quiet, and because we knew what happened there. So taking into account the atmosphere and the knowledge we had about the site, all of us felt sad and uncomfortable.

When we finished visiting it, we took the bus to come back to Navestovo. During the trip in the bus, we sat with our partners to continue improving our English level. It was a long trip so some of us fell asleep. Meanwhile, the others were talking and having fun. We arrived at 5’clock more or less, and each student went with his partner to have dinner at home. The dinner was the worst thing of Slovakia, especially for the girls, that’s why they didn’t eat too much.

After having dinner, as always since we were in Slovakia, we met in a pub called Fino, although some of us went to another town to a swimming pool. There, in the pub, we played some games like chess, bloody coin… and we ate some pizzas and sofokolas because they were vey cheap and they were something new. When we were too tired to continue in the pub, we went home at midnight.

While some people were in the pub, the others were in the swimming pool. We had to take a bus because it was in another town. When we arrived, we waited for 30 minutes until the pool was opened. When we entered, we were surprised because it was one of the best swimming pools we had ever seen. It had some water slides, bubbles, jacuzzis…We had a very pleasant experience there, and after having shower, we had to run to take the bus because we didn’t have enough time to catch the bus we wanted. After taking the bus, everyone went home.

Wednesday, March 23rd

The morning was normal, we woke up at 7 o’clock to go to the school. We had breakfast and if we had time, we took a shower. Then, some of the students who lived near the school, met to go together to school. The other students went by bus or car. When we arrived at school we all met together in a classroom to prepare the “Sing a song” competition. That competition consists of the students have to prepare a song to sing and dance. They have to wear clothes whose meaning are has to do with the song. Then, there is a winner and they gave a cake and a diploma to that group.

In this competition we had to sing “Dynamite” song. The teachers gave us the lyrics and we learnt it. Then, we went to the auditorium and we sat down in the seats to watch the other groups, they all did it very well. It was our time, we were very excited. We began singing “Dynamite”. Then we sang “Macarena” and finally, “Alcohol”. Then, they gave the prize to the winners and unfortunately we didn’t receive any prize. But it was another opportunity to win the prize, because there was another competition for the older students. This time, we were motivated and

we sang the same songs and “Danza Kuduro”. We won a chocolate cake!When the competition finished, we went to have lunch, but we didn’t eat

anything, because the lunch was really bad. We bought a pizza. The afternoon was free. We did different activities, such as going home or shopping, watching a football match

or their partners dancing. Finally, we met in several pubs to get to know more people and to have fun.

Thursday, March 24th

We met at the school at eight o’clock.

Then, the Slovakian people organized workshops for us. We were divided in 4 groups, and each group went to a different workshop. While some people were taking a Salsa class, other people made biscuits. And when some people were decorating eggs in their typical way, other people did figures with fimo, like earrings, wrist bands, pins, etc. When we finished doing 3 workshops, we went to have lunch in the school canteen more or less at 11.30. After that, each

group went to finish the last workshop.

At 13:00 the Slovakian people took us to buy some presents or souvenirs for our parents, friends, etc. Later, each person on their own bought something to eat or went to eat something in a restaurant.

At four o’clock, we met in the school again because the Slovakian people had prepared some shows for us. The two bands of the school played their music, the theatre group did some short plays, one of them was about “Friends” the TV show, another was about problems in a office, etc. Kristina and Andrej, two Slovakian people danced salsa with us and finally, some Basque people played a song and the other people went to the main stage to dance and sing. But while we were dancing and singing Maialen Oiartzun, one Basque student, hurt her back and she went to the hospital with one Basque teacher and two Slovakian teachers.

At six o`clock we met in a restarurant called “Oravia” to have dinner with the parents of the Slovakian people. It was buffet so we could eat what we wanted. After that, at night, everyone met in some pubs of Namestovo and they introduced us to new people.

Friday, March 25th

Friday was the last day so everyone was very sad that we had to leave. We had to wake up very early because we had a long bus ride from Namestovo to Vienna, where we had to catch the plane. After a full day of travelling, we arrived back in Irun, where our friends and family were waiting for us at the airport.

The Basque Country

Saturday, April 2ndThe Slovakian students arrived at 9.15 at Bixera. We took them to our

houses so that they could leave their lugagge and then we climbed San Marcial mountain so they could see the landscape. Some of us went to Ola Sagardotegia for them to try a traditional restaurant with our pintxos. Then we had lunch. In the evening we took the bus at Zabaltza plaza and went to Hondarribia and had a walk from the Puntal to the beach. That was a special moment in their lives because they saw the sea for the first time. Some of them cried some tears. We went to a candy shop so they could buy something

to eat. They bought sweets and they yelled it was really cheap!

Afterwards, we walked to the beach. Some of them cried again and because of their strong feelings and emotions, some of them went into the sea wearing all their clothes. We all were scared and surprised. We shouted at them saying they were mad. Their answer was ‘I’m not crazy this is the only time I will be in Basque (sic)’.

After being wet enough, we ran to the bus station because we almost missed the bus! We had dinner at home and some of us walked to Hendaya, and some others took the train, where some bands were playing concerts. That was awesome, they enjoyed it. Some of the ones who went to the concerts went up to the stage while the band was playing. Meanwhile, most of the Slovakian students went with their partners to Hondarribia, to Lekuona. They got bored because they were so stubborn that they didn’t want to go to the concerts. The Slovakians were tired and didn’t want to go partying. They just sat on the floor and let time go faster. At midnight we went back home.

Sunday, April 3rdSunday morning was really difficult for the Slovakian students because

while some of them were having a long nap, others were awake and watching football matches and doing different activities Basque people do on the weekends. After having a hot debate in Tuenti, we finally decided to go to Txuri Urdin so they could ice-skate and show us a little bit of their techniques. Some of us, honestly, preferred to go to Anoeta because Real Sociedad was playing.

Something horrible happened while ice-skating. Ivana fell down suspiciously and broke her leg. The Slovakian students quickly phoned their teachers to tell them about the situation. Her leg was broken. She was attended by some guys in the building until Esther arrived in her car. After she was taken to the hospital, we went home and watched El Conquistador Del Fin Del Mundo. The Slovakian students got angry because they wanted to go partying but that’s not possible here because we only party in festivals. Finally we went to bed and dreamt about the coming week.

Monday, April 4th

On Monday, we went to school for the first time and the History group did the presentation about our geography, history and language. After that, we ate something at school and then we took the bus to go to the train station.

When we arrived in San Sebastian, we started visiting the city. First, we saw the Kursaal and Zurriola Beach. Then we crossed the Boulevard and we arrived at Concha beach. There we had an hour and a half for lunch.

After the break, we went to Ondarreta beach and to the Comb of the wind. We stayed there for a while and after that, we went up to Igueldo Mountain by funicular. There, we enjoyed the amusement park and we had something to eat.

After taking again the funicular to go down, we decided to see the centre of the city. There, we saw the cathedral, we walked into the old part, we went shopping to buy some souvenirs…

And after visiting the old part, we went to San Martin shopping centre, where we spent the rest of the afternoon. Then, we took the train to go back to Irun and we went to another big store, Mendibil.

We didn’t know what to do at night so we decided to have dinner in Burger King instead of going home. We spent a nice night there and at half past ten, we went home to sleep.

Tuesday, April 5th

We woke up at 6:30, had breakfast and went to school. We arrived at school at 7:50 and until the folklore presentation started we were with our school friends. The presentation started at 8:15 and it was about an hour. We learned a lot of things about Basque music styles like ska,

traditional, pop, heavy, punk and rock, dances for each one of the Basque provinces, instruments that during the presentation we played and saw , and clothes that some of us wore to show them. Then we did a small Basque dance class in the gym with the help of Joseba Aurkenerena and for some of the Slovakians it was a little bit difficult because they never had done it.

After that we took a bus at 10:30 to see a Basque museum in Baiona that was so interesting with paintings and old Basque things. We finished at 13:00 o’clock more or less and we had free time to have lunch and visit Baiona, a beautiful place, until 15:00 o´clock. Then we went to Biarritz by bus and stayed there about 30 minutes. We loved it because the views were so amazing. And to finish the excursion we went to Hendaya’s beach and we spent the afternoon there. For some of the Slovakian people it was the first time that they had gone swimming at the beach so it was a fantastic day because all of us were together and we had a great time. The day finished when we left the beach and went home.

Wednesday, April 6th

We arrived at school at 8:15. While the people from sports were preparing the presentation, the other people were waiting for the beginning of

the presentation in the school’s hall. The presentation was about three quarters of an hour and when it finished we all went to the school’s fronton to play some games we had prepared, like tug of war, cob gathering…

Later, we took a bus to Hondarribia. There, we saw a video about Hondarribia´s history and we started playing a game around the old part of the town. That game

was a scavenger hunt and we had to go filling in some blanks in the papers that the teachers gave us. The winner was the sports team and the prize for them was a lot of food. Since we were tired, the teachers gave us some free time to have lunch, be relaxed or to do whatever we wanted.

We went on a boat trip to see Txingudi´s bay from the sea. The guide was speaking in Basque, and then some volunteers from our school translated it to English so that the Slovakian people could understand. It lasted around one hour more or less and many people were basking in the sun.

When it finished, we went to the beach. There we divided into two groups, the first group playing American football and the second group lying in the sand and swimming in the Atlantic cold water. After, we went home, we had a shower, and we meet in Zaisa.

From there, we went to Xaia cyderhouse. We had a really nice dinner and after it, Joseba gave us a book with typical Basque songs and we started singing while a person from there was playing the “trikitixa”. We finished with some typical dances and we all went home.

Thursday, April 7th

Firstly, we went to school at 8 o’clock and we left all the food of the lunch there so that after we could take it to the gastronomy society. At 9 we took the bus and went to Astigarraga’s cider museum. There they showed us how to make cider and the different parts involved in making it. They also let us try some.

After at 12 more or less we went back to the school and took the food we had left before going to the museum. We went to the gastronomy society and the gastronomy group did their oral presentation, wearing their chef clothes. It was a really good presentation and everybody enjoyed it a lot. We were so hungry so we started preparing lunch. We had some salad first, spaghetti,

chicken and finally some tasty desserts. After, unfortunately some of us had to clean all the tuppers we had used, so that we could take them home and give the Slovakians some food for the journey.

After lunch, everybody went home to have a rest so that they wouldn’t be tired at night and then we met all together at the center of Irun to buy some presents for the Slovakian families.

We bought some things and after we took the bus to Hondarribia at 8. We had dinner and we went to the beach to have a little party for the Slovakians. Some of them got into the water which was really cold. They said it was probably the only time they were going to be in Irun.

In our opinion this they was the best day, because we had really good weather and we had a great time.

Friday, April 8th

This was the last day of the project with Slovakian people, and for us this was an unforgettable week with them.

We woke up very early this day, at 6:30 more or less, because they had to pack their suitcases and bring them to their bus. The night before we’d had a small, very fun party on the beach because we were all together dancing, singing, and so on, so we were very tired.

After they brought the suitcases to the bus, we went to our school as we did during the whole week to have the presentation of Feasts. We think this presentation showed them our traditional feasts in a very funny way because we wore some clothes in relation to the feasts. We also song all together some Basque Christmas and Drums Parade songs, we played San Martzial songs with some soldiers, we simulated the canticle of San Fermin with newspapers, and we saw some videos as examples of our feasts.

When we finished the presentation, we all took a public bus to go to the Oiasso museum. The people from Irun had already gone to this museum, but it was new for the Slovakian people. There they could see how our town was in the past, when the Romans were here. We had a tour around the museum, we saw a video and we made a small trip back to the past to see the Romans’ culture with their typical objects and instruments like vases, coins …

Then we had a little free time for the Slovakian people to buy some presents or just for sitting on a bench or in a park eating sweets and sunbathing, because it was a beautiful day with the sun shining. We had to go to the town hall at 12 o’clock for a meeting with our mayor Jose Antonio Santano. There, he gave a small speech to thank the Slovakian people for their visit here. The discourse finished when our town hall gave us some wonderful presents and when we took a photo for the “Diario Vasco” newspaper all together with the mayor, our school principal, the teachers…

Unfortunately, when we finished our visit to the town hall, it was time to say goodbye to our fantastic partners. The wait was very long for us because we didn’t want them to leave Irun and the bus was very late. Many people cried when the bus came and the goodbye was a very emotional moment. A small anecdote was that when the bus was going, we danced the Macarena because the Slovakians loved this song.

To finish, we want to thank you for the opportunity to do the Exchange because our two weeks with the Slovakians have been unforgettable. We have improved our English a lot and met some wonderful people. THANK YOU!