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Comenius meeting in Venice
Venice. A city known as a destination for those interested in culture,
for romantics and posers, was host to the final Comenius meeting
from May 1st to 8th. The topic of this great event and the theme of the
project was Multiculturalism – the Wealth of Diversity.
With the best possible weather conditions delegations from Frankfurt,
Nikosia, Thassos, Huelva and Lübeck met in the lovely city of Venice to
present their final projects on the current topic of the Comenius idea.
While our teachers, Mr. Flittiger, Ms Wessin, Mr. Schulz and Mr.
Clement went to their hotel in the centre of Venice, our host students
Marco and Phillipo took us on a boat trip with one of their friends´
boats through Venice and the lagoon.
After such a nice welcoming trip we went to our host students` homes
and moved into our rooms, which were very well equipped: Marble
bathrooms and a view on the famous Rialto Bridge showed
that we were going to live in quite well-off furrier and glassblower
families.
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Basilica San Marco
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Doge's Palace
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Before the first meeting with the other participating delegations we
had the chance to see what Italian school is like. The scientifically
orientated Liceo Benedetti (Grammar School) located in the centre
of Venice surprised us with pure excathedra lecturing in pretty much
all subjects.
At the following first Comenius meeting we were shown the school
building with well-equipped computer- and Chemistry rooms and planned
our own presentations for Wednesday.
Many adventurous trips through the city gave us a hint of the flair of
this metropolis of culture. Wandering about the old town often
ended in a blind alley or at the bank of a canal or in complete
disorientation, which was worsened by the fact that we did not get
ourselves a sufficient map of the city until the third day of the stay.
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Venetian canal
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Typical venetian food
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Tuesday was the last day to prepare Wednesday´s presentation to
which important officials of the school authorities were expected to
come. In addition to that we were invited to the Townhall by a
representative of the town of Venice, who showed us around the ancient
town hall and gave us a warm welcome and many interesting information
about the city itself.
On top of that we got the chance to see an exhibition of Charles
Darwin and his theory of the evolution of species in the UNESCO
Building where Marco`s mother worked.
At night the teachers and organizers of the Comenius meeting met in a
traditional restaurant to socialize. The students at the same time met
at a popular pizza place and got to know each other.
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Greek students at a pizza place
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Pizza Frutti di Mare
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On Wednesday the presentations started at 10 o`clock in the aula of
Liceo Benedetti.The headmistress of the school welcomed all
participants of the project. Unfortunately in Italian.
Despite some technical problems the following three hours were filled
with lots of information about projects in Comenius schools like the
situation of foreign workers on a Spanish strawberry field, the history
of the Armenian people in Venice, and the influence of the Turkish
language on Greek .
After the presentations there was a huge buffet waiting for the audience and the exchange of gifts was carried out.
In the afternoon the whole group went on a trip to the Armenian island
of Lazaro a few kilometres from the town center of Venice. A guide told
us about the history and the religion of this minority.
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| Armenian island San Lazarro |
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The last evening with the other
participating students was spent on the Piazza de San Margharita where
young Venetian people meet and socialize. Eating nice Pizza and
drinking Spritz, a traditional Venetian beverage, we talked about the
impressions gained and good or bad experinces made.
The following day we left Venice in the afternoon with temperatures around 30° and a cloudless sky.
To put it all in a nutshell we had an interesting week full of
informative meetings with many nice people. This week will surely not
be forgotten.
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Students from Frankfurt, Cyprus, Greece and Luebeck at Liceo Benedetti
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Sven Mühlschlegel and Felix Mohr
May 27-2009
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