13th March - IW - The Last Day with The International Students

On Friday we made presentations and porfolios about the International week. We were pretty free in a way how to make that and each group took it different way - which was great!
We had a crossword, a performance with pictures, presentations, drawings, a bow with stuff, an internet-magazine...

At noon a very special occasion was happening in the college yard. The headmaster had 50th birthday and you know what? He decided to open a hot-dog- and a beer-stand for all students and teachers of the college...Unbelievable :-)
Danish flags couldn´t be missing on the birthday-day, of course. :-)
And I managed to get a picture of me, hot-dog and the headmaster :-)

After these hot-dogs we had a "farewell international lunch" together. Everyone should prepare or bring something typical from their countries - chocolate, cheese, drink, cake...whatever. :-) We filled our stomaches pretty much and we enjoyed it even more :-)



















Later on we went with some schoolmates to the Haderslev windmill and museum, it was beautiful sunny afternoon and we enjoyed taking pictures altogether there very much. :-)


We wanted to spend toghether as much time as possible, therefore we had also the last party at Christina´s flat. We enjoyed it very much (Mange tak, Christina!). And on the way home, I must confess, I felt so sad that I am not going to see most of the people any more... We just get used to all of the international students so quickly and now they are going to leave... So, saying Goodbye and "See you" was pretty difficult...

12th March - IW - Eurovision Song Contest

On Thursday evening we had a special funny competition called very suitably: Eurovision Song Contest.
First of all we started the eve with pizza - eating and chatting together :)
At 7 o´clock the competition started. We had 10 teams from the whole Europe and each country (or a same-language-country team) should introduce one song in their own language.
Honestly, we had really good performances!!! :)

First of all Jesper and Anders from Denmark started with a quitar-singing performance. It was very nice, although they were trying not to be too excellent at the beginning.

The second performance was a Norwegian pirate-song, very impressive and lively!

Our Czech team performed as the third. We had practiced it with piano before, but unfortunately the keyboard/synthetizer was not working... We were trying to set it, to make it working for quite a long time, but no chance... Suddenly, I saw a quitar in the corner. I made a quick decision - play the quitar instead the piano. I hadn´t played quitar for pretty long time, but that was the only way for our performance. I was rather nervous, but...I managed :) We sang "Hlídač krav" (Cow-keeper) by popular Czech song-writer Jarek Nohavica - with a lively performance of Míša and Vašek. :-) Pam pam pa dam pam pa dá da... :)

The four turn for was the Belgium-Dutch team and they showed us a funny Dutch song with jaunty hats :) You can see, how happy Anja is with her Dutch-speaking friends ;)

Then very brave and sanguine Rikke heated up the publicum even more. The atmosphere during the whole contest was really great!

Sixth performance was very hot and spicy Hungarian show. WOW!

...The judges...and essential "hygge", of course ;)

Polish girls sang us more Polish peaces - very vital ;). Gosia even sat to the drums and showed us her skill. Thumbs up!

Duarte and Joana from Portugal made a lot of fun. When they forgot the lyrics of the song, they promptly invited our judge Jette and Aleix from Spain for a dance :)))

The Spanish team was unforgetable - these three guys had always a lot of pleasantry and frisks in stock :)

The German-Austrian team performed us a fairy-tale - could you guess which one? :)

And the last-performing team was Turkey - with a traditional short-skirt dance ;)

"Tak" to everyone!

The judges had very hard job to decide which team is the winner. They made 14 categories - therefore in the end each team was appreciated for a way of their uniqueness. ;)
And the total winner was....?
HUNGARY! :)
In my opinion it was a deserved victory, what do you thing? (see below) :)
It was very great evening and then free singing, playing and enterteinment followed until late hours... MANGE TAK

12th March - IW - Reflection on the School Experience

On Thursday the 12th we had altogheter a lesson for reflections on the school experience. Erasmus students didn´t go to a school-visit that day, but we had the lesson together with the "international students", who had school-visits that morning. We spoke about the differences noticed in Danish schools in comparison with our systems. I would like to mention two more features in Danish schools, about which I haven´t spoken before and which I found very important:

• no marks until the grade 8th (really!)
• knowing answer by understanding, not by heart

Then we spoke together more about WHY are there differences in European school-systems, what is behind. And we found 3 things very important:

• climate
• economy
• religion

Maybe I wouldn´t agree with religion, I would say "history" instead. We were speaking about the Protestant Church (in fact a lot of small churches) - that people had to be much more tolerant and democratic there. However, I would say that people had to have been tolerant and democratic even before the Protestant Church "succeeded", was accepted and adopted in Nordic countries. That this way of thinking was in peoples minds and culture before protestantism. And this way of thinking allowed the reformation to succeed in the North.

The second thing about what we spoke then was - why in the North. And suprising thing for me, that that is not only geography, but also historical impact. Since Danish and other nations in the North never experienced absolutism. Absolutism never reached this area, e.g. Roman empire was almost in the whole Europe, but not here...
Interesting. Sometimes you are surprised how many things can be behind!
And what I really like about this study-programme is that we go behind. That it is not just only about observing the differences, but also thinking why. And it helps you to think more about your own system too; what from another system you can use in your country, what is difficult to change, what can help you to do things different way etc. ...

11th-12th March - IW - Music lessons

During the International week we had quite a lot Music lessons.
On Wednesday we had Music with Else Marie. It was mostly focused on using body and voice in many different ways. Most of all I liked the "COMPOSING parts" - we composed our own music in many different ways. Else Marie showed us that we, and the children, can compose our own music without any special music knowledge. We really liked the composition according to a grafic part:




We also experssed some emotions according pictures of faces - through music composition. Exciting! Sometimes you don´t need so much for making a composition, just some frame, ideas and enthusiasm. Good idea with the faces - to start children to thing, how to express it...and they MAKE THE MUSIC then. :)





We listened to Pictures from Exhibition by Musorgskij and drew two different pictures according to Promenade 2 and 3. And then we made our own "exhibition" :).

I very enjoyed the "music-puzzle" for The Gnome music, I am sure I can use it with my pupils in the Czech Republic.
We got many useful ideas for activites and materials from this lesson and also the CD with music for it. Mange tak, Else Marie.



On Thursday we had Music lesson with Annette, we introduced some our national songs each other. Our Spanish friends, always in good mood, sang for us our favourite song "Tolon, tolon" too :)



We really enjoyed sharing our national songs with the others, it is obvious :)

9th-10th March - The Inte-nse Inte-rnational Week :) - Monday&Tuesday

Week 11 was very "intense time of Living and Learning Together". 14 more students from the whole Europe came to enjoy and learn for one week with us. Moreover, some Danish students joined us. All of them really quickly fit in our group, we became a big "team".


On Monday morning we, and especially the "intenational students", were nicely welcomed and introduced to the whole programme. We did some "get-acquainted" activities and then we had music with Annette. Then the international students had a Danish Educatoinal System lesson and Tour of College, therefore we had some freetime. After that we had a Danish lesson altogether. And then the walk through Haderslev with our History-teacher followed. Eventhough it was raining pretty much, nobody wanted to missed that. It was really interesting to hear more about Haderslev from such an educated (and also entrertaining :) )person.

In the evening we were all invited to the canteen for a dinner and so called "Get-together-evening". ...It fulfilled its name very well! :)
We ate a delicious dinner (frikadeller couldn´t be missing :), of course), spoke a lot together, had a lot of fun...Also time for quitar and singing came (we sang mostly Danish songs, sure...Our pronunciation was excellent :D ;)) And we spontaneously started to some games altogether, it was very good time...
And we didn´t want to go home too early, we just wanted to spend more time together, so we finished the day with going for a beer...:)

























On Tuesday we went together with Canan, Zep, Noemi and Máté to ESBJERG. The others went for a trip to Ribe, but we had unfortunately been there before, so we didn´t join them. Canan and Zep needed a stamp to their visas, so we traveled with them to the International Department at police station in Esbjerg. After about half an hour they finally got it - you can see their really happy faces! :)

Than we travelled to the Esbjerg´s seashore, where we could find four big white statues. Canan had a very good wisecrack - she called them "four men on the toalet" :D These men are pretty lucky - they can sit, relax and watch the beautiful sea all the time ;)

After we were thinking about going to the "Fish-and-Sea Museum" with a huge aquarium, but unfortunately it was very expensive, 80 DKK. Therefore we decided to go to Ribe directly. However, we saw a giant whale-skeleton in front of the museum...Astonishing!

That day the weather was beautiful, that´s why Ribe looked different, even nicer then last time. I took loads of pictures again. Unfortunately we didn´t spent so much time there, we just deliver Canan to the others and then we left...




Anyway, we stopped on the way home at the seaside near Ribe, the place, where enormous flocks of birds can be seen, but unfortunately we saw none :) Nevertheless, the place was very beatutiful and I could see about 3-or4-metres-high embankment, which protect the land from high water during sea-storms... There were also colourful Danish houses, in my opinion a lovely place where to live...