"MEETING IN LITHUANIA" 1/10/11.....8/10/11

FIRST DAY 01/10/11
It's 8:42 a.m and we are on the plane, in about 45 minutes we will land at destination: Vilnius
Writing the diary: BEATRICE,CHIARA, FEDERICA AND OUR TEACHER ANNALISA DI PIERRO... We are very tired even if during the journey on the plane we have been sleeping all the time! We hope to feel good and have a good experience... Now we are very worried and excited!!!
It's 12:00 and we are in Alytus... We wait for the family in front of the school... Fortunately the girls who are going to host us are very friendly!!

SECOND DAY 02/10/11
This morning we go to school at 10:00, we visit it and we meet the Comenius students. For each country there are two or three students. We think that the school is very big and beautiful. It is very different from our school: there is a classroom for each subject, there is a canteen where the students can have their lunch. The school hours are very different and this school includes an elementary school too.
In the afternoon we go to the most famous blacksmith of Lithuania; the experience is very interesting and he shows us how a piece of iron can be modelled with the fire!
In the evening there is a disco at the school, we meet the Turkish, Greek and Portuguese students!!! They are very friendly and we take a lot of photos. The Lithuanian students teach us a Lithuanian dance! It's very difficult but we enjoy it very much!:)

THIRD DAY 03/10/11
This morning we go to school and the Lithuanian teacher divides us into six groups: each group is formed by one or two students from delegations of every nation. Our group task is to search statues in the park, photograph them and write on a piece of paper the material of the statues. The group that arrives the first, wins.
The park is very beautiful and big... Lithuania is very different than Italy. In Lithuania there are many parks, gardens and there aren’t any shops where people buy the clothes etc... In Italy there aren’t parks or gardens, but there are many beautiful shops!
After school, we eat at the school canteen. Then, each groups prepare presentations about what they saw and found out. All the teachers and the students listen and watch these presentations made by computer.
We go to gym to play basketball, but Chiara, Beatrice and me can’t play it because we don’t wear tracksuits. Then, we go home with our Lithuanian friends.

FOURTH DAY 4/10/11
Today we wake up at 8.00 o’clock to go to the Trakay region. The city is beautiful, there are many lakes, bridges and stalls. We visit the Trakai Castle. The Trakai Castle is situated on an island in the middle of Galve lake. The construction of the castle was begun in the 14th century by Kęstutis, and around 1409 most of the works were completed by his son Vytautas the Great, who died in this castle in 1430. Trakai was one of the main centers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the castle had great strategic importance.

After that we visit the castle, we have a bit of free time and we go looking for a bar because we are hungry. At one o’clock we leave the Trakai City to go to Galgedu (home farmstead) where we have a meal. The lunch consists of traditional dishes prepared in accordance with ancient traditions. After that we have an educational lesson (in English) about bread and flax (each of us is taught how to bake Lithuanian bread and then we bake it). Outcome: we learned how to make Lithuanian bread.
5/10/2011

FIFTH DAY 5/10/11
Today our partners and us go to school at eight o' clock to do an interesting work: a poster with pictures or photos about our countries!!! After this lesson we go to the center of Alytus and visit a Museum of Ethnography where we see how they make candles in Lithuania!!!! In the afternoon we see a little concert; the Lithuanian students sing a song, dance and play some instruments. After that, we do a quiz: they ask some questions about each country, and each Comenius team answers them. It is very funny!!! From 5 to 7 o' clock we have free time and in the evening we come back to school; each team speaks about their presentation.. We sing our national anthem and present some traditional Italian proverbs: it was great fun!

SIXTH DAY
On Thursday we went to Kaunas the second largest town in Lithuania. We visited the Devils’ Museum. We liked it very much. There was a collection of pictures and statues of devils. The collection, which numbers over 2,000 pieces, was collected by Antanas Žmuidzinavičius. We had lunch all together in a typical restaurant. The food was very good!! We visited also the Pazaislis Monastery and the Cross. The tourist guide told us the history of the town. After that we went shopping in the centre of the town. In the afternoon we went to Alytus. In the evening a Lithuanian girl held a party at her house!! We joked a lot and we had fun and we danced all night! We had great fun!!

SEVENTH DAY
In morning we said goodbye to the Lithuanian girls because we went to Vilnius (the capital of Lithuania). On the way to Vilnius we visited Kernave, the ancient Lithuanian capital put on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It 'a beautiful place full of greenery. We went up a long staircase to get up the hill to see the view. We ate at Belmontas. In the afternoon the tourist guide told us the history of the town. We visited
several churches and a shop selling amber stones (a typical stone in Lithuania). After that we went to the city to buy souvenirs to take to Italy. At half past six we went back on the bus and went to the hotel. We had dinner. After dinner we watched the football match on TV together with the boys and girls from Spain, Germany and Turkey. After that we went to sleep because we were very tired but we were very happy of the day!!

EIGHTH DAY
In the morning we woke up and we said goodbye to the boys and girls of other countries. We arrived in Pisa at 6.15p.m.! We had a lot of fun and we're happy to have been to Lithuania.

ITALIAN PROVERBS, work prepared for the meeting in Lithuania

Some Italian proverbs in
different dialects
Each region in Italy has its own
language, or dialect, and we
would like to show you some from
the northern, central and southern
regions

Milanese proverb
O te mangiet la minestra o te saltet dala
finestra
Or eat your soup or jump out of the window
(Sink or swim)
This proverb means that we have to adapt to
new situations because we can’t change
them

Tuscan proverb
Chi t’accarezza più di quel che sole o t’ha
‘ngannato o ‘ngannà te vole
He who caresses you more than usual has
either tricked you or wants to trick you
This saying means that too many
compliments often hide deception


Neapolitan proverb
A carne fa carne, 'o vino fa sang, e 'a fatica fa jittà
'o sang
Meat makes meat, wine makes blood,and work
makes you spit blood
This proverb means that when we eat meat and
we drink wine then we produce energy,
while the work that we do everyday consumes energy


Sicilian proverb
Nuddu si pigghia si nun s'assumiglia
Nobody marries those who are not like them
(Birds of the feather flock together)
This proverb means that everyone looks for
the person that is similar to them