Reminiscences from Sicily, Italy

Ola Stasiak and Olivia Ormaniec, both 15, Polish students:

„ On 27th March, we set off for Sicily together with our four teachers. It was the 2^nd meeting in the ‘Ethno Treasure Hunt’ project. We lived in Savoca with a girl whose name is Martina. Her parents and her hosted us very well. We have travelled all over the beautiful Sicily and visited places such as: Etna mountain, Taormina, Agrigento, and Santa Teresa di Riva, where our teachers were staying. During our stay in Sicily, we had a chance to learn Sicilian culture and taste delicious food. We also met friends from different countries participating in the Comenius project. We had a lot of fun together. The wonderful time spent in Sicily couldn’t last long and on 3^rd April we had to come back to Poland. Fur us both, it was an amazing time and a reward for our hard work within the project. We will never forget this experience.”

Reminiscences from Baia Mare, Romania

Tomek Lenczewski, 15, Polish student:

“When on Saturday, 6^th November I was at the Lodz railway station waiting for a train, I didn’t know what it would be like in Romania. Not knowing what to expect, I was a bit anxious. At 19:01 we went from Lodz to Warsaw. 2o minutes after coming to Warsaw, we boarded another train to Budapest. We had a sleeping compartment. I was glad because we had comfortable conditions and we could unpack easily. During the trip I was accompanied by Mrs Joanna Wilczynska and Mrs Agnieszka Szymanska. In the evening we started taking photos on the train and it was a lot of fun for me and the teachers. Then we went to sleep on thetrain, my bed being on the 3 level just above my two teachers. On, Sunday at around 1 a.m. we crossed the Polish-Czech border. At 5: 21 a.m. we crossed yet another one, this time Czech-Slovakian border. At 6, we decided to get up, wash and dress properly for the journey. An hour later, we were given breakfast. The service on the train was excellent. 15 minutes later, we crossed the Slovakian-Hungarian border. At 9:30 we were in Budapest. We had to change the station for another railway station to go toDebrecen. So we started looking for a bus that would take us there. After the bus ride, we got to the station. Since we had 2 hours of free time, we went to a nearby café. Then, we went by train to Debrecen. When in Budapest, we admired its architecture but some beautiful parts of the capital were littered so much and I had some negative feelings about the city in general. At around 10 p.m., we arrived at Baia Mare. We met the coordinator of the project, Mrs Daniela Buda and parents who hosted me. They had a son, called Vasile who took care of me during my stay in Romania. Vsile and I had not much to talk about at that time. The only question that I was able to say was: “What’s your name?”. I simply had a blackout and had to use a dictionary all the evening.Monday, I got up at around 7 a.m. and after 30 minutes I went to school with my new friend. After the first lesson, Vasile’s whole class came up to me and we had some chat. A lot of them were asking me questions and once instead of “How old are you?” I understood “How are you?” and it produced some misunderstandings. After two more lessons, I went down with Vasile to meet our teachers at the principal’s office. All our project partners were there. They came from: Bulgaria, Turkey, Lithuania and Italy. There were of course Romanian and Polish team as well. After this meeting, we went to Vasile’s home. My friend was very caring and nice to me. We spent this day together getting to know each other better.

On the next day, we went to school again and we startedwith the PE classes. We played football. I liked it. The next lesson was Romanian literature. I thought that I would go mad, because I didn’t understand anything, but this class was like any other class. They were explaining things to me, and helping me all the time. They were helping one another as well. After lessons, we went home. I was happy on that day because we found a way of communicating effectively with Vasile and other friends. Then, we went to the municipal library. In the evening, we played poker with Vasile and his brother. We also played some games such as “naughts andcrosses”. After that, we had dinner and went to bed.

On Wednesday, it all started the same way, i.e. getting up, breakfast and school. This day, we had origami classes during which all the other partners participated. We had a lot of fun. After that, we went home to prepare for the evening gala at the theatre hall. The gala was very long but there were lots of attractions: first we saw presentations of each school and country, then we heard national anthems sang by the school choir, and then we admired dancers dancing folk dances and some modern ones. I met a nice girl there, her name was Lorelei. We talked for a long time. After the ceremony, me, Vasile and his colleagues went for a pizza. After that, we went home, ate dinner and went to sleep.

On the next day, everything seemed to go wrong. We reached the school late, at 8:05. The second lesson was PE. Again, we played football. In the middle of the game, accidentally my teammate hit me in the eye ball with his left leg. Fortunately, nothing bad happened J. After the sports activities, we had French lesson. It was total disaster for me, as I couldn’t comprehend a thing J. After this lesson, we attended another Romanian lesson during which Romanian students presented drama scenes. They were dressed up in nice costumes. It was a very good show. The lesson was watched by all the other partners and teachers from abroad. The best actors got diplomas from the guest teachers. After coming home, we ate something and prepared for going out to the Museum of Mineralogy and History. After visiting this interesting place, we went for a walk in the park, and then back home. At home, we dinner, played computer games, some card games and checkers.

Time flies fast, it was already Friday a day as usual. At school, I saw Biology lesson. I was so hungry then that I ate during the lesson. Some students fell asleep J. This was my last day in the Romanian school and it wasn’t bad. In the afternoon, we went for a pizza. Then we went to see the Museum once again, but it was closed. So we went to a café. There by chance we met our teachers and teachers from other countries, too. It was a nice coincidence. We exchanged our impressions about the day, had some chat with kids and went home.

On Saturday, I started packing for the two-day trip to Bistrica and Maramures. During the trip, we visited the Dracula’s castle in Transilvania. I loved it there, especially when they scared us by jumping out of the coffin and all of us wanted to run away. I also scared some girls and they screamed J. It was fun. On the bus, I taught my foreign friends Polish words, and also some longish tongue twisters such as “konstatynopolitanczykowianeczka”. I loved being a Polish teacher.

On Monday, at 4 a.m. we left for the railway station. Earlier, I said goodbye to Vasile and his family. I was sad then. The whole stay in Romania was an unforgettable experience for me and I am glad that I could be a part of the project. I will never forget it.”

Lithuania celebrates RASOS on ST. JOHN day (Midsummer day)

From ancient times people marked the time of the return of the sun, the shortest night. In olden times it was called the Feast of the DEWS, (RASOS in Lithuanian). When Christianity was established in Lithuania, the name was changed to Feast of St. John, according to agrarian folk calendar, the start of haying.
On the Feast of St John a special role was granted to the sun. The sun is constantly mentioned in songs sung on the longest day of the year.
Farmers paid special attention to water's special powers in reviving soil and making it productive. Maidens tried to get up before sunrise, collect the dew and wash their faces with it to make them bright and beautiful. They would also get up at night, go outside to wet their faces in the dew and returned to bed without wiping their faces dry. If that night they dreamt of a young man bringing them a towel, they hoped that he would be the one they would marry.

Flourishing plants were worshipped because it was believed that plants collected on the eve of the Feast of St. John posses magic powers to heal, bring luck and foretell the future. Nine plants with healing powers were called Kupole, plants of the Feast of St. John. Folklore shows that Kupole was the Goddess of plants, living in aromatic plants, blossoms or in buds in summer and in snowdrifts in winter.
It was believed that wreaths concentrate perpetual life's forces and are symbols of immortality and life. Walk around three fields and gather bunches of nine flowers, twine a wreath and place it under your pillow. You will marry the man, who in your dream comes to take away the wreath. At midnight, twelve wreaths were dropped into a river and observed if they were pairing off. If no pairing off occurred, there was to be no marriage that year.

The rites of this day continued till sunrise around bonfires. The site selected for ritual bonfires was always in the most beautiful area, on hills, on river shores and near lakes. Jumping over fires or around it had magic meaning. Ritual bonfires cleansed both physically and psychologically. Jumping over the fire was carried out with the belief of making better health, increasing body strength for hard summer labors and assuring better growth of grain and flax.

During the night of the Feast of St. John, the miraculous fern bursts into bloom. It is difficult to catch sight of this blogom. Some say that the fern bloom is like birch dust, others describe it as round and white like carp's scale.