Chapter VIII - "Last Workshop"

Hey guys :)

So, the day started later today, with the classes only starting at 10am with the Prof. Agata from Poland. 

It was an interesting lecture about the project that she developed in rural schools in Poland. She studied the development of the kids learning a foreign language interactively, and proved that they had better grades in the end than the others that learned from a teacher.

After lunch, each of us went to their final workshop, and prepared everything for the final presentation.

Just to finish the day with best way, we went to the beach. We have to enjoy our last days in Slovenia!

Have a good night and see you at 5.45am... ahahah ;)

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Day 9

Dear readers, 

The day began around 8 AM because we had to be at the faculty at 9. The lecture was held by a Portuguese professor Goretti Silva and it was about social capital and its impact on  our lives. The lecture itself was pretty interesting because of the way of Mrs Goretti presenting. Also, at the end of the lecture, she put on few songs and one of them was called "I'll be there for you" by the Rembrandts, which her workshop group had to sing. In the middle of the lecture there was a pause, that lasted around half an hour which is longer then usual (and we liked it very much J). After the lecture we had a lunch and afterwards went to take a swim. At 3 PM we had a few hours of very interesting workshops where we had to make plans about presenting our assignments.After we finished all work for today we could have relaxed ourselves by going to the beach and afterwards going for an espresso with our colleges .Espresso has woken us up and gave us energy for the rest of the night. For the dinner we had risotto with schrimps and some salad and it was extremely tasty. After the dinner we made a plan to go to a bar in Mandrać to have a farewell party for the Portuguese professors and their children Francisco and Carolina. The farewell party was great and also very emotional because we enjoyed our time with them as they are great and extremely positive people.So with tears in our eyes we said goodby to them and went to bed. Hopefully we'll see them again!

Croatian Team

Ana, Filip, Livio & Matija

Dear Readers,

This morning, the lecture was one hour later, at 10 am. the day started with a lecture of the polish teacher about how children can be teached by volunteers in primary school. The teacher showed us a programm on the internet where the user can learn a lot of different languages with. We should try to practice with it, but it didn't work on the computers in school.

At 1 o'clock we had lunch as usual in our restaurant at the beach. After eating and swimming in the sea, our final workshop started at 3. We prepared our presentation for thursday and could spend the rest of the day at the beach. Tonight we had a very nice Pasta dinner.

After dinner we went into the city centre to Cacao and had nice ice cream :-)

We have to get up very early tomorrow because we will go to Maribor. The night hours until then, we will spend working on our video ;)

Good night,

Team Netherlands
Fabienne, Joukje, Trudy & Janina

Tuesday 31st July 2012

Today we were lucky and started one hour later at 10am at Turistica. The topic of our lecture was education in Poland and Agata told us about her project of learning polish children English with a computer programme. Unfortunately the programme didn't work on our computers and it wasn't as interesting as expected.
At 11.30am Mitja and Miha informed us about our trip to Maribor tomorrow and also explained us the questionnare which we have to do in Maribor. We will leave at 5.45am tomorrow morning.

At 1pm we had a nice pasta bolognese at our restaurant and also a funny "tabasco-experience"!

In the afternoon we contunied with our workshops, every group did some research and worked on their presentation. After our workshops the Austrian team started with their video and went for a quick swim in the sea.

At 7pm we had our dinner which we concluded with a delicious ice-cream from Cacao.

See you tomorrow at 5.45,

Jasmin & Stefanie

Volunteering in Piran

The contrast of Portorož is Piran, which is known for its rich cultural heritage. It's one of the most known Slovenian towns among foreign tourists. Drinking coffee on Tartini square also appeals to Slovenians.

We went to Piran to meet  the representative of Anbot. She is really passionate about volunteering, so the here lecture was interesting. Even if we couldn't understand her that good, we were enjoying in  lectures and work. 

After short lecture we start with "real" work :) We were divided in  2 groups. First group had to  vault all of the quiz papers into little  boats. Second group hard working Portugese ( Tiago, Claudia and Liliane) and Poland ( Karolina and Aleksandra) had to restorate the shutters. 

Then we were doing the quiz papers into little  boats which we had to do later, when we had to answer some difficult questions about Piran and look for them aroud the city by asking the Lokals, going to the Museum, Aquarium and Tourist Information. 


After lunch we had free afternoon where we went each in our own direction.

Two crows but not whiskey!

Dear all,

In the morning we started to with our lecture from the side of Gorreti and Marco. The lecture was about social responsibility and the opportunities in tourism.  Quite interesting but the break was something special (not just because of the break!) because we realised that that Kaja is incredible storyteller.

Kaja told us a story about two crows that had an excursion to Postojna caves. She is a great story teller and we really enjoyed! Before we continue would you like to hear it as well? ;)

Two crows and a gossip lady in black

It was a sunny day in the middle of July and the heat just started to rise (it was noon, around 12 o’clock). There was a juniper three just next to more than 50 years old pine, looking towards the Postojna caves. When the first grasshopper started to sing the old crow passed above the three tops and landed on the old pine three. Taking grasps of air to continue the search for food another crow was interested in the ants beneath the juniper three. To further observe the ants the crow land just next to the old crow. Old crow starts to smile to jung juvenile searching for food. “You can forget about  that ants. You will never be able to catch enough to fill your stomach”. Jung crow got upset an said “ what do you know old rag!” You can barely fly for more than 10 minutes before you run out of air”!  If you do not believe me go ahead and see! The old crow said. Young crow started to pick the ants but she only garbed one or two and the rest fled to their underground holes. Old crow started to laugh “I told you, you little brat!” What do you know about the food? Where do you get it?” The youngster replied. “I will tell you the secret but before you have to fly to Postojna caves and bring me the proteus (human fish).”

Wanna hear how the story ended? Well you will have to wait till tomorrow when we will have another morning break and Kaja will continue with the second part.

After the lecture we had lunch, with very good steak with potatoes. At 15.00 we started with our workshops, where we  discussed about our ideas for  final presentation of WS.

Later on we had a goodbye party for Portuguese teachers Goretti and Marco. It was hard to say goodbye, because of that we said see you soon!!

Chapter VII - " I'll be there for you :) "

The day started with some nostalgy in the air... we were all thinking about the departure of our wonderful teachers and kids.

After a free day to make a roadtrip around Slovenia, the presentation of Prof. Goretti about Social Capital started at 9am, as usual. It was very interesting and well explained, and we got to know better what was the meaning of the theme and how it is applied. At the end of the lecture, Goretti had a nice surprise in mind: a karaoke song of the music " I'll be there for you". Everyone sang it with a big smile on their faces :D

Then, in Burin we had a delicious meal: grilled meat with baked potatoes.

At 3pm our workshop started, with a lot of brainstorming and preparing the presentations. Let's see how it turns out :)

Later, we all met in "Eskimo" for the farewell party of a part of the Portuguese family. It was pretty sad, but it wasn't a goodbye, but a SEE YOU SOON.

Studious Hatsi

Hello dear readers,

Long time without writing to you because I had a free day and I decided to make a city-break in Trieste, Italy. And what a great day it was!

The first stop was at Miramar Castle, my future residence, a must-see in each travellers bucket list. Another item on the list could be the magnificent panorama from the top of Trieste, from where you can see Italy, Slovenia and Croatia at the same time.  Coming back, we also stopped in Koper for a coffee and a great handball match from the Olympics.

With my batteries fully charged, this morning I attended the lecture from the Portuguese professors, realizing the importance of the social network when one wants to be entrepreneurial.

After a delicious lunch, the planets regrouped for the workshops where everybody was creative and productive.

Unfortunately, the Portuguese professors have to leave in the morning so tonight we had a good bye “Caipirinha” party for them and a nocturnal bath for us J.

Off to bed now cuz tomorrow it’s gonna be a full day!

Pupici,

Hatsi

Dear Readers,

after our free sunday we started again with a lecture at 9 in the morning today. The lecture was about social capital and entrepreneurship, which was very interesting.

After swimming in the sea, we used our lunch time to discuss with our groups ideas for the final presentation.
During the afternoon we had our workshop which we finished on time, so we could go to the beach and enjoy the rest of the hot day close to the water.

In the evening we all had dinner together in our restaurant close to Piran. We could choose between Pizza, Pasta and Risotto with Shrimps which was very delicious. After dinner we went into the city to have some coffee and cocktails together. Tonight is the good bye party of the portuguese teachers, who will leave tomorrow with their wonderful children. We will miss them here.

Regards,

Team Netherlands
Fabienne, Joukje, Trudy, Janina

So much work to do...

After great and all free day (Sunday) when we explore Slovenia and Croatia a little bit and relaxing on the beach swimming in the see etc etc :) the ordinary day comes... but also really nice :)

We've got a lot to do. We started from the lectures with Portugal team leader Goretti Silva. It was very interesting. She was talking about the social capital and social network and the influence of connecting between people on our own business related to tourism.

After that we've got lunch break :D

And than a lot of work again. Workshop was really intensive like everyone can see on the photos under

 We've got new ideas for tomorrow so we can't wait... :)


PS. Diner was delicious :D:D:D awesome risotto with shrimps!!! ;D

Guys thank you very much for the great party at Alaya Club, we danced a lot and had a lot of fun :)
After the club some of us decided to have a swim in the sea.
Thank you for the free day which we spent in Croatia exactly in Umag. We spent our day at the sandy beach and enjoyed the sea.

Monday 30th july 2012

As usual our day started at 9am at Turistica, we had a really interesting lecture from Goretti Silva (Portugal) The topic was Social Media, we really appreciate it that she was sharing her personal experiences on becoming entrepreneurial.

After daily lunch we had a little siesta till 3pm. In the afternoon we contunied with our workshops, every group did some research and worked on their presentation.

Now we still have some time to enjoy the sea and look forward to have delicious dinner at 7pm.

Jasmin & Stefanie

Volunteer day in Piran

Monday, 30 July 2012.

Dear readers,

At Saturday we visited the small town of Piran which is close to Portorož and is one of the most important cities of Slovenian coast. Our group met the representatives of the most important NGO in Piran which organizes many local events related with tradional arts, environment, etc... They gave as a small «quiz» with questions about Piran. Our duty was to answer on that questions by visiting the different spots in the city centre.

     

After our tour in historical center of Piran, we joined the members of the local NGO and started to prepare some promotional touristic brochures about Piran and got a «salary» for that, or better to say a small sachet with local lavender as souvenir. At noon we were free with our activities and got free time to lunch or return back to Portorož. Some of us used the late afternoon to swim in Portorož, and in the evening we met all together at 10 p.m. on the beach (11 p.m. by Croatian and Portuguese time)!! We had a nice party at Alaya club! :)

Greetings!

Ana, Filip, Livio & Matija 

Chapter VI - "Discovering Piran"

Another day started early! The first trip to Piran, a town that is really close to Portoroz!

We met one lady responsible for a shop, and some of us had to restaurate old windows of the old Lighthouse and others had to fold some brochures of Piran.

Then, we had to do an activity related to the town. Some kind of game to discover some curiosities of Piran. Every team managed to do the activity by themselves, and it was really great to learn those specifities of the place.

After a delicious Lasagna, we had a free afternoon to rest and sunbath ;)

It's been great to know every one a little bit better:) 

Hot day in Piran

Piran is a beautiful city. We spent all Saturday helping in the organization Anbot, we made a boat of leaflets promoting the city, singing a song with Maya the Bee in different languages. The Portuguese showed their talent. Some of us were involved in renovation of shutters in the lighthouse.

After working we had to solve some puzzles and so we got to know the city better. All volunteers received a bag with beautifully scented lavender and of course a boat with postcard. 

On the  market we could buy antiques and other souvenirs.  

 

Walking around the city was difficult because not everywhere was the shadow and the sun shone strongly. But we found a way to cool off ... 

In the evening it was time to relax in the Alaya Club. We had a lot of fun but now it's time for what? 
A GROUP PICTURE :)

See you tomorrow!
Sabina, Marta, Ola & Karolina