Having been invited by our breadfriends from Tallin to take part in the 1 st project meeting in their town, we set out for the journey in very early hours of 21 November.
It was going to be a 20- hour long journey so we decided to make the best of it and had a good laugh from the very beginning of the day seeing Lucia carrying the heaviest suitcase I ve ever seen while travelling. It looked as if she was having her whole wardrobe in it. But she had never travelled on her own before and she really is a perfectionist when talking about clothes and image so ........... and also she expected to meet some handsome young men and she really wanted to look good.
Anyway, we had a very nice bus drive to our capital Bratislava from where we had a flight to Prague in the afternoon. That left us some time to walk around the Old City of Bratislava .
Our pupils were very excited before the flight. For them and for the headmaster it was the first time to travel by plane so we also tried to teach them how to get around at the airport, how to check in and how to check arrivals and departures, destinations and thinghs like that. But of course the most exciting moment was the take off . And the views from the plane..................
Breadkids had a great fun while using the elevator at the Prague airport while the breadteachers found free seats and could watch a hockey match at the airport café . They had their most expensive coffee ever but saw an excellent match where the slovak team scored 2- 3 goals which cushioned our amazement over the bill in the café.
After the smooth flight from Prague to Tallin where we landed at about midnight we I saw Maiu and her family – it was amazing after 1 and half year- and Tallin was true!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We couldn ´t have imagined better care in Tallin- everything was arranged so perfectly and all the activities and events just fit into the 4- day programme so immaculately . The accomodation was excellent – right in the centre of the beautiful Old City of Tallin. And the service and receptionists were also very helpful and caring. The views from the hostel window couldn´t be nicer - the St. Olaph´s tower just in front of you.
Not only the town is beautiful, it is also very clean and vivid all the time , day or night. And it wasn´t the busiest time of the year I guess, too.
The most fascinated we got when we first saw the Breadfriends- face to face – estonians, germans, lithuaninas - at Konstantina Pätsi school - with very friendly and warm atmosphere, nice and kind school staff and cute, lively kids all around.
I really felt like I was at my old friends´ house with that huge fire place that made the dining room the centre of the school life and it reminded me of so homely atmoshere.
But this was just the beginning of something unrepeatable- the first meeting is always so unique- first time to meet new people, new places, games ................ that meeting with all the kids presenting their activities done in the first months of the project- only then we could see how hard they worked on the topic and how interesting the topic of BREAD can be. All the films and games were just so interesting and I think they all will help our breadkids understand the bread topic better.
And all the breadkids participants were, I suppose , completely taken the breath when the first project meeting started- at least our pupils could still not believe they are there and that the „ virtual“ people they had known from mails and talks really exist.
Thanks to our estonian breadfriends we spent so extraordinary days in Tallin- the trip to marshland was unbeatable, the ballet performance and the visit to the oldest estonian pub with the great „ guide“ was absolutely fantastic. We were impressed by how she could play with all off us easily and how estonian care for their.
For the teachers , with no doubts, visiting the lessons and special laboratories at school was an enriching experience- we could spend time with our breadfriends at real lessons, brush our russian language, see how the students work and how relaxed is the relation between the teachers and the pupils – no firm and stiff teachers but real friends to their pupils.
Our kids were astonished by giving marks where the mark 1 means worst and the mark 5 the best .
Although we had heard about electronic form of teacher- parent cooperation before we came to Estonia and sure many teachers do it in our country too, I personally was amazed by how effective and usefull can be the teachers´on- line evaluation - I really can´t imagine when the teachers find time to do it but am strongly convinced we should adapt this system in our school, too.
I think the headmaster is a real „ mighty leader „ of the school and thanks to him the school work is so succesful. We admire all the teachers´ enthusiasm and involvement into the school work in this partner school and the results are visible- the pupils´products, pupils´s performance and above all -the warm and friendly atmosphere and personal relations at his particular school .
I think this meeting was just the right occasion to make real friends and get acquainted with each other, the activities and pupils´ presentations did help us learn about the countries participating in our Breadproject. We learnt how important it is to learn languages and be tolerant and how useful it can be to share best practise and experience.
Our pupils tried to do their best to present their work, countries and of course the Bread topic to their friends from partner schools.
I do appreciate the work of our partners- teachers who work with kids with special needs, in the estonian school we could see it is the valuable work, and the estonian school system is so concerned about teaching these children- the conditions they adopted to be able to teach these children is
on a very high level – the staff fully qualiffied and very well skilled not only in terms of teaching skills but also computing, communicative and social skills and the school very well equipped with modern technologies.
THANK YOU our dear friends( especially MAIU, ARLAN, ULLE, JANI MR. Headmaster, Mrs. Deputy ) VERY MUCH FOR THIS GREAT TIME WE SPENT IN TALLIN
We are all looking forward to see you soon again.
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