Istituto Magistrale Statale Regina Margherita
Italy
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COLORFUL SICILY
Kunda Üg Comenius Project „Discovering Each Other“ meeting in Italy, Palermo, Istituto Magistrale Statle „Regina Margherita“ school.
Who went there? - director Henry Kallaste, teachers Maire Ojamaa and Luule Raam, students Marjorete Orumaa, Reti Kokk and Sander Parovart.
The trip started on 5th and ended on 16th May. We travelled with a small bus. Bus drivers were Henry Kallaste and Kuno Raam.
Thanks to Erko Vallbaum, the director of AS Lajos, who helped us.
Some memories from the trip…
1. What is the first thing you remember about the Sicily?
Marjorete: My greatest memory from Sicily- hmm, whole trip was a memory for life. Those beautiful mountains and warm weather. Definitely the Massimo’s theatre was the best memory.
Maire: Wonderful mountains, many tunnels and beautiful The Mediterranean sea.
Luule: For a little island there were so many mountains. Anti-mafia society meeting, where youngsters talked what they have done to eliminate mafia. This was one of the times I felt ashamed to be an adult. The oldest theatre in Europe – Massimo and being in the royal loož. I had seen such a thing only in movies before.
Reti: This is a very hard question, because comparing to Estonia, everything was so different there. First in my mind are funny and open-minded people and of course chaotic traffic and wonderful weather.
Sander: All of it was pretty cool, but the best one was visiting of the Etna volcano.
2. What do you think about so long bus drive?
Marjorete: I don’t remember Estonia, Latvia and Lietuva when we went there because those countries went very quickly. Second day was also great, mountains and everything else was new, time went fast and excitement was big, but the third day was quite dreadful because of we had to sit all day in the car and drive. Butt was really painful and we couldn’t wait any longer till we finally get there. But who suffers that lives longer and ofcourse we suffered and were really quiet on the backseat, because next time we can’t get to Sicily!
Maire: Ülimalt hästi! Ikka kõrvad lukus, neelatad ja ja jälle lahti!
Luule: I don’t mind travelling by bus. I like to see the world and beautiful spring in the Europe. When we started on a 5th May from Kunda/Estonia, then the nature was quite sad and grey. On the third day when we were in Calabria, we saw that the already harvested crops there. The world is wonderful!
Reti: I've always liked to travel by bus. You can see much more than when you travel by plane. Our bus was quite comfortable and we made many brakes during driving, so everything was good.
Sander: Going there was interesting, especially for me, because I have never seen mountains before. Coming back was painful and I was tired.
3. What else you remember about the bus trip except Sicily?
Marjorete: Besides Sicily, the Austrian mountains and Italy’s land really caught our eyes. Everything was very beautiful.
Maire: Mountain roads, fun travel companion and paying taxes on highways. We couldn’t cope with those machines anyhow.
Luule: Fun travel companion and stretching pauses, cozy hotels and delicious breakfasts (that we didn’t have to make by ourselves and didn’t have to do the dishes as well).
Reti: From bus trip I remember most the mountains of Austria and Italy and of course those endless tunnels.
Sander: I remember mountains, beautiful nature, freeways, tunnels (there was a lot of them) and many kinds of plantations.
4. Local food and drinks
Marjorete: We went there only because of food! Actually the food out there is different than Estonians. Pizza, pasta, polognese, macarone. Pizza, what is given n Italy is the real pizza. They do it right out there, they spin it on their fingers and straight to the oven. All the ingredients were fresh, especially seafood. Straight from Mediterranean sea squids and octopuses... mmmm
Maire: Pasta and lasagna or the opposite way, but still 13 euros!
Luule: I liked Mediterranean foods very much and fruits right from the tree tasted nice. Octopus, calamari and goat cheese – really tasteful!
Reti: I was amazed at how much they are able to eat there. In Estonia we only have a steak or a bowl of soup for lunch or dinner, but for them a big plateful of fries and meat is only an appetizer, followed by antipasti. After all that everyone had a huge pizza. In Estonia we eat to get our stomach full and go on with our activities, but they consider eating as a completely separated activity, which you have to enjoy and takes plenty of time. Estonians really should learn to follow their dining habits.
Sander: Italian food was tasty, especially pizza. They don’t know how to cook meat, because they eat seafood.
5. The Mediterranean
Marjorete: Mediterranean sea, who haven’t been there, they have missed so much. Super warm, light, clean, refreshing. We even swimmed there if we didn’t have any swimsuits. But we had to go in. We really enjoyed that warm seawater. Water is never that warm in Estonia.
Maire: The color- greenish blue, the taste – salty, the weather – windy, the water – super. In conclusion – short time of super good feeling.
Luule: The Mediterranean is a cool sea. In spring the water color can be described with a word azuur. I’ve never seen such a color anywhere else in the nature. I just can’t get my eyes off it! It’s warm, salty and enjoyable. Really, we swam even when we didn’t have our swimming clothes with us, because who knows when we get there again..
Reti: The Mediterranean was enjoyable! Warm and enjoyable.
Sander: I have never been before in that salt water. I was used to Estonian water, which is slightly salty, when I first went to swim, I jumped into the water and my mouth was full of salty water, which was very disgusting.
6. The landscape and Etna
Marjorete: Landscape was very beautiful and some of us saw it first time. Those mountains. We were in the clouds very often because we were very high.
Maire: Mountains, tunnels, bridges or same in the opposite way. I don’t even remember any usual road. Etna left undying memory – all these massive rocks that are pushed together with big jeeps. Looking from distance – majestic, but very dangerous..
Luule: Starting from Austria only mountains, mountains and again – mountains! Toscana county and picturesque cypress groves. Olive trees, mountain villages and sheep herds. Fortress cities on the top of the mountains. The nature was magnificent! Etna – I broke my previous height record, because we raised about 2700 m high with cable car. Amazing! Tõin Etna jalamilt kaasa kolm ülisuurt piiniakäbi, millega nüüd lapselaps liivakastis mängib. Sitsiilias on selline tunne, et vanajumalal on selle saare kohal mägede kott katki läinud. Nii palju ja nii tihedalt!
Reti: The landscape was fantastically beautiful. Anywhere you look – gorgeous views everywhere. Etna was also amazing. When we stepped out of the bus down the hill, the air was quite warm, but up in the top, there was a really strong wind and even snow.
Sander: Landscape was amazing, beautiful. Etna was something that I have never seen before, it was unbelievable for me that I was so high (3000m).
7. The school that we visited
Marjorete: School-prison. No it wasn’t that bad. That school was with music slope and very excellent people go there. 16 year old girl who sings opera like a professional. Architecturally, it was very interesting school. In the middle of it, there was a beautiful garden. If I compare our school with that, then our schools yard looks like waste ground. Palm trees and some other beautiful trees were growing in the yard. A little bit funny was that the windows had bars on them.
Maire: The garden in the courtyard was really nice place to rest during brakes.
Luule: The school is in Palermo’s old town. The yard with exotic plants was beautiful. The way that they studied there seemed bit chaotic, but teachers and students were very friendly and kind. Kids didn’t pay attention to studies much, but the way they sang… the concert in the church was awesome.
Reti: The school was very different from ours. It was in the middle of the city and was surrounded by churches and historical buildings. But classes were quite dark and small and didn’t look nice. The headmasters was really big and nicely decorated.
Sander: School was like a prison in American movies, there was graffiti, windows had bars and the weirdest thing was that on the top of the school, there were small houses and africans lived in there.
8. Sporting opportunities in the school
Marjorete: We could play volleyball, football and basketball there. Gym was outside. I think our class boys would really like if our gym was outside.
Maire: They played volleyball and football on a asphalt forecourt. Awful.
Luule: It was nice that they can do sport outside throughout year. They didn’t use sportswear and didn’t have a shower after P.E lesson. But they didn’t do much in the lesson so what is the point of washing anyway. They had a gym outside – what a luxury!
Reti: They had a little asphalt forecourt where they played volleyball. Walls that surrounded that court were full on graffiti. There was also gym.
Sander: Haven’t seen anyone doing sports, they only played a little bit of a volleyball on the PE lesson.
9. People in Italy
Marjorete: People are just great. Friends for life. There isn’t enough words to describe their friendliness and goodness. They are so caring, always hugging and kissing. It was new to us, that when you see each other you greet them with a kiss on the cheek. When Sander saw Angelo first time, then Angelo started to kiss him instanlty and Sander didn’t feel very good. There is second type of people too- mafia. We thought a new way to call them, because mafia is mafia in every language. We started to call them Luiged(swans). There were swans everywhere. Everyone with a fancy big car and a suit was a swan. Regular people had only 2 seated cars. Every car had many bumps because traffic was horrible.
Luule: People who live in Sicily are very friendly and sociable. If you know the already, then you are friend of them. J For shy Estonians it was little bit uncomfortable.
Reti: People were really open-minded, friendly and temperamental.
Sander: People, especially traders, were really friendly and kind, gave us to taste ice cream, if we couldn’t decide which one to buy.
10. The family/home where we lived
Marjorete: Family was really great. Nobody couldn’t talk English and we had to communicate with ’’sign’’ language only, but we understood each other. Only sad thing was that in the morning I only got cold cocoa..
Reti: The family was very nice. They had 6 persons in their family – our host Saverion, his mother, father, two younger brothers and cute dachshound. Father spoke English very well and taled to us whenever he had a chance. They had a beautiful home – apartment on 9th floor that was surrounded by balcony and had a amazing view to city and mountains. On the last day the family said goodbye by writing a letter into google translate. It was so heart-warming.
Sander: The family where I was living, they were nice and friendly. All of them could speak English, except family’s mother, but it wasn’t a problem.
11. Traffic in Palermo
Marjorete: Traffic is a disaster. The worst was that we had to go to the beach at 3 and we started moving at 5 because bus driver didn’t even start the bus because there was traffic jams everywhere. We always drove 2-3km half an hour, at least, because traffic sign didn’t have any meanings and the Swans were always let thru.
Maire: Autoromude pealinn Palermo. Raske oli tervet autot märgata, ikka mõlk siin ja mõlk seal. Arvestades nende reegliteta liikluskultuuri, siis pole see ka mingi ime. Kaherealisest tänavast tehti sujuvalt 4 rida ja viiendas reas sibasid rollerid autode vahel. Tõelised kaskadöörid. Rääkimata üliosavatest bussijuhtidest, kes millimeetri täpsusega mööda kitsaid tänavaid manööverdasid. Hing jäi ikka kinni küll.
Luule: Yes, the traffic?! If you can call this chaotic driving to traffic… Too bad that we didn’t have Gunnar with us.
Reti: The traffic was pretty chaotic. There were no driving lines on the ground and everybody drove the way they liked. It was quite hard to notice a car without dents or scratches. We even saw a car which forepart was taped to the body.
Sander: The traffic was horrible. I think if they would come to drive in Estonia they would fall asleep behind the wheel because our traffic is much calmer than theirs.
12. Managing with English
Marjorete: In Estonia, when someone besides you talks English a little better than you, then you feel bad and think that you can’t talk really much. But when you go to Italy, then everyone speaks very little English. There where I stayed, the boy talked with me and half of it was Italian, because he thought I understood him. We Estonians can talk English quite well.
Maire: It was nice language practice. Although local people didn’t want to speak English much, we managed well.
Luule: If I have people with me who speak English so well, then I can adore flowers and butterflies.
Reti: Inglise keele oskus oli kõigil üsna keskpärane. Piisav, et teineteisele oma soovid ja vajadused selgeks teha, aga väga sügavaid vestlusi just alustada ei saanud. Alguses, kui veel teineteisega tuttavad ka polnud ning kui midagi keerukamat öelda vaja oli, kasutasime suhtlemiseks interneti abi.
Everybody’s English skills were quite average. But that was enough to explain eachother our wishes and thoughts. In the beginning when we didn’t know eachother well yet and if we needed to say something more complicated then we used help from the internet.
Sander: From time to time it was hard to speak to them if we didn’t have a computer with us, that could translate to Italian, but if they had to say something, they figured out some way to say it.
Thanks for everybody!
Kunda Üg Comenius Project „Discovering Each Other“ meeting in Italy, Palermo, Istituto Magistrale Statle „Regina Margherita“ school.
Who went there? - director Henry Kallaste, teachers Maire Ojamaa and Luule Raam, students Marjorete Orumaa, Reti Kokk and Sander Parovart.
The trip started on 5th and ended on 16th May. We travelled with a small bus. Bus drivers were Henry Kallaste and Kuno Raam.
Thanks to Erko Vallbaum, the director of AS Lajos, who helped us.
Some memories from the trip…
1. What is the first thing you remember about the Sicily?
Marjorete: My greatest memory from Sicily- hmm, whole trip was a memory for life. Those beautiful mountains and warm weather. Definitely the Massimo’s theatre was the best memory.
Maire: Wonderful mountains, many tunnels and beautiful The Mediterranean sea.
Luule: For a little island there were so many mountains. Anti-mafia society meeting, where youngsters talked what they have done to eliminate mafia. This was one of the times I felt ashamed to be an adult. The oldest theatre in Europe – Massimo and being in the royal loož. I had seen such a thing only in movies before.
Reti: This is a very hard question, because comparing to Estonia, everything was so different there. First in my mind are funny and open-minded people and of course chaotic traffic and wonderful weather.
Sander: All of it was pretty cool, but the best one was visiting of the Etna volcano.
2. What do you think about so long bus drive?
Marjorete: I don’t remember Estonia, Latvia and Lietuva when we went there because those countries went very quickly. Second day was also great, mountains and everything else was new, time went fast and excitement was big, but the third day was quite dreadful because of we had to sit all day in the car and drive. Butt was really painful and we couldn’t wait any longer till we finally get there. But who suffers that lives longer and ofcourse we suffered and were really quiet on the backseat, because next time we can’t get to Sicily!
Maire: Ülimalt hästi! Ikka kõrvad lukus, neelatad ja ja jälle lahti!
Luule: I don’t mind travelling by bus. I like to see the world and beautiful spring in the Europe. When we started on a 5th May from Kunda/Estonia, then the nature was quite sad and grey. On the third day when we were in Calabria, we saw that the already harvested crops there. The world is wonderful!
Reti: I've always liked to travel by bus. You can see much more than when you travel by plane. Our bus was quite comfortable and we made many brakes during driving, so everything was good.
Sander: Going there was interesting, especially for me, because I have never seen mountains before. Coming back was painful and I was tired.
3. What else you remember about the bus trip except Sicily?
Marjorete: Besides Sicily, the Austrian mountains and Italy’s land really caught our eyes. Everything was very beautiful.
Maire: Mountain roads, fun travel companion and paying taxes on highways. We couldn’t cope with those machines anyhow.
Luule: Fun travel companion and stretching pauses, cozy hotels and delicious breakfasts (that we didn’t have to make by ourselves and didn’t have to do the dishes as well).
Reti: From bus trip I remember most the mountains of Austria and Italy and of course those endless tunnels.
Sander: I remember mountains, beautiful nature, freeways, tunnels (there was a lot of them) and many kinds of plantations.
4. Local food and drinks
Marjorete: We went there only because of food! Actually the food out there is different than Estonians. Pizza, pasta, polognese, macarone. Pizza, what is given n Italy is the real pizza. They do it right out there, they spin it on their fingers and straight to the oven. All the ingredients were fresh, especially seafood. Straight from Mediterranean sea squids and octopuses... mmmm
Maire: Pasta and lasagna or the opposite way, but still 13 euros!
Luule: I liked Mediterranean foods very much and fruits right from the tree tasted nice. Octopus, calamari and goat cheese – really tasteful!
Reti: I was amazed at how much they are able to eat there. In Estonia we only have a steak or a bowl of soup for lunch or dinner, but for them a big plateful of fries and meat is only an appetizer, followed by antipasti. After all that everyone had a huge pizza. In Estonia we eat to get our stomach full and go on with our activities, but they consider eating as a completely separated activity, which you have to enjoy and takes plenty of time. Estonians really should learn to follow their dining habits.
Sander: Italian food was tasty, especially pizza. They don’t know how to cook meat, because they eat seafood.
5. The Mediterranean
Marjorete: Mediterranean sea, who haven’t been there, they have missed so much. Super warm, light, clean, refreshing. We even swimmed there if we didn’t have any swimsuits. But we had to go in. We really enjoyed that warm seawater. Water is never that warm in Estonia.
Maire: The color- greenish blue, the taste – salty, the weather – windy, the water – super. In conclusion – short time of super good feeling.
Luule: The Mediterranean is a cool sea. In spring the water color can be described with a word azuur. I’ve never seen such a color anywhere else in the nature. I just can’t get my eyes off it! It’s warm, salty and enjoyable. Really, we swam even when we didn’t have our swimming clothes with us, because who knows when we get there again..
Reti: The Mediterranean was enjoyable! Warm and enjoyable.
Sander: I have never been before in that salt water. I was used to Estonian water, which is slightly salty, when I first went to swim, I jumped into the water and my mouth was full of salty water, which was very disgusting.
6. The landscape and Etna
Marjorete: Landscape was very beautiful and some of us saw it first time. Those mountains. We were in the clouds very often because we were very high.
Maire: Mountains, tunnels, bridges or same in the opposite way. I don’t even remember any usual road. Etna left undying memory – all these massive rocks that are pushed together with big jeeps. Looking from distance – majestic, but very dangerous..
Luule: Starting from Austria only mountains, mountains and again – mountains! Toscana county and picturesque cypress groves. Olive trees, mountain villages and sheep herds. Fortress cities on the top of the mountains. The nature was magnificent! Etna – I broke my previous height record, because we raised about 2700 m high with cable car. Amazing! Tõin Etna jalamilt kaasa kolm ülisuurt piiniakäbi, millega nüüd lapselaps liivakastis mängib. Sitsiilias on selline tunne, et vanajumalal on selle saare kohal mägede kott katki läinud. Nii palju ja nii tihedalt!
Reti: The landscape was fantastically beautiful. Anywhere you look – gorgeous views everywhere. Etna was also amazing. When we stepped out of the bus down the hill, the air was quite warm, but up in the top, there was a really strong wind and even snow.
Sander: Landscape was amazing, beautiful. Etna was something that I have never seen before, it was unbelievable for me that I was so high (3000m).
7. The school that we visited
Marjorete: School-prison. No it wasn’t that bad. That school was with music slope and very excellent people go there. 16 year old girl who sings opera like a professional. Architecturally, it was very interesting school. In the middle of it, there was a beautiful garden. If I compare our school with that, then our schools yard looks like waste ground. Palm trees and some other beautiful trees were growing in the yard. A little bit funny was that the windows had bars on them.
Maire: The garden in the courtyard was really nice place to rest during brakes.
Luule: The school is in Palermo’s old town. The yard with exotic plants was beautiful. The way that they studied there seemed bit chaotic, but teachers and students were very friendly and kind. Kids didn’t pay attention to studies much, but the way they sang… the concert in the church was awesome.
Reti: The school was very different from ours. It was in the middle of the city and was surrounded by churches and historical buildings. But classes were quite dark and small and didn’t look nice. The headmasters was really big and nicely decorated.
Sander: School was like a prison in American movies, there was graffiti, windows had bars and the weirdest thing was that on the top of the school, there were small houses and africans lived in there.
8. Sporting opportunities in the school
Marjorete: We could play volleyball, football and basketball there. Gym was outside. I think our class boys would really like if our gym was outside.
Maire: They played volleyball and football on a asphalt forecourt. Awful.
Luule: It was nice that they can do sport outside throughout year. They didn’t use sportswear and didn’t have a shower after P.E lesson. But they didn’t do much in the lesson so what is the point of washing anyway. They had a gym outside – what a luxury!
Reti: They had a little asphalt forecourt where they played volleyball. Walls that surrounded that court were full on graffiti. There was also gym.
Sander: Haven’t seen anyone doing sports, they only played a little bit of a volleyball on the PE lesson.
9. People in Italy
Marjorete: People are just great. Friends for life. There isn’t enough words to describe their friendliness and goodness. They are so caring, always hugging and kissing. It was new to us, that when you see each other you greet them with a kiss on the cheek. When Sander saw Angelo first time, then Angelo started to kiss him instanlty and Sander didn’t feel very good. There is second type of people too- mafia. We thought a new way to call them, because mafia is mafia in every language. We started to call them Luiged(swans). There were swans everywhere. Everyone with a fancy big car and a suit was a swan. Regular people had only 2 seated cars. Every car had many bumps because traffic was horrible.
Luule: People who live in Sicily are very friendly and sociable. If you know the already, then you are friend of them. J For shy Estonians it was little bit uncomfortable.
Reti: People were really open-minded, friendly and temperamental.
Sander: People, especially traders, were really friendly and kind, gave us to taste ice cream, if we couldn’t decide which one to buy.
10. The family/home where we lived
Marjorete: Family was really great. Nobody couldn’t talk English and we had to communicate with ’’sign’’ language only, but we understood each other. Only sad thing was that in the morning I only got cold cocoa..
Reti: The family was very nice. They had 6 persons in their family – our host Saverion, his mother, father, two younger brothers and cute dachshound. Father spoke English very well and taled to us whenever he had a chance. They had a beautiful home – apartment on 9th floor that was surrounded by balcony and had a amazing view to city and mountains. On the last day the family said goodbye by writing a letter into google translate. It was so heart-warming.
Sander: The family where I was living, they were nice and friendly. All of them could speak English, except family’s mother, but it wasn’t a problem.
11. Traffic in Palermo
Marjorete: Traffic is a disaster. The worst was that we had to go to the beach at 3 and we started moving at 5 because bus driver didn’t even start the bus because there was traffic jams everywhere. We always drove 2-3km half an hour, at least, because traffic sign didn’t have any meanings and the Swans were always let thru.
Maire: Autoromude pealinn Palermo. Raske oli tervet autot märgata, ikka mõlk siin ja mõlk seal. Arvestades nende reegliteta liikluskultuuri, siis pole see ka mingi ime. Kaherealisest tänavast tehti sujuvalt 4 rida ja viiendas reas sibasid rollerid autode vahel. Tõelised kaskadöörid. Rääkimata üliosavatest bussijuhtidest, kes millimeetri täpsusega mööda kitsaid tänavaid manööverdasid. Hing jäi ikka kinni küll.
Luule: Yes, the traffic?! If you can call this chaotic driving to traffic… Too bad that we didn’t have Gunnar with us.
Reti: The traffic was pretty chaotic. There were no driving lines on the ground and everybody drove the way they liked. It was quite hard to notice a car without dents or scratches. We even saw a car which forepart was taped to the body.
Sander: The traffic was horrible. I think if they would come to drive in Estonia they would fall asleep behind the wheel because our traffic is much calmer than theirs.
12. Managing with English
Marjorete: In Estonia, when someone besides you talks English a little better than you, then you feel bad and think that you can’t talk really much. But when you go to Italy, then everyone speaks very little English. There where I stayed, the boy talked with me and half of it was Italian, because he thought I understood him. We Estonians can talk English quite well.
Maire: It was nice language practice. Although local people didn’t want to speak English much, we managed well.
Luule: If I have people with me who speak English so well, then I can adore flowers and butterflies.
Reti: Inglise keele oskus oli kõigil üsna keskpärane. Piisav, et teineteisele oma soovid ja vajadused selgeks teha, aga väga sügavaid vestlusi just alustada ei saanud. Alguses, kui veel teineteisega tuttavad ka polnud ning kui midagi keerukamat öelda vaja oli, kasutasime suhtlemiseks interneti abi.
Everybody’s English skills were quite average. But that was enough to explain eachother our wishes and thoughts. In the beginning when we didn’t know eachother well yet and if we needed to say something more complicated then we used help from the internet.
Sander: From time to time it was hard to speak to them if we didn’t have a computer with us, that could translate to Italian, but if they had to say something, they figured out some way to say it.
Thanks for everybody!