My school

Hello everyone! I haven’t shared anything about mu school with you yet. The school is over sixty years old and the building was erected in the early sixties. You can see that the time took its toll on it but the renovations are still going on. For the time being the effects are visible mainly inside but outside the flaking plaster is covered by the students’ graffiti in some places, which looks quite nice. Still, the front elevation is going to be renovated soon.

This is the back of the school. I love the larches there, now they still have the needles but of course they are not green anymore but rusty gold.

This is our staff room on the second floor. I don’t spend much time there as I have my own room at the back of my classroom and I’m usually there with the students or the colleagues who come to visit me during breaks.

Today I got a new whiteboard in my classroom. I was so happy as the old blackboard was so ancient that it wouldn’t accept any kind of chalk… The school maintenance man hung it together with two glass clip frames with the copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the US which I bought at the Smithsonian in Washington DC. You see, little things can make you really happy!

My classroom is in the basement, in fact at the very end of the school corridor, which makes it nice and quiet. It’s long and quite narrow so most teachers don’t like working there but I don’t mind it being narrow at all! As you can see in the picture, there are hot water pipes running along the walls just below the ceiling. It’s hard to cover them and I’m still working on the idea how to do it as it doesn’t look very nice.

This is the map I bought in Charlotte and it took me so much pain and suffering to bring it to Poland!

And this is the British corner and the door leading to my room. I hope soon I will be able to show you the American corner as I haven't found a proper place for the American flag I brought with me from the U. S.

Last days in Spain

Yesterday was again such a long day that I didn't have any time to write. Today we've got a free afternoon, so I can tell you about the places we have visited during the past two days.

It took me about 30 minutes to upload all the photos :( But now I can finally tell you about yesterday.

When we were having breakfast, there was a strange accident in front of the hotel. One of the lamp posts fell over and hit two cars. Luckily, nobody got hurt.

 We went to San Sebastian yesterday. It's a beautiful beach town near the French border. We walked on the beach and enjoyed the sun.

As I was staring at the blue sea and listening to the waves, I remembered all the TEA fellows I met in Boone. I miss y'all :(

It was sunny and pretty warm - about 17 degrees in the sun. You can never see anything like that in November in Estonia. And we were really surprised to see some people swimming in the sea.

A huge statue of Christ gazing over the city and its people.

We also visited the Palacio del Mar (Aquarium) and learned about the life of Basque people who have always been keen fishermen and whale hunters (I felt really sorry for the whales, though).

They have a tunnel that goes through the huge fish tank. We could see different sharks, turtles, fish and other sea creatures. The students loved chasing the sharks.

Me enjoying the sunny weather. I actually got a bit sunburnt.

After the visit to the Aquarium we had lunch in a small cafe where they offered different kind of pintxos. As San Sebastian is very close to the French border, they also offered frog legs. I can't understand how people can eat something that disgusting.

Would you like a bite?

We had lunch at the main square that was used as a bullring years ago. The appartments on the square had numbers on them because in the past they were used for watching bullfighting.

After our visit to San Sebastian we went to a big shopping center in Vitoria. We had lots of trouble getting back to the hotel but we finally managed to make it on time for the dinner.

Here are all our teachers - Onur from Turkey, Monica from Spain, Marek and Linda and me from Estonia, Birnur from Turkey, Begoña from Spain and Fatma from Turkey.

Today we went to see the Salt Valley of Añana This was something completely new for me, I had never thought that salt could be made somewhere far from sea.

Salt Valley of Añana

We also visited a medieval castle but weren't able to enjoy the visit that much because it was awfully cold in the castle.

The Turkish group left a couple of hours ago. We're going to have dinner at 8.30 pm so I thought I'll sleep a bit as I got to bed really late yesterday. We're leaving at noon tomorrow. I'm not particularly happy about the fact that there are going to be two flights again as I've caught cold but I'll try to manage somehow.

Hugs and kisses to y'all. Take care :)

Four Corners Activity in SCH.

I tried the four corners discussion activity today with my 11th-graders. You remember the one where we had labels on the walls: I strongly agree, I agree, I disagree, I strongly disagree, and people had to go to the one they felt described their views.

My classroom

Well, it seems that with students it needs a lot of practice and I need a lot of PATIENCE because Estonian students are not really used to walking around in the classroom, doing groupwork and defending their opinions.

I agree-group

They might even have the necessary language skills but they don't know how to use them.
The four-corners activity requires also controversial or provoking statements. I couldn't come up with any really good ones. I used: People who do exptreme sports are crazy. AND I would allow my daughter to choose whatever extreme sport she wants to go into. (or sth like that)

If you can come up with some more statements like that on the topic of sports or hobbies, I'd be glad to report on how they worked.

Good morning world

I was so tired yesterday that I couldn't post any photos. We're going to have breakfast in 30 minutes so I thought I'll try to write something.

Yesterday we visited our partner school. The topic we were working on for the past few weeks was Food and so the students gave presentations about the food in their countries.

 Turkish students telling others about the delicious dishes you can have in Turkey.

 Estonian boys. Norman is stressing how important black bread is for all the Estonians. They did really well and I think they're enjoying their time here in Vitoria.

 Basque students giving their presentation.

Prawns - something they eat here a lot. Well... I couldn't eat anything that has such a sad look in their eyes. They seem to be saying, "Please, don't eat us." :)

In the afternoon we visited a cooking school in Vitoria and had lunch there. Food is definitely one of the most important things here.

In the evening we visited another Santa Maria Cathedral. The cathedral here is huge and is being restored at the moment. They have been working on the building for the past 9 years and there's still a lot to do.

 We also went to see the old city wall and it was fun. Unfortunately, it gets really cold in the evening so when I got back to the hotel I was frozen.

 Part of the city wall

Another part of the city wall and another church. Can  you see the moon?

In the evening we had an hour of free time and then we had dinner at the hotel restaurant.

Today we're going to see San Sebastian which is a city near the French border. It should be one of the most beautiful places around here. I'm really looking forward to the trip and  I hope the weather will be nice.

Communications

I was SO glad to talk to Aida on Skype for a long time today!
We tried to make it a conference call but unfortunately none of our TEA-family was online/ or didn't respond.
Just wanted to mention that Skype can really bring us back together and when we talk there it feels that we are still in the Lobby. We should do it more often.
I'm thinking of creating a page with time differences between different countries where all the TEA-fellows of our group reside. Time difference always gets me confused....

Hi from the land of wine

Today was a long day. We visited the area where Rioja wine is made. It was amazing! It's the area of wineries, vineyards and wine cellars.

 Our group - Estonian, Spanish and Turkish students and teachers in front of a fancy spa hotel owned by a rich winery owner. The hotel was designed by the same architect who designed the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

 A blooming rose in one of the vineyards. As you can guess, the weather here is much better than in Estonia. Well, it's cold at night and in the evening and it was foggy in the morning but during the day it's very nice - sunny and clear and pretty warm.

 Me, enjoying the nice weather at an observation platform in Laguardia - a beautiful medieval village we visited today.

 The people here are crazy about food and wine. In the photo you can see octopus pintxos (Basque spelling) they offered in a small cafe in Laguardia.

 The amazing and perfectly preserved 17th century polychrome decoration on the doorway of the Church of St-Mary-of-the-Kings in Laguardia.

 The wine cellar we visited today. I have to say I know much more about wines and wine making now.

The mountains and the pink sky we saw when we left the wine cellar.

Hope you're all doing fine. I really need to get some sleep now as it has been a very long day.

A month till Christmas

Today's weather was horrible - wet and windy and gray - but it didn't really bother the people of Estonia. As you've probably noticed, we are used to bad weather and darkness and hardship.
Everybody gathered on the town hall square of Tartu today to light the first candles and celebrate the fact that there is just one month till Christmas and also to the time when the days are becoming longer again.

Tartu Town Hall Square
The statue of Kissing Students on the background

 I had to go to the Town Hall Square because my kid sings in a children's choir and all the choirs of different schools in Tartu gathered together to celebrate this event by singing several Christmas songs.

Pretending it doesn't RAIN!

 Ah, yes. And the things that appear to be like outside blinds of the windows of the Town Hall - they are like a Christmas Calendar - they are going to be "opened" each day to reveal a story by Christmas time.

Mayor of Tartu
Town Hall

The lights

It was really heart-warming and nice to be there among all of these people, listen to the words of the mayor and think about the good things. And most of all - it was really great to see the Christmas lights in the town be lit all at the same time when the Mayor of Tartu had lit a candle.
Here you can see more pics of the same event.

Guatemala

Hello everyone, I am here to talk to you a bit about Xela (This is the name of our city, it's Quetzaltenango but it's like a short for the mayan name) and our school. This week I have been working as a substitute teacher, which is fine by me, I go to classes and I help or if someone gets sick then I have to give the class. My school has been celebrating spirit week, that means that the kids and teachers dress up according to the theme. The kids have dressed as pilgrims and Indians, pajamas, occupation and hat day.

 These are some of the teachers at school with their hats on Hat day, it's one of the easiest days cause all you have to do is bring a hat :)

 A picture of the school, this will be the last year, since they will close this building, because the high school will move to a new building.
Today Saturday I had to be in coordination, the coordinator had to do somethings so I stayed receiving material and grade. We have classes on Saturdays for teenagers and adults, it's fun because we receive people from places around Quetzaltenango.

Here we have the students doing their test on the last day. This is one of the best days because we have to test and give grades so there is not a lot of planning :D
Well when I take more photos I will upload them and tell you about Xela a bit more.

Greetings from Basque Country

I'm in Spain now. I got up at 4 am and we flew from Tallinn to Munich and then from Munich to Bilbao. I wasn't very enthusiastic about the flights in the morning as I've flown a lot this year (in fact, today I had my 14th and 15th flight this year) but it wasn't too bad. Then we took the coach from Bilbao to Vitoria Gasteiz. I'm with two other teachers from our school and there are also three students from my class with us. The students live in host families, we are staying at a hotel. It was nice to see Begona again (she's the Spanish coordinator), we went to an Italian restaurant to have lunch. The Turkish group should arrive at 7 pm so we have two hours to get some rest.

I'm going to add a couple of photos too so you can imagine the life here.

The beautiful sunrise we could admire somewhere above Germany

The mountains they have here in Basque Country. Again, we had an amazing view from the plane :)

Estonian students meeting their new Spanish friends

Begona and me at the Italian restaurant. It was so nice to see her again.

It's so strange to hear Spanish here... By the way, all the webpages are in Spanish, even blogspot. And I also wanted to add that even I can understand that the Spanish they speak here is very different from the Spanish they speak in Guatemala or Argentina :D

Busy busy busy

For me, November is the time when most of my family and friends have their birthdays. Yesterday morning when I checked Facebook it turned out that five of my friends had their birthday. It was also my mother's birthday, so we drove to my parents' place yesterday after work. AND today my younger son turned four.

We've been back home for two weeks now and I've almost gotten used to the everyday routine again. I haven't got much choice, have I? Luckily, I can escape from the routine once again as tomorrow I'm travelling to Spain. I'm the coordinator of an international Comenius project called The Universe of Youth Culture and we're going to visit our partner school in Vitoria Gasteiz in Basque Country. Our project partners from Turkey will also be there.

That's the logo of our project. I must also add that the project lasts for two years and is funded by the EU as part of Europe’s Lifelong Learning Programme.

We have to be at the airport tomorrow at 5.20 am so I should probably go to sleep but I wanted to write a short entry before going to bed. I hope I'll have some time to share my impressions of Vitoria with you :) Actually, it's my second time there as I visited them last November too.

OK, to finish off, here are two photos I took today. That's our main teachers' lounge. We also have several smaller ones for FL teachers and Science teachers and Maths teachers and so on.

My next entry will be written in Spain. Have a nice weekend y'all.

Heart matters

No other words necessary.

Ms. Grumpy

View from my window

Sometimes you wake up in the morning and you really are not in the mood for anything. The alarm clock sounds wrong and you keep hitting the snooze button. Your kid wakes up and says that she's caught cold and you have to let her stay home. You crawl out from under the duvet to find that it's cold again in the apartment. Opening the blinds in the livingroom you encounter Estonian November in its nastiest form: low gray skies, fog, damp air, grumpy people already late for work.

Then you just have to make a cup of coffee (even if you have no paper cups and Irish Cream) and be thankful that you have to go to work an hour later.