CYPRUS 2010By The Comenius Group.

CON-SCIENCE

INTRODUCTION• After a visit to Austria, our friends finally came to ‘sunny’

Cyprus. They were all surprised by the weather difference and the light.

• A whole week went by full of knowledge, experiences and fun!

• We all worked hard as a team for the successful completion of another Comenius project.

SUNDAY • Finally the 21st of March, the day that everyone was looking forward

to...our Austrian friends came! I was so excited that Katharina and everyone else had a safe trip and they seemed quite happy to be here. I was pretty sure that they were going to love Cyprus. The whole week we tried to do things to have some fun together and let them experience our culture and traditions.

• At 5:30 p.m., I went home with my partner Katharina after we met at school to welcome and pick up our friends from Austria. It felt so amazing to see your friends being filled with glee after an exhausting trip that lasts around 12 hours.

• Last but not least we started our Comenius Project by visiting the cinema, we saw a very nice film called “Remember Me”. Then at around midnight, everyone went home because we all knew a very busy week with lots of expeditions and experiments to do was waiting for us!

Joh

an

na &

Sara

h &

Len

a &

Ale

xSome of the Austrian group at the airport.

San

dy

Sandra waiting at the airport!

MONDAY• We woke up at 6.30 and we went to school.• Dr. Kouris said welcome to us Austrians and after that, George Athanasiou took

us for a tour around the school. Cassandra talk to us about the old and new school and Rea, Elena and Natasha presented to us the Cypriot Identity. I think your school is very beautiful, but it is very strange for me that you have to wear school uniforms, even the youngest of you!!!

• We had free lunch in school and I liked the food! It tasted very good!!!• After lunch we went to the KEO brewery and wine production areas in the factory.

There they showed us how the wines and beers are produced. It was very interesting! We also went to a wine cellar and they told us that the wine barrels have to be there for two years and longer.

• After the brewery we went to Molos at the sea side. We went shopping, “I really like the Cyprus shops”!! We also went to the beach, which was amazing for the Austrians because in Austria we don’t have the sea!! We all liked it very much and took a lot of pictures! We also had ice cream.

• After that some of us went to the restaurant called Bennigans and there we ate an enormous Irish burger! The Cypriots first showed me how big it is but I didn’t believe them.... Until I saw it!!!

• In the evening we went to Nastya’s house to watch a movie and play football. We had lots of fun! It was a good end for a good day!

Th

e ‘B

ig’ G

rou

pBoth Austria and Cyprus at the school’s amphitheatre.

Art T

ime!

All of us together painting on our canvases.

KEO

At the KEO factory during the experiment.

TUESDAY  • We were given two presentations, one on how people’s moods change when

in space and one on psycho logic influence of light. • After all that, we went quickly to get something to eat and then we got on

the bus and went to the Vouni Donkey Sanctuary. They also have two other sanctuaries in Limassol. All together they take care of 124 donkeys. We also adopted a donkey there, his name was Beau.

• After this we went to Omodos and saw the Holy Cross monastery. We saw many relics inside, even a piece of the cross that Jesus was crucified on. We were then given some time to do a bit of shopping. We all tried some traditional Cyprus sweets that were on sale. Then we got back on the bus.

• It was a long drive after that because we were going to Galactica for some bowling. We had a lot of fun. It was also interesting to watch all the Austrians play bowling because they never played before. The first game was hard for them but they eventually got the hang of it. There were some accidents during a game like someone slipping into the lane

• Then we all went home after a tiring day.

Pre

sen

tatio

ns

Mr. Aristidou during his presentations.

Exp

erim

en

tMs. Achilleos explaining the experiment to us.

Lig

ht P

resen

tatio

nMs. Anna during her presentation on light.

Don

key S

an

ctu

ary

Our visit to the donkey sanctuary.

Om

od

os

Our Comenius Group at the Omodos Monastery.

WEDNESDAY• We met at 7:45 at the school where the teachers told us what we were going to do on

this day.• At 8:30 we went to the University of Technology where we had two workshops. One

professor taught us about electrical engineering and in the other workshop a professor taught us about mechanical engineering. Then they showed us a little presentation about the university and the different buildings which are owned by them, for example the library where we stayed about half an hour and were allowed to use books and internet.

• After this we had lunch in the centre of the city and then walked to the beach to relax. Some of the Austrians went shopping and to buy some souvenirs for their families.

• Most of us actually thought this would be the end of the day but then our teachers told us that we were going to visit the Marine Police Station. There two policemen gave us some information about their work and their previous incidents. Then another policeman showed us the system which finds out which boats and ships are in the sea around Cyprus. After that we were allowed to go on the biggest ship of the Marine Police. There they showed us all the instruments they need for doing their work.

• Afterwards we were picked up by our families and some of us went out that night afterwards.

• All in all it was a quite exhausting day.... but very much fun!!!

TEPA

KThe professor explaining mechanical engineering.

Ele

ctric

al E

ng

ineerin

gGeorge and Samer trying to make the circuit flow.

Ou

tsid

e T

he U

niv

ers

ity C

am

pu

sOur group waiting to continue our tour.

Marin

e P

olic

eOur visit to the Marine Police and their presentation.

THURSDAY • In the morning, we went to the parade and either we watched it or participated in it. After

that, we went on the bus to go to the Santa Marina Retreat and there we ate and did some activities. We split into groups, Cyprus vs. Austria (apart from Alex who went with Cyprus).

• First, we went horse riding and went round the field twice, and then we did archery – where, unfortunately, the Austrians beat the Cypriots.

• Then, we went rock climbing where we had to reach the balloons at the top and get down to pop them so we can answer the questions inside them and fortunately we didn’t have any blondes in our team and Cyprus won…… :P (because of me and Alex the Austrian)

• And finally we went to the Minotaur Labyrinth where we were blind folded and had to go through a course of wheels and tunnels not being able to see. Even with Rea as our leader, Cyprus won again but of course it was soooooo funny especially Vicky who kept going off the trail and hitting into Lukas.

• So in the end we, Cyprus, beat the Austrians 2-1. Vicky said: “But we are all winners bla bla bla”, we still beat them but we are still friends and love each other.

• Everybody including the losers (the Austrian blondes) got a prize still even though we won. We all got lucky horse shoes.

• At night we went out to the tavern, Avenida where Christinos and Oscar were serving us in the bar, and we danced all night, especially the teachers from Austria!! In addition we taught the Austrians how to Greek dance xD (they were really good ....not)!!

Para

de

During the Parade for the 25th March.

25th

Marc

h

The Day of the Greek Revolution in 1821.

Min

ota

ur's

Lab

yrin

th

The Red Team about to start.

FRIDAY• Today we met up at school at 7:45 a.m. Of course we felt

very tired because of dancing last night. We went to science room to watch Samer’s presentation on facial recognition which was quite interesting. Afterwards we went to the computer room to prepare our presentation of the entire week.

• We had a great time and really enjoyed being in Cyprus, especially our visit to Santa Marina Retreat. We all would love to come back to Cyprus again!

CONCLUSION Over the past week, we Cypriots have taught our

Austrian friends much about the Cypriot way of life, and also about our schooling system, which comparatively to the schooling system in Austria, is very different!

We visited many interesting places, and even taken in a few workshops which you have previously heard about – such as the marine police station, and the Santa marina retreat. We’ve had some amazing times together here in Cyprus, but also in Austria, and have made some amazing new friends! Every day was filled with fun and exciting new experiences, and we all learnt about so many things that we had never even given any thought to, previously!

The Comenius project is brilliant to take part in, and we would recommend it to anyone who has the chance to participate.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!