BLOG FROM THE VISIT TO LITHUANIA
On Monday 23 March a group of 21 students and 2 teachers started the journey to Lithuania by bus. This is a Norplus Junior project called “The Art of Learning” and it involves a two-way student exchange. This is the first of the two visits. We hope to learn from eachother and to enjoy new friends and experiences on the way. This is our blog, enjoy :-)
The trip to Kedainiai
Our trip to Lithuania started Monday the 23rd of March. We left Byåsen secondary school at 23.00. The journey to Stockholm was spent listening to music and talking about our expectations of the stay in Lithuania. Everyone slept at the most three hours that night.
We had one hour of stressful shopping in Stockholm, before we boarded the ship that was going to take us to Riga. After some mess with the tickets, we eventually found our cabins. At this time we all had found out that this wasn’t a cruise ship, but a ship carrying tourists going to Riga to do some cheap shopping.
We spend the first hours checking out the ship, going on the tax free shop and eating strange baguettes with pickles. The rooms were smaller than we first had thought, and the radio was only playing Swedish hip hop music. But everyone went early to bed, because we all wanted to sleep after the long bus trip. It was lovely to sleep in an actual bed. The next morning we had our first lesson. We talked about the learning methods we use in Byåsen secondary school.
The first sign that we were no longer in a western country, was that we didn’t find the McDonald’s we had been longing for all morning. The next thing that met us was people ice fishing on a river in the middle of the city. The ice looked very thin, and all of us feared that the ice would break. But, then again, they were local people and we trusted them to know what they were doing. Despite the large working class areas in the city, we could see construction work everywhere, and that new modern buildings were built. Joining the European Union has obviously been helpful.
Passing the Lithuanian boarder, the first thing that met us were huge fields and forests. The bus driver’s GPS proved not to show the smartest way to Kedainiai, but the shortest. Suddenly we hit a gravel road, and the rest of the trip towards our destination was very bumpy.
Ronja, Sara, Lena and Ane
The first meeting
The first day in Kedainiai brought many new impressions. Everybody were excited and nervous when the bus got closer and closer to the school. When we arrived, everybody thought the Lithuanian students had dressed up in suits and ties because we came. It later came clear to us that this was their school uniform. This was really weird for us, because we are used to going to school in our own clothes.
Shortly after the arrival we were introduced to our hosts. Some were happy and some were more sceptic about them, but everything turned out OK.
A bit later in the evening, after everyone had met their families, we all met in a local hotel. It was very nice, and all the students got to meet and talk. We danced, listened to music and played pool.
The first day was really exciting and also tiresome because of the long travel. Most of the students went home and to bed early, to get enough rest so that they were able to get up and experience more of Kedainiai the next day.
BLOGZZ <3 Båris, Øystein, Martinas og Andrejs
Friday 27th March:
On Friday we were supposed to have physical education with the Lithuanian students, but we ended up sitting at a bench watching the well-organized and well-trained boys as they warmed up for their volleyball lesson. Eventually we joined them, and played with them for the rest of the lesson. After the exciting hour inside their gymnastics room, we headed for the classroom to do some geography. Later on, the school had prepared an amazing show for us, with dances and musical performances. The concert was splendid and entertaining, as well as inspiring for us who are interested in music. It showed glimmers of the culture and the history of the school; dances from the baroque and songs from Lithuania.
Saturday 28th March:
We met outside the school for the trip to Vilnius. Before we arrived in Vilnius we visited the amazing Trakai castle, from the Middle Ages. We went on a guided tour around in this huge fortress, and were told about how people lived and how the castle was built, truly amazing. We got out of the bus outside a tremendous church in Vilnius. We visited the remaining of an old and fantastic stronghold, which lies on a hill in Vilnius. The stronghold was a part of the great battle against Germany some time ago. After this exhibition we were free to do what we wanted. Some of us hit the stores for shopping, and some looked around in the city. Most of us met on a local MacDonald later on. After meeting outside the church we visited the Akropolis, a gigantic shopping mall of tremendous proportions, complete with ice-skating rink, bowling, cinemas, restaurants and stores.
March 31st 2009
This day it was planned to play football with us Norwegians and the Lithuanians. The teams were divided in two, Norway vs. Lithuania, a classical match. The match took place in an artificial grass field at 12.00 P.M. on a cold and chilly Sunday afternoon in Kedainiai Stadium. Around the field stood a lot of eager “supporters” who had shown up to watch the game, and they brought a huge drum which Marvydas banged heavily on and there were also some other football “instruments” used.
The match started well for the Lithuanian team, a team who just had guys playing with some experienced footballers and some who never had played football before. “The-Others” scored an early goal which was in my opinion not a goal because the whole ball wasn’t over the goal -line, but they got the goal was and the Lithuanian fans went crazy. Afterword, we scored the next goal. It was important for us to get the next goal, because of our confidence. They had never been playing football before, and we had 6 people on our team who are playing “professionally”. A little bit later in the match the Lithuanians scored their second goal, and we couldn’t believe what we were seeing. We felt embarrassed, and we understood that this was not a match we could afford to lose. Most of the people in our class had before this match bragged about our football skills to the families, and it would be very, very silly to lose this match. Luckyly for us we scored our second goal just a few minutes after the Lithuanians by a look-a-like C. Ronaldo by a well structured pass by an another look-a-like, but this time it was a Becks and it was kicked in the net by Jan’s heal, amazingly, but true. There were hope for us Vikings. Unfortunately, the Lithuanians scored their third, and it was the matches last goal. A bitter end, to say the least, we Norwegians were pretty bummed out. Just ask us. L
Family & Friends <333
First of all we were very pleased by the warmth and hugs and kisses and for some who got more, we were very glad. Amazingly they were very welcoming and they offered us all they had to give, which was pretty nice.
For us the Lithuanian families wore really open, and we all have to admit that we enjoyed our stays with the families, and we got along pretty well. The food was amazing, and we got very spoiled. Even though some of the parents did not managed to speak so well English, we used other communication ways. We saw that in some cautions it was big difference between the families. Some of them had good economy and standard, others a little bit less. But that is a thing we do not care about at all, because you wore giving as love anyway.
So finally, we now want say thank you for our stays, and at least for all the love you gave us. We promise you that we will do everything we can so that the Lithuanian guys are going to have a superb stay here in Trondheim, and we will give you an interesting week.
With all our love, Roy, Bjørn, Jan and Ådne <3
The stay in Kedainiai
When we first arrived we got a very friendly reception and a good first impression of everybody. When we met our hosts, they brought us home, and most of us got to meet the families right away. It was very cozy. Our impression is that everybody was very happy with whom they got to live with and the families. In the free time we got to know the people very well. Not only individually with their hosts, but all Norwegians with all Lithuanians. We had a lot of parties and social gatherings which was very positive for us, we really had a lot of fun.
At school we were watching the Lithuanian classes and subjects. We also had some Norwegian lessons where we did home work. It was interesting to watch how the Lithuanians worked at school and how the teachers were teaching. It was a little like home, but they worked much more individually than we do, and the teachers were talking much of the time.
During our stay we were introduced to Lithuanian traditional food. It was special and very different from what are used to in Norway. Other spices and other flavours, but it was interesting.
On the second day we went on a guided bus trip to Trakai Castle, the Old City in Vilnius and Northern Europe’s biggest shopping mall Akropolis. We were very tired after three hours inside the shopping mall.
On the last day of the visit to Kedainiai we left around one. It was a very sad day because we had all gotten close to and bonded with our Lithuanian friends. But we think it will be even more sad when they leave Norway.
Since we all got to be very good friends we look really forward to their visit!
Kristine, Marthe, Ida, Sigrid og Tine
WELCOME TO NORWAY!