Day 7

 14 February 2008

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Come see the frog!

„Put your right leg in, your right leg out, in out in out , you sake it all around. You do the Hokey Pokey and you turn around, that is was it is all about…” That is what the Islanders could hear on Thursday afternoon in the Keel Achill Cottages. The workshop Europe goes to school focuses on the intercultural exchange between kids on Achill Island and participants of the project. We organized an International Treasure Hunt. There was one station from each nationality taking part in the project. In the different stations the kids, parents and students talked about important information of the different countries, sung typical national songs and games and tried some food. In each station we concentrated on different topics like sports, food and fairy tales. When we told the story of the German “Froschkoenig” the children met our frog. We learned from the Irish people how to play football, they told us Irish stories and we made Scones together. It was a great exchange between the different nationalities. The kids, parents and participants of the workshop enjoyed the afternoon and the intercultural exchange.  

Dining with an Irish Family

As the part of our project we were invited to Steve Manning’s home for dinner. Steve showed Susi and me the village before we arrived to his house. Norika, his Japanese wife and the three children, Christina, Coleen and Danny were welcoming and exceptionally friendly. Steve prepared the dinner meanwhile we had a chat in the kitchen. He told us how many places and various cultures they have visited and stories about Norika’s family back in Japan. Soon it turned out that he is working on a book and introduced us to his fascinating theory about the connection of religion and science. The meal was pasta with Bolognese sauce and salad – not a traditional Irish meal but very tasty and very delicious. After dinner the children gave performances; they sang, showed us the traditional Irish dance and played the flute. It was amazing to see how talented and kind the children are even to us whom they have just met. Accompanied by a bottle of wine, we talked for a while until the kids’ bedtime arrived and Steve dropped us off to the pub. However, it is worth to mention that the night did not pass without adventure – because the land rover did not start, we had to push it to jump start it. Fortunately, everything turned out to be great and Steve had a pint of Guinness with us in the Annexe. It was a lovely experience to meet a family and have a glance in their life on Achill Island. It showed us how friendly, open minded and child oriented Irish people are.

 Eva Bagyarik (Hungary)

 Social and language diversity manager

 Good mood, warm and friendly environment to socialize, interesting activities. These are the main goals of successful and enjoyable journey. And the person in charge that everything goes smoothly is me, social and language diversity manager. Preparing some small intercultural games, organising activities based on diversity between different people is the best way to do your job well. It is always difficult to remember names of persons you are seeing for the first time. So, at the beginning of this project, we played a little game in order to help ourselves to remember the names. And then we arrived on Island. And we were amazed, because of the sunny and friendly weather! The whole week on Achill Island was the great experience to all of us. Social and language diversity took part of our routine in the natural way, so my job as a manager was all about organising short activities between the meals at the diner time and also to think about possibilities how to spend your after diner time. There was Irish national music performance happening in the local pub. In Achill, I organised a karaoke party, which was so much fun. The whole time at the Achill Island we had short activities, like a “Valentine’s day post” or “Intercultural masterpiece” drawing team competition. There are also some events based on language diversity happening. As a social and language diversity manager I am glad to see that intercultural exchange is happening really well.

 Ugnius Aidas (Lithuanian Group)

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Critical Incidents

Real intercultural stories

The Netherlands            Finland

On the second day I was living here in Finland, my roommate was putting on her jacket. I wanted to make some small talk so I asked her where she was going. She told me that she would go out to the cinema with her boyfriend that night because it was her birthday. I wanted to congratulate her, so I walked towards her and turned over to, like we are used to in Holland, kiss her on the cheeks. I must have really scared her. She did a couple of steps back, and looked with big eyes at me. I realized then that I must be doing something unusual so I made a weird movement, stood up right again and shook her hand in stead. She was really looking at me like I was some kind of idiot. I think we both felt very uncomfortable, at least I did!