IES Frederic Mompou

Comenius Project in Portugal I'm writing about a Comenius project meeting,held in Portugal this year. It is called "Water Asset". It's about what we can do to save water. I went to Cinfaes, Portugal to present it with a student of the second year of Eso, Alba Dorado and two teachers: Joan Alberich and Pilar Belloc. Portugal is a country located next to Spain. There are two airports, one in Lisboan, which is in the south of the country and in its capital. And the other one is in Oporto which is in the north. We flew to this one. Cinfaes is a town near Oporto, two hours from there, in the Douro Valley. It's a peaceful, green place, it rains a lot. The environment isn't polluted and the air is very fresh . It is a cold town because it is in the north, near the Atlantic Ocean. It is limited by the Douro in the north, The Paiva river in the west and the Cabrum in the east. Its landscape is incredible, a lot of vineyards, olive trees, fruit trees and we can still see signs of the communal lifestyle in the villages near there.
Cinfaes, a town near Oporto
Cinfaes next to the Douro River, at night.
Five countries take part in this project: Portugal, Italy, Turquay, Romania and Catalonia. The first meeting for students and teachers was held in Portugal from the 1st to the 6th of November. We met some of our partners :two Turkish girls ( about fifteen and sixteen) and their two teachers, Jahre and Ümuk . Lauren, a sixteen year old student from Romania and his teacher., María Visa ( the Coordinator of the project).Antonio Souto and other Portuguese teachers and some students (Juliana, Inés,….).Two Spanish girls ,Alba who is 13, the youngest of the project and me, Àstrid, I'm 15. and two of the Spanish teachers involved in the project, Joan Alberich and Pilar Belloc. Our Italian partners couldn´t go. We hope to meet them in the next meeting ,in Sant Vicenç in February.
All the students from the project with their teachers at the presentation of the project in Cinfaes.
The Portuguese school is bigger than ours. There are a lot of classrooms, a chemistry laboratory, computer rooms, a library and a bar. The bar is very special because instead of paying with money, they use a school credit card. There is a canteen and a playroom because it often rains and the pupils can go there at the break and play table tennis.
It's the chemistry laboratory	The computer room
The teachers' room is also very big, with a television set, two computers, a bar with some tables to have a snack something for breakfast. In this school there are about six hundred students. All of them are very hard-working and active. All the people are very nice , very polite, and friendly. The students from other countries stayed with families whose children took part in the Comenius project. Our host family was very nice and funny. The father, Eurico, the mother Maria Jose, and the three daughters called Mariana, Joana, Anna and Inés. Inés is one of the participants of the project. We always went out with them, played with the daughters and María José was like a mother for us in Portugal. Their house was very, very big.
This is our host family . They invited our teachers to have dinner at their house. What a delicious dinner!
Some students' friends	some teachers celebrating Halloween
We went to some welcome parties and we visited some places. One afternoon we went to the Douro Dam. Another day we went to see how they press the olives to make olive oil. We also visited a famous wine cellar and we were invited to a wine-tasting in Oporto. As you know , this city is very important for its wine, the sweet Port Wine. We went on excursion to the Bestança river,
This is the Douro River
Douro dam
Oporto
A famous wine cellar
The Douro estuary in the Atlantic Ocean	The school canteen
Process of getting oil from olives	The school canteen
In my opinion everything has been perfect. I'm very surprised with all the people,, very charming, nice, peaceful, friendly, polite and funny at the same time and with the country, all green and fresh. I was very embarrassed the first day because all the pupils looked at us and we didn't know them and I should say that I was very afraid too but just the first day., then I also changed my mind and met a lot of people and made a lot of friends. I had a very good time and I enjoyed a lot. If someone asks me if I want to come back I'll definitely say "yes". To sum up, I would like to encourage my schoolmates and readers to take part in this kind of projects. They help us be more open-minded, more tolerant with people and other cultures, to know other parts of the world and to meet other students and keep in touch with them.