Portugal - Vieira do Minho

Following the agenda for the first day the Portuguese students prepared a welcoming ceremony where they performed some of the activities they do throughout the school year, being the strongest ones gymnastics and music.
The tour around the school facilities shows that rebuilding is happening and in less than two years a new school will be ready. In the afternoon the participants from all countries formed teams with a student from each nationality to get engaged in sport for team bonding and faster acknowledgement of each other. Everybody seemed to have a good time and feel comfortable with this challenge. The sports teacher, along with the vocational students organised table tennis, badminton, basketball, climbing and skating station for all the participants to give a try. The day ended with a kind of a treasure hunt around the small town of Vieira do Minho to get to know it a bit better.

Tuesday was ready for the theatre club activities and the ETC Theatre Company brought to stage the play “Not one of us!”. This was an interactive play where students were invited to take some small roles. It was one of the highlights of the program. Funny, entertaining, but highly pedagogical, focusing the problems of adolescence in modern times. After the actors went away it was time to roll up the sleeves and put hands on the scenery that should be ready for the school play about water pollution. The play was taken to the scene on Thursday, but it was necessary to prepare some elements from the scenery and no one better than an arts teacher to lead this workshop. In the end the flowers, fish and butterflies that would be used on Thursday were left to dry their fresh paint.
In the afternoon the group went to the Caniçada Dam where they could enjoy a slow journey in the Brancelhe boat. The landscape is bucolic and amongst the vegetation the group could even spot one of Cristiano Ronaldo’s houses, along with some students’ villages. On the way back, all these teenagers could hang around Parque dos Moinhos near River Ave and have the feeling of how teens in Viera spend their days.

From Vieira to Braga are around 30kms. This is a city whose foundation is Roman, but it went through changes till it got the medieval look and it is nowadays a touristic city. The highlight is now Bom Jesus, a UNESCO site on the hill, facing the city with a stunning view.
From here, on this Wednesday afternoon, it was time to visit Guimarães - the Cradle of Portugal. This is another UNESCO site that depicts the way of living in medieval times. It is a place for a bit of open air history in a compact city centre full of battles and conquers. The materials used to rebuild the city centre and the techniques are exactly the same as the ones used in medieval times.

Thursday starts again at school. It is finally time to use the scenery prepared in the workshop and watch the students from the theatre club performing on stage the short theatre play they prepared about the project. It included in the plot the partner countries, as well as the clubs it involves - photography, environment, ITC and robotics. It was dramatic the way they presented the problem of pollution affecting the water reservoirs around the planet. They also proved that together, world nations can solve the problems if they get united. Afterwards students could learn how to build masks for theatrical or non-theatrical purposes. They could be creative and use the materials given for the purpose.
In the afternoon the vocational students prepared a cooking workshop for baking biscuits, fruit skewers and “pastel de nata” - traditional portuguese custard pie. So, the certificate ceremony included an afternoon snack prepared by the students involved in the project.

Unfortunately Friday is here to put an end to this wonderful week. This is now time to visit Porto, the capital of the north of Portugal. Mostly known because of Port Wine caves and its picturesque houses along the Douro river, it is also a place for riverboat cruises and “azulejos”. It is famous among tourists all over the world and the complete tour should be done by walking on the highest platform of Ponte D. Luís.
In the afternoon we headed to the Discoveries Museum, where students could better understand the importance of Portuguese sailors for the shape of today’s world. There is even a boat tour throughout the Portuguese discoveries!Lue lisää