Flying home for christmas

The first part of my time in Corvo is over. I have been here for three months now. Time passed by so quickly . I can't believe that there actually are parts of the island I haven't seen yet, there are many people I don't know and many portuguese words I can't pronounce, like "Matralhas" (the name of one of the bars) or "palinha" (meaning drinking straw, so I ended up drinking my coke always in a glass ;-).

The decision to extend my stay on the island was partially made on those facts. There are still many things to discover and learn about and from this unique place.

The weather wasn't particularly good in last week before my departure. Therefore, I wasn't sure whether my plane to Horta, Faial would be delayed. Fortunately, the manager of the azorean airline, SATA, stayed on the island this week. This meant that there was some effort made to make the flight and take him off the island since his original flight on wednesday couldn't be realised. 

Dinner at Peter's with Carlos

I didn't leave the island alone. I was accompanied by a few familiar faces also leaving to spend a few days in Lisbon or one of the other islands. I was going to spend a night in Faial were I met a friend, Carlos Silva, for dinner in the famous bar Peter's. The bar is a known meeting place for sailors all over the world. The bars walls are covered in flags and drawings from crews who stopped here.  Spiegel online wrote an article about this interesting place. 

Before the dinner I took a walk through the "city". Since Lisbon I hadn't seen so many people and cars. I walked through the harbour and enjoyed the beautiful christmas decorations. There I also saw the posts in the harbour that are beeing painted by all the crews landing in Horta and I took a peak at my first real christmas tree of the year through a linving room window.

I spent the night in a rather simple hotel in the city. At the counter the receptionist asked me whether I wanted to see the room first, because it was very big. Thanking him I turned the offer down. I only needed a bed to sleep. When I entered the room I actually started laughing. Because the room really was big. It contained three beds and could accomodate a whole family. But who minds space. Unfortunately the bathroom light didn't work though...

The next morning Carlos picked me up because due to good luck we were on the same flight to Lisbon. And due to his rather bad condition we got first row seats with a lot of space for our legs. Unfortunately, the better seating didn't prevent us from sitting next to a lady who made very strange and almost disgusting noises.

I spend the day in Lisbon doing some christmas shopping and having dinner with a fellow English Comenius assistant who was also travelling home for christmas and, funny enough, her German friends. I just caught the last train back to the airport and spend the night there, sleeping on chairs. The next day my flight to Berlin left at seven and I arrived home at noon. :D Berlin, Helleluhja Berlin

Weihnachtsmarkt

Our last lesson was very nice. We had a little Weihnachtsmarkt in the teachers lounge. We were drinking Glühwein and ateNürnberger Rostbratwürstchen and Kekse. We also sang a Weihnachtslied (Oh Tannenbaum) and talked about christmas traditions in Germany and Portugal.

Frohe Weihnachten und einen guten Rutsch ins Neue Jahr!!

Schullauf - School-run 2012

Congratulations to all participants!

Parabéns a todos os participantes!

Herzlichen Glückwunsch an alle Teilnehmer!

This week our pupils participated in our schoolrun. Every student ran a distance according to their age. We walked down to the beach area all together, where teacher André and teacher Davide had prepared the running track. After we all walked along the track the youngest were the first to start. The oldest were the last to go on the track. They ran 2,5 rounds. Although it started to rain and we had some wind making things harder, everyone stayed cheerful and supportive. After everyone arrived we had a little lunch. A very nice afternoon everyone! 

Weel done! 

Adventskalender

- Advent Calendar -

Last Sunday it started: the advent. 

On Monday we started our Advent calendar in school. Every pupil was given a number which symbolized the day on which they were entitled to receive a riddle from Santa Claus from the Advent calendar. Once they solved the English riddle and answered properly in English they will be rewarded with a treat from the Advent calendar. 

Everyone seems to put a lot of effort into solving their riddles. We are proud to say, that by now already 5 riddles have been solved succesfully. Keep it up.

The Advent calendar is a Christian tradition to count down the days to the holy night. They usually start on the first of December, just as ours does. 

The first calendars can be traced back to the German Lutherans who started that tradition in the 1850s. Often this meant drawing a chalk line on the door each day or taking one off. 

Nowadays, every child in Germany gets a "Adventskalender" in November to start counting in December. The calendars mostly contain chocolate or other sweets. It is also very common to create homemade Advent calendars. They can be hand crafted and filled with individual ideas, messages or little presents.

Some cities even transform whole houses into beautiful Advent calendars.

For more details see: Wikipedia - Advent Calendar

We want to take that opportunity, to wish everyone a merry and peaceful holiday season.

Susana & Saskia

9° - Lernkartei (vocabulary - box)

To improve vocabulary learning skills and the range of used vocabulary the 9° grade just produced "Lernkarteikästen" (vocabulary - box). We hope to see some good progress on their vocabulary level.

If you want to create a vocabulary - box follow the instructions on this pdf.

http://lernkartei.de/

How to use it:

1. You write information on a small peace of paper. It can be a question or some vocabulary, even a mathematical term. Then you write the answer on the backside. Put new cards into the first department.

2. Take out a card and check whether you know the correct equivalent. You can do that either verbaly or write it down. You can do that alone or with a friend, parent, colleague.

3. When you answered the card correctly put it in the next higher department. If your answer was wrong put the card back into the first department.

4. Keep repeating this procedure as often as possible and try to keep every vocabulary-card in the fifth department.

Have fun!

Our vocabulary boxes:

Here you can see our vocabulary boxes. After you build them you can design them the way you like and give them your own personal style.

We already started working with them. Now it has to become a habbit to really change things. Let's see how that goes.

________________

Halloween!!

Welcome to he scariest night of the year. 

Our students have been cutting ghosts, bats, pumpkins and frankensteins for days and days. Finally, the day arrived. The decoration was put up and tables in the downstairs hall were waiting to display the most creative, scariest pumpkins our students could come up with. One by one they handed in their masterpiece. Slowly and curiously the crowd gathered in the gym, where the best costume was to be awarded. At the end of the day all those scary creatures, vampires, witches with their brooms, ghosts and undead were watching the "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone". Thanks to everyone for their support and creative, just as scary contribution.

The competition for the scariest Jack-O-Lantern was tough.

Boo!!

And here a shot of our scary creatures! 

7° - Poster: My parent's jobs and my dreamjob.

In the seventh grade we recently had a poster presentation. The Students had to do some research about their parents' jobs and present them according to previously discussed guidelines. Moreover they presented their dreamjobs and explained what they have to do in order to work in that job.

Deutsch Workshop

Morgen findet er wieder statt, unser Deutsch Workshop.
Wir freuen uns auf euch.

Liebe Grüße
Susana & Saskia

The Arrival (13 - 14. September 2012)

Lisbon at night

Today I  landed on Corvo. What a journey! It started with leaving Berlin at a quite comfortable hour. The flight to Lisbon was short and I thought a lot about what was expecting me. Lisbon is a beautiful city. I got on the bus and the first thing I noticed was ... it is so warm here. To save space in my suitcase I wore my boots. So the first thing I did after dropping off my luggage at the youth hostel (proudly I can say I managed to ask for directions in Portuguese) was to buy FlipFlops... at H & M. Convieniently enough the shopping centre here is open until 11 o'clock pm. I had a liitle "Brotzeit" overlooking the Expo area of Lisbon. 

Airport on Faial

The next day I took my first flight to the Azores. A beautiful experience. I had a layover in Faial, Horta for several hours. The small airport had a very charming appeal. 

It was very interesting to wait for a flight with so few people, knowing that you will probably see them several over and over again. 

Then the small plane arrived... 37 people can be seated inside. I was very surprised, that when I entered the plane many people were already sitting inside. How I learned during the following weeks our airbus really is a bus stopping on four Islands (São Miguel - Faial - Corvo - Flores and back). I got lucky and was able to see the amazing coastlines of several Islands.

My New Home

Landing ob Corvo was spectacular. The small Island appeared in my window and we flew around to approach the landing strip from a south-west direction which ment flying over the beach and cliffs of the Corvo shore. Looking down into the water I was stunned by the blue and turquise water that is sio clear that it allows you to look as deep as 7meters into the sea.

Climbing out of the aircraft I took my first look onto the village of "Vila do Corvo" the sun was shining and I was very curious, excited and tired.
There were many  many people on the airport and I didn't really know who to look for. I was beeing welcomed by my headmistress and my landlord who gave me a ride through town ;o) and took me to my new home which I am enjoying a lot. During the weeks to come I should be finding out how many people saw me on the aiport that day that I only met days later. Interesting feeling.

Many of the teachers teaching at the school this year arrived with me on the same plane. So I first saw everyone on a  welcome meeting in school later that very day. Afterwards, one of my new collegues showed me around the island in her smart ;o) I was very surprised to see so many cars on the island, let alone a smart. I saw the vilage, the port and beaches, we even went up to Caldeirao which, unfortunately, was hidden in clouds. So I saved something to discover for later ...