DIARY FROM SLOVENIA 2023

Monday&nbsp; The first day in Slovenia started with two lessons at school, for example Technology or English. Some classmates had Slovenian, where they were trying to write an invitation to a Friday event. We were comparing the Czech and Slovenian alphabets. The teacher of Slovenian asked us about a special letter in Czech, so I taught them the word “řeřicha” and it was very funny to watch how they were trying to say “ř”.&nbsp;&nbsp; After lessons we explored the school. Then the opening ceremony started. A headmaster of OŠ Litija and other important people welcomed us in their school, pupils prepared songs or dance choreography. We played some ice breaking games, which were very funny, for example we tried to guess a word which we had glued to our forehead. There was a Kahoot quiz about Slovenian, Latvian and Czech geography too.&nbsp;&nbsp; After lunch we went to our Slovenian homes. People from surrounding villages got home by bus (there is a bus which transports all pupils from the neighborhood of school directly to their home) or their parents came for them by car.&nbsp; People from Polšnik and surroundings went on a trip to Ostrež and then for delicious pizza in Polšnik. People from Litija went to explore the city or just play outside. Some of my friends went to workout playground too. It was a very nice day with well-prepared activities by OŠ Litija teachers. And the following days were getting better and better.&nbsp;&nbsp;

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After that, we all went to the gym and in pairs we played kahoot to test our knowledge about Percy Jackson, Slovenia, Latvia and the Czech Republic. It was a large test and some of the questions were very tricky.&nbsp;&nbsp; The whole program was great and fun but also a little bit exhausting, so we all were glad, that we could go to the canteen to have a delicious meal. Then we went to the house of our hosting family and joined their program.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Wednesday After arriving at school, everyone had a different lesson. We went to the English classroom, where we met a lot of Czech students together. We were just discussing the topic of summer. We talked mostly about camping which was interesting because many Slovenians students had never been to a camp, unlike us, Czechs.&nbsp;&nbsp; We all got together in the school canteen, where they divided us into 3 groups. Each group went to an interesting part of Litija. We visited the museum which is right next to the school. There we learned some history of Litija as well as some details about the mine Sitarjevec. I was interested in the prison there, we learned that the building was first a prison, then a school, and now it’s a museum. I also liked the kitchen, that was renovated, and you can hold workshops there.&nbsp;&nbsp; We also visited the Sitarjevec mine, which is one of the oldest mines in Europe. Inside the mine there was a modern underground museum, where we saw over 50 minerals, limonite stalactites, spiders, fungi and the richness of the mining tradition. Moreover, the stylized cinnabar crystal, which stretches like an orange thread from the space in front of the entrance and all the way to the interior of the mine.&nbsp;&nbsp; The last activity was sightseeing in Litija. We were guided by an elderly lady who spoke beautifully about the history. We saw Župnija Litija, which is a church quite close to the school. We also looked at the river Sava, which flows through this city, and learnt a lot of other interesting things.&nbsp; Then we met in a bus that brought us to&nbsp; Bogenšperk castle. We were divided in two groups. One went to explore history and some interesting facts about 16-th century castle Bogenšperk. It has many connections to the scientist and natural historian Johann Weikhard von Valvasor who was born in the 17-th century. The second group went to a restaurant to get their lunch eaten and tried some typical Slovenian meals.

Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief&nbsp;

Friday Friday was our last day in Slovenia. Some students had two lessons with their hosts and the others spent the time in a library. Then we got a snack and headed to a small gym for the closing ceremony. We took a Kahoot quiz again to test our knowledge that we gained in the past five days. We also taught our friends from Slovenia and Latvia some Czech tongue twisters and the well known song Není nutno. Slovenians taught us their traditional dance and the Latvian students showed us their favourite game.&nbsp; We had a lot of fun together! Towards the end of the ceremony we watched a short video that concluded the whole week. After that everyone received some presents to remember our stay in Litija. Each of us also got an official certificate that validates our participation in the project.&nbsp;&nbsp; After the closing ceremony we went to the school canteen for lunch. We ate tortellini filled with cheese and after lunch the moment for our goodbyes came. For many of us, it was the last goodbye because a lot of our new Slovenian friends aren’t going to the Czech Republic. Some of us couldn’t hold back our tears, but eventually, we got on the bus.&nbsp;&nbsp; Despite the scorching heat at the beginning of our journey, good mood prevailed in the bus. On our way back we sang a lot of songs and the mood was better overall, because we got to know each other quite well during the week. During the journey we stopped few times and at half past eight, we finally arrived in Jihlava and went home with our parents. Everyone was tired, but happy.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;

Thursday Thursday was probably the best day we had because we went on a lovely trip to the capital city of Slovenia - Ljubljana.&nbsp;&nbsp; We went by our bus and Slovenian and Latvian students went by train. We met at the train station in Ljubljana and we were divided into four groups. The groups were named after some famous places in Ljubljana: NUK, Dragon, Tivoli and Prešeren. Each group got a tablet, a speaker and a map of the city. The teacher told us the rules of the treasure hunt and the game started.&nbsp; &nbsp;There were the most famous tourist attractions where we had to stop, do some tasks and learn some interesting facts about the place. The first stop was Tivoli Park, then Ljubljana SNG Opera and Ballet, Prešeren square with a statue of France Prešeren (the author of lyrics of national anthem of Slovenia), beautiful park Zvezda, Slovenian Philharmonic Building, University of Ljubljana, stunning National and University Library of Slovenia with over 2 million books and a Dragon Bridge. After we finished the treasure hunt, our reward was a dream lunch at McDonald’s.&nbsp;&nbsp; After lunch, some of us went back by bus or train and some of us stayed in Ljubljana. We did different activities, for example we went to play bowling to Woop arena where we had such a fun with our friends from all three countries. After that we went shopping to the local shopping centre. Some of our friends had a cooking lesson where they baked according to some traditional Slovenian recipes and the others went to and adorable ZOO.&nbsp; &nbsp;After our great afternoon activities, we all came back home safely and our hosting families cooked delicious Slovenian dinners for us. It was such an amazing day with lots of laugh and fun.&nbsp;

Sunday Sunday was the first day of our exchange, the day we were all nervous the most, with this day everything started.&nbsp; It started like an ordinary Sunday, except that we had to wake up at 7 o´clock, instead of sleeping whole day. We met at 8:15 near the train station. And the trip began... We were going through Austria with our minibus. Unfortunately, our air conditioning didn’t work much, all of us were sweating and that’s why we changed into our pyjama shorts. We were playing some games and talked to each other, but we had to fasten our seat belts. After the long, but funny, eight and half hour journey we finally arrived. We saw all the Slovenian kids waiting for us in front of the school holding cards with our names. We got our luggage and were ready to say first live hi to our host family. We came to our temporary houses and had a quick house-tour. After dinner, some of us went on a little night walk but it actually wasn’t as little as we supposed. We met other hosting family with Czech students on a walk and went to their house and just chilled there. We left their house and came back to ours. The others were just getting to know each other at their houses. Then we finally fell asleep after that long day.&nbsp; &nbsp;

Tuesday We had breakfast with our hosting families and then we went to school, where we were divided into three groups. Everyone had their host students in their group.&nbsp; The first group went to art class and made special postcards. We made backround on the hard white&nbsp; paper, then we tried to combine some historic monuments in Litija and something connected with Percy Jackson and we drew that on transparent paper. We glued it on the hard paper and we added a frame on it. Thanks to the transparent paper the backround was visible under it, so it looked very nice.&nbsp;&nbsp; The second group went to cooking class, where we were splited into four groups. Each one had their table to make blueberry muffins. We were following the recipe, which was given to us. Before putting the dough to the muffin cases, teacher added to it blue food colour&nbsp; (because Percy Jackson was the son of Poseidon, God of the sea). Then we put muffins into the oven and waited for fifteen minutes for the muffins to be baked. During that time we could talk to each other and colour colouring books that the teacher had given us. After the muffins were baked we had to wait for a while, then we ate them and they were so delicious and also looked beautiful.&nbsp;&nbsp; The last group went to the technical class. We made the lyre and the other tambourines. The teacher gave us all the necessary components, which we just hammered together and then decorated our instruments. When we all had finished, the Czechs taught the Slovenians one Czech song and then the Slovenians taught the Czechs one song too. When everyone learned it, our groups sang the two songs together&nbsp; in front of the class and played the instruments we had made earlier.&nbsp;&nbsp; We changed the worshops in two hours, so everyone tried everything. It was really great and interesting.&nbsp;&nbsp;

We ate the most delicious meat with sauce which was made with cinnamon or Slovenian apple strudel which was not actually rolled up but looked more like a pie which is not typical for the Czech Republic. I’ve also tried cottage cheese for the first time and I really liked it.&nbsp; Some of us enjoyed barbeque evening with our friends and hosting families. We made hot dogs on a stick and open fire and ate delicious cevapcici which is considered as a national dish of Serbia and is also common in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. Other Czech students visited some beautiful places near Litija or enjoyed their evening with their hosting families at home.&nbsp; Wednesday was a beautiful day filled with new memories and joy!&nbsp;

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