Activity-and-Eating: SMALL STEPS TO A HEALTHIER YOU : The third short term exchange of students in Agrupamento de Escolas de Seia in PORTUGAL

Friday, 2 December 2016

The third short term exchange of students in Agrupamento de Escolas de Seia in PORTUGAL

14TH - 18th november 2016

Seia IN portugal

ACTIVITY & EATING TEAM

Hunting for the rooster

What’s going on with this rooster? It’s everywhere in this country: on mugs, T shirts, bags, towels, pads etc. Wherever you go, you always see the black rooster looking at you. After some time in this country, it is obvious for every tourist that it is MUST HAVE of this trip. It is a symbol of justice that will always win if you fight for it.

Portugal welcomed us with a beautiful weather and warm hearts of host families. Seia is a town located in the centre of Serra da Estrela, a natural mountain resort of Portugal. Outstanding views, steep hills and clean air took our breath away. Seia is rich of places worth seeing and people always ready to help foreigners. The host partners, did their best to keep our Portuguese memories forever.

MONDAY 14TH November - OFFICIAL OPENING

THE SHOW TIME STARTED!

A day started with a warm welcome in a school library by the Portuguese hosts - the Headteacher Mrs Emilia Nascimento and the project coordinator Mrs Cristina Nunes Almeida.
The first day aimed at presenting local options possible to ‘exercise’ by tourists. During the morning each school presented a PowerPoint presentation Exercise your local Options and Be Active your Way

CLICK THE LINK TO SEE THE STUDENTS' PRESENTATIONS

The morning was completed with the work on the International Exhibition of photographs, documenting the tours and all forms of activities taken under the implementation of the 2nd and 3rd Step activities of the Project, titled EXERCISE YOUR LOCAL OPTIONS

The school hall turned into a real photo exhibition. 150 photos of local touristic attractions were hung on a wall. We had an opportunity to admire a beauty of places we live in.

As it was an art day, after visiting school's facilities the students were quite busy in the workshop to create an International Dance under the heading CHALLANGE YOUR INSPIRATION. Each school presented and danced the traditional music and afterwards decided to use some of the movements of each to make a new international performance.

In the afternoon, we were invited for tea to the City Hall of Seia where a Deputy of the Mayor made a welcoming speech. With heads full of new pictures, we fell asleep with hope to experience more.

tuesday 15TH NOVEMBER

NEED GOOD EDUCATION? GO TO COIMBRA- A CITY OF HIGHLY EDUCATED PEOPLE.

It was time for one of local attractions near Seia, Coimbra. The previous capital city of Portugal. Coimbra, called a city of doctors, is well known as one of the oldest university centre in the world. We admired ancient library and audition halls, strolled through narrow streets of this place. Each year Coimbra resounds with FADO music at the FADO festival that gathers thousands of people. The day finished with a boat trip along the Mondego river. We had a chance to rest and took some photos of sunlight bathed Coimbra.

wednesday 16TH NOVEMBER

EXERCISE THE SEIA’S OPTIONS.

Seia is the town full of natural, local attraction because of its location, in a centre of Serra da Estrela. We started our sightseeing tour with a cute train journey to the Museum of Bread. It was not only a place to learn something about a history of bread, its ways of production, but we had an opportunity to make some bread and then take it home. We were astonished by a fairytale surrounding and a cute sprat. In good moods we powered up our visit with the Museum of Electricity where students observed the process of power production. We finished our day with a long walk along the river Sra do Desterro. Its water reflected the beauty of Portuguese autumn. Hiking is popular in this area so we experienced Exercise Seia Local options in the Natural park of Serra da Estrela, in Mata da Sra do Desterro. The biologist, José Conde, who taught us about the fauna and flora and showed enthusiastically some species we found through the tracks. He took this opportunity to make us aware of the importance of respecting nature and the living species inhabiting this area.

The evening we spent in a casual but elegant surroundings in Escola Superior de Turismo e Hotelaria where all partners and students involved in the project spent an evening accompanied with live music. Apart from delicious food, small talks and good music, we danced until midnight and had a real fun.

CLIK THE LINK TO WACHT A VIDEO Exercise the Seia's options

tursday 17TH NOVEMBER

BOOST YOUR ENERGY IN MANNEQUIN CHALLANGE!

The Portuguese coordinator did not forget about being active and fit. Montebelo Golf Club near Viseu greeted us with perfect weather and emotions we have never experienced. Many of us played golf for a first time. It wasn’t as easy as we thought. Even hitting a ball was a challenge for some of us J. As we always want to be in fashion, we took part in The Mannequin Challenge.

Winter sports fans had a chance to practice ice skating in Palacio do Gelo in Viseu. Searching for souvenirs mastered our minds till the late evening. Finally the black roosters J squawked out of our shopping bags.

CLICK THE LINK TO WATCH A VIDEO 'Mannequin Challenge'

friday 18TH NOVEMBER

FOLK FAREWELL PARTY- THROUGH THE STOMACH TO THE HEART

It is time for saying goodbye, thanking the partners for good cooperation and devotion to the A& E project and hugging all newly met friends. The Portuguese partners not only carefully prepared activities for a whole week of the short exchange of students, but also perfectly led up the farewell day.

In the morning the students attended their mates’ classes. On this last day we had a chance to enjoy another exhibition CHALLENGE YOUR ROOTS, in which local products related to Eating and Wellness were presented. Then students continued rehearsal for the final international performance CHALLENGE YOUR INSPIRATION.

At the same time teachers had a management meeting and later on attended a training workshop ETWINNING- AS A SUPPORT OF ERASMUS PROJECTS with the eTwinning ambassador, Teresa Lacerda. This workshop allowed us to understand how twinspace platform can help to support Erasmus+ projects, learn how to integrate web2.0 tools and collaborate through twinspace.

In the afternoon the Closing Session began with the delivery of Certificates.

Then the time for the final show came.

The students presented the Challenge Your Inspiration dance and then a local folk group appeared on a dance floor. We were amused by their performance and life music that accompanied the show. Parents and students prepared a wonderful dinner party. There were chestnuts, healthy muffins and a tomato jam and other new tastes to test this evening. We are leaving enriched by unique memories of this unforgettable week full of ACTIVITY in Portugal as well as EATING. All together we Exercised Local Options and it is a motivation to continue being active and healthy. Each of us has to find ways, strategies to be active. Schools and Projects like ours can influence students to be more physically active and healthy.