REGIONS

TRADITIONAL FOOD

SCHOOLS

TRADITIONS AND FESTIVALS

TOW

NS

- The Spanish and Irish schools are named after a saint or important person but the Czech school isn't. However, Gymnázium is situated in the square of Otmar Vaňorný, a former Gymnázium teacher and an important linguist and translator (e.g. he translated Illias and Ulisses from Greek into Czech) and  just now there is a discussion about calling the school after him.

- Both IES Menéndez Pidal and St.Brigid's College are big schools with a lot of students while Gymnázium Vysoké Mýto with its 350 students is a small school.

- The students of St.Brigid's College wear school uniforms but the students of the other two schools don't. Unlike the others, the Czech students can't wear "outside" shoes in the school - they have to change shoes when they come to school in the morning and leave them in the lockers.

- The Irish students can attend many afternoon classes and clubs - the choice is really big and the topics are interesting.

- The students at Brigid's College study a lot of subjects that we don't have, e.g. TD, HE or RE.

About Gymnázium Vysoké Mýto:- They have a beautiful old school building.- In the school there are two gyms. We have only got one.- The names of the Czech subjects are: English, History, Geography, Maths, Physics, Art, Biology, Civics, PE - and Music. We don’t have Physics, but French and religion instead.- They have to stay at school for lunch, but they don’t wear uniforms.- The most surprising thing for us is the fact that the Czech students have to change shoes at school.

About St. Brigid's College:- The Irish students wear a uniform but do not like it.- In the school there is one PC in every classroom and there are 4 ITC suites. We have only got one, but we are working on a second one.- We have learned about new sports for us, such as astro football or floor ball.- The students have classes in the afternoon from 1:10 pm to 3:10 pm, so they have lunch at school, like the Czechs.- St Brigid’s College held a High School Musical show. We are sure it was great fun.- The students from the three countries have similar summer holidays.- The Irish school offers a lot of different and interesting activities. 

- Neither our Spanish nor our Czech friends have to wear a school uniform but we do.- Like our Czech friends, most of us stay in our school to eat our lunch at lunchtime. Our Spanish friends do not eat in school at lunchtime.

- We seem to have access to more I.C.T equipment in our school than either our Czech or Spanish friends.

- Like our Spanish friends but unlike our Czech friends, we study Religion at our school.

- L.L.W is taught in our school but not in Spain or the Czech Republic.

- After School clubs are more common in our school than in our friends’ schools in the Czech Republic or Spain.

- Our school building seems to be a lot more modern than our friends’ schools in Spain or the Czech Republic.

- Both Avilés and Derry are big cities but Vysoké Mýto is a small provincial town. However, all the three towns have a rich history and a lot of interesting places to see.

- Both Avilés and Derry are situated on a big river while the river of Loučná that flows through Vysoké Mýto is small.

- Both Avilés and Derry are located at the seaside - the Czech Republic is a landlocked country and so the sea is very far.

- Both Derry and Vysoké Mýto have old rampart but that in Vysoké Mýto is preserved only in some places, not around the entire town.

- All three cities have an old town hall that is the centre of social life of the town.

About Vysoké Mýto:- Vysoké Mýto has only 12,000 inhabitants, while there are about 85,000 people in Avilés. However, our town hall square is much smaller than yours.- Both squares are very lively and full of shops, bars and restaurants.- In both cities there are theatres, cinemas, churches, swimming pools, but Avilés hasn’t got a belfry or old ramparts.- We found the info about the origins of the name of Vysoké Mýto (« high toll ») really interesting. It is said that Avilés gets its name after a Roman noble whose tombstone has been found near the city. His name was « Abilius ».About Derry:- Derry is much bigger than Avilés and has a beautiful river. Avilés is open to the sea thanks to its estuary.  From time to time, you can see huge ships and it is usually full of little fishing boats.- We are surprised that you still have your old city walls. You must feel proud about it. What we have is a really charming old town full of shops and full of young people at weekends.- As for the famous citizens, we don’t have any famous footballers or boxers, but old soldiers, sailors and conquerors. Also some very important politicians, writers and a famous painter.

- Halloween is not celebrated as much in Avilés or Vysoké Mýto as it is here in Derry.

- In English we call our town hall in Derry the guildhall while our friends in the project talk about their town halls.

- Beaches are popular with both our Spanish friends in Avilés and us in Derry when the weather is good. Unfortunately for our Czech friends in Vysoké Mýto there are no beaches in their country.

- There is a river in each of our three cities: Avilés, Derry and Vysoké Mýto.

- Derry has a much bigger population than either Vysoké Mýto or Avilés.

- It was interesting to find out the origins of the names of Vysoké Mýto and Avilés. Derry is known in Gaelic as Doire Colmcille which translates into English as the oak grove of Colmcille who happens to be the patron saint of Derry. The oak leaf is one of the symbols of Derry.

- Both Asturias and Ulster are situated at the sea and there are beautiful beeches there. In Pardubice region there are only ponds, no sea.

- There are big mountain ranges and high mountains in Asturias, in Pardubice Region there is both the lowland and mountains (thee Eagle Mountains) but the mountains are not very high.

- The wildlife in Asturias includes bears - there are no such dangerous animals in the woods in Pardubice Region.

- In Asturias there are some big cities with population over 100,000 (Oviedo, Gijon) - there is only one in Pardubice Region (the City of Pardubice).

- The population of the Pardubice Region is only half of the population of Asturias.

- Asturias is an industrial region and so is Pardubice Region. However, unlike Asturias there are no coal mines.- All three regions boast of beautiful landscape and are worth visiting.

About the CR and Pardubice Region:- The Czech Republic and Asturias are different. The Czech Republic is very far from the sea. In Asturias there are some big cities with population over 100,000 (Oviedo, Gijon) - there is only one in Pardubice Region (the City of Pardubice).- The weather is colder in the Czech Republic, although both countries are mountainous. We like its capital Prague but we don’t like its weather.- We’re happy about your Velvet Revolution, but Spain wasn’t so lucky. Our grandparents had to suffer a bloody Civil War that ended up with Franco’s dictatorship. More than a million people died.   - We are also surprised about that Spanish Hall in the Prague Castle and the fact that the king was educated in Spain.

About  Ireland and Ulster:- Ireland and Asturias are very similar:In both regions the weather is very rainy.Landscapes are very green in both places, because of the rain.Both lands have got sea and there are beautiful beaches there.- There are some differences too. For example, Asturias is more mountainous.

- The population of Ireland is much smaller than the population of either Spain or the Czech Republic.

- The weather tends to be much colder in the Czech Republic than it is in Ireland or Spain.

- It seems to rain a lot more here in the north west of Ireland and Asturias than it does in the Pardubice region.

- The Czech Republic is landlocked whereas Spain and Ireland are not.

- We have not come to agreement among ourselves whether this is an advantage or not. Some of us would miss the sea and coast line terribly if Ireland was landlocked yet others of us think it would be much cheaper to travel abroad.

- To travel anywhere from Ireland tends to be expensive because Ireland is a relatively small island.

- Drivers drive on the right hand side of the road in Spain and the Czech Republic whereas drivers in Ireland and the UK drive on the left hand side of the road.

- Spanish esfoyaza, amagüestu and filandón are very special holidays - we don’t have anything similar in the Czech Republic. However, the antroxu (Carnival) is held in some places in the Czech Republic, too. It is called “masopust” here.

- St Patrick’s Day is a big celebration in Ireland which includes the Mass and large parades. St Wenceslas Day is a public holiday in the Czech Republic but there are no parades etc.

- Easter is an important holiday in all three countries and the church traditions are the same (e.g. on Ash Wednesday) but the folk traditions are partly different. Both in Asturias and in the Czech Republic there is a tradition of decorating Easter eggs.

About Czech Festivals and Traditions:- It would be great fun to celebrate your Masopust and our Antroxu together. They are very colourful festivals in both countries.- We find your willow branches tradition very charming and romantic. And it is surprising to discover that it is connected to the decorated eggs tradition, which we also share. It seems that it was brought to Asturias by the eastern European coal miners that came to work here at the beginning of the 19th. Century.

About Irish Festivals and Traditions:- We don’t celebrate St. Patrick, but Spain has its own patron saint: Santiago (July 25th). In Asturias, our patron saint is La Virgen de Covadonga (September 8th), a little Virgin that appeared in a little cave up high the mountains to protect the Astur army against the Arabs.- As for Ash Wednesday, Lent, Christmas, etc…all of them are common celebrations, since Spain is mainly catholic too. However, our Christmas presents are brought by the Three Wise Men on January 6th. although Santa Claus is becoming more and more popular these days.

- People like to decorate eggs at Easter time in all three of our countries although here in Derry it tends to be younger children who do this under the guidance of adults.

- Gaelic football is not played in the Czech Republic or Spain. We would love to get the opportunity to teach our new friends how to play Gaelic football. Perhaps we could organise a tour of Croke Park in Dublin too?

- Irish people generally seem to be more fond of watching sports rather than participating.

- We had great ‘craic’ when we came back to school in January cutting up apples in half like our Czech friends do at new year to predict the year ahead for us. Thankfully we all got stars rather than crosses and so far 2009 has been good to most of us.

- We would all love to meet up in person with our friends from Getting Closer in the future to find out more about each other.

- Each of the three countries has a special traditional dish (Fabada, Irish stew, Roast pork with dumplings and cabbage).

- However, there are some dishes that are similar or the same in all three countries, e.g. Spanish Frixuelos = Irish pancakes = Czech palačinky.

- The Spanish like eating rice pudding and so do the Czech people.

- Cider is a popular drink in Spain – the Czechs don’t have it at all.

- Both Ireland and the Czech Republic have very good beer and they are proud of it. The Czechs drink wine too – especially in the east of the country, in Moravia where very good wine is also produced.

About Czech Food :- In the Czech Republic they also have a kind of frixuelos: Czech palancinky (made with eggs, sugar…) And we also share a taste for rice pudding. Do you spread cinnamon over it?- Food words such as «dumplings» or «sauerkraut» are completely new for us.- Their typical drink is beer but our favourite drink is cider or wine, although people like beer too.- We call the potato salad «Russian Salad», and it is also a very popular dish here in Spain.

About Irish Food :- In Asturias we also eat a lot of potatoes, the same as in Ireland. And their Easter pancakes are similar to our frixuelos. Besides, they are typical on Carnival Tuesday in both countries.         - In Ireland the beer (Guinness) and whiskey are very popular, but don’t you have cider too? Both cider and beer seem to have a Celtic origin, don’t they?

- Pancakes are popular in each of our three countries although they are know

as palancinky in the Czech Republic and frixuelos in Spain. - Rice pudding is not so popular in Ireland as it is in Spain or the Czech Republic. Mrs. Ui Uait tells us it was much more popular when she was growing up in County Tyrone in the countryside.

- Alcohol is popular with many adults in all three of our countries.

- People who make a solemn promise not to drink any alcohol at all are known as Pioneers and wear a special Pioneer pin to show people they are Pioneers.

- Cider has started to become a popular alcoholic drink in Ireland, particularly when the weather is nice. Pear cider is a relatively new alcoholic drink in Ireland.

- We all like to have a party to celebrate our different festivals during the year.

Food and drink are popular at our parties in all three countries.

This presentation has been designed by the Czech students

and their teacher.