Memories

The open air exhibition at Stangnes is probably one of the things we most remember once we are again in our daily routine in Massana.  We realized the exhibition was an important event for Stangnes Skole and Harstad; there was the local television to record the event and a journalist from a national paper asking us questions to write an article about our project. 

We were very lucky to be part of this important event. During the opening ceremony different people explained their opinion about the sculptures and the project in general. The Stangnes Head Master and some teachers from the school talked about the Bilateral Comenius Project; a Norwegian girl, Ingrid, and two Catalan students, Manel and Clara, tried to explain their experience.

  

Going back to those days at Stangnes we remember we were working in groups of six, three Norwegian and three Catalan students.  During the first workshop, every member of the group had to do their own sketch and then each group had to decide not only which one was the best, also if it was possible to do it with snow. When we had the final shape, we did a model with clay and the final drawing for the exhibition with charcoal.  The snow was a completely new material for us, so Norwegian teachers and students explained how to work with it and how to use the appropriate tools.  On the one hand we had much fun working on the sculpture but, on the other hand it was really difficult.

We have improved a lot our English as we had to discuss everything with our Norwegian mates in order to plan and make the sculptures. We also tried to learn a new language, Norwegian, but it was quite difficult.

  

Stangnes Skole is really different from our school, Escola Massana , it is modern and  bigger;  the school's life seems to be not as stressful as we are used to .  We had the opportunity to know another way of learning and teaching. The people and the teachers were really friendly with us and we felt like at home. As an example, in the school library it was an exhibition with some classical Spanish films and books, and the librarians had prepared some Spanish Tapas to invite us.

The school timetable was strange for us. We normally have six teaching hours every morning, from eight to half past two with a half an hour break at eleven; the class sessions there last only forty-five minutes and there are many ten minutes breaks in the middle.

But, of course, we won’t never forget he awesome landscapes and the environment in general. The nature was very different from the Mediterranean one we are used to. It was shocking for us that all was snow covered;   in Barcelona we just see snow once every four years. We were able to see the northern lights which were beautiful and surprising.

To summarize we would like to say it has really been  a very enriching experience and we would love to have the opportunity to go to the very North again.