Day 11 - leaving Barcelona

It was hard to get up early in the morning, but all students managed to be at Sants Estació in time for the train to Barcelona Airport. It was not easy to say goodbye to our friends in Barcelona, but we hope to meet again. We will come back to Barcelona again, and we hope to see our catalan friends in Norway again as well.

Day 10 in Barcelona

It was cloudy and rainy today, but we managed to see parts of this beautiful city on our last day here.

The teachers involved from Escola Massana and Stangnes upper secondary school met in Sitges for a nice lunch and a summary of the Comenius project so far.

(Pictures to come)

Day 9 in Barcelona

This was the day to relax a little bit after five hard days at school. Some of us went to Parc de la Ciutadella in the town centre. Others went for shopping.

Kite Building

During the second exchange in Barcelona in March 2014, all the thirty exchange students made fifteen kites inspired in the natural forms present in Gaudí's works.

Kite Building Instruction

Cécile Dediue Augé made a thorough instruction in Catalan. This instruction is now translated into English (by Cristina de la Cruz) and into Norwegian "Nynorsk" (by Magne Leon Heide).

You might use this Construcció d'estels / Kite construction / Drakelaging free for your own purposes on internet, but we appreciate that you make some small credits to the makers of this instruction.

On internet:

Kite Building workshop

The actual kite building work shop at Escola Massana, March 21-31 2014, is documented on the video "Gaudí Inspired Kites Workshop".

Day 8 in Barcelona

Today was the last day at Escola Massana. We started with one hour of Catalan language.  And now we went to La Boqueria, the famous marked in Barcelona just a few meters from the school. Here we walked around learning some Catalan words for food. We nearly looked like guiris.

Yesterday nearly everyone finished illustrating his or her kite. Today we made all the rest of the kite. It was many things to do before they were finished.

After lunch we went by bus to Port Olimpic and then to one of the nearby playas. Here we started to make all the kites to fly. Some of us had problems with this, but in the end, we made all fifteen kites fly in one or another way. One of them went about one hundred meters up in the air. It was fantastic to see all the kites flying.

The local TV also visited our kite exhibition, and you may see a very short report at this site. (28.3., 12:20 minuts).

Day 7 in Barcelona

This day started with a strike at the school. All the Catalan students stayed outside for nearly two hours while the Norwegians were allowed to enter the school. We also got half a quarter of an hour's "lesson" in the background of this strike.

Two of the students have made this report of today:

Today M. and I was working hard on our Catalonian draco. We nearly finished it. We decided to go for skulls and bones because it has been a great inspiration for Gaudi in his work. We also decided for a dragon because of Saint Jorge and his laying of the dragon. 

After school, we went to eat some good Serano and Chorizo sandwiches, and then we travelled to Sabadell Center. M. showed med all the best of graffiti. I est moi impressico !

We were joking about M. being an official graffiti tour guide, taking people around Sabadell, explaining different pieces.

After this tour we went to the local graffiti shop, here we met the world famous graffiti artist Werens. We both enjoy his work, and it was a pleasure conversating with him.

Werens also signed my graff blackbook and to my surprise, he gave me a copy of his new book "Florsss".

M. and I agreed that we have had a lot of fun this day. And as Ice Cube says: "Today was a good day."

Day 6 in Barcelona

Today we (the Norwegians) started our Catalan lessons. Catalan is quite a different language from Norwegian. We soon realized that they take our /e/ as an 'a'. The Norwegian name /Marie/ sounds for Catalan ears like 'Maria'. Otherwise, Catalan 'b' and 'v' both are pronounced like our Norwegian /b/. We also listened to Catalan music, and learned some useful expressions in Catalan.

Then some students from the second year at Escola Massana told about a project in history. This was about "La Maternitat d'Elna". This was an institution founded in 1939 I the town Elna in southern France. Here some 400 children were born whose mothers were refugees from the Spanish Civil War.  They were interned in concentration camps in southern France. Some 200 Jewish children also were born here. Gestapo closed the institution in 1944.

Most of the day however was used to work with our kite project. We completed our sketches, and then we made them into full scale on paper.

At lunchtime, we left school. Some of the Norwegian students went shopping.

Day 5 in Barcelona

Today we started with a visit to La Sagrada Familia. This basilica was designed by AntoniGaudi who became involved here in 1883. We had a guided tour in English through this large church.  The church have eight towers going up to 170 meters, and there are ten more to be built. Actually the church will not be finished until 2028 they believe. There are many windows in the church, which make the light come in with different colours at different times of the day.

From La Sagrada Familia we went by the metro, and started our first kite workshop at Escola Massana. Our teacher Cecíle Dedieu gave a lesson in the history of kites and the main ways of constructing a kite. Today we started to make sketches of the decoration. We all hope that the final result will be amazing.

Day 4 in Barcelona

Our project here in Barcelona is to use some of Antoni Gaudi's ideas in our kite project. For this reason we visited some Gaudi buildings today.

We started in the morning. We took the bus to Park Güell where all 100 first year's students from Escola Masasna met. This park was designed by Gaudi and built between 1900 and 1914.

All first year's students of Escola Massana was here to make small drawings, and of course, there was some waiting time in a chilly morning. It was quite cold before the sun started to shine, but then it was nice to stay here. We found many Gaudi motives to make drawings of, and the whole area was filled up with students making drawings. In the end one of the Escola Massana teachers made comments to the paintings.

From Park Güell we walked down to Lesseps metro station and then we went down to Diagonal. Here we visited the famous Casa Milà, better known as La Pedrera, in Passeig de Gracia. Our guide told us about this building, and because the elevator was out of use (really?) we had to walk all the way up to the roof. There are some very especial constructions here, and it is a wonderful view of the whole city from up here.

It was not easy to walk down all the steps, but we went out into the street, Passeig de Gracia, to look at another famous building, Casa Battló. This one we just watch the outside of.

We spent the evening with our Massana friends. I went with the mother of my friend to at shopping centre to look for new shoes.

Day 3 in Barcelona

This Sunday the Norwegian teachers and students have experienced many different places in Barcelona and its surroundings.

The teachers tell that they have been to the Hospital de la Santa Creu de Sant Pau, or more exactly Sant Pau Recinte Modernista. This modernista complex was built between 1905 and 1930, it was designed by the famous architect  Lluís Domènech i Montaner, and it is Europe’s foremost art-nouveau complex. The teachers had a nearly two hours guided visit to the pavilions at this magnificent complex. Hospital de la Santa Creu was funded in 1401 when six hospitals in Barcelona moved out of town to a new hospital building just outside the city walls. Until 1904 this was the main hospital in Cataluña. In 1902 the banker Paul Gil Serra donated 3 million pesetas to a new hospital which was finished in 1930. In 1929 Escola Massana was funded in parts the old buildings. 

Two of the students tell about their first Sunday in Barcelona: Today we went for a walk in our neighbourhood in Gracià and other places nearby. This is an old village with narrow roads and nice open squares with cafés. On the picture you can see people dancing at one of the Plazas i Gracia this Sunday.

After having been to Gracià we went to Barceloneta. This is a nice placeclose to the sea with beaches and restaurants. Afterwards we went to Parc de la Ciutadella. And wow, it was beautiful !! The park was full of trees and flowers, beautiful buildings like The Parliament of Catalonia. People was singing and dancing, or just relaxing in the green grass. We also found a zoo inside.

It really was a nice Sunday in Barcelona!

Day 2 in Barcelona

On Saturday we first met at the City Hall of Barcelona (La Casa de la Ciutat de Barcelona) in the centre of the Old Town (Ciutat Vella). Here we went into Saló de Cent and Saló de Cròniques.

After this visit we went down to Placa Reial where we could rest and have something to eat and drink. From here we walked down the famous La Rambla, and at the bottom there was a boat going along the coast.  .

We went for nearly two hours looking at the seaside part of Barcelona, we also saw the beach where we are going to have our kite exhibition next week. 

Day 1 in Barcelona

It really is a long way from the very north of Norway to the Mediterranean seaport Barcelona. We started from Harstad on Thursday evening and stayed over in a hotel at Oslo Gardermoen Airport. Early Friday morning we left for Barcelona, and arrived in nice weather. The train from Barcelona Airport to the train station at Sants Estaciò was easy, but the change to the metro at Sants Estaciò was terrible. There were a lot of stairs up and down, why don't they have escalators!! It was hard to carry all our luggage up and down and through all the tunnels.

Our friends at Escola Massana welcomed us in the schoolyard, and we were astonished about the nice surroundings. Escola Massana is in an old building; no, actually, it is in a very very very old building. This is much different from the Stangnes School. Some of the Norwegian students thought it was like coming to Harry Potter's Hogwarth School, from the outside this was the first impression for some of us.

After a nice welcome, nice food and drinks at the school, must of the students went with our friends to their homes. But some of us stayed at the school to participate in a drama course, preparing a play which will be in a festival in May.

All our families welcomed us in a way that made us feel like being home. Of course, there was a little bit "strange" food such as Spanish omelette and pan with tomatoes and olive oil; especial soups; chicken made in new ways, etc. But we loved this.