Written by Merit

Our school has some good contacts with foreign schools and this year we could take part of students’ exchange with Italians.

On 19th January 2017 25 Italian students and 2 teachers arrived in Kanepi.
I hosted two wonderful girls – Monica and Elisabetta. The night turned out fun, girls settled in very quickly and everything went well. Actually there were some problems with luggages but my family found a good solution. In first evening Monica and Elisabetta met my family, ate a little and went sleep.

On Friday me and my girls went school together. Foreign visitors had a school tour and also  met the head of Kanepi parish. They had some lessons together where students presented presentations about Estonia. At the end of the schoolday there was basketball match - Italians vs Estonians. In the evening all the people who were in this project came together and had a little party in the Kanepi cultural house. We played games and listened cool facts about Estonia after all that it was time for dancing.

Saturday was quite busy day. In the morning we went school and listened lecture about the Kuperjanov Infantry Battalion. There were also some kind of snake exhibition. Later others went to Haanja. Unfortunately I was sick and couldn’t take part of it. After that tiring day our little group of friends went to eat and play bowling.

On Sunday we took time off and went to Värska Sanatorium. We visited Sience Centre AHHAA, there we met others exchange pairs too.

Monday – last full day with our Italian friends. We started day early like every usual schoolday. There was a concert by Estonian singer Gerli Padar at school. After that musical hour we went to Tartu where we visited Institute of Physics. There were some science students who showed us different experiments and then we all visited some workshops where we built spagetti bridges and made handbands.

In conclusion it was amazing experience. Italians are very enthusiastic and full of energy. I am happy that our little school have this possibility to make these kind of projects.

 

Written by Tauno

Italian students’ exchange programme

I took part in student exchange programme when Italian students came to Estonia for a week. They arrived at Thursday and my Italian student name was Gabriele. He was a good person to host. 

Friday there was a basketball match between Estonia and Italian students. The Italian students played quite good. Unfortunately Estonia lost and I don’t know the reason why. But we only lost by 7 points so not much. After the match there was some free time and then started a party in Kanepi culture house. There were all sorts of food and drinks. After when the EDM show started Italian students went crazy they took off their clothes and started dancing. This was a great experience because we all saw how Italian youngsters party. Of course they wanted to smoke anywhere and anytime but in Estonia as everybody know nobody smokes inside. I think they also liked the Estonian food what was offered there because my Italian always ate something when I saw him he again came from the table something in his hand but so was other students too. It lasted until 10 o’clock and then the day was over. 

In general Italian students are a lot lauder then we are as we saw when they had lunch in schools canteen and they just can’t shut up they always have something to say. But they are nice people and I hope to see them all again in May when we go to Italy.

Written by Laur

 Student’s exchange

19. January 2017

This year our school planned an exchange with the Italians from Saluzzo. There were 25 Italian students and 2 teachers, but much less Estonians to accommodate them. Anyone who could provide shelter, were expected to help with accommodating the Italians even if they won’t go to Italy. I too offered my help to host the Italians.

It was the first day of my first exchange. The Italians were expected to arrive in Kanepi at about 8pm. All of the Estonians, including me, were waiting at Kanepi’s bus station to welcome them. My exchange partners name was Alessandro Tamagnone. I was quite nervous and excited to meet him.

When the bus finally came, I shook hands with Alessandro and introduced my mom to him. When we reached home, I introduced our house and let him settle in. Afterwards we ate some soup, taught each other some card games and played some computer games.

20. January 2017

We wake up at 7:30am, just in time for breakfast. For breakfast we had omelette with some sandwiches, luckily he liked it. After eating the food, we hurried to school. We put our clothes to the closet and I took him to the gathering point. We met again after the third lesson. The fourth lesson Alessandro and four other Italians were joining us in mathematics. As I soon learned, they were much smarter and ahead of us in maths. 

In the afternoon we had a basketball match, Estonians versus the Italians. It was a tense game, at half-time we were leading by 4 points, but in the end they started gaining some points and we lost.

21. January 2017

We got up at 7:30am, just as usual. We ate our breakfast and went to school again, although it was Saturday. At school we were all divided into two groups. We went with our group to the snake exhibition. We were taught about snakes generally and also about their anatomy. We could also see and touch all of the snakes there. There were 4 little and one big snake. The exhibition was very interesting and amusing. 

After snake exhibition we heard a presentation about Estonian military. The presenter taught us about Estonians history and showed us some videos of infantry drills.

Written by Kaarel.

Student’s exchange with Italy

We had a students exchange with students from Saluzzo. I host one boy. He’s name is Federico Tavella. They where in Estonia 6 days. We had a lot of fun. They arrive in Estonia at 19. January, at eight o’cloak. We had a little eat and after that we went to sleep. 

Friday we went to school. They had a house tour and after they come with us in Germany lesson. We made 5 group where was 3 Estonia student and 2 Italy. We have to teach them some German words and after they need to spell them. We got huge paper where was like 10 or more words. They got a lot of problems with that, because they don’t speak German. For us it was funny, because they spell word so funnily. After lesson we had lunch. Then they went to parish house and we went to lesson. At seven lesson we got basketball match between Estonia and Italy. I was playing with Laur, Tauno, Kristen, Kädrili and Kaisa. In our team I was the best player, because I made the most points, over 20.

In the evening we had a little party with Estonia and Italy. There was some food, drinks and a lot of music. Firstly we played some Estonia games and dances. After that there was a break and then we had to learn a Italy song and make some moves with that. There was 5 group and everyone got 10 points, because everyone got something special in they performance.

In Sunday we went to Tartu to visit Science Center Ahhaa. He had a lot of fun there because he like science. We where there more then one hour and then we went to eat. After eating we show them little bit Tartu and then we came back to Kanepi and show Sheep to them. In the evening we went to birthday party with other Italy student. 

They leave Estonia in Tuesday at 7.30. We need to wake very early to get everything and then they leave with bus. I’m already waiting to go Italy, because it was nice to speak with them and I feel I little bit lonely.

Written by Jaan

Last week a group of students from Italy came to our school. They arrived on Thursday and left on
Tuesday. Every exchange student stayed with a host family. My family was the host family for a boy
named Andrea.

On Thursday we picked him up at the bus stop in Kanepi where they arrived. Then we went home and had dinner. We talked for a while and went to bed.
On Friday we woke up early. We had breakfast and got ready for school. When we arrived at school we talked to the other exchange students and their hosts and when school started they went on a little tour in our school and we went to our lessons. But they joined us in the fourth lesson which was Estonian. Our teacher told us to prepare some presentations and crosswords for them. So we didn’t really study Estonian in that lesson. After our Estonian lesson all of us went to the school cafeteria for lunch. After lunch we went back to our lessons and they visited our parish house. After the sixth lesson there was a basketball match between the Estonian and Italian students and the Italians won. After the basketball me and Andrea went to the local pub to eat something before the welcoming party. We went back to home afterwards but we didn’t have a lot of time because the party started at five so Andrea played on my computer until then. The party had a lot of different activities and after the party we went back home.

On Saturday we had to wake up early because we went on a little field trip. But at first there was a man in school who talked about the Kuperjanovi battalion in Võru. After that there was an awesome guy who had brought his pet snakes with him. He let us touch them and talked about them.
Then we drove to the highest point in Estonia, the Suur Munamägi. We climbed the tower on top of it and went back to our bus. Then we drove to a farmstead called Mooska. There we went hiking with snowshoes. The hike was quite long and cold and when we got back to the farmstead we went sledding. When we had done with the sledding we ate a warm soup to warm ourselves up again and drunk hot tea. After that we went back to Kanepi and in the evening some of the exchange students and their hosts including us went to Demi's and we stayed there past midnight.

On Sunday the host families had to organize the activities themselves. So me, my older sister, Andrea and my father went to Tartu. In the morning we had a session in the planetarium in ahhaa. When the session was over we walked around in ahhaa. When we had done everything we could in ahhaa we went to the old town of Tartu called Raekoja plats. If we had done with our sightseeing we went to a restaurant in Raekoja plats and ate. After that we went bowling for an hour.

On Monday we went to the Physics Institute of the University of Tartu. There at first a science theatre performed for us. After that we split up and went to two different workshops. In one they made some wristbands and in the other one we made bridges made out of spaghetti. Unfortunetly we ran out of time and only got to go to one of the workshops. After that we went shopping in a shopping centre called Lõunakeskus. Then in Kanepi a lot of us went to the local pub and ate, from there some of us went to Demi's again. Only this time we didnt stay for that long since the exchange students had to pack for tomorrow. When we got back home we ate some cake and Andrea packed his things. In the morning we had to say goodbye to the exchange students because the day for them to go back home had arrived.