TSIKNOPEMPTI

Today  in Greece it is "Tsiknopemti". In free english translation "barbequeing smell Thursday"! People gather together and they barbeque, dressed up in Carnival costumes, they eat meat, souvlakia, steaks, drink wine and make jokes. It is ten days before Shrove Monday, when the 40 days lent for Easter starts in Greece. Most Greeks are Greek Orthodox Christians and "Tsiknopemti" or "Meating Thursday" is part of our traditions. People barbeque today and the all villages and towns smell what we call "Tsikna".

PRE-PROJECT QUIZ

We have created a pre-project quiz to think about our knowledge of our parnters' countries. Sometimes we know, sometimes we think we know and sometimes we don't know. So let's find out!

RECKLINGHAUSEN, GERMANY

We are very happy. Today we received our first letter package from Germany. 5 students received their letters and the rest are going to be distributed tomorrow. Our new pen frienships with Germany have just started. We are also going to learn more about our new friends, their culture, everyday life and where they live. Our new friends live in Recklinghausen, in the North of Rhine-Westphalia district. This is the coat of arms of the district:

 

 This is the central market: 

                                            

 

This is how was the city in th 17th century:

    

       

Today, it is an urban area, the 60th largest city in Germany.

Here is a short tour in our city. Thanks to Lars Hoffmann

A tour by CarCam Fan, thank you too.

And in the wider spectrum that is where we are in Germany:

What about a visit at the St.Elisabeth's church in Recklighausen? What do you think of that sound?
Have you got pipe organs in your churches?

Can you pronounce correctly the name of the city? Probably not, what if you tried after watching this short video:

Another thing is that you can ride your bike around Recklighausen. Isn't that amazing?

The 15 best things to do in Recklinghause.

The 10 best things to do in North Rhine-Westfalia.

Main source of information: Wikipedia

BUILDING A NETWORK OF PEN-FRIENDS

Our first letters have arrived. We can't wait to read them. The first package is from Germany.
Our network is building up. A network of penfriends from Europe and beyond.

 There were some very interesting stamps on that envelope. A series of old german cars and Felix the Bunny.

CULTURAL ICEBERG

Letters are already on the way! A very ambitious project using Snail mail!!! But still it is quite romantic trying to teach 21 century students the art of letter writing, which is far more than a simple messege. A letter reveals so much about his/her writer. Hand writing, a skill which used to be an art in itself. Hoping we can create a network of friendships around Europe and beyond. Hoping to reveal characters and cultures. We will approach all this attempt using the culture iceberg theory, enveilling what is hidden beneath and bring students and cultures closer.

 One more video to help you understand the model of the cultural iceberg.

The art of hand writing and its secrets.

So these two things are what we are trying to do with this project, plus a little research on snail mail.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOGSPOT

Welcome to our blogspot. This is the blogspot of our etwinning project "Knock, knock, you've got mail!" where we are going to upload all our work and provide information on our subject.