Kick-off meeting diary

Kick-off meeting diary

 On Monday morning we started our long journey from Budapest, Népliget (through Wien) to Slovenia, Lasko at 7 o’clock. About 10 or 11 we reached the Wien airport and joined to the ACES (Academy of European Schools) organizers and maybe a hundred of other people from different countries. By the way at the airport we met some Hungarians, two teachers, a boy and a girl. From the beginning we went everywhere together. Our team travelled by two buses and we got to Lasko about 15 or 16 o’clock. We went into the hotel and we checked in, registrated. We had some time to go our rooms (by the way I was in one room with to Austrians), pack our things and check some part of the wellness hotel. The first meeting started at 18.00 in the „Main Hall”. On this first contact the ACES organizers&tutors&consuls talked about what we are actually going to do here, under these 5 days. We had dinner at 19.30 and that restaurant was just awesome. You could choose that kind of food whatever you wanted. After the dinner we had free time, so we started to know each other better, finally we went to our rooms at 22.30.

 On the second day (Tuesday), we started with an Official Opening. They showed us the world of aces, what this is all about, what they do, their work and ours too of course. We had a short “Coffee Break” at 10.30 and after that from 11.00 to 15.30 we were in the town Lasko, we played a game called: “Lasko Game”. On this day actually we worked with our project partners, they are from Austria and Kosovo. We got packed lunches and it was a pretty tiresome. By the end of this game we made some “ACES Group Pictures”. After that we had a short Story telling and then a Coffee Break. At 17.30 we had some “get to know each other better” games and then we had dinner at 18.30. About 20.00 we went to the swimming pool and it was really cool too, we really liked it, it was very big, colourful and beautiful either.

 On the 3^rd day we had a meeting in the Main Hall at 9.00 and then a short game called: Web of Learning (Self-directed learning space stations and interactive input on media literacy), there was a coffee break included until 11.00, when we started to work with or project partners. We talked about our work, what we are going to do, where will go and when, things like that. At 12.45 we had lunch, after that we had the 2^nd part of the working with the project partners. By the way our project is to show and discuss about what is the identity and the difference between the media’s importance and work in our countries. At 16.00 we had a little break, until four thirty when we travelled to Celje by bus and we spent the evening in a castle and down in the old part of the town, we had packed dinner. About 19.30 we take a train back to Lasko, actually we were lucky, because we could travel with the train called “Citadella”. After that we had a free evening in the hotel.

 On the 4^th day (Thursday) we had a meeting and then we went to another building into our “Workshop Rooms”, because yes, on this day everybody was in a workshop (choosed before). Actually, I spent the day in a “Media Training Workshop”, two guys have come from Austria, but one was an American and the other one was an English guy, Greg and Stu. They talked about their work/s, about what we gonna do on this day, they showed us how to use professional cameras/camcorders, programmes like Adobe Premiere.  We had a lunch break included and then we captured a lot of clips. After the workshops we had the 3^rd part of the working with our project partners. Actually we talked about the same things, about what we gonna do, so on… At 18.30 we had dinner and in the evening we had a party at 20.30 until 1 o’clock at night and it was really impressive, great and awesome and of course by the end of the dancing we all got tired. We had to pack our stuffs, see the reasons below…

 On the 5^th day (Friday) we had to get up pretty early in the morning, about 6 o’clock. We had a lunch at 8.00 then we went to the Main Hall to have our last great kick-off meeting. Everybody said good bye their friends and in the end we had a dance called: The ACES Dance. This was our final exercise together. Until 10.30 we had to leave our rooms and to check out from the hotel. About 10.50 our buses started to leave Lasko to the airport of Wien. We got there about 15 o’clock or little later/earlier. We take our last bus back to Budapest, Népliget. We got there at 21 clock and we said good bye to our Hungarian friends…

Budapest, 2012. október 3.                                                                       Szántó Bence 9. a