Home

Our Exhibtion About Lithuania

Greetings from Kaunas. We were having an exciting time in Lithuania, unfortunately in pretty cold weather and rain, so walking the streets became a burden very quickly. From May 31st until June 4th we visited our partners in Kaunas, hoping to have perfect summer weather. We made a little exhibition to show you something about Lithuania.

The exhibtion	Lithuanian landscape	food and recipes	sights
The Republic of Uzipes in Vilnius	money	language	television

Kaunas sightseeing rallye

Today as we arrived everybody got picked up by their exchange partner. My exchange partner Martyna picked me up and we went to her place. She introduced me to her parents and showed me the apartment. We ate lunch together. I made myself ready and we left to the shopping mall called Akropolis. It’s the biggest shopping mall of the three Baltic countries. We met the other students in the center. We split into two groups for a town rallye, we were in the second group. The Lithuanian students showed us Kaunas and we saw many interesting things. We passed St.Micheal Church which was built in the 18th century. We walked Liberty Avenue which was 1,6 km long and is the longest avenue in east Europe. Caroline and Emile showed us the Great War Museum which was opened in 1936. As we walked to the old town we passed the Musical Theater which is the only theater of its kind they have in Lithuania. In the old town the streets' surface are made of stones.  Many people marry at the Town Hall with a huge white tower called The Swan. At last we ended the expedition with the Kaunas Castle.

Martyna was a wonderful exchange partner. She was kind. She was friendly. She always managed to entertain me. In the first evening she showed me Kaunas and the
different parts of the city. What I liked the most was the old town because of the historical architecture. We went to the biggest shopping mall in Lithuania which is called
Akropolis. The shopping center had a bowling alley, skating rink and really interesting shops which we don't have in Germany. Later on we went skating but she didn’t go on the ice because she couldn't skate. In the evening on the second day we went to the cinema and watched "Men In Black 3". The movie was good and funny. In the evening of the third day we met her friends and walked around and they showed me some places where they always chill. Her friends were friendly, funny and had a good humor. The last day we didn't do much because we were very exhausted and just wanted to sleep.  

Martyna's family was very friendly. They always had so delicious food. The mom is a teacher at Martyna's school. The father is an instructor. I had my own room also with a computer. She had one brother but he was studying in Chicago. I felt like I was at home by them, because they were not so cold like some families. They opened and behaved like I had lived there for like two years and I liked that a lot. It was very sad when I had to go but I know I will visit them again. (by Wairimu)

On the bus	Kaunas bus station	View over Kaunas	View over Vilnius
On Gediminas Castle	In the old town of Vilnius	Cathedral of Vilnius	10°C - so what?

Climbing

On Sunday the 3rd we had planned to go climbing in a park one hour away from Kaunas. In the morning we were worried about the weather and arriving at the park it started to rain. Luckily the rain stopped ten minutes later so we could start with the introductions, the Lithuanian group was first to climb, German followed. The first course was for training, after this we could choose between three levels of difficulties. The courses were up to 15 meters high and in the end there was a zip line. For some the climbing was scary, for others exciting. At 5 pm the parents prepared a barbecue for us, with some Lithuanian food and many sausages - also vegan ones.
We went home with our families, changed clothes and met us at 7:30 pm.

In the evening I separated from my exchange partner and went with Wairimu, Helena, Martyna and her friends to the old town. We walked along the river and went to a cafe. Patricija came later. It was a very nice and relaxed evening.

My host family was very friendly, together with her grandmother Patricija and I stayed at her father’s place who lives in England meanwhile. It was like in a hotel. Patricija's mother picked us up every day, so we did not need to get up earlier.

All in all the exchange was nice, even though the first days were cold and rainy. I was quite shocked about the poverty in Lithuania, but I was surprised by delicious food. The grandmother could not speak English but she was very warmly and before I left she even bought me a chocolate.

Written by Larissa 9.2 on the 11th of June 2012

 

Our visit in the Lituanian school

We all visited our partner's school, Darius Girenas Gymnasium, on Monday morning. The first thing we did in school was dancing in their gym. We had a Lithuanian teacher and 4 students who helped us. We danced a traditional Lithuanian dance which was hard but not impossible. After we had danced our teacher told us to bring our selfmade games to their classroom. The classroom was small but nicely designed. I think everyone had a lot of fun playing our games.In Lithuania basketball is the most popular sport, thats why at the school yard nearly everyone is playing basketball. I think at 11 am everyone was happy to leave school because we all wanted to meet at Akropolis, the huge shopping center just some hundred meters from the school. I think there is no big diffrence between their and our school.

In the evenings my partner and me met with a lot of other guys. We often hung out in the Akropolis shopping center, but they also showed us different parts of the city.                                  written by Vincent

Akropolis

Akropolis is the biggest shopping mall in the region. It is located in the city centre of Kaunas. Akropolis is comparable
to the shopping mall "Das Schloss" in Berlin, but a lot larger.It consists of 4 floors. On the 1st floor you mostly find grocery stores like Maxima size XXX which is the biggest of them all. One X stands for the size of it and 3 times X is the largest. On the 2nd floor you can find the main part wich consists of many restaurants, where you can buy the traditional Lithuanian dish Didžkukuliai, more often known as cepelinai. They are located around a rink where you can go ice skating.On the 3rd floor there are clothing and sport stores such as Niketown, Adidas and the famous Kaunas basketball fan shop. Basketball is the most popular sport in Lithuania.

On the 4th floor you can find many amusement arcades, sweet shops and a gigantic cinema where you only can watch English movies with Lithuanian subtitles which many Lithuanians find pretty difficult to understand at first.
 
All in all Akropolis is a very spacy, clean and versatile mall. That's why many people, young and old, spend their free time there and celebrate special ocasions like birthday parties.                                     written by Max

Our Exhibtion About Lithuania

The exhibtion	Lithuanian landscape	food and recipes	sights
The Republic of Uzipes in Vilnius	money	language	television

Guests from Kaunas at Wilma

In December 2011 our partners from Kaunas visited us in Berlin. Here is what we did besides shopping:

On Friday I had to wake up at 6.15 and then at 7:20 my mum and me, we went to the ZOB to wait for our exchange partner. We looked at each other and were talking to our friends, who of the arriving students our partner might be. When we went to our house again, Domas and I were talking a bit to get to know each other. At home I showed him our house and his room, we were still talking and we played Uno.

At 9.00 Domas and me met Miri and her exchange partner, we went to a little Christmas Market and later to school. There we ate breakfast, showed the Lithuanian people our school and made Gingerbread houses. After we had finished them we had some free time. Miri, Emilija, Domas and I went to BoBoQ, a Bubble Tea shop. The Lithuanian people didn’t know that and then we showed it to them. In the evening we went to the youth club Spirale to see a gig, but they canceled it so we had again some free time. We went to the KuDamm, to show them the Christmas Market and the lights and stuff. We were at McDonalds and then we walked along the Christmas Market again. When we arrived at home we went to our beds, because it was a hard day.

On Saturday we had to wake up early, at 7.30. We made a rally through Berlin. where we saw Friedrichstr., Kontanzerstr., Oberbaumbrücke and East-Side Gallery. At 13.00 everybody met at a Sri Lanka Restaurant and ate there. When we had some free time, we chilled and some were shopping and stuff. In the evening we went to Larissa’s and had a party there, which was okay, but everybody wanted to have different music and we never listened to one whole song, but it still was fun.

On Sunday we met at Alexander Place and went by the bus 100 through Berlin and told our exchange partners something about our sights. After that we ate Döner and in the evening we went to the Tipi for the Show of Gayle Tufts. That really was fun.

Monday we went to school again and our partners were in our classes and at noon we wanted to cook but nobody had anything to cook and so we had more time to do our shoppings. It was really nice, at the evening we ate dinner in our families and at 20.15 we were at the ZOB again and the Lithuanians had to leave.
All in all it was a very nice experience to do that and it was really fun. I hope we will meet again soon :D

 

 

 

Was erwarten unsere SchülerInnen von dem Austausch, und was erwarten ihre Gäste??	Ich freue mich schon sehr auf Litauen.Ich hoffe, dass wir in Berlin eine richtig schöne Zeit haben und wir diese in Litauen wiederholen können.Ich denke, dass wird eine tolle Erfahrung. Miriam R.
Ich denke es wird bestimmt spannend und auch eine neue Erfahrung. Ich find es toll das wir sowas machen können und ich denke es wird uns allen gefallen  Miri T.  Im really looking forwart to the exchange and am happy to show the students from Kaunas our cool city  ! it is my first time wellcoming  an exchange student in my home. It is a new experience so I`m really excited ! cya soon xD Max Ich erwarte vom Europa Projekt, dass ich viele nette Leute aus einem anderen Land kennen lerne. Ich wünsche mir, dass wir alle viel spaß haben werden. Vincent  Ich denke, dass das mal was ganz anderes ist, wenn wir Gäste aus einem komplett anderen Land da haben! Ich hoffe, dass wir Gute Freunde werden und weiterhin Kontakt halten. Ich hoffe wir haben eine gute Zeit! Charleen Ich freu mich, Lithauen zu sehen, neue Leute kennenzulernen und mit der Gruppe einen Weihnachtsmarkt zu besuchen. Ich bin gespannt, was die anderen von Berlin halten... Larissa Ich freue mich auch auf den Austausch und ich hoffe es gefällt den Litauischen Schülern hier bei uns. Ich denke wir werden schöne, neue Erfahrungen sammeln. Mercedes Ich finde es cool , mal  ein Land nicht nur zu besuchen sondern auch zu sehen/erleben ,wie die Leute in diesem  Land leben. Ich glaube das werden ganz neue, unerwartete und schöne Erfahrungen. Zoe Ich finde es sehr spannend mehr über die Leute, das Land und die Kulturen zu lernen. Hoffentlich werde ich schöne Erfahrungen sammeln. Interresant finde ich auch, wie die Sprache der Schüler aus Kaunas sich anhört. Gaston  Ich freue mich auf die Möglichkeit ein ganz anderes Land kennen zu lernen als die Länder die ich bisher kennen gelernt habe. Ich vermute das ich einer Kultur begegnen werde, die mir ganz neu ist. Ich freue mich auf all die neuen Eindrücke und die neuen Freundschaften. Leo  I am really excited to meet our guests and I believe we're going to have alot of fun! It's a whole mew experience. I hope we're going to lern a lot about their culture, which is probably very diffrent to ours. Jessie Wairimu B. I'm glad that the exchange guests are coming and excited ! It's something totaly new but I love meeting new people and I bet we will have lots and lots of fun with them !!!  I can't wait to go to them and they will love our city !!!