Comenius Character

Chain Stories 2012

Written by children from France, Spain, Finland and England.

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There is a very ancient popular legend which talks about a giant and very very old man who used to palpate children´s tummies while they were sleeping…

This giant is: “O Apalpador” He has a very deep voice and he is always wearing in a

squared shirt made of fannel, old -fashioned pants and a beret.

He is extremely welcoming and charming. However, he uses to shout

too much and that makes people be frightened about him.

He likes eating the typical Galician soup made with chestnuts

and also bread with acorns, smoked cheese

and highly-seasoned pork

sausages.

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He used to visit children on December the 24th and palpates their tummies just to know if they are eating properly, and he puts

chestnuts and different presents down near their beds. He works as a coaler, he mixes charcoal with wood but for what he really feels passion is Music: he is fond of listening to birds singing, he tries to imitate them with the sound of his wood wind instrument called: "Gaita".

He lives alone in a sack which is located in Courel and sometimes he goes for a walk through the forge by the Eume River, one of the most beautiful places of Galicia.

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Apart from this he is also fond of making musical instruments using: reeds from rye, leaves from ivy and branches from elder, chestnut and pumpkins. This man also travels a lot. This is his favourite place: Mosteiro of Caveiro but he

also loves going to Conservatory Xan Viaño of Ferrol to enjoy music with the children. He loves participating in different popular parties like O Samaín.

O Apalpador is looking forward to going to France…

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A SPANIARD IN HYVINKÄÄ

O`Apaipador came to Finland by plane. From Helsinki-

Vantaa airport he got a bus to train station and came to

Hyvinkää by train. When O`Apaipador came to Hyvinkää

he got to the nearest hotel to go to sleeping.

At the breakfast he ate bread, drank orange juice and

finished it with some fruits.

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After breakfast

O`Apaipador

went to the city

center and

discovered that

there were

massive

construction work

going on.

Then he went to the church which he thought it was

beautiful.

At the evening

O`Apaipador went

to watch an

exciting Finnish

baseball game.

There he ate so

much sweet that he

was ill the next

day.

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O Apalpador in Darwen

Apalpador was invited to Darwen in

England. People were excited to

welcome Apalpador but also a bit

fearful as Apalpador was a giant! Even

though he was very old, Apalpador had

never been to England and as he lived all alone Apalpador did not

know he would get on.

Apalpador arranged to stay in a massive castle near

Darwen, Clitheroe Castle - It was the only

place big enough with room for the giant.

Lancashire hotpot was made for

Apalpador’s tea – People had heard that

he liked soup. Also special Wensleydale

cheese was prepared (Wensleydale was not far from Darwen) –

Cheese was Apalpador’s favourite food.

People knew that Wensleydale liked listening to

nature, especially birds singing, so a special

concert was arranged at the RNCM (Royal

Northern College of Music) in Manchester.

Apalpador was not used to concerts

indoors. He really enjoyed it but when he clapped

and cheered at the end of each piece, his voice was so loud that

the concert walls shook and nearly fell down.

One day Apalpador was invited to climb up to the top

of Darwen Tower. He found this very easy and people

from the whole of Lancashire were able to see

Apalpador as he waved to them.

As he liked this tower so much, it was also

arranged for Apalpador to visit Blackpool, the

most famous seaside in England and quite near

to Darwen. Apalpador chose to climb to the top

of Blackpool Tower – From here he could see

Ireland and Wales.

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This is Abbey. She was born in Pershore in 1954 and has lived here

all her life. During her life she has had many jobs. As a young girl she

picked plums on her father’s farm to sell to the local stores in and

around Pershore. She was christened in Pershore Abbey and has

been a part of the church all her life.

Abbey from Pershore

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She got married to Doug in 1974. Doug worked as a farm labourer

on her Dad’s farm and they fell in love. Abbey has had a series of

part time jobs, including selling her father’s vegetables at the

annual Pershore plum festival. Her main job was raising her

children, Sue and Peter.

When Abbey’s dad died they sold the farm and moved into a Tudor

house in the centre of Pershore. Abbey and Doug love country and

western line dancing and used to dance every Sunday in the local

community centre. Sadly Doug died in 2009. Abbey still goes

dancing and enjoys life. She is still a big part of the church and

enjoys tea and cake with her friends every Tuesday afternoon.

Abbey has never left the country; instead she goes to Cornwall with

her caravan every year. She has a pet cat called Toby who she talks

to all the time. Her children have recently moved to London, yet

they visit, with Abbey’s noisy grandchildren, most weekends. Her

favourite food is, and always will be, fish and chips. Every night she

never misses Eastenders and her highlight of the year is the Queen’s

speech at Christmas. She spends all her spare time in her garden

tending to her vegetable patch and looking after her flowers.

To sum Abbey up she is a fun loving person who is comfortable

doing the things she knows. She finds anything new a bit scary!

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Abbey in Finland Abbey comes home. She opens the door and her cat, Toby, comes and purrs next to her leg. “Hi Toby, how is my little cat today? Do you know what happened at Cheryl today? She burnt her cakes. Hihihih.” She goes to kitchen and puts tea pot on stove, and checks the clock. She really doesn´t want to miss Eastenders. Then her phone rings and she answers: “Abbey.” -“Hi grandmother!” ”-Hi James! How is my little kiddy today?” “-Hey grandma, I’m 15. But anyway we have a gift for you. You are going to a trip around Europe via Finland, France and Spain!” - “Oh, thank you.” “-Yeah, you are leaving after two weeks.”

AFTER TWO WEEKS: Abbey sits in her first-born child’s car on her way to London-Heathrow airport. “Are you exited,” Laura, her first-born asks. –“Little bit”, Abbey says. Laura parks her car next to the terminal 3 and they walk inside. They go to the check-in desk and Abbey gets her boarding pass. Laura accompanies Abbey to the security check and wishes happy landings.

Abbey steps out from Helsinki-Vantaa airport. She walks over the zebra crossing… VROUMM!! The car goes right front of her eyes. –“JERK,” Abbey shouts but suddenly realizes that cars are going opposite directions than in England.

Then she gets taxi to Helsinki city centre and leaves her luggage to the hotel room and goes for a walk to the city. Abbey walks to the Uspenski cathedral. She steps in and surprises about the amount of gold. “Wow!”- Abbey says and buys a postcards to all her friends and relatives but doesn’t know what’s the price in pounds so she buys the cards at 5€ per card.

Then she goes to ask from the man next to her, what is the national food of Finland? “Well, I think kebab,” man answers. Abbey asks

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where is the nearest kebab-restaurant, and goes to eat there.

“Hi,” Abbey says and carries on: ”Oh, how nice is to get in to the culture of Finland through the national food.” “What? Nononono. Kebab no national food,” says waitress. “Oh well,” Abbey says “But I´m still very hungry, so I’m gonna eat kebab today and find the national food later.”

After kebab Abbey returned to the hotel room and went to sleep.

At morning she goes to the hotel info and asks: “What is the national food of Finland?” Receptionist answers: “It is Karelian roast.”

“Where can I get it?” Abbey asks.

“You can get it from the restaurant behind the Hotel.” receptionist answers.

“Thank you.” Abbey says.

Abbey goes to the restaurant behind the hotel. She orders a glass of water and Karelian roast. Food is ready in fifteen minutes and Abbey starts to eat.

After food Abbey goes to the marketplace near the center of Helsinki and goes shopping. She bought souvenirs to her friends and family with 50 €.

Next day she goes to see the parliament house of Finland. It is a big house made from concrete. She watched the house for 30 minutes and then walks to the cinema, because she wanted to see a Finnish movie. The movie wasn’t very interesting and Abbey got little bored. The rest of the day Abbey was shopping (again).

Next day she woke up very late, it was 11.30 Finnish time. She was very hungry so she went to the restaurant and ordered big sandwich with cheese and ham.

She ate 30 minutes. At 12.00 she went to the Museum of Art to see Finnish paintings. She was there three hours and bought some souvenirs.

The rest of the week she was shopping all the time.

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Following the European tour planned by her grandchildren, Abbey traveled to Spain to spend the next week. That country is famous for its food and festivals, but she was sure she would find some unexpected surprises too.

In Spain she was going to visit the city of Ferrol and its surroundings. She would remain there throughout the next week, guided by friends who had met her at the Conservatory Xan Viaño.

The first place they visited the day after her arrival, were the Eume Fragas. She had heard a lot about this forest because it had been burned a short time ago. It seemed amazing that the monks had chosen Caaveiro, a place in the heart of a forest so wild and away from the people, to build a church and a monastery. She learned that in Ferrol most churches are Catholic and that in Ares there is the largest Protestant congregation in the area.

The second day they traveled by bus along with her friends to the city of A Coruña, where they spent a beautiful day visiting the Aquarium, the Museum of Human, the Planetarium and the huge beacon of the Tower of Hercules.

The next day was devoted to shopping in the center of Ferrol, passing through places like Amboaje, Arms or the Reina Sofia’s park enjoying the water games. In the afternoon they all went for a walk around the castle of San Felipe, she seemed impressed by the mouth of the estuary.

During the last days of her trip Abbey was able to see the great waterfall of Fervenza in Neda, she made an approach to the town of Cedeira, where she went to San Andres de Teixido and walked around the beautiful beaches of Cobas, Doniños and Valdoviño.

Finally, she walked up the famous mountain road from Malata to Chamorro’s church.

During those days Abbey could see that the most typical in Spain was sitting on cafe’s terraces and eating large plates of ham served with a beer or a glass of wine. Of course, she had the opportunity to taste the typical Galician vegetable soup called “caldo” and octopus, which at first made her sick, but finally was not so bad.

Satisfied with her stay, it was time to continue her visit to more places. Her friends accompanied her to the airport of A Coruña, where she had to take a flight to Paris.

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THE TYPICAL FRENCHMAN

Today was Jean-François’s birthday. He is 40 years old. To celebrate his birthday his

wife and 2 children were going on holiday to England.

Jean-François lived in Paris. He always wore a suit and tie. He had to go to work in

England so they could pay for their meals. He was always serious and never took

anything lightly. To get to the airport he took his car. The car he owned was a

Jaguar. He flew to England first class so he could get served first. The flight to

England took 1 hour. When he arrived in England he hired a car (Jaguar). Then he

dropped his wife and two children off at the hotel they were staying at and went

looking for a job. He started off with all the business jobs since he owned a firm

called Jean-François’s Firm. But unfortunately they had no spare jobs. In the end he

had to get a job on a farm called Fresh ’n Fruity. He earns £67 a day. When he got

given his uniform he said “NO,” and kept his suit on. After his first day at work he

returned home at 15:00. They all decided to go to Big Ben when the clock struck

16:00 so they could hear the bells. At 16:00 they heard them and it went like this:

ding, dang, dong, crash, ding, dang, dong, crash, ding, dang, dong, crash, ding, dang,

dong, crash. After that they went and had dinner at KFC. They

finished eating at 17:50. When they had put away their

rubbish they drove home in their Jaguar. Back at home

there was a spider in the room and one of the children

screamed so loud that they had no choice but to kill it.

At 20:00 they went to bed.

The next morning at 9:00 Jean-François went to work in his 2nd best shirt and tie. But at 9:30 he tripped over and got covered in mud. That put him in a bad mood until 15:15

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when he changed into his best shirt to go and see the Buckingham palace and the Queen. When they were at the palace he was astounded at the height and width. Then when they got to meet the Queen they became BFFs and exchanged numbers on his cell phone. Time flew by so it felt like they left 5 minutes later even though it was 1 hour later. Suddenly he remembered he wanted one of the guards to sign his tie. Since he was the Queen’s BFF he did it with pleasure. For dinner they went to Angel Chef and stuffed themselves. After that they went home passing many double decker buses on the way. As soon as they got home it was 20:30. They went straight to sleep for their last night. At 6:00 they got up, packed away and left to return the Jaguar. Then they got on the plain and flew home. When they got back Jean-François crew threw a party to welcome them back to Paris. Jean-François was ever so happy that he forgot about his ruined shirt until the very next day. He was so angry he swore and cursed England. The thing that made him even angrier was that he found out that France lost to England in both rugby and football.

By Harry Taynton

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So he continues his normal life by doing work. Two weeks later he thought that he needs some new experiences. Maybe a new trip? To where?

He saw a film on the country where reindeers walked free on mountains.

Then he decided that he must go there. So the next morning he goes to the travel agency to buy tickets to Finland. A week later he goes to the airport and flew to the Finland.

Then he arrived in Finland in Helsinki and the weather was cold and there was plenty of snow. He found a nice small hotel near Helsinki. There was sauna next to the sea. Everybody go to the sauna and there was is big hot stove. And what a miracle? People throw water on the stove and there was steam all over the sauna. After a half hour everybody went outside to the swim. But how can you swim if the sea was frozen. However, there was a huge hole in the sea which gives an opportunity to him to go to swim.

The next day he goes to the Lapland and finally saw some reindeers. Addition to reindeers he saw the Santa Claus who promised to visit Paris next Christmas.

Unfortunately the holiday was over and he needs to go back to

home.

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A French Boy comes to England

After visiting Finland our French ‘garcon’ decided it was time to visit England so he booked a flight to Manchester . He heard that the Queen of England was celebrating her 60th anniversary (her Diamond jubilee) Also it was a special year for England as London was hosting the Olympic Games. Wow! What a year 2012!.

When he arrived at Manchester Airport a visit to Old Trafford Football stadium had been organized. The visit was very exciting and he saw a big picture of Eric Cantona in the tunnel – Eric was very well-known in France but he couldn‘t believe how popular Eric was in England and especially Manchester. Of course he ate some pies at the stadium.

In Liverpool the Beatles Museum was especially interesting ( ‘Michelle my belle’ by the Beatles was his favourite song). Darwen was where he stayed and the countryside around Darwen was wonderful. He ate crepes for dessert on one evening and felt very ‘at home’. Fish and chips was his favourite meal of the week.

The plans for street parties to celebrate The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee were in place and there were lots of flags in the streets. In France when a new president was elected the same things happened . He couldn’t believe that it only took 3 hours to get from London to Paris by train – ‘I’ll have to come more often,’ he said, ‘especially if there are more street parties.‘

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After visiting Darwen and back to Paris, our French “garçon” decided to practise a new way of travelling. As he had heard about the “Camiño de Santiago” an ancient pilgrim way, he took a train to the south of France and started at Roncesvalles his way by bike. He didn’t expect to have such a long journey. Along the way he could visit many Spanish towns and cities. He could see a lot of ancient monuments, he could listen to very different kind of music, he could taste different foodstuffs, he saw very different landscapes and he observed a great variety of weather conditions. He was really surprised how many different regions he discovered in Spain!!!

It took him a pair of weeks to arrive to Santiago de Compostela. He met

there some students from the “Xan Viaño Conservatory of Music” from

Ferrol. The musicians were looking forward to seeing him as they knew

very few things about this French partner. The meeting point was the

“Praza do Obradoiro”, the students received the French “garcon” singing

the Galician Hymn “Queixumes dos Pinos” based on a poem by

Eduardo Pondal and music by Pascual Veiga. The musicians could

recognise their visitor because he wore a “Comenius Project Ars

Europa” T-shirt and the flags of the countries he had visited before.

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As the French “garcon” was hungry and thirsty, they all went to the “Raíña” street to eat some tapas: Arzúa cheese, octopus, Serrano ham, tortilla, Padrón peppers, everything was so tasty! He knew by his new friends that in Galicia there is a typical carnival dessert called filloa that is very similar to the French crepes.

After that meal he was really tired, his friends took him to the Alameda.

Everybody relaxed there and our visitor took quietly his first siesta. What

a joy was to rest in the shadow for a while! Some Galician bagpipes

called gaitas woke him up. It took him a few seconds to realise where

he was.

The Galician students suggested going to the cathedral and old town.

He thought it was too late to visit it, but in fact he was wrong: in Spain

everything is open till 8, or 9, or even 10 p.m. He accepted.

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In the cathedral he was impressed by the “botafumeiro”, it gave the

whole place a pleasant burned incense smell.

That night they all joined and enjoyed a student party in Compostela. Holidays were coming to end. As farewell present the music students

gave his friend two more flags for his bike: the Spanish and the Galician

one. Sadly our French “garçon”, had no more time to visit Ferrol, their

friend’s homeland. As he really liked Spain and specially Galicia, he

promised to come back soon. Next time he would like to visit the coast

and to go to the beach.

By Luís Manuel Suárez, Sofía García, Verónica Gomollón, Elena Díaz, Laura Ramil and Alicia Malde

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NIKO COMES TO DARWEN!

Niko came to Darwen for a full week. He was fascinated by what he saw and how different it was to where he lives. On the first day we took Niko to the sauna at our local swimming baths. After Niko came with us to Blackburn Rovers Football Club and was even able to speak to some other Scandinavian footballers like Morten Gamst Pederson and Jussi Jääskeläinen who plays for

Bolton Wanderers Football Club.

He doesn’t really know our food so we took Niko to many different places to eat. One night we took him for fish and chips and another time he had Cottage Pie and Eccles Cakes. Niko also came for a McDonalds with us on one night and of course he knew about this place.

On the Saturday he went to the Blackburn Ice Arena to play ice hockey. He was very good at it. He also went fishing at the Springvale Fishing Arena.

After that we took Niko to the Vue cinema complex with his newly found friends- There were mostly American films on show but sadly no Finnish films which are very good at winning awards .

On Sunday Niko’s friends took him to Blackburn Mall- They shopped in Marks and Spencer and JJB and afterwards went to KFC for lunch . Also Niko was taken into GAME shop where we bought him a new computer game.

The next day Nikon was taken to the Blackpool Pleasure Beach which is a roller coaster park. Niko went on all the biggest rides including the biggest ride in Europe called ‘The Big One’- We even found a geocatch game. In the

evening Niko was treated to a very healthy fish and chips tea.

On Tuesday Niko went shopping at the Trafford Centre . Niko’s favourite shop was the ‘Apple’ shop where he didn’t buy any fruit, just a new iPad!We looked around all the shops and then went into China Town for lunch. Niko was surprised when we told him that we eat foods from nearly every other culture.

On Niko’s last day , we all had a full English traditional breakfast ( bacon, sausages, fried eggs/mushrooms, beans ). On the afternnon Niko went to the Darwen Library to play computer games on the free internet. Then we all had a party on the bottom floor of DACA Academy. We had a buffet -including Pulla chosen by Niko- and decorated nit with ballons and banners reading

‘ Goodbye Niko- You’re welcome back anytime!

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NIKO COMES TO FERROL!

Niko came to Galicia in the “Holy Week”. This year the Holy Week is the first week of April. Originally, the Holy Week is a religious event but here, in Ferrol, is a cultural tradition. This week we have no classes and there are a lot of impressive processions that will move you even if you’re not a catholic person. In these processions people wear long dresses and cone-shaped hats. They carry Virgin sculptures.

Niko arrived on Monday and we took him to a procession. He felt very

amazed and a little bit frightened because he had never seen anything like that. After that we went to have dinner. We ate Galician “caldo” and “cocido” and he loved it.

On Tuesday we went to Eume´s Wood. It´s an enormous natural reserve, crossed by the Eume river. Nico said to us that we can practise geocatch there, so we planned a route by walk to Caaveiro´s Monastery, in the top of the mountain. He became really surprised with the landscape. After that, we swam in the river and we practised fishing. Finally, we got back home and cooked the trouts that we had caught as dinner.

On Wednesday Niko wanted to go to play computer games. We took up to “DiverTT” (=enjoy it) and he play games for an hour. Then we went to the cinema to see a Spanish film from Almodóvar.

On Thursday we spend the day at the neoclassical downtown. We visited the main street, the three most important squares, the fishing port and the Reina Sofía’s park. We had lunch in the main street. We ate “empanada” and “parrochitas” (=little fishes).

Finally, on Friday we went to Santiago de Compostela, the most important ancient city of Galicia. There we visited the Cathedral, and we saw a music perform. It was a pop concert and Niko really enjoyed it. At the end of the evening we took him to the airport.

Have a good travel, dear Niko!

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Today Nico arrived to Ferrol. The first thing we did was to show him our Conservatory of Music, center of our learning. By this way, we started our route, and the first stop was Jofre Theatre.

After, we showed Nico the Sargadelos Gallery and the Local Library. He liked a lot the harbour and the Malatas Cove and its seafront. He was surprised with the distribution of the center of Ferrol with parallel streets in which is very difficult to get lost.

We made a rest and we ate in a restaurant octopus, barbecued steak and

rice pudding for dessert, that’s typical in Ferrol.

Then we went to the beautiful beach in Doniños, important summer point for people from Ferrol and we went to the Exterior Port.

Finally, at nightfall, we came back to Ferrol to see illuminated the “Armas Place” and the Town Hall.

At last we went to Jofre Theatre to listen a concert of the pupils of our conservatory “Xan Viaño”.

Armas Place

Jofre Theatre Doniños beach

Conservatory of music

Iria Folgado Dopico.

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Niko’s visit to Pershore Niko had a peaceful plane journey and when he arrived he got in his car and went to the Angel Inn hotel. The Angel Inn was a very homely place and Niko felt tired so he went to bed.

The next day after breakfast, Niko decided to go to visit Pershore Abbey. He thought that it was grand and beautiful. In the afternoon, Niko had a relaxing time, eating fish and chips by the river.

On Niko’s second day, he went bell boating on the river Avon; he got a bit wet but he had a great time. Later that day, it was the Pershore Plum Festival, Niko liked the idea of having a festival in the street! Also Niko bought some nice juicy plums for his breakfast tomorrow.

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On day three Niko went to the Pershore leisure centre to do some swimming in the pool. He had a very enjoyable time and met some new English friends. After that he went to the park with his new friends and bought an ice cream.

The next day Niko decided to go shopping to buy some souvenirs, to shop his friends back home. First he went to Avoca, then Acorns and after that he went to the airport in Birmingham to fly home.