SECOND EXCHANGE: HARAM TO ITALY
Monday 4th April 2005
Early on Monday morning we gathered at Haram VGS. We got into a coach and left for Aalesund
Airport. Then we checked in and got onto a plane, then we flew to Oslo, then to Copenhagen and
then to Venice. At Venice we met the parents of the Italian students and we left for Malignani.
At Malignani we met the Italian Students, and we went home to our hosts.
Tuesday 5th April 2005
All the students met at school and the Norwegians got an introduction of Italy and Friuli from the Italians. Then we made a tour around the school. We saw airplanes, helicopters, engines and a lot of other technical stuff. Then we ate an Italian lunch in the school canteen.
Wednesday 6th April 2005
We visited a factory that produces casting equipment like rolling mills. This company is named Danieli. They produce equipment for the other factory we visited that day, ABS, which is a factory where they produce steel. They produce a lot of steel bars. At Danieli we got to see a huge milling park with some huge CNC grinding machines, enormous and expensive CNC milling machines, 7 million euros worth. We also got to see some automation systems. We ate lunch in the Danieli canteen.
Thursday 7th April 2005
On Thursday we visited one of the largest shipyards in Europe, Fincantieri. It is located in Monafalcone. We got a short presentation about the shipyard and shipbuilding, and a guided tour at the shipyard. Fincantieri has several shipyards in Italy, but this is one of the largest. In the shipyard they build different types of ships, but mostly large cruise ships. They build the ships from scratch in this shipyard, also the hulls. Since it lays only a few kilometers from Slovenia and Croatia, there are some people from those countries working at the shipyard. In Fincantieri, they were very safety-oriented, and the guide took very good care of us.
We ate lunch in the canteen of the shipyard. Alice grabbed a delicious plate of liver. Strange enough, she didn’t finish her plate.
After the visit to Fincantieri, we went to Trieste. Trieste is the capital in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region. We got to visit the Palace of the Region, and learn a little about the Italian government system. Then we walked through the city to a square, where we waited for the bus to take us to the next stop, Miramare.
Miramare is a beautiful castle which was built around 1860. It has very beautiful surroundings. We had a lot of fun breaking all the rules in the park, such as reaching for squirrels and running. Then, even too early, we had to go home.
Friday 8th April 2005
As usual I got up at approximately seven o’clock. It was no problem getting up, listening to
the joyful singing of the little birds outside. For breakfast we ate yoghurt and cereals, which
happens to be my favorite breakfast.
School started at 08.05, and for three hours and forty-five minutes we where taught Italian, until 11.50. Our newly attained knowledge was very popular amongst our host families, even though at times I felt like a parrot, repeating countless words while trying to eat my lunch.
After eating up, we went to the Commercial Center, a big mall with almost every store you can think of. However, the shops weren’t the most interesting things in the mall. The fact was at on the top floor there was a gaming hall, which suddenly and quickly caught our attention. We spent quite some time at that location (by the way, Ingebrikt was really lousy at rodeo riding). The rest of the evening was spent at our respective host families.
Saturday 9th April 2005
On Saturday we went to see the city of Cividale Cividale is a very old city with a lot of cultural sights to see. We went to see a museum, an old church and a lot of old Fiats. When we got back to Udine, the Italians had arranged a party at one of the homes. We packed sleeping bags and a toothbrush so we could stay there over the night. Before we went to bed that night. a lot of different things happened. Some of the things were new and strange for the Norwegians, and some of the things were new and strange for the Italians. Like when the Norwegians were outside climbing in trees, and riding a carousel, the Italians were inside feeling sick and listening to their lovely music. As the evening went on and the cultural differences were quite clear, the mood changed like a sine curve with some of the participants. But I think that most of us had a fun night, and we woke up in a good mood the next morning.
Sunday 10th April 2005
Sunday was a day when the Norwegian students could experience Italian family life. But
some of us decided to go and watch a football match between Udinese and Roma. The match
was very fun to watch, and we could see six goalws. Three for each of the teams. Some of the
Norwegian students that didn’t go to the match had decided to go shopping, which was a bad
idea since most of the shops are closed on Sundays. In the evening we all went back to our
families to do family stuff.
Monday 11th April 2005
The bus arrived at the bus stop at about 07.05 and we were on our way right after. And then we arrived close to the school at about 07.40. Then we had to walk a few minutes to Malignani School. We met the others as usual right outside the school. While the Italians were to do something with the project, the Norwegians had Italian lessons with the teacher Gabriella. This was the second lesson I believe.
After this the Norwegians went to see another project that some other students had done to produce energy from the sun. It was difficult to pay attention because the teacher spoke Italian and then another teacher had to translate, and the Italian boys were a bit noisy, too. After that we ate lunch at the canteen.
Then we left the school and we went to visit the Palace of the Province in Udine. The building had paintings all over the walls, and also in the roof. It was quite beautiful, and very different from the one we have in Brattvåg. The Norwegians were very impressed.
Later that day, at about dinner time, we went to Marco Picili to have Italian pizza!! He lived about 20 minutes from where Gabriele lived, and we weren’t sure about where he lived so it took a little while to get there. It was me, Gabriele, Eirik and Cesare that went together. When we arrived, some of the others had already arrived. The house was very impressing; they had a real stone fire to put the pizza in.
I had never seen one before, so it was pretty cool. The whole family made the pizza, and Marco himself took the orders and gave us everything we needed. The Norwegians knew that Marco had a twin brother and a twin sister, but when we met the brother, Massimo, we were sure that he had been in Norway with the other Italians 6 months ago. They were very similar. Then we ate, drank, and enjoyed the evening. Luca had the guitar with him, so they played and sang as they did in Norway. First they played Vasco Rossi with "Generale". Barbro and I knew that song so we sang with them. Mostly the ”la la la”- part. But it was fun.
Tuesday 12th April
This morning the whole group of students met at school at 08.00 to take the bus to the famous Fantoni Company in Osoppo, a factory which produces office furniture and develops different kinds of building material. The bus trip lasted for almost an hour, but when we arrived, the factory hadn’t opened yet, so we all went to visit an old Church in Gemona. This was a very special experience because it was very hard struck by an earthquake in 1976, so they had to rebuild the entire city.
When the factory opened at last , we were taken to the auditorium to watch a movie about the factory. After that one of the employees guided us around the factory, and we got to see a lot of the production. At 14.00 it was time for lunch in the Fantoni canteen. The lunch lasted for almost an hour, and we got a lot of good food.
In the afternoon it was time to visit another factory, Pittini. Here they build a lot of different iron sticks, and the whole factory was run by only a few persons and a lot of robots. When we arrived, they gave us a very long presentation, first in Italian, and then in English. And I must admit that a lot of us fell asleep during the talking. When they finally finished, we got a guided tour around the factory.
So at last, we got to take the bus home. And on the way home we got a nice little surprise.
We got to stop at the shopping centre for half an hour to go shopping. Everybody was very
pleased, and after the shopping we went home to our families, ate dinner, and fell asleep..
zzzZZzzzz….
Wednesday 13th April
We went to see a hydroelectric plant that has been now turned into a museum. Like most of the other days, we went by bus and we stayed several hours inside, since this was one of the longest drives we had of all our visits. The sun was shining and the weather was sweet when we went into the plant for a brief presentation of the history from when the building had been built and how the people lived while constructing it. We also got a small introduction on how a hydroelectric plant works.
After the tour at the plant we went to a primary school to eat lunch. It was a good meal and we drove from the town to the dam, which was our next sightseeing target with our stomachs full.
The dam was still under construction when we got to it, but was not far from being finished so we could see how it looked like and how it worked. Before we could take a close look at the dam, we had to have a new presentation about hydroelectric power, this time more about how it works today and what kind of development they have planned for the future.
Then, after the presentation and a close look at the dam, we headed back for the bus and set off to for home to the host families. Many of the students went to the shopping mall in Udine and got picked up by cars from there, others went straight home after the bus trip.
Thursday 14th Apri
This day we did the PLC-programming. The meaning of the project was to get 2 cylinders to make a motion with the help of PLC. We were all divided into groups and got one computer to work with on the project. The cylinders were moved by a pneumatic system and our job was to make a PLC-programme to guide the air to the cylinders in order to get the motion we wanted to obtain.
After the programming there was a football match with mixed teams, Italians and Norwegians in both teams. We played for about an hour and a half and it seemed as if everybody had good
time.
Friday 15th April
We met at Udine railway station, before we took the train to Venice. The trip took about an Italian hour, one hour and forty minutes. After we arrived in Venice, we walked all together to Saint Mark’s Square. Then we were free to walk around in Venice, as we liked. Some of us took a trip in a gondola. At half past two we all met at Saint Mark’s Square again. We were supposed to take a trip to the islands, but it was cancelled. So we were free to walk around as we pleased, till we met at the railway station at half past 6. At 7 o’clock we took the train back to Udine.
Saturday 16th April
We met at school at 8.05. We were divided into Norwegians and Italians. The Norwegians
had Italian lessons, while the Italians were supposed to work with ADP reports and web
pages. At 10.45 the groups were joined again, and we started to write the reports. At 12.40
the school day was finished, and we went home or shopping.
In the evening we all met at school, where we ate dinner in the school canteen. The
Norwegians were a bit sceptical about the food they were served. We don’t have anything in
Norway that looks like that. When we had finished our dinner, the teachers gave some
speeches and said goodbye, before most of the students went out to the disco.
Sunday 17th April
Sunday was the day for Italian family life. The students spent the whole day together with
their family. At “my” house we spent the whole day watching football on TV. At one point we
had seven football matches we could choose from…
Monday 18th April
This was our last day in Italy, and one of the few days when we got the opportunity to sleep a bit longer. Amund, Susanne and I (Barbro) met at Marco Picili’s house. We ate breakfast and said goodbye to Marco, his grandparents and his mum, before his father drove us to Marco Polo Airport at twelve o’clock. The plane left at 15.28 and arrived at Copenhagen at 17.30. We waited there until the plane for Oslo left at 19.50. We arrived in Oslo at 20.55 and waited there until 22.30. At last we arrived at Vigra at 23.20.
