Monday 12th of October

Nine taxis drove us to the airport of Sarajevo. The hometrip went well and was totally opposite than the trip Fredericia-Mostar.

Everyone relaxed and looked foreward to come home. At 16.15 the bus arrived in Fredericia and the students were welcomed by their families.

In a short personal evaluation I am glad that:

• 3.c had a succesful exchange with the students from Mostar Gimnazija. The acitivites went good: sports, work-shop about town-life, lessons together, and meeting with the hospitable families in Mostar.
• Some visitors and hosts are planning to see each other in the summertime. 
• Thanks to all the parents in Mostar and Fredericia - with your support to the exchange-idea the students feels confident to cross borders and cultures. By being supportive you give the students competence in diaolouge with and understanding of other cultures.
• The teachers had a good time togehter. Jens and I had good talks with: Mladenka, Vanja, Tanja, Branka, Igor, Sascha, Mirko and Mirsada. Sorry if I can't remember all the names - but thanks for the warm-hearted treatment. It seems like the exchange has become a partnership that lasts for some time.
• Thanks to the leaders of Mostar Gimnazija: Ankica Covic and Krpo Bakir.
• There is a possibility that we can develop on a project based on how to improve the water-quality of the River Neretva and some local water in Fredericia.
• The contact with Green Vision has developed - Jens and I percepts them as essential for the biology-project. Thank you for a wonderful trip to Perucica - it has become classic.
• The contact with the embassies in Sarajevo and Copenhagen are important regarding the contact with the political players in the relations between BiH and Denmark.
• We are very dependent on our network in Mostar and Blagaj - thanks to you we have a base in your country. 

Lets work for a revisit of students and teachers from Mostar Gimnazija in May 2010 - it takes a lot of time and money. But nothing is impossible - lets give it a try.

Thanks to every one for a good experience - Tommy and Jens

Sunday 11th of October

Sunday morning and none really were awake before twelve o'clock. Tommy and Kathrine went for bread, juice, youghurt and coffee.

In the sitting-room we watched: "Hangover" and it was a perfect starter for the sunday.

There was a hike and discover Sarajevo on the programme. Althoug it rained and a some were ill the majority made their way through the centre of Sarajevo - "Little Jerusalem".

In the last night in Sarajevo we went to a nice restaurant in the old city: Barhana. Later on we packed and prepared for the hometrip which started exstremely early at 4.00

Saturday 10th of October

We woke up in Sarajevo and everyone was tired after the hike in Perucica.

Our programme this day was a visit in the danish embassy, in Splitska-street and a meeting with Thierry Joubert from Green Vision.

After a nice breakfast in the small kitchen of the Hostel we took the trolly to the Parlament and strolled towards the embassy. Here Ambassador Kirsten Geelan waited for us. She gave an orientation about the danish foreign service, the work of an ambassador and the actual state og BiH from a dansih point of view. We were charmed by her intelligence, oratorical gifts and attentiveness. 3.c gave some good questions to the ambassador - like how is the daily life? and how is the situation between the ethnic groups in BiH? In all there was a good dialouque between the students and the ambassador - interesting to visit a part of Denmark in BiH. We all wish to thank the ambassador for a good lecture.

After a short break we went to the office of Green Vision in the nearby Radiska-street.

Thierry Joubert told us about the story of Green Vision, eco-strategies in BiH and eco-tourism. He represents the idealistic NGO-type who devotes his life to eco-life and preservation of original culture in BiH and the Balkans. Green Vision is doing a good job but there are a lot of barriers like corruption, short-sighted tourism, economic profit and ignorance. Sadly Denmark is having some of the same problems with preserving nature.

Thank you Thierry - we really hope that we can work together in the future.

The main-event in the evening was the two football-matches: BiH-Estonia and Denmark-Sweden. Both BiH and Denmark won their important matches and Sarajevo was happy - people were cheering in the streets - what a nice experience.

Friday 9. th

Today we met with some guys from Green Vision, who should show us the primeivel forest called Perucica. We was surpose to meet at 6 am in the bus, but we got a bit late and took off at 6.15. On the way some of the students got sick, so we hat to make some stops. When we finaly got there, the guides told us about some rules we had to obey and showed a waterfall called Skacavac.

The leader, Lorence also known as Lory, showed us around and told us a lot about the forrest. It was a long walk, and lasted 5 and a half hour, because we had to go down, up and down. The guides brought us some food, tea and coffee and if it was'nt fore them, we've never find the way trough the forrest.

Three of us did'nt go with the others on the walk, because they we'rent well, so they stayed in the bus, while the other walked. 

They drowe us the way to Sarajevo at 6 pm and we were there at 9 pm. We checked in at the Hostel city center and after a quick dinner and beer, we slept like babies.

Written by Carina and Jonathan

Thursday 8th

Today we went up to the ford of Herceg Stejpan and saw the amasing view over Blagaj. While we saw the ford we also saw that some archaeologists who were digging there looking for artifacts. We also met a donkey up there and we gave it some food. On the way down we looked at different kinds of plants showed by Jens.

Later that day we had some lessons in the conference room in hotel Ada. In the evening we packed our belongings for the trip to Perucica and Sarajevo.

Written by Ditte E and Mia A.

Wednesday 7th October

Today we started with breakfast at 8 o’clock after a good night’s sleep. Some of us were sitting outside by the beautiful river in the sun and eating. About an hour later we were ready to go for a walk.

The weather was so good that almost everyone were wearing shorts or nothing. We walked about two km to Tejkae, which is a Muslim monastery. We followed the river Buna all the way, and it was very beautiful. We had a break by Norfish, which is a fish restaurant. Here the river was so clean that we could drink of it. It tasted like real Danish water. In the monastery all the girls had to wear a scarf, it was so funny! The boys took a lot of pictures. 

Then we walked back to the hotel where we had a good lunch outside consisting of first dish, main dish and a desert. After the good lunch we had our first real biology class down here. We found a lot of different plants and examined them. It was really exciting. We had a little free time before dinner. In the evening we all saw a funny movie, then goodnight after a good day with a lot of sun in Blagaj. 

Written by Kathrine and Lise 3.c

Tuesday 6th October

Our day started at 7.30 am at Mostar Gymnasium, where our hosts had to guide us through one of their normal school-days. Some of the classes that we participated in were biology, English, geography and Bosnian.

After that we went down to “Old Town” to see it own more time, and then we went to, what we call, the Bosnian version of “poolhouse”. At about noon we parted to our host’s home, to have the last traditional Mostar-meal.

At 3 o’clock we met up at Mostar Gymnasium, to talk about Mostar city vs. Fredericia city, the good parts and the bad parts. First we talked about it in smaller groups and then we made a common conclusion for both towns. When we were done we picked up our suitcases, gathered up in front of the Gymnasium to take a group-picture and say our last goodbyes.

While some cried and some swam in the fountain (Carina), Tommy called 8 taxi’s that would drive us to Blagaj. After the death race we arrived at ADA hotel where we should spent the next 3 days. After a god meal and some coziness, people went to sleep.

Written by Mia E and Sophia.

Monday 5th October

Today was Ditte Sofie’s 18th birthday. It was the teacher’s day in Mostar so the students get some free time on their own (; .This means that all the teachers including our teachers went for a ride to Croatia. In the meantime all the students were of any school activities for the whole day. 

We used the spare time differently. Some were staying in bed longer than usually and some got up early to see the city of Mostar. We spent the time shopping. However we weren’t all together. Some went shopping in smaller groups and others in bigger. 

At 3:30 pm a lager group met at a monument in Mostar and when Ditte Sofie came, everybody sang the happy birthday song to her. After a while the guys got hungry and many decided to go get something to eat, others started their shopping trip. 

To spend some time all together we decided to meet later the same day for dinner so we decided to meet at a restaurant in the old part of the city at eight o’clock. However because it was so late and people went eating we changed the plan and decided to visit the pancake house and eat at home instead. 

At about eight o’clock most meet in front of the gymnasium and walked together to the pancake house. Ditte Sofie arrived a little later and when she entered the place everybody sang the birthday song again. So at this point everybody had wished her a happy birthday. Everybody was at the pancake house and got to talk to each other so we think everybody had a great time. This was also the first time we were all together. 

After a great dessert everybody went to the pool house and stayed for a while. This was in short terms what everybody was doing at Monday the 5th. 

Written by Sara and Katja.

Sunday 4th October

We met at 8.45 at Mostar Gymnasium. Then we gathered in a bus which was paid for by Mostar Gymnasium. The bus took us to a catholic church called Medugorje. We had to remain silent and wear long pants to show respect to the catholic users of the church. We saw the statue of Mother Mary who is told to have been seen around the church by some local people in 1981.A strange experience was when we saw two women touching the knees of a Jesus statue. The explanation was that an architectonic mistake courses that when it rains, water comes out of Jesus’ knees, and the church users have turned into a religious phenomenon. We also saw large groups of people praying outside the church in some kind of labyrinth.

After that, we drove with the bus to the Kravica waterfall. This was 25metres high, and it was extraordinary to see such a beautiful view compared to the wannabe-rivers in Denmark.

We also went to see a reconstruction of how a village from the area would have looked like in old days. It had little houses and stables with a few different kinds of animals. Afterwards we had some sandwiches in the bus to take the worst hunger.

After we had sandwiches, we moved on to some ruins. A myth says that this was the town called Troy in ancient times, and that Achilleus’ adventures went on here.

Pocitelj was an old castle on a mountainside near the Neretva River. It was very hard to climb the mountain, but the refreshings in shape of pomegranates and figs helped a lot. There was a mosque which was open to curious tourist.

After a long trip on a warm, sunny day, we went home with care, because we had to watch out for the hooligans who could be very violent. Everybody had a rest, and afterwards we went to the billiard club to have a coke/juice or two. At last we all went tired to bed to be well rested for the wonderful upcoming next day.

Written by Christoffer, Søren and Ditte Sofie

Saturday 3rd

After the first night by our hosts, we met at Mostar Gimnazija 9.30 am. At the school we made different sport activities such as table tennis, basketball, volleyball and football. When people got exhausted, we had free time. Some went to the old town and "the old bridge".

The bridge was very beautiful and exciting to watch - some people were paid by the tourists, to jump from the 28 m high bridge into the 7-10 m deep river. After that we went to the nearby museum where we watched a film about “the old bridge”. Here we saw the story of how the old bridge was build-destroyed-rebuild. Some people were emotionally touched by the film. At this time we were hungry so we went to a restaurant where we ate a traditional meal – it was called cevapi and it was made of a mix of meat and bread. After the meal we spent some hours at the billiard club, which is similar to our “Pool House” in Fredericia.

Afterwards we went home with our hosts and had dinner. In the evening we all meet at the disco called Oxygen. Here we had a lot of fun, until we were tired and sleepy – We have to mention that the beers are very cheap, so we drank a lot (:

Stine, Kevin & Elvan 3.c 

3.c arrived well in Mostar

The exchange has started in a good way.

3.c arrived yesterday afternoon at Mostar Gimnazija. All the hosts were assembled in front of the newly restored gimnazija. 3.c was welcomed by the headmaster Krpo Bakir and had a something to drink.

Vanja Kajgana told the students about the coming program and after this introduction the hosts took the visitors to their homes for relaxing and some bosnian supper.

The danish students started in Fredericia at 01.30, but there was no bus. The driver wrongly assumed it to be the next night. So all the students phoned their parents and in a half an hour they organized transport to the airport of Hamborg. It was a miracle. Thanks to all the parents ,who gave 8 hours of their sleep, - we managed to catch the plane in the last second - actually, 3.c delayed the takeoff with about 25 minutes.

In this exchange we already feel the hospitality of the people of Mostar. So we look forward to do the rest of the programme.

Info about Mostar

3.c is ready to leave Denmark and travel to BiH.

Before leaving they had a visitor from Mostar: Mirela Musa.

She is living in Denmark and is a succesful manager of a caretaking firm for elderly people.

Mirela acted as translator in the first meeting between Mostar and Fredericia Gymnasium 2006.

She told the students about the life of Mostar-families, serb-croat language, history of Mostar and the climate in the Neretva-vally. There was a lot of questions which shows that the students a fully aware of the coming exchange.

All the participants are looking forward to the meeting Friday 2nd.

News from the coming exchange

3.c is preparing the tour in BiH this coming October:

• Green Vision will take the class in the beautiful Perucica oldforest. Here the students will experience a green hike.
• Green Vision will also give a lecture about eco-tourism in BiH.
• The class is looking forward to stay at Hotel City Center in Sarajevo.
• It seems to be possible to visit the Danish Embassy.
• Hotel Ada in Blagaj will once more welcome the danish students at their beautiful situated hotel at the brink of River Buna.
• The exchange in Mostar is still being planned.

Before leaving the class will:

• Experience the visit of a danish writer: Martin Glaz Serup, who will tell about visiting BiH and how to write post cards.
• The local library is supporting democracy in Fredericia by giving room for exhibitions. 3.c have produceret photos of the (un-)official parts of the town. They will be present at the exhibition and have a dialogue with the citizens.
• The class will do a hike in Fredericia along the coast of Lillebælt, into the woods and the town. The subject is: "Man and Nature - Harmony or conflict?" Commented photos (mobil-phones) will tell their experiences from the hike. 

Divers from Mostar Bridge

Green Vision has published this link of divers from Mostar Bridge - for sure we are not trying this activity when we will visit Mostar in October.

New article about Tim Clancy from Green Vision

Are you interested in nature and hiking - read this interesting article about the co-founder of Green vision: Tim Clancy.

Nordic Viking-ships in the Balkans

Youth for Europe is an idea that young people should meet across borders and cultures.

Since 2005 has 1.400 young people been togheter on viking-ships rebuild after models from the 9.th and 10.th centuries.

In these summer-days, a gruop of young people from Balkan countries are rowing a viking-boat on a river between Bosnia and hercegovina and Serbia (maybee the river, Drina) Being on a boat together means teamwork and dedication to the idea of travelling as one group.

Green Vision (their homepage with info about lakes and rivers) is supporting the activity - we wish you good luck from Denmark, home of some of the vikings.

2.c is doing a project: "War, media and technology"

2.c is doing a project on the theme: "War media and technology".

The subjects - psychology, biology and history are used in an interdiciplinary way to give an understanding of the civil war in Yugoslavia 1991-1995 - with special emphazise on the war in Bosnia & Hercegovina 1992-1995.

Psychology as a humanistic subject gives the students an opportunity to work with posttraumatic stress disorder.

• What is the definition of PSTD? How does it show and what can be done to overcome PSTD?
• Azra Hasanbegovic is working with PSTD among citizens who suffer from PSTD. She told the class about PSTD, and how to repatriate people in Bosnia and Hercegovina.

History also joined as a humanistic subject:

• Historiy has been working with the development of the Balkans from 1880-1918, 1918-1941, 1941-1945, 1945-1991. We now worked with the civil war in BiH. Everyone was impressed by the semidocumentary BBC-film: "Warriors", 1999. It showed how ethnic cleansening, in Vitez,  was completed 1991-1992.

• Later on Karsten Fledelius gave an interesting lecture on the maintheme: "War and media". His mainpoint was that you always have to be suspicious, independant and critical when you try to understand politics through medias.

Biology, as a natural science, worked with body identification.

Later on the students have to defende their synopse in a oral examination.

For sure this project gives the danish students a broader understanding of BiH when they will visit the country October 2009.

Green Vision and the exchangeproject

Green Vision ,in Sarajevo, is working hard to protect and improve the nature reserves in BiH.

The organisation is also responsible for guided tours into the wildlife and cities of the region.

2.c will enjoy a tour into the oldforest of Perucica Oct.2009 - in continuation of this contact Green Vision and the exchangeproject between Mostar Gimnazija and Fredericia Gymnasium will try to establish a partnership or co-operation with focus on:

• nature reserves
• enviromental sustainiblity
• integration among young people

Fredericia Gymnasium looks forward to strenghten the relations with Green Vision.

The bosnian ambassador, M. Hajdarevic, visited Fredericia Gymnasium

Ambassador Muhamed Hajdarevic visited Vejle and Fredericia municipalities this thursdag and friday.
In Vejle he had a dialogue with the Mayor Leif Skov, Hans Sørensen and Biljana Lozo.
There was also contact with local companies.

There was a nice dinner in Fredericia where Mayor Uffe steiner Jensen welcomed Hajdarevic. The reprensentatives from Vejle where also present togehter with Fredericia Gymnasium. The dinner created a good atmosphere and dialougue about Bosnia and hercegovina and the relations towards Denmark.

See also Fredericia Dagblad.
The good dialogue continued the next day - starting with a visit in Fredericia Gymnasium. Mayor Uffe Steiner and the local buisness-reprensentative was also present.
The ambassador was presented a insight in the danish education-system, the ongoing exchange between Mostar Gimnazija and Fredericia Gymnasium.
Sandra Saabye a former student told the meeting about her experiences with the exchange. Katja H. and Sara F. talked about their expectations in the exchange.

The ambassador questioned a lot and contributed in a dynamic way to the visit.
The issues included importance of ethnic backgruonds, tolerance, opportunities and prospects for young people and how to develop talents in school systems.
The importance of cohesion in the education-system, on a national level, was also discussed.
Fredericia Gymnasium is thanking everyone for a good visit.

Mayor Uffe Steiner Jensen took the ambassador to a meeting with the brewery Carlsberg and the cheese producent Arla-foods.

Mostar and Fredericia on Facebook

The exchange between Mostar Gimnazija and Fredericia Gymnasium is still improving.
We will now try to intensify the comunication between visitors from Denmark and hosts in Bosnia & Hercegovina by activating a groupsite on Facebook.
Here are som interesting facilities which allow the students to see each other as a group and on the other hand they can still be intimate and personal when they communiate one and one.

Valentina, Mladenka and I will try to inspire the students to write about diffenrent themes. The aim is to mix subjects from school with communication in leisure-time.
In this way we hope that students from both countries will know each other better before the physical meeting in October.

Look up the Facebook-adress

The bosnian ambassador in Denmark visits Fredericia

Last May students and teachers: Mladenka and Tanja visited Fredericia Gymnasium.
The bosnian visitors had a good meeting with Fredericias mayor: Uffe Steiner Jensen.
It almost succeded to establish a meeting between Uffe Steiner and the ambassador of Bosnia & Hercegovina from Copenhagen.

The new ambassador, Muhamed Hajdarevic, is now invited to visit Vejle February 19th. Here there will be talks with the mayor of Vejle: Leif Skov.
The next day, 20th, the ambassador will visit Fredericia. When he visits Fredericia Gymnasium there will be a dialogue on issues like integration, democracy, education, international activities and the importance of the European Union in Denmark and Bosnia & Hercegovina form the perspective of young students.
Later that day he will be together with mayor Uffe steiner Jensen.

Fredericia Gymnasium is looking forward to welcome the ambassador.

2.c and the Balkans

2.c has started to prepare the visit in Bosnia and Hercegovina next October.
They will work with the Balkans in different subjects.
The students have just finsished a written paper with emphazise on the period 1870-1945. Major periods in history were:
- Imperialism 1870-1914
- First World War 1914-1918
- the inter-war period 1918-1939
- the Second World War 1939-1945
The main issues were:
- "How does small states like Denmark and Yugoslavia manage to stay independent and free in an increasing political hostile Europe?"
- "What were the political and military similarities and diffenrencies between the Nordic area and the Balkans?".
In the subject, Danish, the students worked with: rhetoric and war as a topic.

Until spring, the clas will study the communist state of Yugoslavia 1945-1980, 1980-1991 and the civil war 1991-1995. One of the main issues is on forces that seperated and united the state. The subjects religion, psychology and english will represent important tools in analyzing the the period of civil war.
Later on we will compare the Nordic welfare state 1957-1998 with communism in Yugoslavia.

The exchange between Mostar Gymnasium and Fredericia Gymnasium is shaping a main thread in our curriculum. The Visit in Mostar makes up a gathering between the real world and theory in class.

Fredericia students will visit B.H. Oct. 2.end.-12.th 2009

The danes/danska are visiting B.H. next October.

We have booked flight-tickets now. The danish students will travel by bus to Hamburg airport and fly to Sarajevo.

Our plan is very similar to the last danish visit.This means 4 days in Mostar with exchange. 4 days in Hotel Ada at the river Buna - here we have the oppertunity to visit each other.
The last two days will be in Sarajevo before returning for homeflight.

The next step is to establish relations between the danish visitors and the hosts in B.H. Hopefully it will bring about some good communication before the visit.

The B.H. Ambassador: Muhamed Hajdarevic',in Copenhagen, is invited to visit the Kommune of Fredericia and Mayor Uffe Steiner Jensen. Vejle Kommune will also participate in the visit. We hope that the politicians and the diplomats will visit
Fredericia Gymnasium.
The agenda ,is among other things, how to enhance industri relations, students-exchanges and education.

The Danish Ambassador in Sarajevo is currently briefed about the relations and we hope it will support the relations and activities between the countries.

A new exchange has started Oct. 2008

Dear students in Mostar and Fredericia

A quick review shows that after a danish visit in Mostar Oct.2007 and a revisit of Mostar-students, May 2008, it is now time for at new start of the exchange-project.

A new class in Fredericia Gymnasium, 2.C, is now working with the history, culture and enviroments of the Balkans with emphasise on Bosnia & Hercegovina. Working with the Balkans gives the students in Fredericia a wider perspective on Europe.
During the next year they will prepare the stay in B.H. during different projects.

The class will fill out indivual profiles so it can be matched with hosts from Mostar Gimnazija. Communication before the exchange is important so everyone feels save and welcomed - both ways.

We are planning to do the visit Oct.2. untill Oct.12. Our stay in Mostar will last from Oct.2.- Oct.6. After the stay in Mostar, the danish group will move to hotel Ada
near the river Buna until Oct.10. The last days will be spend in Sarajevo.

The class is saving money for the trip individually and as a classs.
The students are looking forward to travel in B.H.

Leaving Fredericia Friday

In the early morning everybody assembled at the station of Fredericia.
The exchange was in its end-phase. Loaded with good memories every-one said goodbye.

I hope that all the participants enjoyed the exchange which have lasted for more than 1 1/2 year. The mutual visit in both countries and the continuous writing between the students have made it possible to enlarge our visions and insight.

I hope it will be possible to continue the exchange with a new class.
This coming Friday I will present the idea to them.

Thanks to all who helped in making the exchange possible.

Thursday 8.th

The last day together - and the programe was full of activities.
Every host took their visitor to Arla Foods. Uffe had arranged a visit that contained a presentation of this international large company, a guided tour, tasting Arla-products and the producing of cheese on a experimental basis.
Arla did a nice presentation although the smell of cheese was harsh. But as one teacher said: "It is the smell of money".
Thanks to Arla for a informative and educational morning.

We were also invited to the city-hall of Fredericia by mayor Uffe Steiner Jensen.
He welcomed us and gave a short historical introduction to the history of Fredericia.
After that we had a good dialogue about the danish welfarestate, problems with integration and the importance of being open-minded in a global world.
The mayor gave presents and autographs. Although his hair is grey he is popular among the students.

The nearby bowling-hall was a good place to unleash some energy. Everyone took part in the great battle of striking the skittles. A nice sandwish ended the day.

Wednesday started with some lessons - the weather was still very good and therefore having sport outside was a good option. Christian one of our new teachers took care of introducing the group to soft-ball. Once again competition and cooperation gave a good lesson in how to do your best although you can loose the game.

The afternoon was leisure-time and one of our young students, with bosnian and hercegovian background, invited all the visitors for a dinner. They had a great time talkning only their mother-tongue. It is very special that Denmark contains a variaty of different cultures so our country is more able to connect with the outside world.
To internationalize is not only a matter of looking outwards - but also inwards your own country and city. Thank you Leo Petrec for the initiative.

Tuesday the 6.th

Tuesday was a day with a lot of activities. The visitors joined their hosts in the two first lessons.
At twlve o'clock Uffe took everybody to Vejle for a visit a centre for ecology.
It is a place where you can touch, feel, and experience different enviroments in urban, rural and nature areas.

Almost just after beeing back from Vejle Camilla Mulvad and her parents had invited the whole group for a barbecue-party in Brejning - just outside Fredericia.
The weather was perfect and the food just good. On a nearby football-lawn girls played against boys. I think the boys won, but only because of their luck.
Indeed it was a international game.

The first day May 5th

At last came our visitors from Mostar. They experienced a tough tour through Europe and came in middle of Sunday night.
But everyone started as planned with breakfast at Fredericia Gymnasium.
Vagn Olsen took the visitors for a tour in the completely newly rebuilded gymnasium.
There was a biology-exercise with bloodtype-definition. Once more Uffe showed how natural science is international because we understood each other using the biology-terms.

Tommy took the Mostar-students for a short tour in Fredericia. The focus was on the history of the city with emphasize on the  military fortification, multicultural citizenship: jews, catholics, huguenots, protestants and modern urban life.

The hosts picked up the visitors and the need for a godd sleep was evident.

Program for Mostar-visitors in Fredericia 4.-9.5.

Sunday:
20.30 Welcome at Fredericia Station. Danish students and teachers take care of their guests.

Monday:
8.30 Welcome at Fredericia Gymnasium – Breakfast.
                      Tour in the Gymnasium by Tommy Skov.
11.55-13.25 English-lesson in B06 with Trine Laursen. Everybody
14.15-15.30 Guided tour in Fredericia with Tommy: History, religion and
                      Culture in the city. Only visitors.

Tuesday:
8.05-9.40 Visitors with their host in different classes.
9.55-11.25 Biology-lesson in E13 with Uffe Pedersen. Everybody.
12.00-afternoon: Tour to nearby city: Vejle. They have a center for ecology, (Økolariet):

                    Grillparty at the place of Camilla Mulvad.

Wednesday:
8.05-9.40 Visitors with their host in different classes.
9.55-11.25 Biology-lesson in E13 with Uffe Pedersen. Everybody.
11.55-13.25 Sport-lesson with Christian Mortensen. Everybody.
13.40-15.10 History-lesson in B14 with Tommy. Everybody.

Thursday:
8.30-12.00 Visit at Arla-foods. Everybody, See -

13.00-14.00 Welcome in Fredericia by mayor of Fredericia Uffe Steiner
                  Jensen. Only visitors.
15.15-16.30 Bowling.
                   Dinner and get together. Everybody.

Friday:
                    Leaving early in the morning for Mostar. The bus is coming from Vejle.

Further details:

Ankica Covic and Tatjana Serdaravic will stay at: Sømandshjemmet, Gothersgade 40.
Telephone: 75 92 01 99.

Telephone Fredericia Gymnasium: 0045 75 92 06 88
Mobile, Tommy: 25 38 22 22
Uffe: 75 93 33 31

We look forward to see you.

Best regards

3.c, Tommy and Uffe

We look forward to welcome you in Fredericia

Dear friends at Mostar Gimnazija

Thank you very much for the accept of our invitation in May.

We are now preparing a program which will mix activitites at Fredericia Gymnasium and in the town of Fredericia.

Our Gymnasium is rebuilded when you arrive.

The weather in May can be very nice in Denmark and we hope for temperatures about 15 degrees and lots of sun.

Please prepare a list with basic informations so we can have visas ready.
I will fax you next week.

Have a good time in Mostar

We hope to see you in Fredericia May 4th-9th

Dear hosts in Mostar

Evo, šaljemo pozdrave u novoj 2008 godini iz cijele nase fredericijanske gimnazije i nadamo se da je sve u redu kod vas u gimnaziji i u Mostaru.
Radujemo se vašem dolasku u proljece i u kojemu će te posjetiti i našu gimnazjiu u Fredericiji.
Također se nadamo da se svih onih 13 đaka čije su familije bili naši domaćini u oktobru 2007 godine spremaju na put tako da ih i mi primimo na gostoprinski način.
Naši đaci raduju se vašoj posjeti i kao pravi domaćini žele da vas upute u svoj svakodnevni školski i familijarni život kao i u svoje slobodno vrijeme.
Rezervisali smo 15 sjedišta u auotubusu za osobe iz Mostarske gimnazije.

Planirani program sadrži:

 Učestvovanje učenika prvenstveno na nastavi biologije, egleskog jezika, historie, umjetnosti i tijelesnog odgoja.
 Posjetu jednom lokalnom radnom preduzeču sa globalnim eksportom.
 Šetnja gradom Fredericije.
 Primnanje kod gradonačelnika u opštini/komuni.
 Podiči i učestvovati u demokratskom workshopu.
 Posjeta vašeg ambasador u Fredericiji i nasoj gimnaziji.

Molimo vas za brzi odgovor tako da smo u stanju utvrditi vaš periodni dolazak.
Pokriti su povratni putni autobusni troškovi a vaše prenoċište je veċ organisirano kod naših privatnih domaċina.

Inače, jako smo zadovoljni sa ovim mjenjanjem naših posjeta i u buduċe računamo da ċemo snjima nastaviti.

Mnogopozdrava

Rektor
Poul Erik Madsen                        Tommy Skov                               Uffe Bybæk Pedersen

The rebuilding of Fredericia Gymnasium is moving ahead.

For more than a year ago a rebuilding-proces started in Fredericia Gymnasium.
The whole central meeting area was tored down because we wanted an open space with 3 levels.
A first floor has been established and increases the number of square-meters dramatically.

The plan is to finsih the rebuilding in April.
Everyone is looking forward to use the new facilities - for sure it will be inspiring.
Please visit our homepage with pictures from our school:

www.fredericia-gym.dk/forside/byggeri_billeder_november07.htm

Lancier at Fredericia Gymnasium

Fredericia Gymnasium is a place with strong traditions. One of them is an evening where all the final year students dance lancier.
Every student puts on fine clothes and celebrate .
1700 people were watching their dance and the atmosphere is very special just after the dance is finished - the students are now relieved after weeks of tension.

If you are interested in seeing how the evening went please link to:
http://www.fredericia-gym.dk/forside/skolebal_07.htm

This year the lancier was in a nearby sportshal because of our rebuilding.
Everybody had a nice evening.

The exchange was a good experience

We send greetings to our bosnian hosts.
The revisit in Denmark is essential to the project.
We are looking for fincial support in public and private funds so the transport will be possible in April 2008.

Biology class at Mostar Gimnazija, October 8th

As a part of the exchange, bosnian and danish students did biology-excercises together.
The excercise was instructed by Mirsada - supported by Uffe who made drawings on the whiteboard.
Host and visitor in pairs, was equipped with a microscope, lent from the IB-school. The main purpose was to discover the differences between human cells and plant cells.
Biology sometimes brings you closer to your own body which caused a lot of laughs.

Sunday 14th October - Sightseeing in Sarajevo

The students gathered in the hall 10.30 am and Tommy, our History teacher, distributed an excercise. The 4 groups, which were made before the journey begann, were going to visit 10 spots around the bascarsija area. On each spot we had to take a fotograph and answer 1 or 2 questions. We visited among others "Latinska cuprija" the bridge where the Austro-Hungarian heir to the throne, Prinz Ferdinan, was killed in 1914 and "Vjecna vatra," the internal flame, which is a memerory of all the Bosnian who died in the fight against Fascism during the second world war. After we had hand-over our answers we were free to enjoy our last day in Sarajevo.

Sunday 7th of October - trip around in Herzegovina

We started the trip in the mountains and the weather was cold and it was raining. The first stop was at the second most holy place, Medugorje, where we joined the mass in the church of St. Jacobs. The sculpture of Virgin Mary is very impotant for the roman catholic church.
Then we went to the Kravica-waterfall. It falls 25 metres down and it stretch about 100 metres.
We stopped to eat at the Hutovo Blato bird sanctuary and because of the bad weather we couldn't get a tour at the sanctuary. The nature guide held a speech about the global changes in the world which also has an influence at the sanctuary.
It was still raining a lot but we kept on drivining and stopped at the roman village and military camp of Mogorjelo.
The last stop was at Radmilja were there is a necropolis (burial place for the dead). Here we saw some of stecci-tombstones showing the graves from around 13-15 century A.D.
On the way home we had a lot of fun in the bus where we tried to teach the students some rimes in english and some in danish

• Three witches watch three swatch watches. Which witch watch which swatch watch.
• Økølogisk gulerødsrugbrød
• En glad blå gadeplakat
• Fem flade flødeboller på et fladt flødebolleflad
• De hvide ville vide hvad de vilde ville vide og de vilde ville vide hvad de hvide ville vide
• How much wood would a woodchopper chop if a woodchopper could chop wood
• Stativ, stakit, kasket
• Jeg plukker frugt med en brugt frugtplukker

In the evening the most of us where gathered at Damir's house where we had fun.

Written by Helle Schubert and Malene Dellgreen

From Mostar to Sarajevo 13'th October

We had to wake up early in the morning - 6 o'clock AM. The Tanovic drove us to the train station (one of the only railway connection in BH). Everything was alright but people where a bit sleepy. The trip along the river Neretva was very beautiful and relaxing. We drove sooooooo slowly.
When we arrived in Sarajevo it was raining, but the Hotel was alright. It has a swimmingpool :O! (but it cost money to use)
Tommy took us to the old town and we went on a shopping spree. This evening we will all eat at a local restaurant. And we will probably go to a disko later.

Written by Mads Olsen The Great.... Cao...

Tuesday 9th October - Trip to Sarajevo

Tuesday 9th October

Mohammed, Lotte and Camilla went to Sarajevo with two Classes from Mostar Gymnasium. One was Bosniac the other was Croatian. Both classes were third years.
We drove from Mostar Gymnasium 9.30 am and arrived at Sarajevo 12 o'clock.
No one knew what was going to happend only that we were invited to the studios of Channel Pink.
We were picked up of a lady who told us that we were going to participate in a tv-show called "The perfect couple." We found it a bit tragi-comic that we had driven 3 hours to watch a tv-show in 4 hours in a language we didn't understand. Our hostes were very nice to explain us what was happening though. The tv-show had more then one time technical problems and therefor we had many long long breaks. When the shouting finally was done we got half an hour to walk around before we took the bus back to Mostar. We were in Mostar around 11 pm.
Then Mohammeds host, Harris, father drove us to Hotel Ada in Blagaj which we were very grateful for as no taxies or buses were able to bring us.

Camilla & Mohammed

Tour in Perucica

Today we got up extremely early to go to Perucica which is an old-forrest in Sutjesca National Park. A rented bus was ment to pick us up at 6 am, but was unfortunately a bit late late which ment that we was an hour later than scedualed. On the road to the forrest we pulled in to look on a war monument to memorise the partisan war of Tito in Second World War.

When we finally got to the old-forrest four hours later it was covered in clouds and fog. Actually we were supposed to see a beautiful waterfall, but the only sign of the water was the sound of it. We startet in a hight of 1200 metres above sea level, so it was very chilly. Our hiking gear didn't meet the challenge but we decided to take off anyway. Only Lotte was exellent equipped! - five hours of hiking lied ahead of us and we started going down the mountain. With us we had three guides which were really great and professional. They careed all kinds of stuff in their big bagpacks; chocolate, toffees, coffee, water, books about the forrest (mainly read by Uffe) etc.
On our road we saw, among other things, claw markings on trees from bears, interesting kinds of plants (Uffe again) and so on. Three times we crossed streams in different sizes, which caused Sandra a lot of trouble. She got her feet wet :-)
We walked in a little narrow path all the way which was very slippery and muddy. This resulted in numerous strange landings on the ground. Among others Zeynep fell down five times ;-)

All in all we got to the goal full numbered with good spirits, sore legs and wet clothes.

Now we are tired and wants to sleep - Goodnight Denmark and Bosnia i Herzegovina!
.. especially our hosts in Mostar.

Love to all of you!

Biology-project at Buna

Because of Uffe's birtdayparty yesterday, we had a lay-in and had our brakefast at nine thirthy..
After our breakfast Uffe introduced the biologi-exercises in the conference room of Hotel Ada.
The first stop today was at a fishfarming restuarant where we took notes and examinated the water. Especially the visibility of the water and the makro-organisems were exsaminated to estimate the level of pollution. The conclusion of our tests was that the water in the river Buna is very clear and non-polluted. We will all like to say thank you to Tommy for the drinks.

After this we went for a long walk up a huge mountain to visit a historical fortress on a nearby mountain. The view up there was absolutly fantastic!
While we were eating our lunches, Uffe showed us different plants from the area. They were all with unique charaters and diffrences. On our way down from the fortress Uffe showed us some moss, fern and lichen on the northen side rocks. The southen side of the mouintan stood as a contrast to the northen side vegetation. Here the landscape was very dry due to the strong sun.
Written by Zeynep and Sandra

Meeting between leaders of Mostar Gimnazija and danish visitors

First of all we shared greetings and realized that we had a similar meeting one year ago.

The leaders of Mostar Gimnazija thinks that our visit is well-planned and well-organized.
We agreed that the exchange-project has some strong qualitives like working for ethnic integration inside Mostar and between Bosnia and Denmark. It is also a good idea to work with Biology. The students are engaged in questions regarding recycling, pollution, and sustained growth.
Both Embassys - the bosnian Embassy in Copenhagen and the danish Embassy in Sarajevo knows about our exchange-project and supports it.

We agreed that it is very important to look for finasial funding of the revisit of Mostar-students in the spring of 2008. This visit will create a true exchange between danish and Mostar-students.