On Wednesday 8th March 2023, 8 TY students; Caoimhe Hayden, Molly O’Donovan, Nikola Wojnar, Sinead Hynes, Deewon Mohammad, Naoise Sloane, Tadhg Cronin and Tom O’Rielly travelled to Barlinek, Poland with teachers Ms Joanne McCarthy and Ms Mairead Dullea. This exchange was the final mobility as part of the ERASMUSPLUS project ‘’Challenges, Choices, Change - Our Mutual Footprint’’. Conveniently we flew direct from Cork Airport and arrived in Poznan where we spent one night, before departing for Barlinek by bus the following morning.

In Barlinek, we stayed in the Lensley Dom Hotel, a beautiful lakeside accommodation situated at the edge of the city. We spent Thursday settling in and getting to know our exchange partners, as German and Swedish students and teachers were also staying with us in this accommodation.

Friday commenced our first day of environmental activities. We met with the mayor in the town hall in the morning where he welcomed us to the area and shared some of Barlinek’s sustainable practices with us!

We then visited a solar farm in Stadgard which consisted of over 6000 solar panels, supplying energy to the nearby city. As the snow fell heavy, is Irish students were mesmerized! We jumped at the opportunity to begin a snowball fight, not even the teachers were safe!

After lunch we headed indoors where we completed some written activities. We divided ourselves into teams and each created a quiz based on facts about renewable energy. We then had to answer each others quiz questions. Deewon from the Irish team did a particularly good job!

On Friday we visited an old paper mill. We began the morning with a nordic walk, which we were surprised to find out was pretty much a normal walk, while holding special Nordic walking sticks! We learned that nordic walking sticks are to be used at a 45 degree angle and with wide steps to be most effective.

We started the walk lead by the polish teachers and the instructors as they knew the area much better than us. We were led on a trail which was covered in snow and lovely scenery.

After we completed our hike, we went over to a hut where we made paper. We first placed extremely thin pieces of wood into a special mixture. Then we took out the paper and placed it under a roller to remove the excess water from the paper. After that, we placed the paper on the table and covered both sides with cloth until it dried. When the paper had dried, the cloth was removed very gently to ensure that the paper did not rip as it was very delicate. The paper was then ready to be used. After we made the paper we sat by the campfire and had soup with a piece of bread which was delicious.  

On Monday we arrived at the school at 8 o clock! We were sent down to the gym for a History Medieval re-enactment/ lesson. The Medieval actor explained the different parts of the axes and swords and what they were used for. He explained why people participated in sword fights as a sign of dominance. He had replicas of swords, axes and a guillotine. The instructor let students volunteer so that he could demonstrate how these items would have been used during the Medieval period. Students were allowed to pick up the swords to see how heavy they were by the end of the lesson. Overall, we had a great experience and it was very interesting.

After leaving the school we travelled via foot to the park. When we arrived we were greeted by the lord mayor and children from a local primary school. Towards the left of the area we saw an old oak tree which has been standing there for over 150 years . The town mayor then proceed to reveal a stone which was engraved with ‘‘The Oak of Peace’’ to the public for viewing . We heard a few of the students from all the different countries to tell us how to say world peace in their language including Deewon Muhammad in English as well as Sinead Hynes as Gaeilge.

After doing so we had lunch then travelled outside to initiate the tree planting ceremony. Sinead Hynes represented Ireland  once again when she helped plant the tree with all the students from the different countries . This helped us come together as a big group signified by the tree and also look into the aspect of the environment for this project!

Following this we adventured to the local primary school. While there we participated in different activities. These included playing with the robots and VR machine, played recycling games with an interactive game board , the children played a concert with their instruments and we tried playing the ‘‘boom boom pipes!’’

In the afternoon we returned to the highschool in Barlinek. We were making clothes with recycled materials. We were given cardboard, paper, string, glue, bin bags etc. First we put bin bags on the models selected by the groups. Then we cut out holes in the bin bags for arms and legs. We glued cardboard and coloured paper to the outside of the bin bags for design. Some groups made masks by tracing the models face on some paper and then cutting out holes for the eyes and mouth, then they tied it to the models face with string. Finally the models got up on stage and modelled our costumes made from recycled materials.

On Tuesday we travelled to Inneco (Gorzów) golf course. This golf course was built on 20ha of recultivated landfill. First we were split into four groups mixed with Polish German and Swedish students. The first activity we did was putting. First we got introduced to what putting is and how to do it. Then we learned how to correctly hold the golf club and put the ball into the hole with the correct technique. Then we had a tour of the whole course. We got shown most of the holes. We learned about how some of the golf course was built on land fill as the land before was very flat. After that we went inside to make a card. This card had a seeds that you can plant as a gift to someone. You could chose your own design for the card and do it however you want. Finally we went to the driving range to learn how to properly hit a golf ball. We got introduced first how to hit the golf ball properly then we went off and practiced ourselves as much as we wanted. This was a great experience to learn how to play golf and to look at the golf courses in Poland.

We all had a great time during our Erasmus trip to Barlinek. The main aspects of the trip I enjoyed were meeting new people, learning how to protect our environment and playing in the snow!

Finally, the disco on the final night was a great experience. We got to express our Irish culture by dancing the Siege on Ennis with the other students.  Afterwards, we said our goodbyes to finish the Erasmus trip. We will never forget our lessons learned and memories made!

Us Dancing 'An Dreoilín'!