YOUCIS TIMES

Catania Edition 2011

February 21-26

Rights of the Children

An Interview with the Headmaster of “Boggio Lera”

What do you think about the project?

It’s a really nice project, but it’s essential to mind two points: the first is the respect for the people of other countries; the second is the personal continuity of this project as we all are the European people.

What do you think about the Convention of Children’s Rights?

It’s important to respect the rights of the children, but they are not always practised by people in general. The knowledge of the rights must be integrated into the ways of our culture.

What are the biggest problems in your school and how are you solving them?

We have got a big school with a lot of students. School is a good forming ground for the work which needs to be based on a good humanist relationship. We must do a job with professionality. We should strive for a good relationship between teachers and students. An Interview with the Comenius Coordinator of

“Boggio Lera”

How do you feel about our meeting in Catania?

Well ,I am really happy to host our 5th Meeting here in Catania .As regards the organization I have worked hard to arrange everything as best as possible. To keep things comfortable for all of you.

How long did it take you to organize the conference?

It took me a good deal of time, but I did that sharing time with my daily school activities and lessons.

How do you feel now that the conference has started?

I feel more relaxed because I have already prepared almost everything.

Did you feel tired when you started the preparation of the meeting?

Well, to be sincere I felt scared and shocked for the huge amount of work to do. DO YOU KNOW YOUR RIGHTS?

Maybe some of them but not all.

If you want to learn your rights read “The Convention on the Rights of the Child” by EU or UN

http://www.unicef.org/crc/files/Rights_overview.pdf

1. Not enough information about the Rights of the Child- Italy, Bulgaria 2. Toilet aren’t clean well- Italy, Bulgaria 3. School uniform-Turkey, UK 4. hair cut – Turkey, Bulgaria 5. “braking the right of relax. We have too much homework, projects and exam to do. So we haven’t free time!” – Poland 6. NO SMOKING! inside the school buildings - Germany, Bulgaria, Italy 7. Not enough money for school facilities – Italy, Bulgaria 8. Everything is good – Lithuania, France 9. Smoking near school and use of drugs near to school – Spain

In different countries there are different rules in school. When I went to the yard I saw pupils smoking ! I was amazed that they can smoke in school. After that I met a pupil smoking in one of the classrooms. But my Italian friends said that they are allowed to smoke only in the yard! At that moment a Greek philosopher’s thought cam into my mind: “If you give freedom to the people they want more and more freedom without distractions.” We need distractions in our lives to live normally without destroying ourselves and our communities. Everything has to be done with a purpose and if you realize the rules, stop working as we have to change the rule. We should understand the new ideas and try to be positive about them. All these problems are similar and need to be discussed by pupils and teachers in a local level, and we have to try to make a difference. We should tolerate other ideas and respected them!

By Simon and Vasil from Sofia, Bulgaria. YOUCIS Catania Workshops Sports

Theatre Video

Farewell Party

Dancing

Drawing

Web Magazine

In these days, our workshop wrote many articles about historical and cultural facts about Catania, sports and pupils’ rights at school.

The first pupil was Fikri from Turkey of the sports workshop. “ I think that this project is a good opportunity to meet other people and to learn about different traditions,” said Fikri.

We also interviewed some boys and girls from different countries during their workshops about our Comenius project and Catania.

“Catania is a smaller city than Istanbul, but it is a very nice city”.

We made the same questions to each pupil to see whether there were differences between every answer:

• What do you think about this project? • What do you think about Catania? Do you like it? • Are you enjoying being here? These pupils are Yagmur and Vanesa from Turkey and Germany, of the dance and music workshop. “We think that this project is very interesting because we have the chance to know Europe The girl is Rossy from Bulgaria of the video better,” said Yagmur and Vanesa. workshop. “I like this project very much because I have the opportunity to meet nice people and to know Italy,” said Rossy. “ I’m enjoying Catania with my guest partner”.

“ We like Catania very much and we are happy to be here”.

This is Thomas from Romania of the video The girl is Manon from France of the farewell workshop. “I think that this project is very party workshop. “ I like this project because I love interesting for European relationships,” said speaking English, so I can learn it better,” said Thomas. Manon. “ Catania is different from my city, but I like staying here”.

“ Catania is a great city and I like it!”.

These pupils are Karolina and Rùta from Lithuania. Karolina’s workshop is the farewell party and Rùta’s workshop is cultural activities. “ We think that this project can help us to learn

English better,” said Karolina and Rùta. This pupil is Soroor from Scotland of the video workshop. “ I’m so excited to participate in this project because it’s a great opportunity to know other cultures and traditions different from my country,” said Soroor. “ And I’m also excited to stay here and to meet other pupils”.

This girl is Lizaveta from Spain of the drawing and painting workshop. “ This project is very interesting because I can establish different friendships and I can learn English better,” said Lizaveta. “ I’m enjoying being here. It is a “ Catania is a great city and there are very nice beautiful experience!” boys! “.

This pupil is Daan from the Netherlands of the This boy is Adam from Poland of the video drawing and painting workshop. “ I like this workshop. ”I really enjoy staying in Italy, in project because I can know a new country, its particular in Sicily,” said Adam. “ I spent here a traditions and its culture,” said Daan. “ Catania is beautiful time with my Polish and foreign friends a beautiful city because It has a great culture with who I met in Bulgaria last year”. its monuments and its history”.

A Photo Report on YOUCIS Workshops

Do you like your workshop?workshop What do you like about it?

Luca, 14, from Holland, in the Farewell Party: -YES! Its nice. It’s relaxing.

Andrea, 17, from Italy, in Sports: -Yes, I do! I love doing sports exercises.

Iuhas, 16, from Romania, in Dancing: It’s fun, I like dancing!

Irem , 14, from Turkey, in Theatre playing: -YES. I love meeting different people. We act scenes about pupils’ rights.

Tomos, 14, from Romania, in Video production:- Yes , I do. Taking videos and pictures is fun.

Natalia, 18, and Mateusz, 17, from Poland, in Drawing: -Yes, we do. We can express ourselves and our opinions on paper.

Alexandra, 16, Bulgaria, in Culture activities : -Yes. Finding information and photos about Catania, Sicily, and Italy.

Chengrui, 15, from the UK, in YOUCIS Web Magazine: -Yes. Writing about the history of Catania. By Simon and Vasil from Sofia, Bulgaria. Sports in Catania

The most important sport in Catania is The historical origins of football in football. People love football very much and Catania date back to the year 1946 when are proud of their team. A few years ago the “Calcio Catania” was born. Catania team went up into the first division. The supporters sing this song at the stadium:

Catania won the match against Inter that won the Champions League last year. “We are Catania Football in Catania is very important. Everybody plays it everywhere, especially the Red and blue alè alè children. Wherever we are with you. We’ll sing forever…”

Waterball in Catania

The female waterball team in Catania is the best in Italy and very important in the world. It has won many awards: 18 Italian championships. A lot of people in Catania don’t know the waterball team even if it’s so important in the world, often people only care about football.

Sports in other countries Turkey

In Turkey the most important sport is A lot of people cheer for Fenerbahçe, football. The biggest teams of football are however Besiktas and Galatasaray are Besiktas, Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray. important, too.

The second sport is basketball. The big team is Fenerbahçe. The Basketball national team won the silver medal at the world championship last year. Germany

In Germany the most important sports are The most important sport is football, in football, basketball, volleyball, rugby. Germany one of the most important teams is Bayern Munich. Women tend to play volleyball, men do not. Instead they prefer to play basketball.

Rugby and football is played by both.

Bayern Munich has won a record of twenty- one championships since the formation of the league in 1963 Spain

The most important sports in Spain are football, basketball.

The biggest football teams are Real Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Sevilla, but in basketball Real Madrid, Barcelona and Cajalaboral are best. The most important sport is football, a lot of people cheer for Real Madrid more than for the other team.

Last year Spain won the cup of the world championship. Sports in Italy

The history of the Italian The Italian men's national volleyball team is the national team of Italy. It National Football Team dominated international volleyball

The Italian National Football Team (Italian: competitions in the 1990s and early Nazionale di calcio dell'Italia) represents 2000s, by winning three World Italy in association with football and is Championships in a row (1990, 1994 controlled by the Italian Football Federation and 1998), six European (FIGC), the governing body for football in Championships, one World Cup (1995) Italy. Italy is the second most successful and eight World League (1990, 1991, national team in the history of the World 1992, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1999 and Cup having won four titles (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006), just one fewer than Brazil. To 2000). They are the 6th best team in this tally they can add one European the world, ranked by the FIVB as of championship (1968), one Olympic football August 2008. tournament (1936) and two Central European International Cups. The history of the Italian The traditional colour of the national National Basketball Team team (as well as all Italian national teams and athletes officially The Italian national basketball team is the national team representing Italy. representing Italy) is blue (azzurro, in It is administrated by the Federazione Italian), due to the "Azzurro Savoia" Italiana Pallacanestro (Italian (Savoy Blue), the colour traditionally Basketball Federation). linked to the royal dynasty which unified Italy in 1861, and maintained Italy has won 2 Gold medals, 4 Silver in the official standard of the Italian medals and 4 Bronze medals at the European Championships and 2 Silver President. medals at the Olympic Games, and has participated in 33 European The history of the Italian Championships, 8 World National Volleyball Team Championships and 11 Olympic Games. Men Altogether, Italy has won more Euro We did a quick survey on basket medals than any other country that competes today. what people in YOUCIS prefer: The history of National Water Polo In the Comenius programme 22% prefer football, 10% tennis, 2 % The Italian national water polo team kitesurfing, 2% baseball, 2% handball, represents Italy in men's international 6% swimming, 2% surfing, 16% water polo competitions and is basketball, 6% badminton, 18% controlled by Federnuoto (the Italian volleyball, 4% boxing, 6% dancing, Aquatics Federation). The national 4% snowboarding, 4% rugby. men's team has the nickname By Ciprian Ilut, Catania, Italy "Settebello".

The Italian men's water polo team has won 6 Olympic medals, 5 World Championships, 5 World Cup medals, and one World League medal, making them one of the most successful men's water polo teams in the world. They have won a combined six championships in those four competitions, with the World League being the only competition which Italy has yet to win. In Italy there are a lot of competitions for different sports Traffic Jams in Catania are one of the reasons The most important of these why pupils are late for school. But for me they competitions is the seria A , which is are not too big because real inner-city jams a the competition of football. The most much bigger than Catania’s congestions. important competition of water polo is the seria A1 . By Simon from Sofia, Bulgaria

The most important competition of volleyball is the lega pallavolo, seria A.

It is very difficult to write about “Catania’s Heart” - Saint Agatha’s Week – from a personal point of view because one feels a deep respect for religious traditions of a community. But here is the story of Saint Agatha’s celebrations:

Sant’Agata is the saint patron of the city of Catania. Her festival is celebrated in Catania from February, 4th to 6th every year. Citizens of Catania are very attached to it. On these days it is not difficult to find people wearing a white uniform with a black cap. In Catania this uniform is called “Saccu” and it is the uniform of the devotees of Saint Agatha. It’s an old tradition that the devotees carry Saint Agatha around the city touching the main streets of the ancient Catania, such us Etnea Street or Plebiscito Street. To prove their devotion lots of devotees carry huge lighted candles on their shoulders. They say that, when a person is truly devoted, he or she doesn’t feel any pain. While the saint patron is going around the city, she is preceded by eleven candlemasses, in Italian “candelora or cannalora”, which are huge wooden buildings which contain a huge candle. The candelmasses are carried by the devotees. The smaller candelmas is carried by four persons, while the bigger is carried by twelve. The festivities attract thousands of tourists from all parts of the world every year. The celebrations are also considered the third most important festival in the world. What characterizes it is the presence of much folklore.

By Damiano Pagano – Liceo Scientifico Statale “E.Boggio Lera” Catania The most important and beautiful monuments of Catania

The Maximum Vincenzo Bellini Theatre is an opera theatre. It was built with the funds of the municipality and was inaugurated in the evening of the 31th May of Catania is a city with a long history and full of important 1890. It is dedicated to the composer Vincenzo Bellini events. And about this it’s full of important and . beautiful places or monuments . Because of this we We can find that in Teatro Massimo Square, where chose the most important : the Duomo of St. Agata , the every Saturday many people go to have fun and drink maximum “Vincenzo Bellini” theatre , the Elephant something. Fountain .

The Duomo is located in the homonymous square and is dedicated to the patron of Catania , St. Agata. It was build for the first time in 1093 ( It is very old !!!), but The Elephant fountain is the emblem of Catania , it is after many disasters it was rebuilt many times. The last commonly named u Liotru . Everyone in Catania knows time is dating back to 1711. In that time it was built that statue. It has a stupid smile so is very funny . following the Sicilian baroque stile. It is one of the most beautiful churches of Sicily or maybe of all Italy. Written by Mariano Pidone

TYPICAL FOOD OF CATANIA

The most important salty food is:

Arancini or arancine are fried (or, less commonly, baked) rice balls coated with breadcrumbs, said to have originated in Sicily in the 10th century. The main type of arancino sold in Sicilian cafes are arancini con ragù, which typically consist of meat, peas, rice and mozzarella. Many cafes also offer arancini with butter, or specialty arancini, such as arancini with mushrooms and arancini with aubergines.

Pasta alla Norma is a typical food of Catania. It is made with pasta ( usually “maccheroni” ), tomato sauce, fried aubergine, salty ricotta and basil.

Spaghetti al nero di seppia is a famous dish with the black of “seppia”( a fish ) , a condiment used for first plates made up of pasta.

Parmigiana is another famous dish made with fried aubergine, tomato sauce and cheese.

Caponata is a typical dish of Catania, it is distinguished from the others for the presence of these ingredients: fried aubergines, red peppers, tomatoes, onions, garlic, pines kernel, basil, vinegar, oil, salt and pepper.

The most important sweet food:

Cannoli are pastry desserts. Cannoli consist of tube-shaped shells of fried pastry dough, filled with a sweet, creamy filling usually containing ricotta cheese and sugar.

Cassata is a traditional Sicilian cake made up of ricotta cheese, sponge cake, almond paste, candied fruit and icing.

Olivette of Saint Agata are typical delights of Catania, prepared on January and February, during the festivity of Saint Agata. They are delights with the same shape of olives, made with almond paste, sugar and colored of green. But there is a variant of this sweet where the traditional “olivette” are made with chocolate.

Places and Sights of Catania

The sea and the beach

Catania is the second biggest city in Sicily and it is well served by highways. Catania has got a lot of beautiful things for example Catanian food ,Catanian mountains ,Catanian history ,Catanian sea and beach .

My favourite is the Catanian sea because it is very famous for Italian people and they call this sea the “Gold Sea”.... About Mount Etna

In Classical Greek, Aetna in Latin, also known as (beautiful mountain) is an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily, close to Messina and Catania. Its Arabic name was "the Mountain of Fire..From about 35,000 to 15,000 years ago, Etna experienced some highly explosive eruptions, generating large lava flows, which left extensive deposits. Ash from these eruptions has been found as In Catania, the Galatea Sea Palace is a far away as Rome, 800 km to the north. seafront property located at the foot of Thousands of years ago, the eastern flank of the mountain experienced a Mount Etna, enjoying beautiful views of catastrophic collapse, generating an Mediterranean. enormous landslide in an event similar to The “Gold Sea” beach is so beautiful here that seen in the 1980 eruption of Mount and the sea is clear and very blue .We St. Helens. The landslide left a large can see the stones in the sea, so I like depression in the side of the volcano, the Catania beach . known as 'Valle del Bode' (Valley of the Ox). Research published in 2006 suggested this occurred around 6000 BC, and can have caused a huge tsunami, which left its mark in several places in the eastern Mediterranean. It may have been the reason the settlement of Atilt Yam (Israel), now below sea level, was suddenly abandoned around that time.

mountains … I like these and I like Catania These are pictures because here it is so beautiful … of Mount Etna By Chengrui, Glasgow, UK

Volcanic activity first took place at Etna about half a million years ago, with eruptions occurring beneath the sea off the ancient coastline of Sicily. About 300,000 years ago, volcanism began occurring to the southwest of the summit (centre top of volcano) then, before activity moved towards the present center 170,000 years ago. Eruptions at this time built up the first major volcanic edifice, forming a stratovolcano in alternating explosive and effusive eruptions. The growth of the mountain was occasionally interrupted by major eruptions, leading to the collapse of the summit to form calderas collapse of the summit to form calderas.

This is all about Catania' s sea, beach and Our Publisher’s Team

Hi, my name is Damiano. I’m 16 and I’m from Sicily. I enjoyed a lot this experience of Comenius Project and I hope so much that I will have other possibilites to travel to other European countries and to meet people with different cultures from mine.

I am Omerhan Caglar from Istanbul Turkey. I am a math teacher. I am very pleased being here.

Hi I’m Roberto. I’m 16 and I’m from Italy. I love my Bulgarian girlfriend, play basketball, play piano and guitar and I like speaking English and Spanish.

Hi I’m Riccardo, I’m 17 years old, I’m from Italy. I like very much play the guitar and I’m going to study it at university.

Hallo! I’m Vasil ,I’m 17 years old and I’m form Bulgaria .In my free time I like fishing and going out with friends. My favorite sport is Football and my favorite team is Liverpool.

My name is Chengrui .I come from China . I came to Glasgow one year ago . I like dancing and singing . My favorite sport is badminton. I like Chinese food . I like Catania because here beside sea ,I like sea because in china my city beside the sea so I like sea and like this times trip ….

I’m Rossana, I’m 18 years old. I’m an Italian student of “ E. Boggio Lera “ school. I live in the centre of Catania. I love listening to music and going out with my friends. I’m very happy to partecipate at this project because I study three languages and for this reason, it is a special opportunity for my studies and my life. I have also the chance to know very nice people of different countries.

Hi my name is Mario. I’m 17 years old. I’m an Italian student of “E.Boggio Lera” school. I’m funny, pretty, intelligent, strong but above all I’m very modest. I like singing under the rain and skydiving. My dream is to become the king of the universe and I hope to have success.

Hi! My name is Simon Bozhilov. I am from Sofia, Bulgaria. I am 16 year old. I like Surfing, Windsurfing, driving and traveling.

Hi, I am Ingrid. I am from Hanover, Germany. I am the senior project coordinator of YOUCIS. I love working with young adult students and teacher colleagues.

Hi, I am Hans-Walter. I am an English and Science teacher from Hanover. I am interested in gliding, photography and in working with young people.

Hi, I am Ciprian. I am from Spain, but I was born in Romania in 1996 on a beautiful summer day. At the age of 6 I went to Spain. I have one big sister. She is fifteen. I live with my parents and my grandmother near Madrid. I like all kind of sports especially football and rollers.

YOUCIS CATANIA WEB MAGAZINE WORKSHOP TEAM

HANS- SIMON ROSSANA WALTER, ROBERTO BOZGILOV, NICOLOSI, CHENGRUI, GERMANY AMATO, BULGARIA ITALY UK ITALY VASIL BALTAZHIEV, BULGARIA DAMIANO PAGANO, MARIANO PIDONE, OMERHAN ITALY INGRID ITALY GERMANY CAGLAR, TURKEY

CIPRIAN, SPAIN