On Friday, 13th January 2023, the Irish delegation had an early start. Each member of our party met up outside Terminal 2 in Dublin Airport at 3:30 am. We checked in at 4:30 am and we departed Dublin at 6:30 am. Our flight took 2 hours and 45 minutes and we arrived at Kaunas Airport at 11:30 am Lithuanian time.
After grabbing our luggage, we took the public bus that brings us to the center of Kaunas where our hotel called Best Western Santakos Hotel was located at. The bus journey from the airport to the hotel was tiring therefore we all got settled in our hotel room and everyone had a nap.
After a few hours of resting, we got up and got ready for our welcome dinner where all the parties from Germany, Lithuania, Norway, Croatia, Italy and Ireland were gathered. The hotel chefs prepared a beautiful and delicious two course meal consisting of a main course and a dessert. For the main course we were given a beautifully roasted duck which melted in your tongue, and this was accompanied by a crispy yet so fluffy roast potatoes and some creamy vegetables. For dessert we enjoyed a light brownie with a side of sweet vanilla ice cream. After dinner we all went back up to our hotel rooms and rested for an early start of our project the next day.
Saturday was the project's welcome and initial day. We all had breakfast in the hotel at 8 am and at 9 am we met outside the hotel. We were given our travel card which we use to pay for public transport all over Kaunas.
We arrived at the school in Kaunas at 9:45 where we were welcomed by a lovey member of the Lithuanian delegation named Rita. She gave a small presentation about Kaunas and gave us a small talk about the history of this wonderful town.
After Rita’s presentation Heinz the head leader of the project Train for Europe and a member of the German delegation gave us a welcome speech to everyone who was present at that day. After his talk, each party member from different delegations also had to stand up to give a small introduction about themselves. This was an effective way of knowing people's strengths and weaknesses for each student to help one another in an area where one may lack but other excel in.
After the welcomes and introductions Heinz gave an instruction regarding work lines A and B. Each students had to choose one criteria belonging in work line A and B in which they wanted to work in. After the teams were set up, we were each given a room to work in and we were to give a presentation about what we had discovered and concluded amongst our group after a designated amount of time in front of Heinz and the other delegations.
At 1 am we had lunch in the school and resumed the same workstyle that we were doing prior to lunch and at 5 am our work for the day was finished and we headed back to our hotel for free time and individual dinner
Sunday was our review and updating day and is also our second full day in Lithuania, we ate breakfast at the usual time and took the 9:06 am bus to school. We started off the project with a Goodmorning flashlight where we decided on what everyone will be doing during the day. Everyone wanted to complete their wagons in order to present it to everyone. The homework from Ireland was for each delegation to bring a fully animated wagon for each student that came to Lithuania.
For the rest of the day everyone was working hard on getting their wagons working. At the end of the day, we presented what we had accomplished and there were two main problems for everyone. The first problem was that there were coding issues that every delegation faced, and the second problem was also coding related which unable the wagons to connect to the app that the Italians made.
Monday was a hardworking and city tour day. After breakfast we took the bus 37 to school. Our good morning flashlight started with a few words of encouragement from Heinz, and we set off to work to try and complete and fix the problems everyone had from the day before. We worked up until lunch time where we concluded that the delegations that fixed the problems first were the Croatians and the Italians.
After lunch we made our way back to the hotel and rested until 3 pm where we met up with a Lithuanian tour guide outside of the hotel. The lovely tour guide told us a brief history about what happened in the area of Kaunas during the reign of the soviet army and during the invasion of the Germans during World War 1. She gave us a guided tour and we visited many historical monuments which included old churches and monumental sites. The tour ended at the old town of Kaunas where everyone had free time and individual dinner
Thursday was another hardworking day alongside a cultural visit to a defensive fort established during war times in Kaunas. Heinz decided for people who have nothing to do in their wagons anymore to work on work line B. In the meantime, everyone had the period before lunch to work on the remaining malfunctioning wagons. And by the end of the alotted time everyone finally presented what they worked on
The Lithuanian delegation presented first and by the end of their presentation they found out that some of their mechanisms were malfunctioning and they also needed help with coding. They were lacking a few resources in order to complete the animations on their wagon. The Irish delegation presented next and managed to get 5 out of 6 wagons that was brought to Lithuania to be fully animated and connected to the website and app with the help of the Croatian delegation. The German delegation presented theirs and everything was working and fully connected to the app and website. They have also started working hard on work line B. The Croatians also had everything working and therefore some of their students had free time and helped generously to the delegations that needed help with their coding. The Italians also had everything working and have started working on the showcase where they were having problems with the calibrations of the camera inside. The Norwegian delegation were having electrical and technical and coding problems however, they have connected all of their ESP's to the website.
After presenting our work we achieved that day we had lunch and after lunch we visited a Lithuanian monument. This monument was a war fortress, it was a defensive ring that consisted of 9 forts used in the war against the invaders
Friday started the same as any other day, we went to our work groups to fix the problems encountered the day before. By the end of the time, we were given each delegation concluded with what they have achieved that day.
The Croatians were completely finished with everything therefore they divided themselves into pairs and helped delegations that were having trouble with coding. The Germans were also fully finished, and they kept on working with Worline B, which they were working at the day prior. They have fixed the problems regarding photos that couldn’t be stored on the one drive. The Irish delegation had everything working too however, one of the Irish expander broke which led to one of our wagons to not connect to the website. The Lithuanians managed to gather some resources and other delegations also helped them by giving some spare parts that were not being used and by the end of the day they managed to connect to the app. The Norwegians have concluded the meeting by stating that they have ordered all the part that they needed and were missing to their school in Norway. They have decided to work on the projects back at their school because they didn’t have the resources needed in Lithuania.
We also concluded Friday’s meeting by altering the agenda for Saturday. Everyone was happy at our work progress therefore everyone decided to have lunch at 12 on Saturday instead of 1 and to have free time from 12 onwards.
Saturday was a day where Heinz set homework for each delegation to have completed by the meeting in Germany. We went with our work lines on the first half to decide what the homework will be for other delegations
The front-end homework was for them to make their website responsive to mobile devices and for them to implement descriptions of the wagons on the website. The backend homework was troubleshooting the coding and to install of the code and library needed into the teams. The Electronic group had no homework. The Mechanic groups homework was to build the showcase for the meeting in Germany. Work line B photo and video group’s homework was to send good photos and videos to the teams Photo album to give feedback.
The Public relations homework was to upload photos and videos for Instagram and the Croatians are making an edited video of what took place in the meeting in Lithuania and prior countries which the project was held in. Heinz wants each delegation’s teachers to contact local newspapers to publicize the train and the teaching material’s homework to finish writing the text of the project’s cultural and technical part.
We decided that for the meeting in Germany it is essential and mandatory to bring 10 working animated wagons as homework. Also every delegation should bring the center part of the showcase with the camera system to Germany.
With the homework said, we were finally finished with our meeting in Lithuania and we had a farewell dinner back at the hotel where we served with yet another lovely dinner and everyone said their farewells hoping to meet again in Germany, where the final meeting for the T4EU will be held.
Text written by Ethan Lorenzo
Student from Newpark Comprehensive School
Blackrock (Dublin), Ireland