It was a wonderful evening...

...and this isn't a "figure of speech"!
Last Sunday, Sakis Sakellaridis (bouzouki and singing), Lefteris Tzagkarakis (lyre, rhythm section and singing), Giorgos Stavrakakis (guitar and singing) and our friend and colleague Alexandra Vergadi with her beautiful voice (the music band "Figure of Speech", in other words) gave their best and made our evening fantastic with singing, dancing and, mainly, good music!

There were a lot of people...!

And the "Figure of Speech" in great spirits...!

We ate well...

Danced...

Danced a little more...

...and even more...

Well, much more...!

Smiles speak for themselves...

A small taste of how we spent that evening...:

 For one more time, we would like to thank the people who helped make the music evening a reality and those who were there last Sunday!
A special "thanks" to the "Figure of Speech" who honoured us with their performance and to the Parent-Teacher Association for the noon-stop "running" and preparations!

Day without cars!

If you passed by our school on Saturday morning, you would think you had visited a bicycle exhibition!

About 50 bicycles (big or small, with or without training wheels) were running around the schoolyard!


All this happened within the framework of celebrating the "Day without Cars" (22nd September).


For two hours, Mr Kostas was setting up tracks for us to show our talent in pedal and learn how to hit the brakes effectively!

Let me see who's the most skilled rider!

"Go!"...

...in between the cones!!!!

...and brake at the right time!

However, we didn't stop there! After completing the "artistry" exercises, we left our bikes to the side and got informed about the right riding behaviour when we are on a bicycle. To put it simply: to ALWAYS wear a helmet and light-coloured clothes and have our lights on when we drive at night. We left the hard work for the end! A specially equipped team with rolls, special colour and the guidance of our teacher and our headmaster painted the crossing on the east side of the school which had completely faded out! Two other teams painted signs for the pedestrians and cyclists on the pavement. So as we (especially grown-ups) don't forget that the pavements are... ...for pedestrians!    ...and bicycles! It was an awesome Saturday morning! ...much better than a drive in a car... Original post by Maria Priniotaki

The refugees of Rethymno...

  Mr Paraskevas Syrianoglou knows a lot about refugees! He knows even more about the refugees of Rethymno and of our area-Tsesmes! The "Tsesmelis"! As a president of the Rethymnian Minor Asians Association he made us the honour to talk in our school on May 19th and we thank him a lot for that! We learned so much on that Saturday (especially we, grown-ups), so as to be able to teach it to the younger ones, too...
  We learned how so many Greeks were made to leave their homes in Minor Asia during the first decades of the last century, how they were scattered around Greece and that about 4200 of them arrived in Rethymno...

  We also learned how difficult life was at the beginning both for the refugees (lack of accommodation, clothing and warm covers for the night and terrible living conditions with people being literally "piled up" in public buildings) and for locals (lack of clean water, dirt and sanitation problems in the city due to overproduction of waste for which there wasn't an efficient drainage providence)...
  We learned that refugees weren't treated with the same hospitality by all of the local population and that there were people who, not wanting to accept them, made their life even more difficult (luckily the exceptions were few)...
  We learned, as well, about how important the contribution of the refugee population to the local society and economy was, how great a boost they gave to the development of agricultural production (especially to the suburban areas, like Tsesmes) but also to the arts-and what good gatherings they made with locals in the evenings!
  So, we thank Mr Paraskevas for once more, not only for his interesting lecture, but also for the 4 books of his that he donated to our school library!
Lastly, we owe a "thank you" to the residents of Tsesmes with (or without) refugee origins, who shared with us their experiences and memories from their childhood years and their ancestors.

Let's make cookies!

...not only cookies, actually!

We know it took us a while to write this post, but we were "holidaying"! So, we come back stronger and wish you happy holidays by presenting to you our (pre)Easter creations!

1. Making cookies!
After gathering our ingredients (900 gr. flour, 1 glass sugar, 1 glass oil, 1 glass orange juice, the zest of an orange, 1 tablespoon cinnamon  sesame seeds), we began the preparation of the cookies and took our cooking trays to the local Open Care Centre for the Elderly to have them baked!

Ingredients...

Pinnies...

Squeezing...

A little oil...

The dough needs hard work...!

(...for the molding of the cookies watch the video that follows...!) ...we baked them here, though...!

Huh? Aren't they "good-looking"?

Please! Have a treat!

The intermediate procedure you didn't see...:

2. Eggs-works of art!
We thought we should follow the -very- old custom of dying the eggs! Crayons at first and then red dye to "solidify" the drawing!

We draw...

First round is ready!

We sink the eggs in red dye...

And "fish" them with a spoon so as not to get parched!

Careful with that dye!

Ready for egg-fight!

3. Egg-cups in the mood of the days!

Here everyone helps!

And we need quite a few...!

here's one!

...And one with content...!

• We would like to thank the Open Care Centre for the Elderly of Tsesmes for one more time for the excellent cooperation and the help they offered us. 

Our best wishes to everyone-regardless of nationality, colour or religion!

From production to selling! (Part III-final!)

ΝΟ intermediaries...

Last time we talked we had remained with the unanswered question, "What can we do now with so many jars of marmalade?".
The kids gave the answer to that question themselves: "We are going to decorate them, sell them and earn money for the school!"
So, why not? The day the reports would be given was set as the official marketing day of our produce!

We decorated our jars...	...and made sure to promote our products the right way ("Come and get the best orange marmalade! It's good for the health!")!
...a convincing stall...  ("Pure-organic marmalade!", "We picked the oranges, added sugar, cinamon and love and packaged them!")	...proper marketing...  ("Our lovely school-made marmalade is loved by all the sweet-toothed no additives, no colourings, and all your craving is soothed"!)

...with humour...("GET SWEET  BEFORE YOU GET BITTER!")

...quite enough of it...  ("Makes you beautiful, not fat!")

...and, of course, the best traders  in the world to promote their  merchandise!

...we couldn't contain the crowds!

...and, indeed, issuing of receipts (so that we be typical...)!

The decision on the appropriation of the money collected will be made by the Product Management Agency United (consisting of 6th Grade Students and their teachers)...! In any case, the money will be utilized for the updating of the pedagogic material in our school!