LES AVENTURES DU GROUPE OBJECTIF ROUMANIE du 17 avril
Wake up at 7:15 a.m. dressed as a cyclist but without our mountain bikes for the morning. Breakfast : chocolated croissant + omelette + warm chocolate and for our organizer members : cofee, and even some tea for privileged members.
Julien leaves sooner to install the computer equipment. We divide us in four groups in order to intervene in several the schools of Piatra Neamt.
*the group of Delphine and Serge : (told by Florian Chou)
"super", "very good", "a marvellous welcome", "we had lots of presents with a quick lunch (quiche - cakes with cream - salted cakes)", "they sang to us the French movie song 'Les Choristes' and also one they created", "they shown us pictures of Romania and Piatra Neamt", "we presented them our bicycle club and 'how does a mountain bike work' and also the French schools", "we exchanged questions each other before to finish with a photo session"
*the group of Julien and Cyril : (told by Jérémy and Thomas F)
"the French teacher of the XIXth century and her students welcome us in their classroom", "the students learn French for only 6 months instead of Englich language", "They spoke very well French, it was impressive", "the gilrs were dressed with clothes they done in the spirit of the last century beginning", "then we visited the School", "we presented them the mountain bike", "we also presented the towns where we are from and a part of the French culture (the food...)", "At the end we discussed each other about the two cultures and we took pictures"
*the group of Fabrice and Nicolas M :
*the group of Nicolas F and Sylvain :
"the French teacher drove us to the Lycée of art", "we went in the gymnasium", "each person introduced himself", "we shown alternaltely the towns where we are from, the cyclotourism, the two bicycle clubs, the French partner schools for the project and many photos illustrating the French culture", "we exchanged questions about our cultures", "we finished with a big photos session and an e-mail addresses exchange"
After this fantastic morning all the groups came back to a common room in order to do a debriefing on the intervention in schools. Then the lunch called us...
We hurry up to catch the bikes : we have to ride fifteen kilometers until the school of Negresti. We sweat a bit in the two climb alongside of the romanian cyclists with the escort of the sport director, the president of the cyclist club and the ambulance. There, we receive a triumphant welcome by the children of the Negresti's school. The tradition is preserved, each guest have to eat a piece of brioche soaked in salt (and the little glass of Zwicka for several coach). We taste also a nice snack offered by the school and the municipality. Sitting in a room, we are surprised to attend to a show : we listen the two respective national anthems, followed by traditional dances in costume !!! We are pleased to find a part of the young romanian cyclist who have spend the week with us. Everybody stay speechless face to the show and also face to the young singer who is around 8 years old and who sings alone for a fifty people group. The reputation of the school in the country is real and we can attest on the performance of the young student for the show they produced...
We come back to Piatra Neamt, leaving all the children and several young cyclist who have spent the week with us, what a pity :-(. At the finish : warm shower for once, repairing of the bicycles and the most important : tidying of all the stuff in order to prepare the backpacks before to wait for the families... 30 minutes later, no family coming but everyone was called one by one... and moved into a new bedroom ! What a very funny joke of our coachs !!! As important as the doubt was présent : the cooks asked if we will eat here for the dinner ! They were reassured to see us comming eating few minutes later !
We finish the evening with a big debriefing on this super journey and the interventions in the schools.
Go to sleep everyone !
Florian Chou, Jérémy et Thomas F