Welcome to our countries!!

Click here to see map of Elefsina and here for a closer look at our school! A web presentation(ppt) of The Economic High School - HERE

Dracula Bookmarks

Targoviste - between myth and reality

Synopsis

Centuries ago, Vlad Tepes, a Romanian prince, became well known in Europe because of his bloody habit, impaling. For this reason, people called him Vlad the Impaler. One of the favourite cities to express this bloody wish, was Targoviste. That’s why, Vlad the Impaler has been associated with Dracula, and Targoviste as one of Dracula’s house.
How does it look Targoviste nowadays?

A very quiet town, the only army that makes noise is for the celebration of the town.

Αιώνες πριν, γράφουν οι Ρουμάνοι συνεργάτες μας, ένας αιμοσταγής ηγεμόνας της Βλαχίας, ο Βλαντ Τέπες, ήταν διαβόητος στην Ευρώπη για τη συνήθειά του να ανασκολοπίζει τους εχθρούς του. Ένα από τα κάστρα του, το κάστρο του Δράκουλα βρίσκεται στην πόλη μας, Ταργκοβίστε, σήμερα μια ήσυχη επαρχιακή πόλη. Ο μόνος στρατός που παρελαύνει είναι οι κάτοικοι κατά τις τοπικές γιορτές.
A feedback from Medeea Secretariat

© video made by Romanian students Click here to see Elefsina today and its mythological background. NOTE: Demeter, the ancient goddess of earth, had a special connection to our town. "Demeter" is the name of the ship with which Dracula travelled from Romania to England, in a most thrilling story within a story! Πατήστε εδώ για πληροφορίες για τη μυθολογική Ελευσίνα και την πόλη σήμερα. ΣΗΜ.: Στο βιβλίο, ο Δράκουλας ταξιδεύει από τη Ρουμανία στην Αγγλία με καράβι που ονομάζεται ΔΗΜΗΤΡΑ! Πρόκειται για τη θεά των Ελευσινίων μυστηρίων που δίδαξε την καλλιέργεια του σίτου και έδωσε ελπίδα για τη μεταθανάτια ζωή στους θνητούς!

eTwinning conference

For the article on the conference in the Greek local press, press here Πατήστε εδώ για το άρθρο περί Διάσκεψης στον τοπικό τύπο του Θριασίου Αττικής.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Waiting for the prize....

13th of February....For us, 13 it will be our lucky number. It was very exciting to find out our project's name between the finalists nominated to the European award within eTwinning competition...
Now, we are waiting for the special day...See you in Prague!!

You can see below an interview with the headmaster of Economic High School, Mrs. Suzana Ilie, and some evaluation feedback from Romanian Team.

Πατήστε κάτω για να δείτε τη συνέντευξη της Διευθύντριας του «ION GHICA” κας Suzana Ilie, και την εργασία πάνω στο ΧΡΟΝΟ των μαθητών στην Ελευσίνα, καθώς περιμένουν την απονομή των βραβείων.


Click here for some media announcement.





So let the Elefsina Tower Clock do the countdown till zero hour!
Our team ponders on time, while waiting for the prize...

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Short bracket about Time…

We understand Time starting by the feeling that our inner life (Thoughts, feelings) is always changing. Every change is made in time and every phenomenon has limits in time.
The philosophers had understood time as an interval between two different events, or medium, substance, in which events were happened.
There are also some definitions concerning our way to relate to time: subjective time or objective time.
There were also some opinion which denied that time exist. Saint Augustine said that time has only one dimension: the present – and we all know his opinion had influenced the youth of the 80es – as well as the epicurean scholars – Carpe diem – is a well known quote. Why? Because the past has already gone, we just got a present memory of the past events; the future is only a present waiting for the events will happen.

Newton has understood time as an essence independent from the things; Leibniz on the other hand has understood time as a relationship between things. Only in that way we can perceive the time, only in this way time has reality.

Debate is still continue in the modern age with Kant who understand time as a inner objectivity, some kind of medium, intuition. He said time and space are the category of our sensibility. Without these categories, we cannot live and understand the world as an existence.

Κάνοντας μια συνεισφορά στην τηλεδιάσκεψη Ελευσίνας – Γιαννιτσών με θέμα το χρόνο, η κα Ραντουλέσκου μας έστειλε μια σύνοψη των θεωριών περί χρόνου, από τον Ιερό Αυγουστίνο που είδε το χρόνο σαν ένα συνεχές παρόν, μέχρι τον Νεύτωνα, τον Λάιμπνιτς και τον Καντ, που όρισαν ο καθένας με άλλο τρόπο το χρόνο, σαν υποκειμενικό βίωμα ή σαν αντικειμενική αλήθεια.


There are some opinions talking about time as a cultural meaningful. In Romania, Lucian Blaga and Mircea Vulcanescu have written about the Romanian feeling of existence, which is related to time. There is, following them, a national, cultural, meaning of time. We, as Balkans we got different social behavior, only because we understand time in another way. We are living into a continuum present….that why we are always late.

Click on the clock to read a discussion summary in the Greek Library on the theme of Time in our novels with Maria Vergou and Maria Gerandreou.
Πατήστε στο ρολόι για να διαβάσετε την περίληψη της συζήτησής μας για το θέμα του Χρόνου στα δυο γοτθικά μυθιστορήματα που διαβάσαμε.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

TODAY'S CHAT (great themes in a nutshell)


"How old is Dorian Grey's portrait?"
Now there is an intriguing question from the Romanians! Some of the answers were, 17, 90, 36, but when we thought about it better, we agreed that the portrait is ageless, just as good and evil in human nature. Whether man is born good, was a philosophical debate and most of the Greek team gave a Socrates-like answer "Ουδείς εκών κακός", "Nobody is evil by nature", while the Romanian team went for an Aristotelian anwer saying that good and evil is found in different degrees within us all, and is a matter of influence and circumstances which dominates. Speaking about influences, personal responsibilities and choices, based on the book, we were under the impression today that the chat merely touched the themes and opened questions, rather than came to a definite answer. That's philosophy for you! We had to hurry to our math term exams and biology lessons and had an etwinning chat break, which whetted our appetites for the next one on Phaedros.



Library moments before the chat

"So, you want to toy with the projector?" Then listen to Plato's allegory of the cave, and make your own shadow of the prisoner who thought that what he saw was reality.


Fresh news from the Greek Library. We are preparing for our chat on Dorian Grey, anticipating Phaedros from Plato, and library members came to make hand-shadows (typical!). But mischief was soon turned to story-telling and philosophy-within-a-school-break. Panos and Yiannis joined hands to make the "troglodytis" (a little like Quasimodo, don't you think?) and we can use it as a starter for Plato's theory of Forms.

The "appearance and reality" theme haunts all classical literature. Where is it found in Dorian Grey? See you soon!!
Πριν το τσατ, ήρθαν στη Βιβλιοθήκη τα πιστά μέλη και έκαναν σκιές στο βιντεοπροβολέα που είχε στηθεί για την τηλεδιάσκεψη. Ευκαιρίας δοθείσης, άκουσαν το μύθο του σπηλαίου του Πλάτωνα, και η μικρή αταξία μετατράπηκε σε πεντάλεπτο μάθημα φιλοσοφίας. Αργότερα... συζητήσαμε για το ποια είναι η πραγματική ηλικία του πορτραίτου του Ντόριαν Γκρέυ, που ήταν μια ενδιαφέρουσα ερώτηση των Ρουμάνων. Η απάντηση που προτιμήθηκε είναι ότι είναι άχρονο, όπως η αρετή και η κακία στην ανθρώπινη φύση. Στη συνέχεια επιχειρήθηκε να απαντηθεί η κλασική διαμάχη αν ο άνθρωπος γεννιέται κακός ή γίνεται. Η ελληνική ομάδα ήταν σωκρατική στην απάντησή της "Ουδείς εκών κακός" ενώ η ρουμανική έκλινε προς τον Αριστοτέλη, υποστηρίζοντας ότι καλό και κακό συνυπάρχουν στον άνθρωπο και εκδηλώνονται ανάλογα με τις συνθήκες. Αντί για απαντήσεις τρέξαμε πίσω στα μαθήματά μας με περισσότερα ερωτήματα περί αρετής. Άξιζε πάντως αυτό το ζωντανό φιλοσοφικό μας διάλειμμα!

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Our own Dorian Grey-The Marathon youth

The Youth of Marathon, a copy of the 4th century b.C. statue we had in the library (the original travelled to Bejing for the Olympics, this year!), seemed different after reading Dorian Grey. Maria Gerandreou and Maria Vergou, created the library version of Dorian, looking at himself in the mirror in his library (a slight adaptation of ours!), just before he shuttered it at the end of the book. The shuttered mirrors motif appears in Dracula, too, remember? We hope the image unites our two gothic novels with Phaedros, and the theme of art, love and ...books, which Socrates seemed to disapprove of.
Ο έφηβος του Μαραθώνα, αντίγραφο του κλασικού αγάλματος του 4ου π.Χ. αιώνα, (τον στείλαμε και στο Πεκίνο για τους Ολυμπιακούς) είναι ο δικός μας Ντόριαν Γκρέυ, με την αιώνια νεότητά του, που κοιτάζει για τελευταία φορά τον καθρέφτη, πριν τον θρυμματίσει, σαν προείκασμα του δικού του τέλους. Θυμηθήκαμε ανάλογη σκηνή στο Δράκουλα, τον απέθαντο, που όμως δεν είχε είδωλο. Ελπίζουμε η σύνθεση και φωτογραφία της Μαρίας Βέργου και Μαρίας Γερανδρέου να ενώνει τα δυο γοτθικά μυθιστορήματα με τον επικείμενο Φαίδρο, και τα θέματα της τέχνης, του κάλλους, του έρωτα και των βιβλίων, που δε συμπαθούσε ο Σωκράτης!

The connection between Phaidros - The portrait of Dorian Gray - Dracula


One of Plato’ dialogues, tradition added subtitle peri tou kalou - About beautiful. It is the dialogue that Plato named after the name of young companion Phaidros. But during the tradition, this dialogue has been further named: peri psyches - About soul; peri to erotic - About love. About all those listed, about beauty, about love and the soul - and not just passing - is here. But also, and very detailed about techne - about art, but also very closely, the speech - the speech and language, but also, and even chip in essential aletheia about - the truth, but also really pressed about mania - the crazy, loss of self, and finally, in the face constantly, and the idea of being, immortal soul.

The truth, The Good, The beauty- have been always the most important approaches to the writers and to philosophers.
To talk about in our Wednesday chat meeting, we are in mind the Myth of winged soul (part.246a - 249b) and the Myth of Theuth (274b - 275b)



Click here for the excerpt in Greek. Find the first myth with Edit, Find on this page, "Όσο λοιπόν για την αθανασία της". Ask the librarian where to find the myth of Theuth in Greek.
Click on the handmade and digital image to see the myth though the Greek Bookclub's eyes. Mouslum and Elton worked for the posters. Take a look at our discussion notes!
Πατήστε επάνω στις εικόνες για να δείτε τις αφίσες του Μουσλούμ και του Έλτον. Ρίξτε μια ματιά στις σημειώσεις που κρατήσαμε από τη συζήτηση στην ελληνική ομάδα.
















Below, there is a debate map, you are invited to compete with your arguements related to the soul (mortal or immortal).

Is Human soul mortal or immortal?

Friday, January 9, 2009

ETWINNING XMAS

Father Xmas came from Romania yesterday bearing christmas gifts (schools in Greece always open on the 8th of January) and gave a festive aftertaste to the school library. Melodic Romanian choirs sang the carols, handmade Xmas cards and beautiful decorations and treats were exhibited. Our customs, as written by our twinners are very alike, just as they are in Easter. We thank you very much and wish you a Happy and Prosperous New Year!
Το εορταστικό αντίδωρο από τη Ρουμανία γέμισε τη βιβλιοθήκη με μελωδίες, διακοσμητικά και χειροποίητες κάρτες. Με ιδιαίτερη χαρά καταχωρήσαμε στο Ευρωπαϊκό Περίπτερο τα βιβλιαράκια μινιατούρες 3 εκατοστών (!) με το σύνταγμα της Ευρώπης στα Ρουμανικά. Ευχαριστούμε τους συνεργάτες μας και ευχόμαστε Καλή Χρονιά και πάντα προόδους!

In Targoviste the Father Christmas has also came and offered us precious gifts. We ate the sweets and shared between us the calendars for the new year (Hope we won't be late anymore) and the Art Posters, listeninng the Greek carols. It was marvelous.





Thursday, January 8, 2009

Dracula's influence. Part 4. Filmography



The most recent Vampire hit is Twilight, based on Stephenie Meyer's novel. Have you seen it? Please add your summary, links and comment. The Library suggests The Internet Movie Database (imdb), where you can read all about it!

Στα πλαίσια της επιρροής του μύθου του Δράκουλα, παρακολουθήσαμε και σχολιάσαμε την ταινία Λυκόφως, βασισμένης στο ομώνυμο βιβλίο της Στέφανι Μέγιερ. Ακόμα ένα ισχυρό σύμβολο της εφηβείας, της θυσίας, της φιλίας, της πίστης. Το μοιραστήκαμε με τους Ρουμάνους. Πατήστε εδώ για πρόσφατο άρθρο στον Αθηναϊκό τύπο!