Day 1:

In the morning everybody headed towards a large presentation room and were shown a comedy sketch performed by some of the Slovenians, including Dr. Anal (Lana). It was very funny and made everybody laugh. Afterwards, we were shown what was going to happen during the week, such as water rockets and making android apps. Finally, we were split into six teams.

Exited, we walked to the first workshop: designing and making water rockets. To start off with, we built the basic rocket by cutting two bottles in half and sticking them together. Then we cut out and attached cardboard fins to help the rocket fly and to stop it from spinning. Finally we screwed in some metal in the lid. At last they were ready to fly. We filled them with water, compressing the air, and then pulled out a metal fork holding them in place. They went up very high and if anyone was too close they got wet! When we had flown them all, we went back inside and painted them.

After lunch, Dronfield did a presentation on kites. It started with the physics of kites and a quiz. Once that had been done, everybody went into their teams and built a big kite, before attempting to fly them. Nearly all of the kites flew, although a few got torn (after crashing into a tree and the ground).

Finally the organisers decided to make us even more tired. We played ‘Ultimate Frisbee’, badminton and table tennis. The teachers also played table tennis, so we were not the only ones tired!

Exhausted we were taken home by our host families and we spent the rest of the night with them.

Day 2:

On Tuesday the Barcelona students had to present their project on the design and aerodynamics of gliding planes.

Each of the six multinational teams had to design a plane based on one of the countries taking part in Erasmus +. The team whose plane was based on Barcelona created a mosaic like design in the style of Gaudí. The team based on Slovenia were inspired by the flying fish in the design of their glider; because of this they stuck silver scales on the body of the glider and wrote the Slovenian motto on the wings. The England team covered their plane in the typical English things such as: tea, football and the countryside. The Malaga team painted their plane red to represent the Spanish flag and covered their plane with typical Spanish phrases and expressions.

There was a silver plane designed by the German team, they put the German flag on the plane and wrote some useful German phrases on the body. The French team stuck feathers on the plane and painted the countryside on the back of the plane.

When we took the planes to the gym to fly them they were brilliant; for about five minutes. Due to an assortment of crashes and mid-air collisions the planes began to break. Wings fell off and fuselages smashed until after less than fifteen minutes there were no planes left whole.

The Slovenian students stuck the planes back together and fixed the breakages so the planes could be hung up displaying the artwork.

Day 4:

On Thursday 10th November, the Erasmus+ group had an early start ready to set off to Pipistrel Aircraft, which is located in Ajdovšcina. We received a short, yet eye-opening presentation from the Public Relations Manager at Pipistrel, Taja Boscarol, about the history of the company. This included finding out about some of the different light aircraft that Pipistrel produce, many of which have won various prestigious rewards from organisations such as NASA, for example the Virus. This plane is a fast, yet very economic cruise aircraft that received an award from Nasa in 2008 in the NASA GAT Challenge. The Virus is 19% more fuel efficient while flying and 23% faster than the popular Flight Design CTSW. We also got to see one aircraft being landed as well as another two aircraft taking off, ready for test flights

Two of the Erasmus+ students were also lucky enough to be given the chance to sit inside one of the aircraft. When we had finished at Pipistrel, we drove to Postojna to visit Postojna cave, but first we all took a pitstop in the cafe for a drink.

Postojna cave is the second-longest cave in Slovenia, however it is the only cave with a train system running through it. We travelled around 2km by train, before getting off and talking an on-foot tour of the highest and lowest points of the cave (as well as alt he points inbetween!) Our tourguide stopped at various points to explain some of the history of the cave, giving ust he chance to take in some of the breathtaking sights inside the cave, and giving us the perfect opportunity to take some photos of the beautiful stalactite and stalagmite formations.

We saw the Proteus Anguinus, a type of animal that normally lives in the deepest levels of the cave and is only found in this region. We also saw live video footage of the 3 months old babies, which were born earlier this year.

During our train ride back to the cave entrance, we saw the Pivka river that runs through the Postojna cave. After leaving Postojna cave, we went into the cafe restaurant, where we enjoyed a lovely meal together, before getting back on the bus to return to Idrija.

Overall everyone really enjoyed Thursday's activities, and spending time developing our newfound, international friendships.

Day 5:

Today we are going to Ljubljana. We need to write a report about our trip, before we go, so this will be based off of the previous experiences.

We visit some important institutes in Ljubljana, and experience the capital of Slovenia. We participate in workshops themed around air, the project we have been working on all week. The Jožef Stefan Institute is the leading Slovenian research organisation where we will listen to a lecture about City sense, which measures pollution in large cities and make posters about the effects of air pollution. It is responsible for a broad spectrum of basic and applied research in the fields of natural sciences and technology.

Founded in 1949, the institute work on a wide variety of fields of both scientific and economic interest. The basic goals of the institute are to help train young scientists. Close collaboration with the University Medical Centre has resulted in the development of medical equipment the provision of isotopes for clinical research and treatment of patients, and the introduction of new research techniques and diagnostic methods into clinical medicine.
After visiting the institute, we are going to be taking a hike around Ljubljana, the capitol of Slovenia. Ljubljana has many places of interest, including a castle, the old town, Zmajski Most (Dragon Bridge) and the Triple Bridge (Tromostovje), making it the most iconic city in Slovenia. It also has major cultural significance, illustrated by the wide variety of different museums and art galleries, including the Architecture Museum of Ljubljana and the Museum of Modern Art. In the city centre we will have free time to take photos and look around.