Teaching the Cross-country Skiing to Erasmus Students ****************************************************************************************** * Teaching the Cross-country Skiing to Erasmus Students ****************************************************************************************** The annual orientation course for new Erasmus students at Charles University, Faculty of S come around again. The new students are invited, by the Erasmus co-ordinators of Faculty o "https://www.natur.cuni.cz/eng/study/incoming-students/departmental-erasmus-coordinators"] trip in the Šumava Mountains to a snow-covered village of Prášily. Here they can meet new number of different ways. Either through the shared rooms, group cooking or trips to the l beer or two. They also have the opportunity to take small trips to the snow covered Šumava During this trip the Department of Sport of Faculty of Science gives the new students the learn a completely new sport. For many this is cross-country skiing. This year, in particu success because out of 21 participating Erasmus students, 18 had a go at cross country ski We have approached the students and their teachers, Jan Zachař (Department of Sport of Fac Science) and Associated Professor David Havlíček (Co-ordinator at the Department of Inorga immediately after the trip to share their experience with us. Jan Zachař said that he was really impressed with his students: “This year has been our bi success so far. Normally, only a few Erasmus students want to try this sport – usually it’ – but this year we took on 16 beginners (14 of them were Erasmus students). Another 4 adva students joined us for a 30 km skiing trip from Prášily to Modrava. They were all really g Our only problem was that we lacked enough skies and shoes for everyone – our Department o have any skies available so we had to bring some of our own older equipment and use the ol cottage. This is the reason why we divided the students into 4 groups – 2 groups for morning and 2 The first stage of our skiing trip was up the hill from Prášily to Prášilské jezero (Lake the other from the lake back to Prášily.“ We went on to ask Jan Zachař if he noticed a difference in teaching Czech and Erasmus stud His reaction was that: “For Czech students, a winter sport course is more about recreation something new. It is rare that we have complete beginners among the Czech students. A numb students in Prášily saw the snow for the first or second time in their life. For them, it and memorable experience. One student in particular had a unique experience. Miguel, a Portuguese student who strugg concept of skiing at first, enjoyed skiing downhill so much that by the end he was crying Another memorable experience was that of a Greek student, Nena, who fell in the beginning then that we needed to slow her descent down by hand. I needed to ski next to her holding continued to fall but in the end, once she got over her fear, she was content, too.“  All of the Erasmus students enjoyed their day skiing and below are some of the first impre students who tried cross-country skiing for the first or second time ever. Márcio Fernandes Ribeiro (from University of Minho, MA student of Geography and Territory “It was my first time skiing ever. I’ve only tried snowboarding one time before. But I was liked the cross-country skiing a lot. I think it is a very enjoyable sport. I especially e the hill – and not falling. It was really fun.“ For Márcio “…the role of the teacher was very important – especially when we were learning the hill and also how to mount a hill on the cross-country skies. It was great that all th provided for us and we didn’t have to pay anything for the class. That’s not usually the w Snow in Portugal is not so common and Márcio went onto to say that: “In the continental pa country, we have a mountain range with the highest peak Serra da Estrella (1993 m), you ma “Mountain of the Star“ in English. In winter people go there to try downhill skiing and sn see the snow. Some have never ever seen it.“ Sylvie Berthelot (from University of Konstanz, Bc Biology) shared: “For me, it was the fir try this kind of skiing. I have done downhill skiing since I was 6 but I have never tried skiing before. I didn’t even know its English name until now – I thought it was some type skiing! But I was very happy to try it today – especially as I think it’s very popular for Czech p went to Kunratický les (Kunratice Forest) in Prague with my Czech flatmate and we saw peop skiing and walking with dogs there. I was in the group that was skiing up the hill and that was kind of exhausting. I was swea only had some small problems in the beginning – I fell once and it was difficult to co-ord half an hour or so I got the rhythm right. I think I will try cross-country skiing again i Back at home, I usually go skiing in Switzerland. My home town, Mannheim, is closer to the the Alps in Germany but it is more expensive in Switzerland. It’s also possible to go to O Bavaria from Konstanz – so I went skiing also there. As for cross-country skiing, I think it’s done typically by older people in Germany. But p watch such sports on TV – e.g. biathlon. Judith Gellesch (from University of Mainz, MA Geography) said: “Actually, it was my second cross-country skiing but my first time was 7 years ago in Sauerland, Western Germany which home town, Köln. However, the mountains there are not very high. I do not remember if I enjoyed skiing 7 years ago but I really enjoyed my experience here. morning. The support from the teachers was really good, too. Normally, I do not ski at all home city there is not that much snow. I also didn’t learn how to ski as a child, so it’s would normally do.“ We also interviewed a number of more advanced students, such as Anais Volin or Jaana Mihai Anais Volin (from École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, MA Geography) said: “It was not my fir this sport. I usually do more downhill than cross-country skiing, however. I live near to usually go there. I couldn’t go this winter because of travelling to Prague but apart from go every winter. It’s only 2 hours by train or car to Chambery or Annecy from Lyon. My uni sport department which organises skiing trips each weekend from December to February. But downhill skiing because cross-country skiing is less popular in France. It’s also more usu of French Alps than in the South. Also, in France we often only borrow the skiing equipmen our own skies unlike in the Czech Republic.   Generally, I prefer downhill skiing but I did enjoy the trip today – the combination of wa was great because you are able to enjoy the surroundings more I think. It’s also much calm skiing – there are often too many people on the slopes. It was also great that I could go today rather than climb up. That was really nice.“ Jaana Mihailišina (from University of Tartu, MA Geography-Physics for Teachers) shared: “I Estonia and cross-country skiing is a very popular sport there. Many schools actually have skiing as mandatory part of sport classes there. Downhill skiing is not usual in Estonia a any high mountains. I do cross-country skiing back at home sometimes. This is why I didn’t try cross-country s today. But I do not like just to ski, instead I prefer to visit my family and borrow my br so that they can join me. Basically, I am skiing and one of the dogs pulls me. We have two is really good but not that strong, so we cannot do this together very often. Kutt (“Dude“ stronger but quite stubborn so it’s more difficult with him. In any case, it’s really nice either of them because I live in the countryside so we explore the free land and the fores The most advanced skier between the Erasmus students, Gardar Gíslason, comes from Iceland. teachers for a 40 km trip while skiing the whole way from Prášily to Modrava and back. The advanced students covered 10 km between Modrava and Srní on the way back by bus. Gardar Gíslason (University of Iceland, Bc Geophysics) commented: “Skiing is not that usua Iceland but as for myself, I trained downhill skiing for 7 years (from when I was 6 to 13) because at that time there were not as many snow days in Iceland. When I started it was pe days a year. When I finished, it was 25 days a year. Now it’s slightly increasing again bu Iceland is getting warmer each year because of the global warming. Currently, in the middl we have 9 oC. Winter average temperature is around 0 oC, in summer it’s usually 12-15 oC. days, however, the snow stays only for 3-5 days; then it rains and the snow melts immediat We asked Gardar if Iceland has any skiing resorts and he replied saying that he "…trained Mountains), one of the biggest centres for winter sports in Iceland, which is only 30-40 m from Reykjavík. But the biggest centres for winter sports are in the North – Akureyri and where the professional sportsmen train. On the whole, cross-country skiing is not very pop I learnt cross-country skiing myself 2 years ago when I studied in Denmark for 6 months an for a skiing trip to Norway for 7 days. There are no courses like this in Icelandic school swimming when attending the school.“ We are very happy that the Erasmus students of Faculty of Science enjoyed a nice orientati again.