The diary describes a teddy bear's experiences visiting schools in Ireland, Romania, and Finland over several months. In Romania, the teddy bear spent Christmas with two 7th grade girls, going caroling and enjoying traditional Romanian Christmas food. It also went sledding, ice skating, and snowman building. The teddy bear attended classes and school events, learning about Romanian culture, and was sad to say goodbye to new friends at the end of its stay.

1. Dear Diary,
I left Ireland on 7th
December 2014 after I stayed for about two month at
Manageer National School.
The children made my stay there unforgettable. I learned a lot of things about
their school and the life in Ireland and had a great time playing hurling, learning
Irish dances and many more. But I was happy to go to Romania because I knew
very little about it.
On the way to Sibiu, Romania we had a stop in Munich and to my surprise I met
Santa Claus there.
Santa took me in his lap and asked me a lot of things about my trips around
Europe, about the schools I had already visited, what I had learned there
regarding culture and traditions. I promised Santa that I was going to tell him next
year about the other countries I was to visit and about my experiences.
Late at night I arrived at Sibiu International Airport . I was very tired and eager to
go to bed because the next day I had to go to school and meet my new school for
the following 3 months.

2. The next day I went to school in the afternoon and was warmly welcomed by all
the Romanian pupils. I was given flowers and they cuddled me. I stayed in class 5A
with Paola and Maria at Art lesson and helped them finish their drawings.

3. In Ireland all partner schools received from the others decorations for the
Christmas tree at their school. I helped the pupils to decorate the tree and made
it an European Christmas Tree.

4. I had the great pleasure to take part in the Christmas Celebration 2014 at the
reception class. All the little children recited poems and sang carols. It was so
exciting to feel the spirit of Christmas in a very far but friendly country.

5. Soon after I arrived at Sibiu the Christmas holiday started and Eveline and Izabel
from class 7A invited me to spend the two-week holiday with them. So I left
school on 19th
December 2014.
The girls took me to the city centre and showed me Sibiu Christmas market, one
of the best markets in Europe and a special place to spend your Christmas
holiday. The medieval architecture, the crowded stalls, the hospitable people, the
lights decorating all buildings made Sibiu a fairylike town.

7. On Christmas Eve I went carolling with the girls and their colleagues from the
same class, 7A. One of the most common Romanian traditions, on Christmas Eve,
is carolling. Everywhere in villages or towns you can hear the voices of carollers
who visit the houses of neighbours, wishing them health, joy and prosperity in the
year to come and receiving gifts of money or food: nuts, pretzels, apples, etc.

8. While we were carolling Santa Claus came to Eve’s and brought presents for the
whole family and for me, too.

9. On Christmas Day, Eveline, her mother and father and I had a Romanian
traditional Christmas lunch with cabbage rolls with pork and polenta(maize
polenta).
Romanian Christmas food is so special and tasty. My mouth is already watering.
That's why you can find it all over the year not only at Christmas time.
I don't make a mistake when I say that on Christmas Day every Romanian family
have on their Christmas table cabbage rolls(sarmale), home made sausages
(carnati), sweet bread(cozonac),lots of cookies.
I was told that in Romania, Christmas has always been a great opportunity for
family members to get together in order to spend some time in the warm, loving
and cheerful atmosphere of their home.

11. After so much delicious food a little exercise was of great help to keep us fit.
So we went sledding and skating. Eveline and Izabel showed me how to ice skate
and looked after me while learning the real basics of ice skating.
This winter it snowed a lot in Romania and the temperature were the lowest in
the history. On New Year’s Eve in Sibiu it was -26C. Very cold!!!
When the temperature became milder Eveline and I went to the park and made a
snowman.

13. Eveline Buta-Class 7A

14. On 5th
January 2015 the children went back to school. I went to spend my time at
school with class 5A.The children were happy to see me again and took me in the
school garden to enjoy the snow and a snowball fight with them. There hasn’t
been a real winter in Romania with snow for many years.
The children cared for me and put the woollen jacket on me not to catch a cold.

15. Ciprian, class 5A and his brother Florin,class 7A,took me to a basketball workout.
They play for CSU Sibiu, a Romanian professional basketball club, based in Sibiu.
I learned a lot about basketball and enjoyed the workout.

16. Florin Iftene-class 7A

17. The 1st
semester finished on 30th
January and the children in Romania had their
winter holiday. Tudor,a boy in class 3A went with his parents to “Sambata”, a
resort close to the Fagaras Mountains. They took me with them and so I could see
the mountains , Sambata Monastry,get a breath of fresh air and recharge the
batteries for the 2nd
semester which was to start on 9th
February.

18. When the 2nd
semester started we had a Skype session with my school in Finland.
I saw my school friends and my teacher and it was exciting but I didn’t feel
homesick because I had a very good time with the children in Sibiu.

19. Some girls from Class 6A showed me the pictures with other teddies who visited
their school: Tobias, Lea, Paddy Breen, Boribon. For most pupils it was for the first
time when they met someone from Finland. Thus they learned a lot about the
Finnish life and culture.
Even the pupils from Reception Class learned a lot of things about Helsinki, our
capital ,our flag, language, etc.

20. They draw a mind map of the most important facts about Finland.
Adriana , one of the girls in class 5 A invited me and some friends to her birthday
party. She turned 12 and 2 birthday cakes were made for her by her mother.
We all sang “Happy birthday “and Adriana blew out the candles and made a wish.
Everyone was happy and got a piece of the delicious cakes. Then we danced and
played.I enjoyed the party very much!

21. The time passed so fast and I got at the end of my stay in Romania. I had a lovely
time at School No.13 Sibiu, the children loved me and made me feel like home.
Good-bye Romania,School No.13 Sibiu and all the ones
who loved me!

22. I’ll miss you all !!!