The main task of a Comenius-assistant is to assist a teacher during a practical activity, such as individual exercises, group works or projects.

In general I assist my mentor during the lessons of economy and business education.

Business education (Xth and XIIth grade)

During the whole year, the pupils are making a portfolio. In that portfolio they include information about a fictive company they would like to build. Every week they have to make one file about an economic subject of their company.

There are many different kind of companies: a bakery, a music store, a dance club, even a company that produces and distributes parts for military aircrafts.

Due to the fact that building a company requires a lot of money, they might need an investor.

And it can be that the investor doesn't speak Romanian, for example when he comes from Belgium.

So we've decided to perform a role-play in English or French (the pupil can chose) in which they try to convience me to invest in their company, one by one.

I asked them questions about the marketing-mix (5P's: Price, Product, Promotion, Place and Personnel) and what my part would be in the company.

At the end of the role-play I decided if I invest in their company or not.

Economy (XIth grade)

In the lessons of economy, the pupils had to make a project about the concurrence between two companies from an oligopoly.

After they had presented their project, I gave them some feedback in English about the structure and the creativity of their project.

I also challenged them to think about the data they had written on their project: "Is it realistic? What is the currency of your values? Have you checked your resources? ..."

Snow and ice, in fact I don't really like it, unless there is a ski-slope.

So, yesterday I rented a car to go to the skislope of Băișoara, about 50km from Cluj-Napoca.

I noticed that the Romanian people are very open, I met someone who spoke English and we skied togheter for the whole day, I don't think that we are so social in Belgium :D.

The first evening...

Yesterday at 16.45 Romanian time, I arrived in Cluj-Napoca.

Two of my Romanian teachers were waiting for me, the french teacher and my mentor.

They brought me to my hotel and they gave me the adress of a restaurant where I could go during the evening.

The first evening in a cold and unknown city... I took a taxi to restaurant Capricio where I met some teachers of the school.

They told me about the history of Cluj-Napoca and about the school.

Outside the restaurant there hung a thermometer: -21°C.

 Just in time 

I flew with Malev from Brussels to Budapest, where I had to take a flight to Cluj-Napoca.

Today at 5 o'clock in the morning, the airline stopped flying because they are broke.

I was very lucky that I'd reached Cluj-Napoca just in time.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16866872