On 14th December, some students of Batxillerat went on an exchange to Düsseldorf, Germany. We stayed there for a week and we did a lot of activities, with and without teachers.
The first day we all met at the train station in Norf, where the families picked up us and then we had our first dinner home together.
The very next day, we met in Gymnasium Norf, the high school. In the morning we did a treasure hunt to discover the school. Then we went ice-skating and finally we had free time, so we returned with our exchange partners home. School times are very different from ours, 45 minute lessons with a many breaks.
On Saturday and Sunday we stayed with the families doing what they used to do, but we also met our friends and hung around.
On Monday we shared lessons with our exchange partners. The first four hours to see how their day-to-day was and to see the differences between our high school and Gymnasium Norf. Actually, it is very different, specially the students´ behavior. After school, we went to Neuss and we did another treasure hunt to see the highlights of the town
On Tuesday, only Spanish people headed to Köln to visit the cathedral and the Roman museum next of it, which had a wide range of relevant archaeological discoveries .After the visit, we had free time to have lunch, visit the city and enjoy the traditional Christmas market too.
On Wednesday we all travelled to Bonn, the former capital of West Germany, to visit the “Haus der Geschichte”, a museum where we could see the German history after the war, with lots of cars, pieces of Berlin Wall, real posters of the time, which made the museum really interesting. Once back to Düsseldorf, at night, we all met in a bar where we could talk and have fun all together and have a sort of farewell party.
Finally, on Thursday, we went to the high school and we did an exchange feedback. The t teachers announced the winners of the treasure hunts and delivered the awards. At 3:00 pm we had our plane back home.
In our opinion, this exchange has been a wonderful experience which has allowed us to have new friends, discover a new culture, another way of life and use English in a more real context.
(written by Iván Piñero)
