School exchange with German students

This year in our school some students of the 2nd and the 3rd classes joined a very unusual and special experience. We accepted to make a school exchange for a week with some German students of the Am Waldhof Gymnasium in the city of Bielefeld, Northern Westfalia,Germany.

It was a very important chance to meet a new culture and to learn how to live in this foreign country. Our journey started on the 2nd of February when we flew toGermany.

Our group was composed of thirteen Italian students and thirteen German students. At the beginning we were a bit nervous to meet our partners because we had not met them before, but then we realised that we had made some new foreign friends.

During those days we visited a lot of very interesting places like the Gymnasium (their high school), the Stadtbibliothek, which is the public library, the city centre and some beautiful churches. We also went to theUniversityofBielefeld, which has new areas where students can relax or study as they prefer and visited  the studio of the local television channel WDR where we pretended to be journalists and famous people. Of course we shot a video of our little “news report”.

We saw a lot of ancient and modern objects that show the history of this city in theHistoricMuseumand we visited the nice city ofMünster

Our group of German and Italian students alternated this cultural moments with free time. In fact, some of us went ice-skating, others went swimming, some boys went to drive karts.  We went r bowling and  shopping together, and we also went to Turkish, Italian and German restaurants.

At school we participated in the lessons with our partners so we noticed that their lessons are more informal and there are more lessons in labs. The German school system is different from the Italian one, in fact students can choose some extra lessons that they like but they have to study some compulsory subjects like German, Maths, English and Science.

We made new friends at school. We also met an Italian boy called Edoardo who is spending a year there within an individual mobility plan run by Intercultura.

With our German families we experimented new lifestyles of food, daily routine, hobbies, etc..

At the end of this experience we could say that it was a fantastic chance to open our minds and test ourselves in a foreign place. It was a bit difficult for us to speak English all the time at school, in family or with our partners but we could speak Italian when we were with the other Italian students and we were very happy to hear Edoardo and the owner of a restaurant speaking Italian. If you are far away from home, it is great to feel a bit nearer to your Country speaking Italian!

Simona Miosi (3 C)