German Exchange

German Exchange Trip 19th - 24th October 2012

Freitag/Friday

As we arrived at school all our class mates stood by waving goodbye.  All our parents wished us a great trip as we boarded the coach.  We took our seats and waved our finals cheerios.

As we drove toDublin, the tension kept building and building.  We were also very excited.  The journey toStuttgartlasted about 1 ½ hours.

We arrived at the airport and checked in.  As we went through security Mark got searched.  As we got to the terminal we saw that the flight was delayed for another 20-25minutes.

We boarded the plane.  During our flight some of us bought delicious foods ie. lots of chocolate muffins!! There was lot of turbulence and steep turning as we landed, but overall it was a very soft landing.

After the flight we finally arrived at the Hostel in Bad Urach where we met the Germans for the first time.  Most people were very nervous, plus we also had to make our own bed!!!!!!!

Jake Boyd, Mark Boyd, Ryan Patterson, Josh Carlisle and Oliver Beatty

 

Saturday by Courtney, Josh, Jake & Lyndsey

We woke up and got breakfast at 8.30 am, we got our shoes on and started to walk around the mountains.  It was a very warm and sunny day.  We stopped half way at the waterfall and sat on the benches and ate ice lollies.  Then we continued to walk on up the mountain and reached the top at the castle.  We sat and ate our lunch in the beautiful weather and the lovely scenery. We walked back down the mountain then walked to the town ofBad Urachand we had free time for an hour.  Then we got into groups and did a town quiz.  Unfortunately we didn’t win.  We then went for ice-cream.  We also went to Aldi for sweets.  We walked and went to mini–golf for around an hour then we walked back to the youth hostel.  When we got back we had dinner which was meat and rice.  After dinner we played football and basketball.  We had a meeting at 9.00 and then at 9.30 we went to bed.  Then by 10.00 we were all sleeping.  Overall this day was so good.   Sehr gut.

 

Sunday

On Sunday Dromore High School pupils, who had now settled into their new home in Germany, greeted each other and our new friends at an early morning breakfast.

Then we got on a bus and we all had to sit beside a German pupil.  We were on the bus for 1 ½ hours, then we finally arrived at the beautiful Hohenzollern castle.  To get to see the lovely views we had to walk up a lot of steep hills and steps. Luckily, our experience from Saturday came in handy and we all made it with a little struggle.  Once we arrived to the entrance of the castle we stopped for a drink, took some photos and admired the view.  We walked through the beautiful stony castle, while socializing and practising our German.  We finally got to view the castle and had the honour to learn about the most interesting facts and walk the footsteps of some famous German people.  We weren’t allowed to walk in our shoes on the delicate floor so had to wear a pair of enormous slippers.  So instead of walking we invented slipper skating and had fun sliding across marble floor.  We went to Tübingen and got a cool tour then went on a boat trip and nearly fell in!!

Rhiannon, Holly, Emma Y and Emma McC

 

Monday

Today we got up at 06.50.  We got our breakfast and got a bus at 8.30 to go to the German school in Lenningen.   We all got split into different groups by the German teachers.  In groups of two we visited different subjects eg. English, Sewing, Chemistry, German and Art.  The German school had 7 different parts lettered A to G.  It was very modern with paintings and sculptures.  The school canteen was smaller than ours, but had an outside eating area like a small café. They gave us local food and our opinions varied.

They start at 7.55 and end at 1.00 and sometimes 4.00.  They don’t have uniforms, the teachers wear normal clothes, each class is 45 minutes and they have an hour for lunch.  The town was very small and had hardly any shops.  In the afternoon each German pupil was paired up with a DromoreHigh Schoolpupil in a badminton tournament.  The sports hall was really clean and big.  Jake Wilson and his German person Michael came 1^st in the competition.  Jake Boyd and Jonas came 2^nd and Vicky Black and Christanie came 3^rd.  After, we all got changed and we had to say goodbye to our German friends as they didn’t come back with us to the youth hostel.  But we would see them tomorrow.   

 

Tuesday

After breakfast we walked to the train stop outside our youth hostel.  We got the first train to Kircheim from Bad Urach.  We had to wait for 30 minutes for the next train to Stuttgartwhere we got the city train to the MercedesBenzMuseum.  We saw many different cars from 1800’s up to the 21^st century.  Then we got the city train to the centre ofStuttgart and had a tour by Mr Erlenmaier, the ex- headmaster of the school in Lenningen.  After this short tour we had two hours to go shopping.  We went to shops like Hollister, New Yorker, H&M, Douglas etc.  For lunch some went to Subway but most went to McDonalds.  We had to meet back at 3.45pm to get a train to the school in Lenningen where we met the parents of the German pupils.  The parents prepared a buffet of typical local German food for all of us.  We really enjoyed meeting everyone and building great friendships with the German pupils.  This made it more difficult to say good-bye and it was very emotional as many of the girls cried.  Everyone gave each other hugs and said their goodbyes.  Some of the German people gave their exchange partners presents.  The next day Mr Sidor was very generous and gave us half an hour extra in bed.  At breakfast it was a bit quiet because people still missed their German partners.  No one wanted to leave.  We went into the town ofBad Urach and bought presents for family and friends.  We made our last trip to Aldi for sweets and some also kept their empty bottles to put into a machine where they got 25c for every bottle they put in. We then had to write our views of the trip before the bus came to take us to the airport.  It took 45 minutes to get there.

 

Stephanie Brown – I really liked and enjoyed the whole German trip. It was a great experience and I had a lot of laughs and became close with some of the German pupils (Marko and Michael mini) but found it upsetting saying goodbye.

Nakita McFarlane: The German exchange was the best trip ever, everyone was so nice. We walked loads but when we walked to the castles, it was amazing to see.  I think my German has improved a lot and it has given me more confidence.

Meeting new hot people, new words, new culture and having lots of night time parties.

Meeting new people, new words/phrases and all the activities we did like tours and discos.  Emma McCoosh.

Meeting the German pupils who were very friendly and welcoming to us all and seeing all the beautiful sights of Germany and shopping inStuttgart!! (Rhiannon Beattie)

Meeting Michi, Marco and Hanna was really fun!! They are all so friendly.  The hostel was really nice, shopping inStuttgartand visiting castles and the different towns!!

Chloe Coburn: meeting new hot friends, new words and phrases, activities, the school experience, food. Shopping with everyone and having fun.  Love it

Vicky Black: going to the Mercedes museum.  Teaching the German pupils our slang, discos, going toStuttgartshopping, Mr Sidor falling!!

Holly O’Connor: I loved the German sights and making new friends!! The boat trip was the best;Germanyis a very fun place!!

Josh Carlisle; I really enjoyed going toStuttgartand seeing the Mercedes –BenzMuseum.

Nicole: meeting the German pupils was very interesting, they were extremely helpful, and very kind!! I loved the German trip because you learn a lot of new words and learn a lot about the language you study.  Brill Trip x

Chris White: pairing up with your pen pals, now missing the German school, because it was something you will never forget.

Jake Wilson: meeting new German friends, experiencing how different the culture is.

Mark Boyd: meeting new people and experiencing a new culture.

Ryan Patterson: learning new words and meeting new people.

Jake Boyd: playing Badminton with Jonas and coming 2^nd.

Courtney Morris: I liked meeting new friends and experiencing theGermanSchool. Also the boat trip.

Lyndsey Gault: Walking to the castle, the boat trip and meeting new people.

Joshua McCready: I enjoyed all the fun activities we did and meeting all the Germans and trying out the German language.

Oliver: Enjoy boat ride, meeting new people and learning new German.

Eileen: I enjoyed meeting the German pupils and going to their school.  I also enjoyed going shopping in Stuttgart.  It was amazing trip.

 

 

Please see link below for our partner school

www.rs-lenningen.de

 

 

Dromore High School German Exchange

The Report

First of all on the Sunday night we had to be left off at Greenhill YMCA inNewcastleat around seven o’clock. Then the Germans arrived and we had some icebreakers activities. For the icebreaker activities we had to speak to each other in both German and English whilst getting to know a little bit more about each other.  We stayed over night and on Monday took part in some team building outreach activities. This included a leap of faith and zip wire. The weather wasn’t quite what the Germans had expected as it rained constantly all day. Later that evening we walked aroundNewcastleand it was still lashing out of the heavens but this didn’t dampen our spirits.

The next day we brought our German guests to our school by coach from Greenhill YMCA. We had a meeting with our principal Mr. Wilkinson and he choose Marcel Hofmann for an interview. We had a free lunch in our school canteen and then we showed them our school and visited two of our favourite teacher’s lessons. On Wednesday we travelled by bus to theNorthCoast. It took around two and a half hours as we took the scenic route to show the Germans the coast. We then took part in a guided tour around TheGiant’s Causeway, we had a packed lunch at the causeway at around half twelve. We finished our tour of theNorthCoastwith the historicDunluceCastle. We travelled to school, and the Germans returned to Greenhill.

On Thursday we met up with our German friends on the coach and left for the city ofBelfast. To start our visit we went to Stormount. We had a tour around the building and took part in a workshop which involved a mock vote. We then left forBelfastcity centre to partake in some shopping and lunch. We were free to exploreBelfastfor three hours whilst making sure we looked after our guests. We got back on the coach and returned to school for an already prepared dinner in the canteen. Later that evening at eight o’clock we all went to the school Halloween disco. We left the disco at half past nine, and said our farewells to our new long distance friends.

Our Opinions.

In my opinion I enjoyed sie Germans stay inNorthern Irelandand I really do think that they enjoyed it too. I really mixed with them as I would with any other people. I am hoping to stay on at this school and hopefully I will see you all next year as we are planning to come to you for an exchange.

Matthew Ross 12A

I really enjoyed the Germans visit toNorthern Ireland. I found all of them very outgoing and gelled with them as I would with any of my other friends. I really hope to visit there school next year and see how it differs from ours. I intend to stay in contact with nearly all if them if possible. This was a very beneficial experience.

Luke Mcilwaine –Douglas12A