FROschTOsch

by Linnéa Tölle and Nina Weber (BvA)

When we arrived at our hostel, a great breakfast buffet was waiting for us. A large table, full of different things, as if we were royals. Even the room in which the table stood had a charme like a royal palace. That showed us how important hospitality is in Poland. We were quite surprised about it because it was the first time that we saw such hospitality. The mayor’s wife, who is very friendly and polite, accommodated us very well. Every morning we got such a great breakfast and it’s obvious that we felt very well because of the good start in the morning.

Politeness and good manners are really important to Polish people. They showed it to us in different ways, for example at the bonfire, which took place on Sunday, where the Polish people gave us dishes for eating without us having to ask for them.

When we were visiting the school in Gostynin, which is older than 100 years, some of us went upstairs, finding the music and art room and suddenly singing came out of the room. Straight away boys brought us chairs, so that we could sit and listen to the beautiful voices of the Polish students. That showed us the difference between German and Polish students. The German students would have stopped singing straight away and no thought would have come to their mind to bring us chairs.

All in all, we can sum up briefly that the Polish people are very polite and friendly and we had a very interesting and good time with them in Poland.

by Martin Piechullik and Jill de Clerque (BvA)

Płock is a city in central Poland. It was the capital city of Poland during their reign from 1079 till 1138. Płock is a city full of history, a place where you can see century-old tradition and history of state and the nation. The most important church of Płock was built in the beginning of 20^th century. It is called “Temple of Mercy and Charity “. It is located on a steep, high hill called Wzgorze Tumskie situated above the bank of the  river Vistula (German: Weichsel). This impressive, monumental building was reconstructed many times. There are relics of the following architectural periods: Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Classicism. Documented historical sources present Płock as a significant, dynamic centre of politics, culture and art.

When the Polish and German students visited the city of Płock, we first walked at the market square. After walking a while  though Płock we were standing in front of the church of  Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Płock .We had a guide who showed us the treasury of the relies of the church. After that we visited the church inside and were able to see the coffin of Bolesław Krzywousty who was buried there in the 14^th century. When the guiding tour was finished,  we moved to the river Vistula. There we had a great view over the city.

The bus took us from the river Vistula to the shopping centers of Płock where we had time for shopping and to have some food. The shopping centers where  as big as those in Germany. After two hours we were taken back to our hotel by the bus.

All in all, Płock is a small old history town which was very interesting to visit.

by Philip Kulej (BvA)

From the 8^th up to 13^th June the German Comenius group of Langenfeld had a visit to their partner city Gostynin in Poland. When we arrived at the hostel in Gostynin, I went towards my room.

But after  ten minutes, Mrs. Arnold called me and asked me to come down to her and Mrs. Śniecikowska – she is the wife of the major of Gostynin and our hostel leader.

Because my whole family is from Poland I know this language and could help to translate a few things at the morning for example when the breakfast should start. After our breakfast we went to the school, the Liceum Tadeusza Kościuszki in Gostynin and had there a German-Polish guide who showed us the school. I understood  everything the Polish students talked about  us .

On the trips to Plock, Torun and the old town of Warsaw, the Polish students got to know me better and were surprised when they heard I can speak Polish. So sometimes I had to translate  between the German and Polish students when they had problems to communicate in English.

One afternoon Mrs Arnold, Martin and I met  the mayor and his wife at the hotel by coincident and had a difficult conversation about the Polish and German school system. The conversation was very intensive and long. So I had sometimes difficulties to translate things but Martin can speak Polish too, so we helped each other and had a successful conversation.

At our last breakfast in the hotel we had a special guest, the mayor Mr. Włodzimierz Śniecikowski,  who talked to  us about the history of Gostynin  and other things. All in all my  unexpected translator job in Poland was very exciting and was a lot of fun.

by Oliver Flaskamp, (BVA) 

Wednesday, 17^th, 6 o’clock at Düsseldorf Airport. 

Eighteen tired German students from the BvA met in front of the baggage check-in. The two teachers Mrs. Arnold and Mrs. Ehl gave their last instructions for the flight and so twenty German people checked in for the direct flight to Birmingham Airport in GB.

Why did these people fly to Birmingham? The Comenius Project is a gathering of different schools from different countries.  Participating in Kington were the German Bettine-von-Arnim-Gesamtschule, Langenfeld, the Polish Lyceé, Gostynin and our hosts, the British Lady Hawkins School in Kington.

So at 7.30 we, the German students and teachers, were flying to the people who drive on the left side of the road and to the homeland of rain .

At Birmingham Airport the travellers had to change to a bus for our journey to Kington, a little town near the border to Wales.  Most of us wanted to take a nap, but our bus driver was not paying attention to the tired Germans who wanted to sleep in the little bus. Instead he drove on the winding country roads like a Rally-driver.

After a two-hour-bus journey we arrived at the hostel in Kington and carried the baggage in. Then twenty German visitors had a walk through Kington to the Lady Hawkins School. In the school we ate a very good lunch for only £1.40.

In the evening the boys and girls who stayed with a host family went with the English students to their homes.  The others went to the hostel in Kington. All Germans were very tired and went to bed at 8 o’clock.

Thursday, 18^th 

In the hostel we had an “English toast” for breakfast and went to school afterwards. We could choose our lessons at school. I sat in chemistry with the teacher teaching – in English, of course – about plastic compounds. But the teacher didn’t use the board and chalk. Each classroom has a beamer and an interactive board. The equipment is very modern in the English school and I am envious of that modern equipment, I admit.

In the evening we drove to Leominster with little buses (very fast again!). In the “Grove” we played bowling. It was a good evening activity to mix with the other delegations.

Friday, 19^th 

Friday morning the Germans, the Polish group, and some English students went on a trip to Birmingham. We visited the “think-tank”, a learning-by-doing museum. A lot of Germans had a lot of fun in the playground with building bricks and such things .

In the afternoon we were set free to go shopping. A lot of pounds were spent at “Primark”, a cheap but very good shopping centre. Contented about the day, we came back to Kington and went to bed.

 Saturday, 20^th 

On this Saturday the Comenius group went to a special classroom. The High School in Kington has an “Eco-Classroom”. This room is an energy-efficient classroom, with solar collectors on its roof and everything is natural.

In this room the project group had the chance to listen to the online-editor of a local newspaper, the Herefordshire Times.

In the evening we had a trip to a cinema to watch the newest Harry Potter Film: “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows”. It was a wonderful small cinema.

 Sunday 21^st 

The German and the Polish groups were in Cardiff, the capital of Wales. We visited the national museum “Saint Faggans’ ”, an open-air museum. Some students looked around in this big museum park, but it was very cold and rainy. So most of us needed a cup of coffee or a cup of tea in the Welsh café of the museum.

In the afternoon we went to Cardiff City, where all students ran to the big shops like Apple, Hollister and Primark, or visited the big Christmas Market. The students spent lots of money at the British shops, and returned to the bus with very, very big shopping bags.

 Monday 22^th

On Monday we got a vivid lesson about Welsh history in the mine “Big Pit”. Our teacher was a former mine worker.  He explained to us that children had to work at this mine in the past. The galleries were very low so that some of us almost had to crawl. It was very astonishing to see what went on in this mine in the past. The workers had horses down there to pull the carts full of coal.

It was the last evening in GB, so we all had a dinner together in a restaurant and finally we had to pack our bags.  

Tuesday 23^rd 

Our last day in Great Britain! We said goodbye to our hosts in Kington and once again had a journey to Birmingham. The Polish group had their flight at 12 o’clock, so our bus stopped at Birmingham Airport at 10 o’clock. We took our bags to the airport and went to a train that brought us to Birmingham City again. We looked at our last pounds and went shopping, some sat in Starbucks or MacDonalds for hours. At 7 in the evening we flew back home, to Germany

by Sarah Fischer (BvA)

 “At last! We’re in Kington.”  That’s what all of us- the 20 travelers- thought so full of anticipation and exhaustion when we finally had finished our long travel and alighted from the bus that had taken us there. Those of us who were accommodated in the hostel were relaxed and calm, but the others, who would live in host families during our one-week-stay, became very excited. The excitement went so sky high because in this moment we realized what was happening. I was one of them, full of nervousness to meet the host family I would be living with and worries if the family and especially my host sister would like me and if everything would work well.  Those worries were without any reason, I can say in retrospect, because I had a wonderful and eventful week, which I would always like to relive. My “everyday life” in an English family for one week, the impressions I got and the experiences I made, I will describe in this article.

I got to know my host family- the Williams’- and my home for the following week only a few hours later and when I eventually stepped over the door sill of a small, cute, typically English house, all of my worries and the tension disappeared. They gave me a warm welcome and I was greeted with a dinner where we had our first conversations around the dinner table. So I could collapse into bed relieved and dropped off to sleep- as early as never before: at half past 7. For anything else I still had 6 days left.

On the following morning I was full of motivation again, and wanted to catch up on everything I had missed the evening before. But my first shocked thought in this morning was: “Where in the world am I?” when a friendly voice woke me up with the words: “Sarah! You have to get up! It’s half past seven!” ”What?!  English? “, I asked myself for a second. But then I looked around in the small pink-coloured room I lay in and I finally realized where I was and why I was there: I was in Kington! I almost said it loudly. The 12 hours of deep sleep left marks, I think. I was dazed with sleep and I was a bit confused. But I got up and walked downstairs into the kitchen where the breakfast table was already set, as every morning. There was nothing left to be desired- from a standpoint of an Englishman. After 4 days my host family finally could convince me and I tried baked beans very hesitantly. They told me I couldn’t fly back to Germany without having tried this …it wasn’t as bad as I had expected, but I still prefer “Brötchen”

At breakfast my host family and I had the chance to get to know each other better and to have a little chat – in English of course. And I have to admit that I worried too much at the beginning. I actually was surprised how much I understood – I almost understood everything I was asked or told, but I hesitated to answer nevertheless because I didn’t want to make a mistake. I tried to remember my English lesson: When do I have to use which tense? – I had no idea. simple past? Or do I have to use present perfect now – or past perfect? Did they understand me?  What about a German accent…do I have one? Does it matter? Those worries were always on my mind – at least till the middle of the week. Then I tried to forget about all that and just tried to express my ideas. I was more relaxed, but still a little bit embarrassed, I have to say.

 When I strolled through charming small Kington with my host sister Holly in her school uniform –a pleated skirt, a white blouse and knee highs- we got the opportunity to make a conversation without many people around us and without all the excitement. So both of us felt more and more at ease and communicative, after a real silent start. But from day to day we got to know each other much better and soon both of us weren’t as shy as at the beginning anymore So particularly with her I connect fantastic memories of my time in Kington: On trips with the whole group to Cardiff, Birmingham or different Welsh museums and also the hours at Lady Hawkins’ School, where she showed me her everyday school life. And in the evenings we mostly sat together with the rest of the family in the living room and watched a DVD or just listened to music and talked about the day alone in her pink-coloured room that we shared. There are too many great memories to list them all.

All in all: It was an awesome week I spent there. I did not only make new experiences, got to know a lot about the English culture and everyday life or discovered differences and similarities to Germany…I also met a wonderful family who always treated me well, I had lots of fun with and I would always like to meet again. I would like to thank them from the bottom of my heart.

by Dominika Lewandowska, class IIE (LOG)

On November 17, 2010 twelve girls in the care of Mrs. Ambroziak and Mr. Bigielmajer set off to “conquer” Britain. After the excitement of air travel we were accommodated in a youth hostel in the charming town of Kington. On Thursday morning we went to our partner school – Lady Hawkins’ School, where we took part in journalistic workshops conducted by the newspaper editor of the “Hereford Times”. Later we were shown around the school buildings and met “Mr Luke” – our countryman, who is a math teacher in Kington. That day was ended with a delicious dinner at the bowling alley integration.

On Friday we went with our German and British friends for an interactive museum of science “Thinktank” in Birmingham. We felt that physics or chemistry might not be so terrible. At the end of this visit to the museum we watched a short projection in the planetarium, then, to our delight, we could have done Christmas shopping at the market and at the mall. The next day, it was time for the joint development project in the partner school. The projects were a great opportunity to talk with German and British students about their country’s culture and leisure activities. Then we went to the film ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows “- in English, of course, but it was not an obstacle to the flooding in the magical world of Harry.

During the trip we visited the museum in St Fagans, Cardiff. In a nice way we could trace the history of Wales, see the buildings in which people lived for centuries. A circular building designed … to cockfights induced a smile on the face because we could make out what it was designed for. Despite the fatigue, we had enough force during shopping in the centre of Cardiff.

On Monday, we saw a Welsh coal mine. We were horrified at the information that in the nineteenth century in that mine eight-year-old children worked for several hours a day, six days a week in total darkness … For a brief moment we visited Hay-on-Wye – the town of books, where antique shops, book shops and shelves full of books can be found every few meters. The culmination of the day was a farewell dinner at Burton’s.

On the return trip we were recollecting that unforgettable adventure, and we were also thinking about our home country. We will remember for a long time great evenings spent with our German friend and with good music. Also we will never forget “wholesale” buying tea at the local supermarket, the taste of fish and chips and our various linguistic slips which sometimes led to funny misunderstandings. It was a pleasure to use in practice English. Although the “country of Harry Potter” is really beautiful it is always nice to return to our homeland, and also our national … pork chop!

by Izabela Woznicka (LOG)

In October 2010 the second edition of the project created by the global association AIESEC Poland took place in our school. It is called ‘Enter Your Future’ and this project enables students from the whole world to take part in the international practice.

In Gostynin we had an opportunity to meet three students from Georgia, Indonesia and China. Together with my friends, I had a chance to participate in these lectures. They were mainly devoted to enterprising and how to work in groups effectively. Of course, all of them were in English. This language was the only way to communicate for all of us. Never have we taken part in such classes before. That’s why, at the beginning it was really hard to forget about Polish. Some students were also stressed, but it wasn’t necessary to feel this way because it turned out that our guests, who came to Gostynin, were very friendly and sociable. What’s more important, they were very patient while working with students. The culture differences weren’t a serious barrier for us. On the contrary, we were extremely interested in listening to girls talking about their home countries.

After we had introduced ourselves, we could focus on the main topic. We worked in groups all the time and we were supposed to both communicate and get on with. Our tasks were really exciting and we had to even take advantages of our art abilities. Moreover, our views were taken into consideration because of sharing information about small and huge enterprises. I was really amazed by one task. It was connected with creating an advertisement. We could advertise one chosen  product. Both the idea and the art work were really important. The winner group received a special prize for the best advertisement.

We were really keen on these practical classes and it wasn’t a waste of time for anyone. Good fun helped us improve the foreign language. In my opinion, a nice atmosphere is one of the most important things in effective learning. I think practical lessons make everyone learn English more fluently and they can give us more useful skills than typical lessons. That’s why I was so excited about my visit in England in November 2010.

by  Jessica and Denise   (BvA)

Shopping in England is just great. For example “Primark”. Primark is a big shop for clothes, jewellery and so on. In Germany we just have two shops of that chain; they are in Frankfurt and Bremen.

But in Germany we’ve got a lot of H&M shops. That’s our Primark. But it’s more expensive than Primark & the quality isn’t as good.

We think that Primark is a nice shop and we spent a lot of time in it when we were in Birmingham.

In England they also have some H&M shops but not so many as Primark.

It was a new experience to see a shop in England because they’re different from ours in Germany.

by Scott Johnson (LHS)

Am Freitagnachmittag 19.11.2010 haben wir während des Comeniustreffens einen Weihnachtsmarkt in Birmingham besucht. Joe und ich hatten eine wunderbare Zeit.