FROschTOsch

by Niklas (BvA)

You could discuss this topic for days and days. For the majority of the boys, being a dancer is boring, stupid or not masculine. The majority of the girls has got a different opinion. If a boy can dance, he is very grown-up, masculine and interesting in the eyes of most girls.

I’m a ballroom and hip hop dancer for more than two years now. I started when I was 15 with a standard course. I had never heard of “Quickstep” or “Rumba” before. But I’ve quickly started loving it. Not just because of the nice girls who where in my group . Dancing is a real sport. People who have never danced before would think it isn’t, but it really is. You can compare 90 minutes of dancing with half an hour of running. Hip hop is even harder than ballroom dancing. After one hour of hip hop training, you’re totally exhausted.

The good thing is not only the dancing itself, it’s the feeling of doing something different. If you ask around, you’ll hear “Oh, I play football” or ”I’m into basketball” or whatever. Dancing is still something special nowadays.

You also get to know many things, you’ll need in job interviews or on occasions like that. Part of the standard course is a behaviour training and “Dining-Seminar” where you learn, how to behave when you’re dining out and how to avoid all the traps that reveal “bad manners”. Another point is that you learn to control your body and get a better feeling for it. On top of that people say dancing improves your ability to concentrate and your memory.

All in all you can say, dancing is a sport for everyone who loves being active in a modern and fancy way. Especially for young people. So, don’t be a fool and say “Being a dancer is boring!” Get up, go to your local dancing school and take a look. You’ll love it!

by Gesine Franke   (Year 11, BvA)

I was one of the newcomers. One of those, who didn’t know where to find the rooms and who the people were. And exactly this was my problem. On the one hand I was really excited to meet new people and to master a new situation. But on the other hand I had a bit of a stomachache. What if they don’t like me?

“Ok, there we are.” It is a beautiful building. It’s not like the other schools. It’s colourful. It isn’t just a grey barrack, where you know you don’t want to go in only by looking at it. It’s a place, where you like to go and spend half of your day in it.

I breathed in and out. “Ok, you want to go to this school.” On the school yard I felt like everybody was looking at me. There were two girls. I thought they looked like newcomers, a little bit disorientated, and they were my age. I pulled myself together and spoke to them. “Hey. Are you new here, too? I don’t know where to go and hoped you can help me. By the way, I’m Gesine and you?” Uff….. They looked at me. The silence lasted ages to me. But then they smiled. “Yes, we are newcomers, too. You can wait with us. We hope we will find somebody, who can tell us where we have to be.”

This was my first step into a new future. The two girls are good friends of mine today. The first day at this school I was still a little bit disorientated, but my classmates were all really nice and helped me.

I found a lot of friends and all my worries didn’t come true. I’m really happy to go to this school now.

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 Philip Kulej (BvA)

Deeply religious? Hospitable? Ambitious?  Those are only a few of the best known prejudices about Polish people. But how much of it is reality? Only clichés or even more?  This and also the differences and similarities in comparison to the German culture, I, as a student with parents from Poland, would like to discuss in the following article.

The first prejudice is, that Polish men are much more religious than German ones and I have to admit, that it is even more than a cliché, it’s definitely the truth. Religion has a huge priority, especially in the previous generations of the Polish. During visits to the part of my family who is still living in Poland, it is quite usual to go to church every Sunday and there are only very few excuses, whereas in Germany, church only plays a minor part and  isn’t  that important in everyday life. In my life religion does exist, because of my parents, who have shown me the importance of faith and the Christian traditions. I don’t have to go to church every week, but on Christian holidays, church attendance is an inherent part.

In addition, they say that the Polish are a very sociable and hospitable people, that they are also rather active.  And I can say: It is no lie. While Germans, for example, prefer celebrating in a relaxed way, Polish parties are much louder and livelier.  So Germans can be characterized as showing a more silent and reserved behaviour, but nevertheless I can say that they know anyway how to have fun.

But the Polish and the Germans have something in common, too. One example for it is the precision and their conscience. Both of them take their work as well as other tasks very seriously, they are ambitious and perfectionists.

To sum up, I can say, that I can identify with both cultures and I wouldn’t like to miss one of them because both of them are enriching my life.

by Nina Weber, Linnéa Tölle (BvA)

Our school has made the commitment to help Tibetan people with a winter school for refugee children.

For six years we have been supporting this project now. Within this project many people work together really well to help them get the best possible education and a good start into adult life.

For sure you are very curious where our partner school is, aren’t you? The school is located in northern India, more precisely in Ladakh. By the way: Ladakh lies between the mountain ranges of the Himalayas and has 270,126 inhabitants. The land area amounts to 86,904 square kilometres.

We support the partner school with money for teachers, books and pens, which we earn with social projects in our school. In winter we always organize a bazar, where we sell for example donated books, candles and  Christmas tree decorations. In summer we have two opportunities for helping them: On the one hand we celebrate our traditional summer festival where you can find our Ladakh stall. On the other hand we also have our traditional Charity Run, where each participant collects money for the laps he or she runs from family and friends.

On 10^th March every year, the international “Day of the Tibetan Flag” takes place and we go to either Hilden or Langenfeld to point out and explain the hoisted flag to people who walk down the precinct.

We do this because of the situation in Tibet.

Tibet has been under Chinese rule since 1959 und Tibetans are not granted the human right to practise their culture and traditions freely. Many Tibetans, among them many children, have therefore left Tibet and found refuge south of the Himalayas. Most of them crossed the dangerous mountains on foot and under the threat of being detected and killed by the Chinese. Our partners have their new home in Choglamsar near  Ladakh’s capital Leh.

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 Marta Lewandowska and Małgorzata Leonarcik (LOG)

School is really important in every youth’s life. Education determines our future career – our job, our status, our satisfaction. This is why deciding on our path is such a serious matter. In every field, we need different qualifications. School can help us develop our abilities.

When we decide on our school life, we also choose our leading subjects. That means we learn the subjects we need in our future job, e.g. Maths for engineers, Biology for doctors. However, when choosing a path, we are still very young and inexperienced. It is hard to make a proper decision. Youths are likely to change their mind as they learn new things and find their new passions and interests. It means that even if someone has been learning History diligently for 2 years, he can suddenly go on to learning Physics and taking a path of an engineer.

We conducted a survey at our school. We wanted to find out opinions of our schoolmates that chose different majors. The questions was their future job and their reason for picking it out. We think that the survey made many people think about their life.

The results of our work are quite interesting. We found out that people that chose Science as their main subject (and also Biology, Geography, etc.) are more likely to take jobs connected with it. People learn Biology and Chemistry because their plan for life is being a doctor, a nurse, a pharmacist.

If one spends much time on Maths, he probably dreams about being an architect, a banker or a businessman. The reason for that can probably have something to do with a specific character of the subject. A student needs to think logically and to understand many rules and laws of the nature.

There’s a difference in regard to humanistic subjects. The subjects are rather not very specific and it may be the reason why students’ plans differ so much. It is quite common to find people who want to be psychologists, lawyers, journalists, but others prefer being geodesists and doctors! They don’t care that it’s difficult to take this path, while they aren’t used to learning Science. They want to fulfill their dreams no matter what. Maybe humanists are just such full of passions people that think with their heart and not their common sense…

We also asked about motivations of young people. Most of them chose… money. Maybe Poland is still a poor country and that’s the reason why every one dreams of being rich. Wealth can help fulfill all the dreams and aspirations. Isn’t that sad?

However, many people choose their job according to interests. When someone likes drawing, job of an architect is actually perfect for him. One can realize his potential and be satisfied in his life. We are also proud that some of our schoolmates just want to help others- that is the reason for being a doctor or a policeman. Other causes can be: a contact with people, traditions in family, travels and prestige.

However, it is also quite disappointing that not every one has a good reason for choosing a particular path. Life is sad when one doesn’t have a motivation. It is harder to achieve your goals, when you don’t feel like really achieving them. That is why, our young age can actually create a problem. We are still indecisive and we don’t know much about the world. We can dream, but we can’t be sure… And (for good or for bad) it is the most important time for us, when our future life is being determined.

Let’s take this challenge!

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 Dominika Lewandowska IIe (LOG)

I was born in a small mystery town called Gostynin, where maisonette castle was built on the hill which used to be densely crowned with wood. At present townsfolk have had the castle reconstructed, but spirit of old one is still present in many legends and memory of the oldest people living here…

The modest, wooden but really comfortable castle was overlooking the mingy village. Nowadays at the same place the sun’s radiance is given back by Kocioł Lake tract. In the stronghold a foreman with his beautiful young wife were living. Their peaceful existence was interrupted by Tatar’s breaking into Polish land. The foreman had to go fighting with the pagans, unfortunately he was taken captive. One day a young and handsome knight came to the castle. The forewoman was jaded, she hadn’t got any message about her husband and because of her loneliness she fell in love with the knight. A few months later  emissaries arrived to the castle. They were to take a ransome for the foreman’s life, but perfidious knight had them incarcerated and he said no word to the forewoman.  By-and-by a message was brought to the citadel telling about foreman’s death. Unfaithful wife and the knight got married. During pompous wedding the spirit of the foreman appeared and damned traitorous woman and sneaky knight. The castle with wedding’s guests caved in the ground and on its site Kocioł lake came into being. The sole relic of old castle was crucifix, which was sticking out the lake’s tract. One day a country woman was washing underclothes, she caught the crucifix and invoked. Just then the roob disappeared for ages, but during the full moon, they say, it emerges in the moonlight.

Kocioł lake is frequent motive in Gostynin’s legends and the next tradition will be about it too. In the castle a prince was living, whose daughter married a plebeian in spite of her father objecting. The outraged prince killed the bridegroom while a priest was blessing newlyweds. The church, which had been situated on the hill, disappeared under the ground and now people can see there Kocioł lake.

Other legend says that before the ages, on the place where at present there is the Kocioł lake, was a sizeable town. Hard-working and opulent people were living there, however because of their vanity, they started sinnig against the Lord. The God punished sinners cruelly – the town caved in the abyss and from the hole surfaced the lake called Kocioł. The fishermen angling fishes there claimed they had been able to hear the voices and clang of a church’s bell during the Easter. It was said that a sinless girl who will be washing her clothes in the lake, may reverse the bad fortune and restore the town to the life, if she isn’t scared of a vision of it. Someday a young girl was washing her raiment in the Kocioł Lake and she felt she had touched something strange. The girl realized that had been a steeple, unfortunately she was shocked and a little bit frightened. The church had to stay in the darkness forever.