Monday, Dec 1st: After arriving late on Sunday, Monday was the first day of our project meeting at Marnix College. Traditionally, my host Danielle and me went to school by bicycle and met her friends and other exchange students there. From the first moment I got along very well with her and I enjoyed staying with her family. The day began with getting to know each other and the school. Since I already joined the meeting in Ede last year, I met a few Dutch and international students from the last project and got to talk to them again. Seeing all those different nationalities united was a nice experience. Together we started the project work by presenting our school and our team. That way, we could find out more about other school systems and regions. We continued by talking about our national ecological and economical systems and exchanged future ideas. Since school was over at around 3 o´clock, mine and Philina´s host took us to a small café in the center of Ede. In the evening I had dinner with my host family and really enjoyed talking about our different cultures. Henrieke
Tuesday, Dec 3rd 2019 On Thursday we had to be at school at 8:30 am, which is very early for the students from the Netherlands. After a short delay we went directly to the Nioo-Knaw in Wageningen, the Dutch Institute for Ecology, by bike. Directly after our arrival we were surprised by the modern architecture of the building. There were plants and birds everywhere. At 9:00 am all students and teachers were welcomed and a short film, which introduced their building and their work, was shown. After this impressive film and a lecture with the topic: “Shit is Gold”, an employee, presented us their concept of a nature-friendly toilet. From 10:00-11:00 am we got a guided tour through the building and were able to see some research and work on the topic: “The conflict between economy and ecology”, which I only partly liked. At 2:00 pm the program ended and my exchange student and I met with some other participants of the project in the city center of Ede. I ate a Dutch croquette. In the evening my exchange student and I visited a friend and her Spanish exchange student. In the evening we all ate Boerenkool, a typical Dutch food. After that another friend and her exchange student, a friend of mine, came to us and we played cards and karaoke with typical German, Spanish and Dutch songs. At 10:30 pm my exchange student and I went back to her house. Philina
Wednesday, Dec 4th 2019 On Wednesday, we met at school at 9:45 am. Then, we drove by bike to the National Park „Hoge Veluwe“, which is very similar to our heather. There, we searched for different plants in it and had to take photos and assemble them in a collage. After we got back to school, we had a lunch break. Then, we made some sports activities in the school gym. There were different stations. We were able to do archery and play soccer, badminton or „Rundlauf“. At 3:30 pm we went home. In the evening I ate ”Vaai“, a typical cake from the Dutch-Belgian region of Limburg, for the first time. It was very delicious! Liana
Thurdsday, Dec. 5th 2019 In the morning our train left the station Ede-Wageningen to Amsterdam. First we visited the Vondelpark. We had to take pictures of a special bird, an exotic tree and 3 reasons why people visit the Vondelpark. I think in the summer the park is much more beautiful than during the winter (it was too cold). After this we went to the Rijksmuseum. It is an Art museum with famous paintings like "The nightwatch" or paintings from different artists. I have also seen the "Dollhouses" and a libary with very old books inside. From 1.30 until 6.00 o´clock we had some free time. I went to Rederij Kooij with my host and her friend. We did a boat tour across the canals. On this tour we saw the helpers from Santa Claus called "Petes". The Petes are black and some people think that´s racist; because in the past the slaves were black. After the boat tour we went to a shopping street and a building with very expensive shops inside. I think I never want to buy some of this expensive stuff, because most of it was ugly. I was surprised that you can buy drugs (especially weed) in every souvenir shop, but in Amsterdam drugs are legal. At 6.00 o´clock we all went home by train. After that the sister of my host picked us up and we drove to their grandmother for dinner. We also had a little Santa Claus party with specialties from the Netherlands. Nathalie
Friday, December 6th: After a quite eventful week, Friday was a very relaxed day. We met at school in the morning and talked about the results of the meeting. In groups we discussed, what we enjoyed most and which aspects of the project could be improved. Because it was December 6th, we celebrated Saint Nicolas day by playing a fun gift exchange game. In the end we all had at least one small gift and lots of candies. In the afternoon almost all of us met at my host’s house, we played games together, had some snacks and spent our last day together until we went to the bowling center in the evening. There we first had dinner and then played bowling to wrap up the week. Henrieke
