Tuesday, June 7th Our trip to Romania started on Tuesday morning, so we got up early to be at Hanover Airport at 8:30 am on time. We checked in and waited for our flight to Vienna to fly from there to Iasi. However, we were held up by a thunderstorm and were only able to start in Vienna 1,5 hours later, so our host families in Romania were already waiting for us. After landing in Iasi, we finally got to know our host families and then drove to their home relatively quickly. Due to the exhausting flight and the somewhat problematic stay in Vienna, we went to bed early. Inga
Wednesday, June 8th After we had had time to get to know our host families on Tuesday, our first project day started today. At 8:30 am, my host sister and I were kindly brought to school by her father, where we were warmly welcomed by the other exchange students and teachers. The day then started with us playing icebreaker games to get to know each other better, which was really fun. Afterwards we went to an auditorium which looked like an amphitheater where the students from each country presented their prepared presentations with the title: How to reduce plastic and paper at school“. We all worked on ideas how to become more sustainable as a school in the previous weeks and documented our progress. This way we were able to find out more about the other school’s activities to also gather ideas to improve our school’s sustainability. Before the meeting in Romania each school also prepared a questionnaire to conduct a survey on the topic “Am I responsible and what am I willing to do” at the respective school. It felt like all students are really aware already and are willing to sacrifice. After that we had a short coffee break, in which we could taste snacks lovingly prepared, and we then quickly continued with the program: A debate about the question “Does this parliament believe that free public transportation in urban areas would significantly reduce pollution?” which the students from Romania had prepared. We came to the conclusion that both sides have reasonable arguments and there is not really a winner. We then got a school tour where I noticed that there are many pictures and murals about the last kings. The tour ended with a very tasty lunch. After that we were divided into five groups. For each group there was a different discussion topic, for example my group had the topic “local products”. The respective results were then presented to the other groups. At about 4:00 p.m we got into a small bus as a huge group. The following city tour of Iasi was interesting and there were also beautiful places to see, but it was much too hot and the city tour accordingly long and very exhausting. After the final group photo, my host sister went with me and others from the group to a food mall. It was so cool; we need something like that in Germany as well. We both shared some food because the portions were too big for both of us. At 10:00 p.m we said goodbye and took the bus back home where we watched her favorite series (now also mine) together. It has made me very happy that I got along very well with her from the first moment and I enjoyed staying with her family. Sina
Thursday, June 9th My host sister and I took public transportation to get to school as usual. In a big city like Iasi it’s quite easy to get to your destination by using those. After we had arrived at school we did some icebreakers as the day before. That day we built little rattles/shakers made of paper cups on which we drew flowers and hearts and things like that. Then those were filled with rice and after that we made some music with our newly created instruments. Later we were separated into small groups and had to develop questions which we later wanted to ask Romanian politicians. After a little coffee break the discussion started. With the help of the Romanian students who did a great job in translating we were able to ask the politicians our questions concerning the sustainability of Iasi. It was interesting even though it was a little bit long and we were exhausted. Later us students divided into smaller groups and went out to eat lunch. Some of us already went to the botanical garden to eat in a nearby restaurant and some stayed near the school. It was cool because we got the chance to socialize with more students also from Spain and the Netherlands. At 4:00 pm we met up in front of the botanical garden and after everyone was there (the teachers were the ones who were late) we started the tour. The botanical garden was really pretty, and we took lots and lots of photos. There was also a big greenhouse and literally so many cool plants, beautiful roses and funny cacti. We also ran around with some of the students from the Dutch team and got to know them better. After that we all went home where we spent the rest of the evening with our lovely guest sisters/brothers. Pia
Friday, June 10th: In the morning our bus left at 8:30. On our way to Bukovina we first visited a goat farm. We were able to try goat chese and other products from the farm. Then they showed us the goats and nearly all of us took pictures, because they were so sweet. After that, our bus took us to another farm, where vegetables are planted. They showed us how to grow plants ecologically and climate friendly. Because of our delay we skipped the visit of the monastery and went to Arinis Adventure Park. It was fun beause of the climbing which we were allowed to do. In the evening there was a festive diner and we tried new food like „Sarmale“. After that, we learned some dances from the other countries and taught them a few German dances too. It would be very embarrassing if anyone would show the videos. We spent the night in a hotel in Bukovina and I was happy to go to bed because of the exhausting but funny and wonderful day. Mirja