Day 1 at BC Broekhin
In the morning, we visited the Dutch school (BC Broekhin) for the first time.
Firstly, we were introduced with the programme for the upcoming week. Secondly, all of us watched the pre-assignment videos that we had to prepare before coming to the Netherlands. There was also a survey about our knowledge about empathy and cultural diversity. We were divided by groups and had to choose our topics for the video that we are going to make on Thursday. After that, the Dutch teachers gave us stroopwafels and fruit juice. Then, our partners gave us a school tour around the whole building which was huge.
After a little break, we played a great deal of entertaining games such as sack jumping, egg walking, tug of war and nail pooping. In the afternoon, miss Dijkstra talked about our topic – cultural diversity. We had an assignment to go around the city centre and take pictures of the places that represent different cultures. We visited St. Christopher’s Church and The Munster Church.
In the evening, our partners showed us how they prepare for the upcoming festivals. They painted our faces and showed us their self-made costumes. It was a day full with colours and fun!
Day 2 in Roermond
In the morning we visited the Town Hall in Roermond.
There they greeted us with drinks and cake and they showed us around the diffrent rooms.
The Deputy Mayor of Culture explained all of the history behind every room and the events that have taken place in there. Then we went into the Council Hall where we had debates on cultural diversity. We had one group that agrees with the statement and one group that opposes the statement. After that we met at The Movement (the youth center in Roermond) where we had 3 diffrent workshops. One, where we learned how to hip hop dance and one where we had diffrent drama games and talked about feelings and acting. The last one was about movie making and how to think of a good plot and a story to catch the eye of the viewer. Also we learned the diffrent ways of filming with a camera, how to take cinematic shots and how the camera lenses work.
After the workshops we went to the Fatih Mosque. At the entrance we had to take off our shoes. They explained all about the history of the Mosque how it was created and what to do at a Mosque. After that we went with a large group of the exchange students to one of the girl’s houses to cook pasta. Before that we went to the supermarket and bought ingredients for the pasta and we also tried traditional Dutch food frikandel. After we ate we went ice skating in Germany. It was an amazing day.
Day 3 in Roermond – day 5 of our trip
Shortly after we arrived at BC Broekhin (The Dutch school), which was at 9 am, we started brainstorming ideas for our end product. The previous day we had chosen our theme and received instructions about an imaginary scenario, that we could use. Then Mr Avci came and gave a lecture about cultural diversity. He showed us examples of people’s behaviour and how even unconsciously we discriminate others, who are different from us. Afterwards we had to complete our end product. Each group did really well. During the cultural evening we got to watch the films and even some parents joined us. There was lots of delicious traditional food and drinks. Each foreign group represented their country with a traditional dance, which was an extremely fun activity.
It was a really bonding experience.
Day trip to Amsterdam
10th February
We started our day early. First we met at the train station in Roremond at 8:30. We caught the train and had a 2 hour trip to the capital of The Netherlands – Amsterdam. As soon as we arrived everyone had a quick lunch and then we went to the Rijksmuseum. There we saw lots of painting and art from different eras and the building of the museum was really beautiful. It was such an amazing experience to observe all the art and the feeling it represents.
After our time in the Museum we had lots of free time, in wich we got to know the city and the culture better. Everyone got souvenirs and had fun. After that we had dinner at an amazing restaurant. The day ended by catching the train back to Roermond and going home to take a rest from the big day and get ready for our family experiences tomorrow!
On Saturday we had our family day.
We went to a place where three countries (Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium) meet. There you can be in all of them at the same time. The weather was foggy so we couldn’t have a walk around the forest, so we drove to Maastricht, which is one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands. We saw the city hall and the old church. After that we went shopping. At around seven o’clock, we went back to Roermond and had mint tea in a really nice bar.
