37 Wellington pupils and their German partners took part in a language and cultural exchange in November and March. In late November, the UK pupils travelled to Germany to spend a week with their German friend who came to Scotland in March. The programme involved five days of workshops learning together and having fun. Participants had the chance to try new sports in the partner schools and to work on teambuilding and problem-solving activities.
Emilia’s report, below, gives a participant’s view of the experience. It was printed in the Winter edition of the school magazine.
Emilia’s German Exchange Report
My stay in Germany was amazing. It was my first time going abroad without my parents so I was very nervous before I went but I had a really great time and will feel much more confident going away next time. It felt like quite a long journey to get there but it gave me the opportunity to speak to people in my year on the trip that I hadn’t had the chance to chat with as much since they started at Wellington. That was an aspect of the trip I hadn’t expected and really enjoyed.
When we got to Düsseldorf airport, we all got on the bus and headed to the hotel where we were to meet our German families. When we first got to the hotel, I was getting a bit worried because I couldn’t see my family or my suitcase. A few moments later, I found my suitcase but still not my family. It was a couple minutes and then my German family came up to me and said ‘hello’. I was surprised at how well they could speak English. It was a short car journey to my family’s house which was very pretty. It had a cellar and three floors. I never went in the cellar or the top floor but the other two floors I went on frequently. The first night things seemed unfamiliar and I missed my big sister but the family made me very welcome and helped me settle in.
It was the first night and all was going well. The next day, we were going to take the train to one of the cities called Cologne. Sadly, on that day, the Christmas market was shut because it was a Sunday and it was ‘Totensonntag’. It was sad because the Christmas market looked very good! It took about an hour to get from the train station to Cologne. We went with Ella, Grace, Felix and their families. I was fun to take the trip in a group with plenty of people to chat to. We went to the Cathedral which was amazing and very tall. We climbed up to the top of it and got some good pictures. I was glad that I am not afraid of heights! We looked around the Cathedral and inside the church part then went to the Lindt chocolate museum. We went in and then started queuing when the fire alarm went off! We were then waiting outside in the rain for a while dreaming of chocolate. Then, when we finally got inside we got to go straight through because the families had already paid for the tickets. The museum was actually very informative. It gave you all of the ways that Lindt makes the chocolate from getting the beans to making it into chocolate. We went through quite quickly then went to the chocolate tasting section. There was a Lindt chocolate fountain! Oh my gosh, the chocolate was good! The chef stuck some wafers in and then gave it to us. It was delicious. I did need to lick my hand because the chef accidentally dropped the wafer on my hand. It was alright though. I sanitised my hand afterwards. After we had finished up in the museum, we walked to a restaurant to have a drink before we went back on the train back to the house. Ella, Felix and I went while Grace and her partner waited for their chocolate sculptures. Ella, Felix and I kept walking at our normal pace and we always ended up at the front. I don’t know whether that was because we are really fast walkers or if the others were just slow. We will never know. When we got to the restaurant, it was pouring down with rain. We were sitting outside but there was a waterproof surrounder so that we didn’t get wet. We had our drinks and then we needed to go to the toilet. When we went, it turned out that we needed to pay for it. We started to go in then the lady told us that we needed to pay but we didn’t have any cash. We started to walk away when the lady said that we could just go in anyway.
On Monday, it had been two nights. We drove to school and the first activity was an Ice breaker activity. It was really fun because we did the most random things like put a certain number of body parts on the floor and we were in a group of a certain number of people. We then had a tour of the school and then a selfie tour of Dortmund Christmas Market. On Tuesday, we went to the Wuppertal Schwebebahn Museum and went on the suspension railway. We also went to the local Christmas market. On Wednesday, we attended the first two lessons, which were art, and then went to Phoenix de Lumieres. Then we did an art project on the Hundertwasser art show. Thursday was the workshop day. We created our own computer game, wrote a Scottish and German fairytale, learned about Christmas across the World and we did either a battle of the cultures or played football. I chose the battle of the cultures and it was really fun. We played different games from different countries. We did some social dancing as well which was really fun. Friday was then our last day. We attended the first two lessons, English, and then went to the Borussia Dortmund stadium. It was really great. We did walk there and back but it was fine. There was a recording studio which my friends and I spent most of our time in. We did many karaoke songs that were in German without knowing any of the words or the tune to them, but it was still fun.
The last day was very sad. I had had such a lovely time and I was wanting to go home but I didn’t want to at the same time. It was nice to go home though. Overall, I had such an amazing experience with going to Germany and it has given me a lot more confidence when going away without my parents.