DIFFERENT WAYS OF TRAVELLING

Right in the middle of the holiday season, with lots of people leaving for or arriving from their holidays, here's a post with vocabulary related to travelling.

(Photo pics by English Learning Institute)

 

 

THIRD KRONBERG-ALKÖNIGSCHULE / A CORUÑA-RAFAEL DIESTE STUDENTS EXCHANGE 2025

From the 18th to the 25th of February, 22 of our 4ºESO students take part in the third edition of the Alkönigschule, Kronberg-Rafael Dieste, A Coruña student exchange 2025. Teachers Isabel Viña & Leticia Ogando are in charge of the Spanish group this year, while Julia Westenburger & Lara Anselm are again the ones on the German side. At the end of March, the German students will be in A Coruña.

The photos above show the whole group during the tour of Kronberg today.

VISIT UPDATES:

- Photos of their visit to Frankfurt on Thursday February, 20th, below.

- Photo of their trip to Marburg on Monday February 24th, below.

EXCHANGE 2023-24: FEEDBACK FROM OUR GERMAN PARTNERS

 Bringing you the feedback of the school exchange experience explained by one of the German students. Here's the link to the post in their school's page and below the translation into English.

Unsere Austauschfahrt 2024 nach A Coruña in Spanien

Our exchange trip to A Coruña in Spain in 2024

We, 19 students in the 10th grade of the Kronberger Altkönigschule, had great expectations as we waited impatiently for our plane at Frankfurt Airport on Friday, March 1st. Our destination was A Coruña, a coastal city in the northwest of Spain, where our exchange would take place. After changing planes in Madrid, we met our exchange families and many greetings were exchanged.

On the way to the families' houses, we not only noticed how impressive A Coruña is, but were also able to admire the untouched nature outside the city. The sea made surprisingly high waves, completely opposite to the south of Spain with its Mediterranean weather. In fact, the temperatures hardly differed from those in Germany - it even rained more often.

During the week, in addition to many excursions, we also visited the school of our exchange students and were able to watch the lessons. It wasn't very different from ours, although the Spanish students have some subjects that aren't taught at our school, such as Galician. What was also very striking was the behavior of the Spanish students. They were much more open than German students and their friendships seemed to be much closer than ours.

Our excursions took us to very different places, accompanied by our teachers Ms. Westenburger and Ms. Anselm. In the “Museo del Hombre”, which is a scientific museum about people and the human body, we particularly enjoyed the interactive area where you could, for example, measure your jump height. A particular highlight was our trip to four nearby villages, which were surrounded by idyllic nature and looked like they had come out of a typical Spanish film. After our visits to the lighthouse “La Torre de Hercules” (World Heritage Site) and the aquarium, we were welcomed by the city councilor for education in the town hall. As impressive as it looked from the outside, it was even more beautiful from the inside. Historical paintings hung in every room and everything was so elegantly furnished that you would think you were in a castle.

On Thursday we spent our day in the pilgrim city of Santiago de Compostela. There we visited the huge cathedral, where you can see the tomb of the Apostle Jacob and the breathtaking interior architecture.

In our free time we went on other great trips with our Spanish host families. Some students went to the coast and ate typical specialties, such as pulpo (octopus), or visited Cape Finisterre, the end of the world. Others were very lucky to be able to watch CD Lugo's local derby against Deportivo A Coruña. That was really great!

After this eventful week, it was not easy for many to say goodbye at the airport on Saturday, March 9th. With heavy hearts, we hugged our host families and Spanish friends one last time before we went back to Frankfurt. Each of us learned something from this exchange and made many incredible memories. I can therefore only recommend that everyone take part in such an exchange if they get the opportunity.

Author: 10G student

EXCHANGE 2023-24: Saturday 9th March, GOODBYE TO THE KRONBERG STUDENTS

Today we said goodbye to the 19 students from Kronberg, Germany, who have been with us this last week. Here's the farewell photo at Alvedro airport and all the other complete group photos taken during their stay, but there are previous posts following below this one for each of the days. 

Hoping they have a safe journey back. (Update: All arrived well and on time)

At the same time, this activity is my final collaboration with the school where I've been working for the last 16 years. I'm very proud to have worked here, to have taken part in activities like this one. Thanks again to all my teacher colleagues at school and in this specific activity specially to Julia Westenburger, Lara Anselm and Hilda Fraga, who have had an essential part in setting it up and making it work and also the help supplied by Belén Méndez, Isabel Viña and Isabel López Viñuela and the students taking part in it. It's been a great experience.

EXCHANGE 2023-24: Friday 8th March, DRYPOINT ENGRAVING WORKSHOP AT BELAS ARTES MUSEUM

 The last activity planned for the German students was a drypoint engraving workshop at the Belas Artes Museum in A Coruña. The students had the opportunity to make their own drypoint work and also visit the painting exhibitions by Rubens and Sorolla at the museum. 

(Special thanks to the museum curator Manuel Mosquera and staff for their assistance during the visit).

First they did the design, later the engraving process.

The results:

Finally, the tour round Sorolla's exhibition:

EXCHANGE 2023-24: Thursday 7th March, TRIP TO SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA

 Our second day-trip was to the capital of Galicia, Santiago de Compostela. Unfortunately it rained throughout all our visit there, and although it's said that rain in Santiago is art, it wasn't very comfortable to stroll the old town under umbrellas...

Our first stop was at the Cidade da Cultura (above) to have a view of the whole city from there and visit the Galician Library and Archive (below). (Photos from cidadedacultura.gal)

Later we went to the city centre and stopped at the local market below. (Photo: Guía Repsol)

After we toured the old town up to the Obradoiro square.

In the afternoon, we visited the inside of the cathedral, walking past the tomb of the apostle Saint James.

The weather was so unpleasant that there was no opportunity of taking a group photo, but the teachers got to take some at the Obradoiro square.