Day Seven. Last Day

That was the last day of our exchange programme. We had 24 hours to enjoy the last moments spending in the Netherlands with our new friends. Firstly, we went to our friendly company picnic, even Dutch weather said goodbye to us, thus giving one more windy day as a present. After picnic we went to our host families, they also wanted to say goodbye to us and to spend with us as much as possible at last. We spent time with our host families, exchanged presents, invited them to come to Russia. We spent our last night preparing our stuff.
It was a shame to leave, but the time passed very quickly and we had to go to the station, and soon we were speeding towards the airport. Pretty quickly we passed all the tests (as opposed to Russian inspections), largely due to the friendliness of the employees of the European airport. We were very happy to return home, we missed it, but anyway we wanted to go back to see our amazing Dutch friends, and to see more parts of this wonderful country - the Netherlands.

 

Day Six. Walibi.

Every day our standing in the Netherlands was full of different activities. This day was no exception, we went to Walibi park. It’s a big amusement park with roller coasters and lots of attractions. There were many attractions to suit all tastes, and if you're afraid of  them, you can choose something else. We were there on Saturday, but despite this there was no long lines, and everybody could try to catch everything in this amusement park. We had fun there all day. And the culmination of this fun was coaster Goliath. Goliath - the tallest roller coaster in Europe, and probably the scariest. Besides attractions there were more street performances,  which we also absolutely enjoyed. Here in Russia there are no amusement parks like Walibi, so we  were really happy to be there. Small addition to all of this was a journey (going by car from Almere to Walibi). During which we saw beautiful views of nature Dutch, tulip fields, dikes, windmills etc. 

Gleb Melnikov

Day Five.Newspaper. Family Evening at School

This day was,of course,breathtaking, but at the same time full of serious work to do. All exchange students were divided into 4 groups to create a newspaper about the Nederlands. We had to choose the editor and discuss everything together. Then we were busy with writing small articles on different topics from policy to weather. After writing we put everything together and tried to create a ready media product. The judges of this competition had to decide which one is the best. As the prize the group of winners received a cake and small souvenirs. 

During the rest of the day till  we prepaired for the evening. For example, we together with girls gathered at Jemima's place and baked triangles with apples as small snacks for evening. Doubtless, all of the guys with the help of their parents prepaired a huge amount of different traditional dishes and set the tables. Everyone was so pleased with delicious treat. 
Moreover, a group from Prague and Yaroslavl had to make a creative number for the evening. Prague group sang a lovely song all together. Our Russian group prepaired two dances and traditional Russian short songs. We had been training for several months, and we wanted to present it very well. It couldn't be done without nerves and expectations. But when we heard applause from the audience we had an unbelievable feeling of proud and gratitude. Later we had a small disco party, which was absolutely fun!

Sveta Udut, Babyuk Victoria

Day Four. Panorama Mesdag. International Court. Madurodam museum. Beach

This day we went to DenHaag, it was about 2 hour trip, but the weather had changed maybe 4 times from storm to sun shining.
So, in the city we were divided into two groups. One group went to Panorama Mesdag, another to International Court.

Panorama Mesdag

It’s museum of panorama
is a cylindrical painting (also known as a Cyclorama) more than 14 metres high and about 40 metres in diameter (120 metres in circumference). But before going to museum, we walked in the city, DenHaag is remarkable town with its special architecture and unique atmosphere. We saw residence of the monarch and many monuments, so city left its impression of a typical European medieval town, but with his entourage.
Panorama Mesdag is not only a panorama, but also more modern art. Which left mixed feelings about itself, sometimes I felt that I had lost touch with reality. When you are looking to this art, you may feel like it's all reality, not a picture. One small detail brought great pleasure to Russian students, It was Russian speaking guide, So we got many treats.

                                                                                               International Court

One group visited International Hague Court.  It was such a good experience. We saw how the Court works and what are the functions of it. We had an excursion inside and in the middle part of it we saw the main Judger of the Court. He gave us a very big and interesting speech about his work and about The Court. Then we continued our excursion and saw how does the real process go. It was really interesting. After visiting The Court we got some time to enjoy the city and make some photos. In our opinion it was a nice day and now we know a lot of interesting things about The Hague Court.

After attending these two placed we headed for another museum together. This museum is called Madurodam which is  miniature park and tourist attraction. It represents  model replicas of famous Dutch castles, public buildings, and large industrial projects as found at various locations in the country. Madurodam is called a city, but is more than that. It shows the most important characteristics parts of the Netherlands. There you feel yourself like a King Kong because buildings are just of 1:25 scale.

As the end of our saturated day went to the beach of North Sea. Dutch people said, that if there was a good weather we could see Britain, but it was not possible. But despite this small disappointment, we have been enjoying a stroll on the beach, at the time, as in our Homeland was still snow.Also we took a lot of pictures and just relaxed. It was a kind of secluded place where we could just sit, allow a warm wind to blow through our heads, think about our quickly rushing life.

After such an eventful day, we are almost all very tired, so everyone was asleep on the bus.

Gleb Melnikov, Nikita Kurochkin

Day Three. Workshops.Movie.Evening

We had a great and productive second day at school. This day we attended different workshops: Dutch language, Science class, Dancing, Singing and Sports. Everyone had an awesome time and seemed very exited about it.

After school we went to the city library to watch the movie which is called "Freedom Writers". This movie was really truly-moving, touching, it was actually hard to hide our emotions and tears. It made us thought about different important things such as national inequality and racism. 

In the evening we were invited in the restaurant where there was an unlimited choice of dishes of different cuisines from Asian to European. Later we went to the beach and enjoyed the beautiful panorama of bright night city. We spent a fantastic time together in cozy, friendly atmosphere there. 

 Sergey Sagin, Elina Kisileva

Day Two. Amsterdam

In early morning we had the departure bus to Amsterdam. It wasn’t a long trip, but we enjoyed amazing views through the windows during it.

We were divided into three groups and each group visited different museums in Amsterdam: Van Gogh Museum, Rijksmuseum and Stedelijk Museum. All these museums are situated close to each other.

Rijksmuseum Museum

The Rijksmuseum, which in English means – The State Museum, exists for more than two hundred years and today belongs to the most breathtaking museums in the world.

It is a Dutch national museum dedicated to arts and history in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The museum is located at the Museum Square.  The current main building was designed by Pierre Cuypers and first opened its doors in 1885.  The museum has on display 8,000 objects of art and history.

You should not miss a chance to visit this museum during your trip to the Netherlands. One of the most famous and breathtaking paintings is "Night Watch" by Rembrandt. This painting is located in the "Gallery of Fame" on the second floor.  The picture can be regarded for hours.

The building is truly magnificent both outside and inside. We were really impressed by a huge collection of paintings.  There is a pretty park with sculptures in front of the museum. From our point of view, one day is not enough to see the entire museum, because of its great size.  The building is of an impressive size, similar to the palace.

To sum up, it is the wonderful museum with magnificent masterpieces.


The Van Gogh Museum

The Van Gogh Museum is an art museum in Amsterdam in the Netherlands dedicated to the works of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries. It is located at the Museum Square in the borough Amsterdam South. The museum's collection is the largest collection of Van Gogh's paintings and drawings in the world. It is the most visited museum in the Netherlands and the 30th most visited museum worldwide. Our group of students was particularly surprised by some of the artists. There we saw very thoughtful and incredible pictures. We hope we will be able to visit this wonderful museum again.

The Stedelijk Museum

The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is an international museum dedicated to modern and contemporary art and design. In past it was a big museum 

of old furniture. Nowadays it is one of the most interesting place in Amsterdam. You can see a lot of entertaining show of modern art and design. If you fond of modern art and design, it is place for you!

Canal cruise

We found out a lot of new and unexpected information there, for example: the canal cruise is Holland's largest touristic attraction, with over 3 million visitors every year, also there are 170 boats in Amsterdam to take all those people on a cruise. Moreover, there are more than a thousand people that work in the canal cruises.

There was an Audio excursion in three languages, included Russian, which was very comfortable for us. We believe that canal cruise is simply the best way to see this beautiful city, because you can see a lot of amazing urban view during this excursion and enjoy the relaxing atmosphere. 

Nurgazizova Alexandra, Marasaeva Lisa, Talova Marina

                                                                                            

Day One. Survival.Bowling

The first day at school was absolutely thrilling and pleasant. School administration, teachers and students, as well, helped us to get acquainted with the school building. It is completely different in comparison with Russian schools, but also great with billions of advantages. Later, we listened to different presentation from Prague students and we found out a lot of new information for us and it gave us inspiration for visiting this beautiful city.

After school we went to "Survival". There we had to overcome different obstacles. But the main challenge was that there were some harsh conditions: mud and water. But anyway, everybody had an amazing time together and had a lot of fun. One of Russian students Gera was asked about his impressions. He told us that it had something common with army, so for him, as a future solder it was so easy to cope with it.

Beside school programme, our Dutch students arranged bowling in a local center. It was such a nice end of the day with friendly atmosphere and good company of people. Without any doubt, we enjoyed it so much. Some guys from the group had strikes. Congratulations!

Anna Deruygina, Alexandra Nurgazizova, Gera Novikov