City trip to Bamberg

This day we were visiting Bamberg, one of the most beautiful cities of Franconia. As soon as we arrived we were split into two groups. One group explored the city with an audioguide, the other group did it with a regular guide.
The first group could walk around the city freely and use the device to get information about certain sights: you simply come to an object and press a number on a screen, then the information is given to you through your earbuds.
The second group had to follow their guide but they got more personal and special information about Bamberg. Also they had the possibility to ask questions.
The guides showed us the beutiful parts of the city, like the Catholic cathedral, gorgeous gardens and the L shaped building, which has a crazy story behind it: the owner of a building wanted a U shaped one, but in the end he didn't have enough money to finish, so it ended up looking like the letter L.
After we all met again at the market place we had some free time. During that time we were devided into small groups and given a challenge to trade an apple with strangers for something more valuable. The results of this task were unexpected. Some of us traded it for a lighter, a pack of gum and even more valuable things such as Iphone cases, a charger, or for some wine glasses. It was exciting, because we needed to come up to random strangers and to bargain with them.
It was a wonderful day.

Project Day

On Wednesday we had a great time. We had the possibility to choose between four different types of projects: dancing, cooking, percussion and arts.

Dancing:

In dancing lesson we were ten girls and created a dance for friday evening. We danced about three hours and had a lot of fun. First the Lithuanians were introduced with the teacher Mrs. Porlein who had a lot of energy. After that we listened to our dance music „Justin Timberlake - Can't stop the feeling“ and thought about steps for our dance.

Cooking:

In the kitchen we cooked lunch for everyone. It was a pumpkin soup, sausages with potato salad and – typical for Germany- roasted pork with dumplings. For dessert we prepared yoghurt with grapefruits. It was a lot of work to cook for 60 people but in the end we all had fun. Even the teachers thought our food was yummy ;)




Percussion:


At the beginning it was very difficult to play the drums but our group leader tought us to become better and better. We rehearsed special rhythms and did also body percussion. It was more dificult than playing the drums. Thank you to Anna and her team who showed us how to play the drums correctly.


Arts:

First Mr. Grabmeier showed us how to work with photoshop to elect a picture for graffiti. After that we cut out our stencils. We had many different pictures about the topic „Relationship and friendship“ and sprayed them on a big canvas with different colours. Afterwards we had created a wonderful and colourful artwork. Now you can see it in our school.


In the afternoon we were covering stones with Schwabacher leaf gold. Now we all have a nice souvenir of the famous town Schwabach :D Also we got to know that gold from Schwabach was used in US Chanel collection for make up and for Adidas shoes.

Dragon Boat Tour

On the 27th of September we went on a trip to a lake called Rothsee which is located near the small town of Hilpoltstein. Before we left, the German students of the 10th grade had to sit an English test while the Lithuanians were watching a movie at our school. Right before we wanted to leave, it started to rain heavily, so we had to walk through the rain. A lot of the pupils lost their motivation to go on the trip. But while we were riding on the train, the weather got much better and when we arrived in Eckersmühlen, it was warm and sunny. From there we had to walk 40 minutes to reach the lake.

When we reached the lake, we had to split in two groups. One group went to row a “Dragon boat” first, while the second group was playing team building games. After an hour the teams switched their activities. From the dragon boat we had a gorgeous view of the landscape around the lake. On the ''Dragon boat'' there was a drummer to synchronize the rowing and control the speed. It was great and fun for everybody. So after fun activities we went home by bus and had a nice evening :)

Greetings from Schwabach

At first we were greeted by the headmaster of our school and one of our teachers played the saxophone for us. Afterward we went to the lessons some of the Lithuanians were really interested in, although they couldn't understand anything. Some of them went to an ice cream shop and others went to a pizzeria. After this we visited the town hall where were delightfully welcomed by the mayor. He told us some stories and facts about Schwabach. The most interesting facts were given about leaf gold techniques and usage. In addition, the most interesting part of the day was geocaching task through the old town. The task gave us a chance to visit the most popular places of Schwabach for example the city church, some parts of the old city wall, the fountain on the market square and the river Schwabach. All in all it was a really good experience, which required a lot of energy so as a result most of the students went home to take a nap.

Getting to know each other

On Sunday we had a day of free time and we decided to spend the time in a group. We started the day by having a relaxed brunch in Cafe Prinz. We stayed there for a long time because food there was really delicious and the atmosphere was pretty good.

After that we went to ,,Kirchweih", which is like a little Oktoberfest, and we showed the Lithuanian students Schwabach from the top of a Ferris wheel. There was a guy who turned our gondola every time we passed him, therefore it was really funny.

Then we had a walk all around the town and we saw interesting and nice places. Also we discovered the beauty of nature.

The tour ended at one of our houses where we chatted and ate homemade pizzas.

In the evening after we realized that all the stalls were closed we met other students with their exchange partners by chance. We shared our experiences and they told us that they did things like climbing, hiking, visiting a city, swimming and going to a concert.

All in all it was a great day, we grew closer together and it helped us to know each other better.

Experiences in a Climbing Garden

Dear Diary,

today we had our free day of the Exchange Program and decided to spend some time in a climbing garden near the lake “Brombachsee”. The day started with a few misunderstandings because the instructors were not able to talk in English, but we sorted it out by translating everything. After we got information it was our turn to start with the first task.

Seeing the big height of the trees like pines and firs we felt dizzy. Some of us were excited and some were a little bit scared of the adventure to come. As a first step for each exercise we had to climb a ladder, for example we had to move through a wooden tunnel and walk on a net before we arrived at the cable slide which we used to come down to the ground again safely. It got harder and higher towards the end of the curse but we were able to manage it and we had a lot of fun. To be honest we had some problems with different tasks, so we cheated a little bit e.g. slipping through the difficult parts of the climbing course.

When it was finally our turn to try the “Flying Fox”, we climbed on a platform and we enjoyed a breath-taking view, before we finally jumped from the platform. We were sliding across the “Brombachsee” with a speed of 60 km/h like birds flying over a sparkling lake

After four hours, we all finished successfully. It was a great, unforgettable and impressive experience for all of us and we all went home with a smile in our face.

See you tomorrow!

Yours,

Nürnberg!

The day started at 1 pm, when we met at the train station in Schwabach and everybody was excited about our trip that day. The Lithuanians arrived the previous evening, so this was our first day together in Germany. First we went to Nürnberg by train and it was first time for someone.

After a little walk we arrived at the museum of communication. There we had to split up into two groups of about 20 people. Firstly, our group explored the exhibition about computer games in real life. The guide of our group showed us around and we had lots of fun by trying them out. We could play very popular game „Snake“ with our feet and real Pinball. Also, we saw Facebook in real life (we even could poke each other). There was really funny boxing game, which tried our reaction. Moreover, there was pain game. It was full of adrenaline, because when you lose the game, you get electroshocks, heat or hits.

Then we switched groups and learned something about the history of communication. We had oppurtunity to see how packages were sent in the previous century but it is still useful now. We tried to write with a quill and ink. The guide showed us how people can communicate using mimics, body language and signs.

After that we had free time. We showed the Lithuanians Nürnberg and for lunch we let them try our famous “Nürnberger Bratwürste”. Before we met the others again, we made a little flashmob in front of the town hall.

In the evening we made a sightseening tour and our guide showed us the most wonderful Nürnberg places at night. We were really pleased to had that tour and learned much about brewing beer, the history of the city and famous places in Nürnberg. At 10.30 pm we arrived in Schwabach and said goodbye for that day.