See you soon, Holland

Today is our last night in the Netherlands, many of our delegation are resting, someone is collecting his/her things, and some students are spending the last hours in the company of the host family. We are leaving at 4am. Our host parents, taking care, have decided to give us lots of food and bring us to meeting place, where our teachers are waiting for us. Farewell is very heartwarming, we invite the Dutch students to come to Russia again. Some girls are crying, others are smiling, hoping for meeting in future. It is an awful filling that we are going to Russia, and, probably, we won't see our friends from the Netherlands any more.

During the way to the airport we are sad while we are discussing the trip. In the plane almost everybody falls asleep. The way home is very bored and dull. All Russian students don't want to go home. We are very accustomed to our families, to talk in English, to the beautiful canals, along which we went to school every day by bicycle, to parks, to unusual beautiful buildings, to other meal that our teachers don't really like that is not true for us, the students. But the long-awaited meeting with the parents raises us up, coming home tired, we begin to share our impressions about the country, which we discovered a week ago for ourselves in a new way.

 

Rumyantseva Alyona

 

Last Day

It is our last day in Holland. And we are sad, because we had a great time here. We have met new friends and had a chance to enjoy the beauties of nature. This day is a family day and every Russian student spends it with the family of his exchange student from Holland. Some people go to Amsterdam, others have lunch with their family and have interesting conversations about Russian impressions from Holland. 

 

In the evening all Russian and Dutch students have their last dinner together. We're talking to each other, playing games, taking photos and even videos. Dutch students have cooked their traditional food and it's very tasty.

Ivanova Ekaterina, Pronin Ivan

Day of newspapers and Amsterdam

Friday. Sunny day. The weather is nice. You just sit by bicycle and as usual go to school. During this time in Holland we got used to this transport. 

On Friday we have a newspaper contest and all the students are divided into different groups. Russian group is small, so we have one team with our dear Dutch students. Our newspapers consists of articles about the differences between the country in which you live and The Netherlands. Usually it includs culture, transport, food, daily life and so on. It is so active work, everybody wants to help to each other to make one of the greatest newspaper. Russian students also try as well as others but  today the fortune isn't on our side. 

Failure does not mean we have accomplished nothing;
It does mean we have learned something.

Really, we have learned a lot but the main part of this work is our community with students from different countries and we like it most of all.

Some of us go to Amsterdam by train. We are admiring beautiful views and reach our destination very quickly.
We are walking in Amsterdam so much  that our feet hurt. But we can buy souvenirs, see all the things that we couldn't see during our first trip, visit the fair, where we ride the attractions. We have a lot of fun here.

Smirnova Julia, Selskaya Polina

Day of the Hague and Farewell party

    

The Hague

Freedom has restrains but no frontiers.

-David Lloyd George

On Thursday we went to the Hague, probably one of the most famous cities in the Netherlands.  Our group was divided into two parts: the first one went to the famous Hague Court and the second one visited Humanity House.

From the first sight the Hague doesn't seem so beautiful and welcoming. The biggest part of the city is filled with modern buildings which definitely have no intention of catching tourist's eye. The center, however, is quite charming. Unlike Amsterdam, the buildings there are massive but they still manage to look elegant.

Both of our groups enjoyed their time spent in the Humanity House and The Hague's Court. The excursion to the Court had a huge educational value. At the same time, the Humanity House tour helped us to understand.
In this museum every visitor has a unique opportunity to go through a full refugee experience: from leaving the country to finding a new home. Several incredible metaphors included into the excursion can literally give the creeps to anybody. 

But considering that a lot of refugees have to face judging from other people, not to mention living in constant fear for their family and difficulties with documentation, this experience is very important.

The second part of the day in the city we spent in the center. Our group had a short excursion during which we visited the Outer Court and the Inner Court. 

 In my experience, the Inner Court is one of the most  stunning places in the whole country. Despite huge gothic buildings, this place still manages to be nice and even cozy.

The Hague has an absolutely different spirit than any other city in the Netherlands. Most streets are very small and dark and, as I've already mentioned,  the buildings are mostly quite high.

 














But somehow this city doesn't make its guests feel claustrophobic,  I would even say that the Hague makes a very positive impression on anyone who's ready to open the heart to this magnificent, yet so unusual, city.

 

On the way back we passed by the tulip fields which are considered to be one of the Netherlands' symbols. The gorgeous variety of colours with mills here and there - this is one of the many Dutch wonders. The beauty of these places can't be described by words it needs to be seen. 

The Farewell Party

The farewell party was a perfect ending for a perfect day. Everybody had fun dancing, singing and basically eating. Each country prepared incredible performances. Everyone was involved in the event.  Smiles, sound of laughter and kind words everywhere - that's what every participant will carry in the memory for a very long time.

Presentation about Russia

Performance of students from Spain

However, it really seemed like the end. The end of all the fun and all the pleasant moments we had in the Netherlands. Even though a popular saying goes: "The hardest word to say is goodbye". In this case it was completely wrong. Because even though it made a lot of us feel happy and sad at the same time, it wasn't heartbreaking. If that was a farewell then it was definitely a farewell this country deserved.

Moskvina Anna