Visit to Ostfildern by Peebles Students and Staff

Visit to Ostfildern by Peebles Students and Staff
The Scots in Stuttgart

A group of 6 students and 3 teachers (Mrs Hetrick, Mr G Moir and Mr Davidson) visited the Otto-Hahn Gymnasium from 19-26 June.

The school's Comenius Co-ordinater, Ingrid Stritzelberger, arranged a varied and enjoyable week for the visitors which was greatly appreciated by everyone involved.

Both students and teachers spent some time in classes and enjoyed guided tours of both Esslingen and Stuttgart led by Herr Brandle and Frau Kruger respectively. The students and teachers spent some time planning for the next project entitled "Coming of Age" (about the rights and responsibilities involved in reaching certain ages in each of the partner countries) and filming for this project will take place in Scotland in September and in Finland in November of this year.

Our visit coincided with the last day of school for the final year students of the Otto-Hahn Gymnasium and enjoyed the "fun and games" of their concert in the school playground.

At the weekend, students were entertained by their host families and the teachers enjoyed both sightseeing and wonderful receptions at several of the German teachers' homes. We take this opportunity to thank all the host families and teachers for their generous hospitality.

The visiting teachers spent time talking to the German teachers about possible future projects and a number of initiatives are now in the pipeline.

Ingrid Stritzelberger even managed to arrange weather of around 30 degrees C for our week! Our thanks go to her for a most enjoyable visit and we look forward to welcoming her and the German students when they visit Scotland in September on an exchange visit organised by our Modern Languages Department.

The only sad note for our visit was the Mr Moir was taken ill with chicken pox and had to remain in his hotel room for the last few days of the visit.

Report by G Davidson

A REPORT BY THE STUDENTS

June 19th 2003
Day One: Germany here we come!

Arrived at airport a little later than expected due to The Royal Highland Show and traffic jams. Booked in and waited until our flight was called. We flew from Edinburgh to Amsterdam, the flight taking about 1.5 hours. We had a 4 hour wait in Amsterdam airport that we filled with a stop at MacDonalds, we flew to Stuttgart airport to meet our hosting families. On arrival we were met by the hosts and Ingrid Stritzelberger who made us feel very welcome. We were very tired from the flight but we were very excited to finally meet our hosts. That night we all went home separately to our hosts houses to meet their families and settle into our rooms. The teachers went to their 4 star hotel with ensuite rooms. All of us had early nights as we had to get up at 6.30am to go to their school ? that?s 5.30am in the UK!

June 20th 2003
Day Two:

In the morning we woke up early and all travelled to school separately. Some of us walked while others took trains and buses as they lived in different areas further from the school, using their travel pass, paid for through our generous funding. These tickets were given to us all and enabled us to travel by train or bus every day throughout our trip, to any destination. These tickets made our travelling really easy and we could hop on and off trains and buses when ever we liked and to any where we wanted to go (within reason!) We spent our first few hours in classes with our hosts. After this experience we went on a trip to Esslingen, a short bus ride away from Nellingen, where the school is situated. One of the German teachers, Herr Brändle, led a guided tour of the town and even the rain didn?t spoil our enjoyment and appreciation of the guide?s wisdom. After spending an afternoon with our hosts we went to the ZK Party in the evening, which our hosts had been eagerly anticipating for months. This is a party that they enjoy after sitting their big exams. The Scottish girls stuck together, for the evening on a rug supplied by one of our generous hosts, who we told to go and enjoy their party that they had been looking forward to for ages. We had an ?interesting? night and met many German boys with interesting looks who were very friendly and spoke good English to us.

June 21st 2003
Day Three:

It was a sunny 35 degrees and today we all did separate things with our families though most of us met up as our hosts were friends. Some of us took the train and went to see some break dancers in Stuttgart and the rest went also to Stuttgart but went swimming instead. The swimming pools in Germany makes Scottish pools seem small in comparison. There were numerous pools inside and out with cold and hot water in each different pool. It was a good day enjoyed by all the girls. Especially our ?thong experience? it made our holiday!!

June 22nd 2003
Day Four:

Sunday was yet again a nice day, we spend it in the company of our hosts, some of us went swimming again and some went to the zoo in Stuttgart. The zoo was magnificent, it had the botanic gardens, beautiful plants and parks, butterfly world, a petting zoo and wild animals all rolled into one. It was a fantastic day out and we recommend it to anyone going to Germany. The swimming pool that we went to this time was a different one in Denkendorf. It was smaller than the one in Stuttgart and had four outdoor pools, one with a slide and another with a diving board. This rounded off a great weekend with our hosts.

June 23rd 2003
Day Five:

Today we went to Heidelburg on a private coach with the Comenius group from the German school for a guided tour of the city. We arrived after a two hour bus journey and were greeted by our guide. The guide only spoke German but luckily we had Ingrid to translate for us!! After our tour we got time to ourselves to explore Heidelburg: some went shopping and the teachers went to the castle. That night we returned to our hosts? houses for an evening meal and more fun before bedtime.

June 24th 2003
Day Six:

Some of Tuesday morning was taken up with a planning session for a future Comenius project on the topic of ?Coming of Age?. Afterwards we headed to the train station with our transport passes proving useful once again and proceeded to Stuttgart for a guided tour with one of the German teachers, Frau Krüger acting as a guide. She spoke very good English and was the best tour yet! Sadly Mr Moir was unable to accompany us on this particular trip as he became ill with chicken pox. However, he can take pride in being the oldest person seen by the German doctor with this condition! Afterwards we met our hosts who had come from their classes to meet us and we went for a bite to eat and then shopping for the rest of the afternoon. There were lots of shops in Stuttgart ? every girl?s dream! We had been looking forward to shopping from the beginning of the trip. At night time after our delicious family meals some of us met up for ice cream.

June 25th 2003
Day Seven:

Today we spent the morning at the school being entertained by the school leavers in their version of our muck up day. Afterwards we were treated to more ice cream by Ingrid from the local ice cream parlour. We then went home for a while and met up at the swimming pool in Denkendorf before going home sunburnt to pack for our flight the next day.

June 26th 2003
Day Eight:

We had a few hours to spare on Thursday morning before our flight so we went to the Mercedes- Benz museum in Stuttgart. Fortunately we enjoyed the trip, despite the teachers thinking it to be more interesting for boys. Mr Moir soldiered on bravely and came to the museum with us. It was a very enjoyable final morning for us. Afterwards we went home for lunch and then were driven to the airport for a tearful farewell, laden with gifts from our hosts. We checked in for our flight to Amsterdam and said our final farewells to our hosts. We had an enjoyable time but were looking forward to returning home to tell our families about our fantastic experiences. We had a slightly shorter stop in Amsterdam this time but managed to fill the time with a short coffee break and a shopping trip. We arrived back in Edinburgh at about 8.30 pm and went home to our families.

Many thanks, to our hosts for looking after us, Mr Davidson, Mr Moir, Mrs Hetrick and Frau Stritzelberger. Thanks also to the Abbeyfield Trust for their funding that contributed to making this a trip we will never forget!

SEE BELOW FOR SOME PICTURES OF THE TRIP