Vor einigen Wochen war ich mit meiner Schule im Rahmen eines Erasmus-Austauschs auf Teneriffa. Schülerinnen und Schüler aus dem neunten und elften Jahrgang waren dabei. Es war eine sehr schöne und besondere Reise. Am ersten Tag kamen wir in Teneriffa an und fuhren zu unserem Hotel. Dort ruhten wir uns erst einmal aus und erkundeten später die Umgebung mit Freunden. Am Abend gingen wir in eine Pizzeria essen.
Danach gingen wir zurück ins Hotel und hatten einen ruhigen Abend. Am nächsten Tag gingen wir nach dem Frühstück mit dem Bus zur Schule, die wir während des Austauschs besuchten. Die spanischen Schülerinnen und Schüler waren sehr freundlich, und wir verstanden uns schnell gut. Am ersten Tag lernten wir uns kennen und übergaben Gastgeschenke. Danach machten wir einen Spaziergang durch die Stadt und besuchten eine alte Ruine. Später hielten die spanischen Schülerinnen und Schüler eine Präsentation über ihr Land. Nach der Schule hatten wir Freizeit. Einige gingen zum Strand, andere ruhten sich aus. Am Abend gingen wir gemeinsam essen und verbrachten danach Zeit am Strand mit Musik und Spielen. Am nächsten Tag machten wir ein Kahoot-Quiz mit lustigen deutschen Wörtern, was allen viel Spaß machte.
Danach packten wir unsere Koffer, weil wir bald in ein Camp in den Bergen fahren sollten. Wir kauften noch Snacks und Souvenirs für die nächsten Tage. Am folgenden Tag fuhren wir mit dem Bus in die Berge zu unserer Jugendherberge. Die Fahrt war sehr lustig, wir hörten Musik und sangen zusammen. Vor Ort machten wir eine kleine Wanderung und bezogen danach unsere Zimmer. Im Camp machten wir viele Aktivitäten. Wir spielten Spiele, machten eine kurze Wanderung zu einem Aussichtspunkt und arbeiteten in Gruppen an Aufgaben. Außerdem haben wir am Abend Salsa getanzt, was sehr schön war und viel Spaß gemacht hat. Nach dem Mittagessen gab es verschiedene Challenges, bei denen wir viel Spaß hatten. Abends gab es Spieleabende mit Musik, Tanz und Karaoke. Wir haben uns in dieser Zeit sehr gut mit den spanischen Schülerinnen und Schülern verstanden und neue Freunde gefunden. Am letzten Tag machten wir eine längere Wanderung. Dabei mussten wir Pflanzen und Beeren finden und vorstellen. Danach ging es zurück ins Camp, wo wir unsere Koffer für die Rückreise packten. Die Reise nach Teneriffa war eine unvergessliche Erfahrung.
Wir haben viel erlebt, neue Freunde gefunden und viel Zeit miteinander verbracht. Bis heute haben wir noch Kontakt und hoffen, dass der Austausch weitergeht. Wir würden uns sehr darüber freuen, wenn die spanischen Schülerinnen und Schüler uns auch in Deutschland besuchen kommen würden.
My Erasmus Stay in Tenerife A few weeks ago, I went to Tenerife with my school (Wilhelm Olbers Schule) as part of an Erasmus exchange program. Students from the ninth and eleventh grades took part. On the first day, we arrived in Tenerife and went to our hotel. There, we first took some time to rest and later explored the area around the hotel with friends. In the evening we had dinner at a pizzeria and after, we returned to the hotel and had a relaxing evening. The next day it was the first day visiting the spanish school so after breakfast, we took a bus to the school we were doing the exchange with. The Spanish students were very friendly and they showed us around their school. We also got to know each other and gave them their small gifts that we brought from Bremen to them. Afterwards, we took a walk through the city learning about history and visited an old ruin. When we got back to school the Spanish students gave a presentation about their country. After school we had some free time. Some of us went to the beach, some of us went shopping, while others relaxed. In the evening, we had dinner together and then spent time somewhere eith a great view of the beach while listening to music and playing games. The second day of school we did a Präsentation about Bremen for the Spanish students, giving them information about our city, what it looks like and what is special in it. Right after, we did something I personally was nervous about but enjoyed a lot! We had to guess what some hard Spanish words meant, with a tip or two from the Spanish students. They also had to guess some German words we named them as we gave them tips too. We also told them facts about our city which the Spanish students didn’t know if were true or false and had to guess. We afterwards recorded the conversation between the Spanish and German students, so the Spanish school could upload it for other students to hear and know more about the Erasmus program. It took us about two hours to do all this and than we got to do an activity at the beach! Which I loved very much. We split into two groups and played a little game which made us remember the names of each other better before we did the activity. This activity was to find plants and animals that were at the beach and take pictures of it, learning what it’s called in Spanish or just English. It made us get to know more about the nature of Tenerife. We also cleaned up the beach a bit and threw trash away. After about an hour we all got to another beach where it wasn’t windy and we got time to relax on the sand and get in the water! Some of us are ice cream and some of us played games! The next day, we traveled by bus to a youth hostel in the mountains. The journey was a lot of fun! We listened to music and sang together, which allowed us to be more open with the Spanish students. Half an hour before we arrived, we stopped and went on a short hike, after we arrived we moved into our rooms. There were four girls in each room and six boys in each room. At the camp we all got much closer! We played games together, enjoyed music together, we went on short but also a bit longer hikes, we ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner which was made by the students and teachers together. On Thursday we did some challenges. We were split into two groups again and we had fourteen challenges, one of each group would do a challenge, and the team that won more challenges by the end won. I believe the challenges were what brought us all closer, because we weren’t different schools with different languages, we were all just people having fun together! We were all competitive, we were all laughing, all wanted to win. On the last day, we went on a longer hike. We had to find different plants and berries that the Spanish teacher gave us and than guess the quotes she had written on the paper and guess which quote went with each plant or berry. When we returned to the camp we had to do karaoke, singing German, Spanish and English songs all together! We also played just dance which was so fun! After dinner some played and some others were their turn to do the chores of the kitchen, as we cleaned we heard Musik, talked and laughed. Knowing it’s our last day and we were all pretty sad. Saturday morning, we got up, ate breakfast and than took a bus where the Spanish brought us to the airport, when we got there all feeling sad the trip was over, we hugged, gave handshakes, said nice words, laughed, cried, and we all just wished it wouldn’t be over yet. The trip to Tenerife was an unforgettable experience. We had many exciting experiences, we had so much fun, and we learned so much about Tenerife. We made new friends!! And we spent a lot of time together, getting close even though we were all nervous at first. We are still in contact today and hope very much that our new friends from Spain are able to come next year and learn more about Bremen and Germany! We hope that the exchange program will continue in the future, not only for us but for other students that will get to experience trips like this, to make new friends and even miss them after leaving. We also want to thank the Erasmus program for giving us this opportunity which not many have. It was truly special for us!