Schüleraustausch Israel Dezember 2019

It’s all about the Christmas tree

On Saturday we had our day in the families. Everybody had the chance to do something with his or her exchange student and in that way show them something personal in the Christmas time. A lot of the German students decorated the Christmas tree together with their exchange student or went shopping in another city.

My father and I went together with my exchange student into the forest and picked up the Christmas trees we recently had chosen. We thought it would be a great experience for my exchange student to get to know a German forest. She really liked it. We had a car trailer for the Christmas trees. We always pick out the Christmas trees for the whole family so we had four. After we loaded the Christmas trees onto the car trailer my father gave my exchange student a little tour through the forest and explained her some stuff about trees and animals in the forest. She picked up some leaves and branches from trees. Then we got in the car and drove around to drop off the Christmas trees at my family members houses. In order to that my exchange student met my grandmother and she also got to see the farm of my uncle and my grandfather. At the farm I showed her the stables and she met our newest family member. Our new farm dog Nero.

In the evening the whole delegation met at the baptist church for a movie night. After that we all were very tired and went home. A golden finish for a great and exciting time.

Da der Freitag der letzte Schultag des Jahres war, begann unser Tag mit einem Weihnachtsgottesdienst in der Alten Kirche am Markt. Einige Israelis besuchten zum ersten Mal einen christlichen Gottesdienst, wie sie uns später erzählten. Nachdem der Gottesdienst vorbei war, gingen wir zur Schule. Dort begann, sobald wir unseren Platz in der Mensa gefunden hatten, der obligatorische Weihnachtsbaumumgang. Dieser erwies sich für unsere Gäste als viel interessanter und lustiger als erwartet. Einige Israelis nahmen sogar am Umgang des elften oder zwölften Jahrgangs teil, damit sie auch einmal sagen konnten, dass sie am Umgang beteiligt waren. Nach Ende des Baumumgangs und somit auch nach Ende der Schule für das restliche Jahr gingen wir nach Hause. Dort trafen sich die Austauschschüler beider Länder in mehreren kleinen Gruppen zuhause, dort wurde gegessen, geredet und gespielt. Um fünf Uhr trafen wir uns allerdings schon wieder in der Schule, zum wirklich letzten Mal im Jahr. Dort buken wir typische deutsche Weihnachtsplätzchen, die wir gleichzeitig aßen, tanzten zu Just-Dance-Videos und spielten ein aufregendes Kicker-Turnier.

Als wir um halb neun nach dem Aufräumen nach Hause gingen, ruhten wir uns aus und verbrachten den restlichen Abend in den Familien.

We spent the morning of our fifth exchange day finishing our projects. Everything had to be done, from recording the podcast over creating posters to cutting films.  After the finishing touches were done,we presented the final project in front of the whole delegation. The presentations to our theme “life with digital media in everyday life and at school “ lead to partly surprising insights, as the fact that we spent nearly a quarter of our life’s in front of digital devices. But we also had ideas on how to continue our work, when we meet for the second time in Haifa.

In the afternoon we played the traditional game “Kloatscheeten” with everyone. But even though the weather was perfect and we spent two beautiful hours outside we were all happy, when we arrived at the “ Waldeck” where we had lunch. For the rest of the evening we split up in smaller groups, that had an relaxed evening together.

On wednesday we went on our all day trip to Oldenburg. The day started in the bus to the synagogue in Oldenburg. Arrived at the synagogue we got introduced to the rabbi and the FSJler, in the library they told us something about the jewish community in Oldenburg. Than we got in another room and could ask some questions. For the german students it was very interesting, because for most of them it was the first time to see a tora in action. After that we got a tour through the rest of the rooms of the community and to a falafel place at the market. The rest of the time we spend in small groups in the city shopping or having something nice to eat. On the bus ride back to Nordhorn we also had fun learning about the different music, that teenagers from Nordhorn and Haifa listen to. All in all it was a cool trip and we could learn something about jewish live in Germany and experience a nice city.

For the Israelis, the day started early in the morning at around 2 am. They flew from Tel Aviv to Frankfurt am Main and landed at around 10 am. Their tour continued with a 6-hour bus ride to Nordhorn and that's where the fun began. Due to a slight miscommunication, they were left at the train station in Nordhorn instead of the parking lot in front of the School. After learning of the unfortunate the German part of the exchange hastily made their way over to our Israeli counterparts. We did our best to greet everyone as wholeheartedly as we could and do it as fast as possible at the same time since the weather wasn't that nice to us all. After our initial meeting, an official greeting and some cookies in the cafeteria we left the school to do our things. Which for a lot of people meant going to the Christmas market in the Zoo. Since it was already dark we couldn't see any animals but that's not what we came there for anyway. Of course, we came there to give them the first taste of real German Punch. I'll just say, for safety reasons that this, of course, was without any alcohol. After 1.5 hours we decided to leave the zoo and go back to our familys. The Zoo may have been a bit exhausting for some of the Israelian members but I think that didn't bother anyone. And so ends the story of the first day of the exchange.

To be continued