Tuesday 6th October: Last day in Kassel

Hi everybody!

We’ve been so busy that I haven’t been able to post any new photos or comments since last Friday. We leave home at 7:45 and often don’t get home until bedtime, so there’s not much time for Internet. When we’re back, I’ll put lots more things on the blog, I promise!

Rubén and I are going to give a short presentation to the teachers at the school here this afternoon, while the kids are meeting up to go ice-skating this afternoon. We’ll have to go to bed early, though, as we’ll have to get up at 5 a.m. to be at  the station for 6 a.m. Then we’ll begin the long journey home, arriving at Málaga airport at 16:10, where the parents will be waiting for us – we hope…

See you all on Thursday, Jnenni

Friday 2nd October, ice-skating in Kassel

This morning we had a German class with Noortje. We learnt how to  greet each other, asking people’s names and ages etc. which was fun. Then the Head (=director) came to say hello to us and ask how the visit was going. Then, we caught the tram to the ice-skating rink. I didn’t skate because I’ve got a cold ( the weather is cold, too) and I preferred to watch the others and take some photos of the others skating. Everybody had a good time ( see the photos). Next, we went back to school for lunch and the boys played table football before going home with their friends for the weekend.

Mónica is going to an ice hockey match tonight with her friend, Saskia, whose father is a friend of the ice hockey team’s trainer, so they have got VIP tickets, free! Everybody’s doing something different, but our pupils will probably see each other some of the time. I think that Sandra and Verónica are going to a wedding (=boda) with their host family tomorrow.

Everybody is learning a lot of English and some German as well. On Monday, we’re going to a special swimming pool, an indoor Aquapark, which should be fun.

Back to the Johann- Amos Comenius Schule after our trip to Fritzlar

Inside the tower, there’s a big wooden statue of Saint Boniface

Antonio torturing Mario (?!)

A possible solution for naughty pupils?

Torsten and Noortje in Fritzlar

Fritzlar

This is a map of Fritzlar. You can see that there is an old city wall, with towers for soldiers. Some of the towers have disappeared now, but we went up the biggest tower, on the left of the map, Grauer Turm.

The group before leaving for Fritzlar, Thursday 1st October

To the right, you can see us in Fritzlar’s market square, with the fairytale houses. It was sunny when we arrived.
Under here, you can see us all are before leaving for Fritzlar. Some of the German kids couldn’t come with us today, only Denis, Maria and Saskia. The weather was bright and sunny, although it rained laterUnder here, you can see us all are before leaving for Fritzlar. Some of the German kids couldn’t come with us today, only Denis, Maria and Saskia. The weather was bright and sunny, although it rained later.

Visit to Fritzlar

About thirty kilometres away from Kassel, there’s a small town called Fritzlar. It’s only got 15,000 people living there, but hudreds of years ago, it was a very important town. In the eighth century A.D. the people here weren’t Christians. They had a holy oak tree which was very precious to thtem. One day, a man called Boniface arrived and cut down this tree. Then, he started to build a big church and converted the people to Christianity. The church became a cathedral, Boniface became Pope and Fritzlar became a very important place. Our friend, Torsten, explained this story to us and then he showed us the church, the town and the old walls around the city. We went up inside a very big tower that was built in about 1270 AD. Outside, there were some chains used to punish people in the Middle Ages. The boys played with them, and we took some photos.

The town’s very pretty, with lots of strange, old houses. They don’t have straight lines and look as if they are falling down, but they stand up. The houses are like a house in a fairy tale, out of a story written by the Brothers Grimm, like “Hansel and Gretel”.

Our pupils from Mollina and the kids from their host families are getting on well. At first, they were a little shy, but now everybody speaks in a mixture of languages, mostly English and can usually understand each other. Rubén’s learning German with Torsten’s help. He’s doing really well. I hope I’ll have time to write again tomorrow. For the moment, I’ll post some more photos onto the blog. Bye for now.

Tomorrow we’re going ice-skating. I think I’ll watch and take lots of photos, as it might be funny!