SUNDAY, 6th
MAY, 2012: MEETING EACH OTHER
Sunday was a great day. The expectation was
huge. We were excited but happy at the same time.
When we entered the house, the Dutch students
were a little bit nervous. They met our parents, brothers and sisters. We
showed them the house and where they were going to sleep the rest of the week.
After that, we went out with the rest of the
group. We went to the Medieval market and we showed it them. They were
surprised about the Medieval market.
Then we went to the park and to a place where
you can play football and basketball. The whole class and all the Dutch
students sat there. The boys were playing football and basketball and the rest
of us watched.
It was great fun. We laughed and enjoyed the
afternoon with each other. At 22:00 o`clock we went home. We had dinner and
after taking a shower we went to bed. We were looking forward to the next day.
By students who have participated in the
exchange programme.
MONDAY, 7th
MAY, 2012: THE GUIDED VISIT TO GERNIKA
The day was full of surprises. We arrived at school at 9 o`clock and two
Basque students danced “The dance of honour” to welcome the Dutch students to
the Basque Country. After that the headmistress also gave us a warm welcome in
the main hall. Then we watched a video of the Basque Country and the Dutch
students were given some magazines about Busturialdea and the monuments in
Gernika. The Basque students gave their exchange partner information about them.
At 10:30 we went to visit the town: we saw the
local market, the town hall, the park with the monuments … After that, we went
to visit the Tree and the Assembly House and we enjoyed it.
At 12:00 we gathered at school to listen to the Power Point presentations
that the Dutch students had made about the Basque Country. They were great!
At 13:00 we had lunch and some people went home
for lunch and others had lunch at school.
At 14:30 we split into two groups and we made a
collage on biodiversity using different
materials (leaves, beans, rice, paper, cotton, pasta, pictures…). Each pair of
students had a specific idea to show on the collage.
After leaving school, we went home to change clothes to go
to Mundaka to enjoy the beach. The bravest students swam in the sea.
By the students who participated in the exchange programme.
At 9:00 o´clock we went to school to watch a
video of Urdaibai. After that we took the bus to the caves of Santimamiñe. When
we arrived there a guide was waiting for us to visit the caves. We knew that people
lived there 40,000 years ago. In 1916 the cave had been discovered by six
eleven year old boys from Kortezubi. They had been playing in the area and by
chance, they discovered the cave. It is 365 metres long and the
animals that are drawn on the walls are bisonts, horses, bears, deer and goats.
Nowdays the visits to the caves are restricted because CO2 destroys the
paintings. When we finished the visit to the cave, we watched a 3D reproduction
video of the inside of the cave. It was funny because we all had 3D glasses we
had to wear to watch it. We looked like flies. It was beautiful to see but we
had more on the programme, so we had to leave.
After lunch, we took the bus to Akorda to climb
to the top of the mountain called San
Pedro de Atxarre. We walked about 2 km and it took us half an
hour. This mountain is located in Urdaibai and it is 312m high. On the way up
we saw trees like oaks, pines, and chestnuts. It was really hard to climb to
the top because of the hot weather but it was worthwhile because the view of
the sea, the beaches, the surrounding mountains, etc., was amazing. We located Mundaka, Bermeo, Sukarrieta and
the beaches of Laida and San Antonio
In our free time, we went to Mundaka again.
Some people swam in the sea while others played football. We also visited the
port and took some photos. It was a nice day because we learnt a lot, but the
most important thing is that we had a great time.
By the students who participated in the
exchange programme.
WEDNESDAY,
9th MAY, 2012: BILBAO
On Wednesday morning, we went to the bus stop
of Villa Argentina at 9:00
o`clock and we took the bus to Bilbao Bilbao
In Bilbao
We continued walking to the Calatrava bridge
which has a glass floor. We took some pictures and then we had a free hour to
go on our own.
At 12:00, we gathered next to the floral dog
called Puppy, just outside the Guggenheim
Museum
After the visit, we had lunch in the park
nearby. It was a very hot day and we played with the fountains. When we
finished lunch, we assembled and took the bus to the Vizcaya
Bridge in Portugalete Portugalete
We had a very good day. We learnt something
about culture and we visited different important sights in Bilbao
In the evening we went to the Jai-Alai court to
watch the football match, but unfortunately, the Athletic of Bilbao lost and we
got sad.
By the students who participated in the
exchange programme.
THURSDAY,
10th MAY, 2012: ENJOYABLE BUT EXHAUSTING.
Thursday became an exhausting day because of
the hot weather.
At 9:10 we took the train to Busturia at the
train station. We got off and had a little walk until we arrived at the
Biodiversity Centre called “Madariaga Dorretxea”. We had a break of 15 minutes,
and after that the group was divided up in two: the Basque students and the
Dutch.
The Basque people stayed at the Centre and we
saw colourful pictures of different species, stick insects, fish, posters of
ecosystems, a video, information about diversity, the landscape from the Tower
and the Tower itself. We also learnt
that people are different from each other in only 0,01%, that dogs have evolved
from the wolf, the different oceans zones, the fight among animals for eating,
reproducing and locating their territory, and also where the biosphere reserves
in the world are.
Meanwhile, the Dutch students had a walk down a
hill for 30 minutes. They visited a birdspot house for watching birds and learnt
some facts about nature: the area and the animals which live in the Urdaibai
Biosphere. After that, they walked back to the Centre and had a break there
before it was their turn to visit the Centre.
The Basque students then played a game with
some clues and they needed to answer some questions.
After lunch we walked to the beach in
Sukarrieta to refresh ourselves a little bit because the temperature was 35º.
There we spent some time sunbathing or wetting our feet. Everybody went to the
water, but we didn´t swim because the current was too strong. It was really hot,
so many of us bought ice-creams or cold drinks.
When we arrived in Gernika we were sweating and
very tired, but it was a beautiful day.
By the students who participated in the
exchange programme.
FRIDAY,
11th MAY, 2012: THE LAST DAY AT SCHOOL
We started the day by writing a chronicle about
the week we had spent in Gernika and its surroundings. We worked with our
exchange partner on laptops.
We had a half an hour break and at 11:00
o`clock we showed the other students the collages we had produced on Monday.
After that we learnt some traditional Basque dances. Mertxe Arandia taught
us. We had a great time because it was
fun and we laughed a lot.
After lunch, we played some traditional Basque
sports: txokor-batze, saku-lasterketa, and soka-tira. Afterwards, we went to
the Jai-Alai court to watch a match of Basque pelota. This is the version known
outside Europe as Jai-Alai. It is called
zestapunta in Basque. It uses a special glove that extends into a long pointed
curved basket (hence the name), almost 60cm long in straight line and 110cm by
curved line. Two Basque students of the exchange programme played the match and
then the Dutch students had an opportunity to try it. They liked it and some of
them were quite good, specially the girls.
After school we had some free time to buy the
last souvenirs. In the evening we had a farewell dinner in the school
dining-room with the four teachers involved in the programme and the
headmistress of our school.
Everybody agreed that the exchange programme
had been important to practice our English and to make new friends whom we can
continue to be in touch with. We think
it has been successful because we have also learnt about new places and our
different cultures.
On Saturday we enjoyed ourselves and we spent a
lot of time with our friends. We had to say good-bye on Sunday morning since
the bus left at 12:00 o´clock to the airport.
By the students who participated in the
exchange programme.
Iruzkinak