Beautiful impressions and lasting memories collected in Rheines twin town Leiria
Klara Küpker from the Dionysianum wrote a final report about the student exchange with Leiria.
From October 2 to 9, 23 students from the Gymnasium Dionysianum, the Kopernikusgymnasium and the Kaufmännische Schulen spent a week in Portugal as part of an exchange program at Leiria.
The Portuguese students were already in Germany in September and had spent a week with their exchange partners in Rheine.
Two weeks later it was time to pay them a return visit in Portugal. The trip started on Monday at noon with the arrival via Schiphol (Amsterdam). The German students were surprised by their exchange partners at the airport in Lisbon and there were emotional reunion scenes.
From Lisbon, they took a bus to Leiria, where the Germans were able to join their new families in their home for the following week.
The first day in Portugal consisted, as they were already used to from Rheine, of a lot of program. It began with visits to the schools, where the German students were allowed to get a taste of the Portuguese school system and participate in the lessons. The German guests also had a hearty breakfast in the cafeteria of the Francisco Rodrigues Lobo School before they set off again to explore the school further. The insight into the daily school life ended with a very friendly and warm welcome by the principal. After this small reception, another big reception was on the agenda, namely that of the mayor of the city Leiria. The students were invited to see the town hall and ask the mayor any questions they had on their mind.
Before heading back to the schools to participate in a dance class on traditional Portuguese dances, a group photo was taken in front of the town hall.
After a few hours of dancing, the official program was over and everyone could spend the rest of the day in family with their host parents.
The next day continued with a short visit to the city museum of Leiria, and a visit to the paper museum was on the agenda, where the German guests learned everything about the production of paper and were also allowed to make paper themselves. After the extremely informative museum visits, it was time for lunch. They met up with their hosts again and went to the city center of Leiriato eat together. Of course, this was not the end of the program; the visit to the old fortress of Leiria was scheduled for the afternoon. The day ended again together with the Portuguese with a scavenger hunt, which led everyone from the fortress back to the city center.
Due to a Portuguese holiday, there was only an afternoon program on Thursday. So the German guests spent the morning with their families and then drove together with them to the park a little further away, where the afternoon program was to take place. This consisted of a one-hour hike through the hilly landscape and then an hour of yoga to relax. However, some young people preferred to play UNO together. The day ended with a nice picnic.
Friday was also already the last day together before the day of departure on Monday. In the morning all students of the exchange program were picked up in front of the schools and a common trip to several beaches was made. The clear highlight was of course the place Nazaré with its beach, which is very famous for its waves up to 30 meters high. Not only did the young people have the opportunity to look out over the sea from the viewing platform, they were also able to spend two hours in Nazaré afterwards. Some went to the beach and others preferred to explore the tranquil city center.
But that was not the end of the program, because for the afternoon they had planned to visit the Mosteiro de Batalha. An extremely beautiful church with many important historical monuments, which could be viewed in a small exhibition. In the evening, the final party was celebrated together, where each exchange participant was presented with a certificate of participation. Late in the evening everyone said goodbye to each other and went into the weekend, which was spent individually with the families.
On the day of departure, the only program item for the German guests was a trip to Lisbon. There some important historical monuments at the Tejo and the impressive aquarium were on the program, before the Germans made their way home.
It was an enriching experience full of beautiful impressions and lasting memories for all participants on both the German and Portuguese sides, during which many friendships were formed that will hopefully last for a long time.