Erasmus + Project in Belgium and Austria

This year, we (7A, 7B, and three students from the 6th grade) were allowed to participate in a program financed by the European Union. We went to Belgium for five days and had the chance to spend two days with our partner school. A few weeks later, the same students visited Vienna and even spent two days with us in Enns.
The journey to Belgium started on Sunday March 13th at the train station in Linz at 21:36. We took the Night-Jet and even got some free pyjamas from the train company. After we had arrived in Belgium at around 10am, the program started: a walking tour through Brussels. Afterwards, we had the evening to ourselves, and most of us went out to eat or explore the city some more.
Tuesday was spent with the Belgium students getting to know each other, playing sports games, learning some Dutch and preparing food together. On the third day, we went to the EU institutions, beginning with the European Commission, where Mr. Rene Steiner introduced us to his work. Then, we went to the European Parliament and lastly to the Ständige Vertretung Österreich – an overall pretty interesting day for us. On the next day, we were split into two groups. The first group went to the Parlamentarium and the other group did a scavenger hunt through Brussels in the meantime. Then both groups swapped. Afterwards, a few students visited the Atomium, while the others decided to spend their free time in the city or at the hotel’s chill-out area. On our last day in Belgium, we checked out in the morning and went to the House of European History. The Nightjet back to Austria left at 7:30 p.m.
But that was not the end of our time together, because on April 27th the Belgium students arrived in Enns. They stayed at our houses for one night, which was a lot of fun as we had the chance to spend time with them outside the school environment. The Belgium students arrived at roughly 12:15 on Wednesday and after some ice breaker games, we were separated into groups to bake “Strudel” and to do a “Fotochallenge” in Enns before we took the students to our homes. On the second day in Austria, we had a guided tour at the Mauthausen Memorial, where not only the Belgians learned new things, but so did we. In the afternoon, we went back to school for some sports games. The last activity of the day was a voluntary dinner at the “Platzhirsch” in Enns, which was a nice and relaxing ending to this Erasmus+ project.
To sum up, the Erasmus+ project has not just helped us learn numerous new things about the EU, Belgium and other cultures, but it also strengthened the team spirit and co-operation within our classes and helped us create bonds with the Belgium students a well. So, in other words: Great success!

Bericht von Soma Mohammed