As usual we took the bus to go to school in Strážnice. When we arrived there we were split up into two groups. One group started at the crisps factory and the other group had a post-Easter workshop.

At the crisps factory we learnt a lot about the different types of potatoes. The man also told us what we need to make crisps: Water, rapeseed oil, potatoes and flavours. Then we went to the producing hall to see how the crisps are made. After the tour we walked back with a big box full of crisps. 

The second workshop showed us how traditional Easter whips are made. It looks easy, but we soon realized that it isn’t. We also got the chance to decorate Easter eggs and biscuits. After getting all the necessary information for tomorrow’s trip to Prague we took off to our free afternoon. 

Almost all the students met up in Uherské Hradiště, a lovely city, for a laser game. We had a lot of fun together.

Happy but also tired we caught the train back to our hometowns. Tonight we ate an early dinner. We need a good sleep because tomorrow is going to be a long day in Prague.

Florian and Joel

It’s two minutes before 8:00 clock. We are running, I think we will be the last ones. I hope the bus will wait for us. But in this moment I can see others from our group. We are not the last ones, oh wow, finally we reach the bus and our adventure of today can start. 

After a funny bus ride to the beautiful Lednice castle we had our own time to do experiences in the castle garden. In our group we took a lot of pictures. The nature was really beautiful but the lake was a bit smelly which wasn’t nice. Another problem was, that we were too slow and we didn’t manage to see the whole park.

Some minutes later we’re in the bus again and on our way to the „Mädchenburg“. It was really beautiful and we had a nice view over the Czech Republic. But the walk was very hard and we were really happy when we finally saw the ruin. We got 15 minutes time to take pictures and eat something. But I think most of us just took pictures and didn’t eat anything because the view was too nice. A little problem was, that it was really windy so we couldn’t see anything because of our hair.

Our next step was to walk back to the bus and this was a really long way. Back in the bus everyone was tired and we were hoping for a long ride to the next stop. But, it wasn’t like this! Only a few minutes later we arrived in Mikulov. We had some time to take a look at the beautiful town. Our group went to a cafe to eat a cake and to drink something. We had a lot of stuff to talk about and it was a lot of fun. Some others visited the castle. Others were hungry so they went to a  kebab place. The man there had a lot of fun because we are coming from Switzerland.

Back on the bus the Swiss boys played music and we discussed what we’re going to do in the evening. And we decided to go to the house of Lucy with some people. 

Elisa and Jasmine 

On Monday morning we drove by bus to our school in Strážnice. When we arrived at our school, our Czech students brought us to a big room (the assembly hall) where we found our friends. There they first showed us a short review of their visit in Switzerland. After that they showed us the school. And we have to agree that this is a huge school.  After that we learned to pronounce some difficult Czech words. It was very funny because it was very hard for us to pronounce these words. Later they showed us what Czech folklore music sounds like. It was very impressive because it was music which students from these school played. Mister Jongepier told us that these students have their own “band” and that they had just won a very special award of Moravia. 

At 9.45 a.m we went to the town hall. The vice mayor of Strážnice gave us a very warm welcome in a very beautiful room. After that we got to try some little typical cakes of Czech republic (Kolaci). And we liked them a lot. At about 11.00 a.m we went back to the school and then some other students taught us how to dance the Moravian folklore. It looked so easy but for us it was so difficult. When we finished the dance lesson we went to a sightseeing tour through Strážnice. We had the opportunity to see so many beautiful monuments and even an old jewish synagogue. We decided to go to a beautiful park to make a picnic because we were all hungry. It was a nice picnic. After that short break we went to an open-air museum. It was a pleasure for us because they opened it some months earlier just for us. It was very interesting to see how the people used to live in earlier years. The old houses were absolutely stunning. After we’ve seen everything of the museum we went back to the center of Strážnice where we got invited to a cold drink. It was a very nice and interesting day and we think that all of us were very tired in the evening.

Julia and Jenny

Sunday, 8th April

To wake up on a train is something new for us. The place is small but quiet enough. After the little breakfast in the train, we have time to take our things and make us ready to leave.

„In 10 minutes we arrive in Strážnice.“ All of us are so nervous to see the other students from  the Xchange. And then the train stops. We take our luggage and get out of the train. All students stand there, with flags, and start to sing „Müeh mit de Chüe“, the song which they learned in Switzerland. It was an emotional moment for us and interesting to see how well they can sing the song!

After the song, they welcomed us in the Czech Republic.

In the afternoon each family did something with us. My family took me to a cave, which is 2 hours away from Stràznice. We saw some stalagmites and we could drive with a boat in the caves. It was really interesting and I’m very excited to see more of this country. The day we finished with a tasty, traditional meal from here.

Yves Zeugin

On Sunday morning, at 8 o’clock we arrived in Vienna, where we changed train. At 10:30 we finally arrived to Strážnice, and the Czech students sang the song „Müeh mit de Chüe“, that we tought them in Switzerland. Then the family took me to their home and we ate lunch. In the afternoon we drove to Brno and went to a technical museum and after that we visited Spielberk castle. Up there it was very funny, due to the heavy wind we almost couldn‘t stand on our feet. In the evening we went bowling with some other students from the Xchange.

Nico 

 Betrayed the Czech guys

Ahoj! We met at quarter past eight in the evening at the train station in Andelfingen, where we said goodbye to our families. After two minutes on the train we were told off, because we were „too loud“.

So our journey started very well. 🙂

In Zurich we went onto the nightjet, which brought us to Vienna. We were SO nervous but totally excited!

We had a very „cool“ couchette, we could put our window down and put our heads out. It was forbidden, but we didn’t know until Mrs. Ducci told us.

We were extremely amused about the lake of Zurich by night and we screamed a lot, out of the window.

We didn’t slept much, but laughed a lot.

We were woken up at 06:30 in the morning by Elisa, because someone served us breakfast. Okay, a Croissant and a hot chocolate, but it did it for the morning.

We arrived  to Vienna nine minutes in advance, but this was perfect, so we didn’t get in a rush. We drove with this train to Hodónin, what took about one and a half hour. There we had 30 minutes to do what we wanted. There happened the first mistake to us (Nuby and Indi).

We needed to go to the toilet, but it cost 10 crowns per person and the man inside there couldn’t speak any english. So we just had 10 crowns and we were two people, so we went together in the cabin. The man made hand signs, but we didn’t understand what to do, so we just handed back the key, said „dig“ (thank you) and moved away.

So, our first impression to the Czech population was, that we betrayed them. WE‘RE SORRY!

Nubya and Indira

We are looking forward and we all are pretty excited 🙂 See you soon!

11th November until 18th November 2017

We are looking forward to welcoming our guests from Strážnice!

See you soon 🙂

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Today we woke up very early because it was the day for travelling back to Switzerland. We packed our things and some people got presents for their parents and families. We all arrived at the train station at 8:20 a.m. We said goodbye and thanks for the beautiful week. It was really sad because we will miss them. We hugged each other for a while and we all hope to go back to the Czech Republic some day. When we were leaving all Czech people waved goodbye. Some people started to cry.

We changed the train in Vienna. The next six hours were very long but we could sometimes stand up and walk around. The next stop was Feldkirch. Some of the students went to the restaurant and the others sat on the ground.

After that great weak with our Czech friends we were nevertheless glad to be back home 🙂

Enya, Nadine

Dear Czech students, dear families, dear Jan Willem, dear Jarka

Today, we played some games at school. First, there was a quiz about Switzerland and the Czech Republic. Betty and Marie explained us the game. After that, we made groups of four and started one group after the other, letting pass some time before the next group could start. We had to walk through the whole school and search the numbers with the questions. It was  really interesting. When all groups were back, we went to the Aula to play other games.

The second game was Bingo. We played it twice and we had enough time to even do some  pantomimes. The morning was funny. At 12, Ramon and Vanessa went to eat in a restaurant. And in the afternoon, we went shopping because we needed some food for our journey home tomorrow. We then took the train to Veseli because we wanted to go in a café. There, we met Rya and Fiorella. It was a nice afternoon. Some other students went to Uherské Hradište to play Lasertag. For most of them it was the first time.

In the evening, we all met in the Restaurant Skanzen for the farewell dinner. We had meat with so called dumplings and sauce, the dumplings were rather new to all of us, we liked them. After dinner, the Czech people organised a party. It was very cool and we were all in a good mood :-))

Vanessa, Kay, Ramon