June 17, 2016 we (the students of Gymnázium Zábřeh and our teachers involved in the exchange program with South Side Area High School from Hookstown, Pennsylvania, the USA) met at the railway station to meet personally for the first time American students and their teachers who participated in the exchange program of our schools as well. We picked up our new friends and we went home to enjoy the whole weekend together. We were to visit several popular tourist destinations in our region like Velké Losiny, the Bouzov castle, the Jeseníky mountains, Javoříčko caves or Litomyšl… Our new American friends thus became parts of our families for one week and we could show them our habits, culture, our everyday lives.On Monday we all had breakfast together at the school canteen. It was prepared by us, Czech students and apart from international pancakes we served for example Czech cake „bábovka“ and Czech apple pie. The great start to a busy week! After breakfast American students looked around our school and had a presentation on their school, town and the nearby city of Pittsburg and then they were shown our school and in the afternoon they were welcomed by the mayor of our town, Mr František John, at the city hall and then we went bowling.
Tuesday belonged to Poland. We visited salt mines Wieliczka and the concetration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, where the headmasters of both schools, Mr Martin Paclík and Mr Sam Adams, honored the memory of the victims of this camp.
On Wednesday we had a historical excursion in Olomouc. We visited the Upper and Lower square, the cathedral of St.Moritz, the church of St. Michael,… and then we went shopping. On Thursday we crosed the borders to Austria to visit the Schönbrunn Chateau and the city center of Austrian capital, Vienna.
The last day of the exchange visit we spent at school to show our friends our normal school day and then we had lunch with all of the American teachers and students in the Sladovna restaurant where we were served a typical Czech dish – dumplings with roasted sirloin and cream sauce. In the late afternoon we all met at a goodbye party at the 4th elementary school Severovýchod. There was prepared a great program (dance show, banquet and disco, sports tournament and other activities…) which we really enjoyed all together.
On Saturday, we met again at the railway station – this time to say goodbye…. A lot of us were moved to tears… It was a wonderful week with our new firends. I can say a really great experience. They became parts of our families and lives.
We are looking forward to seeing them soon.
Karolína Nováková