Marl, 7th July 2016. After their return from Creil, France, Salina and Katharina are still thinking of their work placement in an old people’s home. In her report Salina writes, “Working with the seniors has been great fun for me as they were very open-hearted and included you directly. Of course the language is not perfect in the beginning, but by help and merely by listening the language becomes perfect right away. My host family in France was my highlight.” Katharina comes back with new experiences, too: “Whenever there were language difficulties everybody tried to explain it to us. Generally, people spoke more slowly. In case there were questions, they were answered as well as possible. Our working day mostly went from 9.30 am to 4.30 pm. It was very entertaining as there was a different programme every day. On Mondays there was Zumba, for example, and on Thursdays one went to the cinema. I have rarely met such open and warm people. You were simply included and welcomed at once.”

Marl, 1st July 2016. On this day their reports were ceremonially presented to the pupils of Albert-Schweitzer-/Geschwister-Scholl-Gymnasium in Marl who had passed their Abitur (school leaving examination). The special day included an ecumenical service which was celebrated in Saint Michael’s Church with Reverend Christian Zimmer and Pastoral Assistant Günter Tewes. “My time lies in your hands …” was the topic of the service, which Lara Erwig, Hanna den Hartog, Franka Hubert, Svenja Swoboda, Theresa Mudlaff, Till Strunk, Malte and Niklas Lücking and Paula Zimmer had prepared with great commitment together with their teacher Regina Giegel. On the pupils’ request the 830 euros of the collection this year went to the Elena Bless Foundation, which supports work placements abroad und school exchange programmes for young people who love travelling and contact to other people just the same as Elena. Regina Giegel (right) and Dorothee Schlüter (left) handed over the collection to Annette Bleß, who expressed her sincere thanks for the generous donation.

Crèvecoeur-le-Grand, 4th May 2016. Full of new impressions Hannah, pupil of the Gymnasium (Grammar School) of the Mariannhiller Missionaries, has returned from her work placement in France and tells: “In the Easter holidays I could be on a work placement in France, more precisely in Crèvecoeur-le-Grand, the place of the twin school of the Gymnasium of the Mariannhiller Missionaries. My French teacher and the German teacher at Collège Jehan-le-Fréron could find me a very nice host family and days of work placement at two French schools. Thus I could accompany the teachers and gain insight into French school life. A morning when I could advertise German respectively Germany in all classes of the primary school was especially interesting. I taught welcome phrases and some German words to all pupils. Of course they were also allowed to ask me questions. The seriously (!) meant question if I had already seen a “genuine German” was amusing. “Yes, may happen” =”Oui, de temps en temps!” With the question the girl presumably had in mind a “typical German” with lederhosen (leather trousers), chamois beard, beer tankard or stein and pretzel. A real attraction J! I explicitly thank the Elena Bleß Foundation for making possible this stay in France! It was very valuable for me!”

Reims, 16th April 2016. Cheerfully Jacqueline, pupil of Pascal-Gymnasium (Grammar School) in Münster, reports on her exchange from Reims, a town with about 200,000 inhabitants in the north-east of Paris. I have been here since the middle of March and have already experienced a lot. As there are still Easter holidays in Reims, my host family and I went to Paris for a few days. There we had a look at many exciting places like the Louvre, the Quartier Latin – a kind of students’ quarter – and the famous Versailles Palace, by which I am still overwhelmed (cf. picture). Of course I must go to school here, too. Everyday life at school is not so much different from the one I am used to. Nevertheless, I have noticed a few differences. The days start later – but consequently end later, and there is school here every Saturday morning, which is something completely new to me. Finally I would like to explicitly thank you for the support without which I would not have been able to make many of the experiences in the recent weeks. I can only recommend such a stay abroad.