On 22 February four sixth-form students (Hannah, Lena, Tim, Venka) and two teachers (Ms Batteux, Ms Böttge) from our school went to Reykjavik, Iceland. We met at 5 pm at Tegel airport. Our flight with Icelandair started at 8pm. When landing we were in a special weather phenomenon called St. Elmo’s fire. It was really scary because our plane shook a lot. After our three-and-a-half-hours flight we finally arrived in Iceland.
Sunday was our family day. In the morning everyone did something with their host families. Venka for example went to an Icelandic church and listened to a choir - it just sounded amazing. That day was special because it was woman’s day so the men of the choir made a delicious soup for everyone. Tim went swimming and Hannah to a Geyser. In the afternoon we met up with the others and went ice-skating, to a bowling arena and ate a lot of pizza. The day was so much fun because everyone was so nice and there wasn't something like an awkward silence because everyone had something to tell. Even though everyone had to communicate in English we understood each other very well.
On Monday we were taken by our host students to our partner school Verzló. We were given a tour of the school and were quite impressed by the modern facilities (computer workplaces, microwaves for students, free water dispenser). In the afternoon we did a city centre tour of Reykjavik.
On Tuesday we went to a place called Blue Lagoon. When we got there we first needed to shower and put our bathing suits on, of course. Because it is a natural lagoon they have to cool the water temperature down. But you need to be careful with your hair, once your hair got wet; it takes weeks till it gets shiny again. When we went into the lagoon the water was so warm. Sometimes we couldn't even see anything because the steam was so thick.
When you book your stay there you also get one face mask and one smoothie for free.
It was funny putting on the masks because it looked so weird but the smoothies tasted delicious. It was an amazing day and probably the best one.
On Wednesday we met at Verzló and practiced our presentation about migration. At 10 o'clock it was time for the presentations of all countries in the ERASMUS-program. We "the Germans" started with the presentations. All students of all countries had made tremendous efforts and the results were fun and creative.
After a tour of the National museum the afternoon was free, so we did a little shopping tour in Reykjavik and we bought some nice souvenirs.
In the evening all students and teachers of the ERASMUS-program met in the teachers’ lounge at school and the Icelandic students brought Icelandic food. It was a nice dinner.
Later we tried to see northern lights, but it was too cloudy to see some. :-(
On Thursday we met at 8am for a trip called „Golden Circle Tour“, on this tour we saw a lot of nature. First we went to the „Thingvellir National park“. After that we were given lunch, tomato soup with freshly baked bread, by the „Fridheimar greenhouses“. Then we continued our tour and stopped at the „Gullfoss“ waterfall. It was very hard to walk there because it was really stormy and windy. Our last aim on the tour was a huge Geyser which smelt weird. After the trip we drove back to the school and went to our homes. Later this day we had a small party because it was our last day in Iceland. But for us Germans it was extra short, because our flight back to Germany was very early.
On Friday we had to wake up early, because we met at 4 am at the bus stop and waited for the shuttle. We arrived at Tegel at 12.20 pm.
All in all it was a nice experience to stay in Iceland and learn something about other cultures.
Report: Hannah, Lena, Tim and Venka
Note from the teachers: We were very proud of you, you did a great job when presenting and fought bravely all the fierce weather conditions without complaining