Diary of the week in Augustenborg
Gepostet am: May 23, 2017 7:50:50 PM
Sunday
Our day began at around 4 A.M. where everyone started waking up. We were all semi-motivated going into the trip, as we were all still a little grumpy after waking up that early but we got into the plane and flew straight to Hamburg, where we had some time to look into the city.
In Hamburg we met the Romanian side of the Erasmus + programme and together we kept marveling at the city. After that we took a train to Flensburg, which also acts as the border between Germany and Denmark. Upon arrival we met the rest of the Erasmus students, apart from the Danes.
We were sorted into our host families at the end of the day.
Monday
On Monday morning we were divided into two groups. I was part of team B. The topic of the day was water. We learnt about the chemical qualities of water and about the three physical states of water. Solid, liquid and gas. Together with our teachers Frau Prof. Bernkopf and Herr Prof. Lechner we made some interesting experiments.
For lunch we had a delicious snack. In the afternoon, a bus took us to a historical open air museum. In the outdoor center we learnt about the war between the Danish and the Prussians in 1863.
First we watched a short documentary about the war, so we would get an overview of what happened at that period of time. Then we went outside where we could prepare pancakes like the Prussians did in the earlier times. Everyone who had already made his personal pancake came out of the small wooden house full of tears in their eyes because of the dust and the fume. However, the pancakes tasted wonderful and that is what counts, right?
At another station we had to write a letter to our parents. The instruction was to pretend that it was our last day before our probably last battle. We had a lot of fun writing those dramatic letters. (Anyway, I hope my parents don’t get to see this letter, otherwise they will get a little concerned, I guess.)
At one of the stations we had to make our own “ammunition”. Hopefully we will never ever have to use it for real. I am going to use mine as jewelry, by the way.
What I personally liked best was that in this guided tour we learnt about a historical topic in playful activities. We really enjoyed that day.
Tuesday
Tuesday morning was dedicated to learn about the watercycle. In order to get a general understanding of “the journey of water molecules” we participated in a role play, where all students were molecules and travelled for example from ocean to cloud to snow by rolling dices. Several other activities followed, like using a computer programme to adjust temperatures of different air layers to create a certain type of precipitation, making a papercraft of the water cycle and learning about the water distribution on Earth.
In the afternoon we visited the Danish amusement park “Universe”, where we were first given some time to explore the park on our own. We admired the 18 metres high geyser which was situated in an immense blue box in the centre of the park. Inside that box you could also find a glacier tunnel, a lava room and a metal cage where lightnings were simulated. Afterwards a guide lead us through “Universe”, showing us the water parc, several gardens of outstanding beauty, playgrounds, where you could convert different forms of kinetic energy to electrical energy, by running in a hamster wheel for example and last but not least the 360 cinema, where we watched a film about our solar system. Before departing, another attraction awaited us. After receiving short instructions, we were allowed to drive segways through a quite difficult parcour.
After such an exciting day, we were all looking forward to spending some time with our host families, relax or “hygge” as the Danish would call it.
Wednesday
The Wednesday in Augustenborg began with a bus drive into the woods. We arrived at a small farm next to the sea and we mixed our groups that we had on Monday and Tuesday new. In smaller groups, we played a game. We had to build a tower out of straws. For this exercise, we had to work as a team. In the end one group had the highest tower which could stand on its own. My group’s tower was higher but it always fell over.
We continued in the house where we got, again in small groups, a box full of materials such as glue, different post-its, printed pictures and a huge poster. Our task was to create an amusement park. Step by step we collected ideas and solved problems. We tried to answer our questions and in the end, we had created a mind map with all the ideas we had discussed and which we wanted to offer in our amusement park on the poster. Every group presented their main ideas in front of the other students.
After a break, that we used to go to the stone beach and eating bananas and apples, two groups got united to one so that we had three big groups. We had to combine two amusement parks to one. In the end of the day we had created three completely different amusement parks. Our last task was the preparation for the next day. We decided who will build what for the model of our amusement parks.
This was the Wednesday in Denmark where we had to be very creative but also work as a team to get to a solution. In my opinion it was a great experience and the work with the other students in my group was very funny.
Thursday
Today was all about implementing our ideas from yesterday. In our groups we finished off our ideas for the amusement park and, with some confusion, started the construction. Everybody was assigned to build and paint some activities in the park. But the good thing was that no member isolated themselves. Everybody interacted with each other, helped one another and played a part in the project. In the end, our amusement park didn’t end up how we wanted it to, but the outcome was nevertheless satisfying. Having finished all the models, the presentations followed.
We presented for a special guest, a council member who is involved in planning an amusement park nearby. While planning our resorts we had to also focus on sustainability, meaning we had to think about how the park would gain its energy in an environmentally friendly way, or whether it would harm the environment in any other way. Having finished this construction we moved on to the next.
The next small project was building catapults, which was a deal harder than the park model. We started of with planks of wood and instructions, and ended up with more or less “functioning” catapults. This again was all about teamwork and doing everything structured and in a group. After having discussed who would do what, we started measuring, sawing and drilling. Some things didn’t work as smoothly as they should have, but eventually we succeeded. Finally we catapulted tennis balls to determine which catapults shot the furthest. Most of the balls barely flew further than half a meter, which was a bit disappointing for some, but the entire process was a lot of fun and I got to know some of the other people! The whole day gave us the chance to interact with new people while simultaneously getting some combined results, and that was something new and exciting.
Friday
At the beginning of our school day we were split up into six groups. Each group was given a number with a topic. The topic was something we had done during the week, for example my group got the topic catapults, which we made on thursday afternoon. Then we got one hour to set up a presentation, which we had to present later in the afternoon to teachers, classmates and our host families. For the preparation of our presentation we got one hour from eight o’clock to nine o’clock.
After the preparation time we went by bus to the headquarters of the company Danfoss. There we had a short presentation about what the company Danfoss exactly does and the history of the company. The presentation was held by an employee of Danfoss. After this we visited the building, where Danfoss manufacture their products, but before we could visit the building we had to dress properly with special clothing and we also were not allowed to use our cameras and mobile phones. Although it was very loud in the fabric, it was also very interesting and exciting. After that we took a pater noster (a very old elevator which doesn’t stop) to the office of the head of the company. The office hadn’t been touched since the 90s because the founder of the company declared as his last wish that no one should change it but his son can work in his office. Then we went to highest point of the building and enjoyed the great view, later on we went to the canteen, where we ate lunch.
Back at school we presented to the others what we did the last week and after it we had an emotional farewell with the erasmus students from Rhauderfehn.
Hamburg
It was time to say goodbye to the other Erasmus students. Many tears fell as we had to part our ways with our newly found friends but we had to continue our trip to the harbour city Hamburg.
After arrival, we took a ferry on the Elb river. It was very cold on the ship and it started to rain a couple of times. We took a small lunch break in the Schanzenbäckerei, before we moved on to visit the miniature wonderland. It was a small exhibition featuring miniature scaled versions of some of the biggest cities in the world.
After that we made our way to the Hamburg airport, where we were greeted with the bad news that our flight to Vienna has been delayed for two hours, upon arrival. Some of us were disappointed, as it meant that we had to miss our school prom. We wandered around the airport and reminisced about the past week, while we were waiting for our plane to land. As the plane finally appeared we were sort of eager to finally get home.
We landed back in Vienna safely and ended our Erasmus week, as each student went home.
Sophie, Brandon, Vidur, Maya, Jonas & Valeria (6B)
