After 22- hour- trip we reached the arranged place of the meeting. Belgians: the Headmaster of Sint-Amandsinstitiuut Mr Franz Verplanke and teachers – the guardians of our group – Frank Luts and Frederiek Berthier were already waiting for us . After greeting they took care of our baggage and then we went to visit Gent – the city which was the first point in the plan of our visit. Walking in the city center we saw a wonderful cathedral – “ St. Baaf ’s Cathedral”, the gothic town hall and the medieval stone castle. It was a very nice surprise when we met the inhabitants of that castle walking on the cloisters, dressed typically for the Middle Ages, and the knight guarding the gateway to the castle, who knew some Polish phrases.
At 11:30 in Kortrijk there was an official greeting of the Polish group by the headmaster in the presence of Belgian pupils , their parents and teachers. After the reception we went home with our “ new “ families.
Mr. Franz Verplanke with Ms. Violetta Pomykala and Ms. Irena Rzeznik
11th November is the Independence Day in Belgium and it is a national holiday. But for teachers who took part in the exchange program: Mrs Wioletta Pomykała and Mrs Irena Rzeźnik it was an industrious day. They were creating the plan of further cooperation, and they were talking about the activities which we were going to undertake.
Polish and Belgian pupils in the Bowling Center
Pupils
spent that day together with their Belgian friends at the bowling alley, in
McDonald’s and in the cinema.
Tuesday-12th
November
On
that day we visited Kortrijk. The guide who showed us round the city was a
former teacher in Sint-Amandsinstituut.
The wonderful view of Kortrijk
Kortrijk is located in the northern part of Belgium. It is one of the biggest producer of textiles in the world. Walking in Kortrijk we had an opportunity to visit the town hall and the hall of official meetings inside. We also saw the medieval “Beginage”-a town in the city, where in 12th century the movement of solitary women was initiated. In the city center we were admiring the old belfry and a characteristic feature of Kortrijk two twin towers– “Broeltorens” which are the remains of the defensive walls of the city. In the afternoon there was an official reception for the group from Poland at school. We received the pins with the symbol of Sint-Amandsinstituut. The headmaster Mr. Franz Verplanke mentioned in his speech how he had found Przysucha and our schools. He named Mr. Mirosław Pilipczuk who contributed to the beginning of Polish-Belgian cooperation. Mrs. Wioletta Pomykała thanked for the warm welcome and creating nice, family like atmosphere during our visit. She invited the Belgian group to Poland assuring that we would be looking forward to their visit.
Polish group on the bridge in Kortrijk.
At 9 o’clock the international sport day was started. Teams from Belgium, Poland, the Czech Republic and France took part in the indoor tournament of football. After a long and competitive fight our team unfortunately lost with the Belgian team, but only after penalties.
Football match Poland vs. Belgium
During the tournament the were divided into three groups. One group was pup observing and preparing the report from the course of matches, another one was interviewing the participants of the exchange program asking about cultural differences and the first impressions from visit.
They use computers only for the purpose of education :)
There was also a group of photographers who were taking pictures of the most important moments. When all the materials were completed , pupils with the help of Computer Science teachers created the website, where you can find some information about actions undertaken during the exchange program.
Informatics' hall. We were creating website.
In the evening pupils were struggling with the questions about the
European Union. They took part in the European Quiz.
On that day we visited Brussels. However, it wasn’t an ordinary guided tour of the city but it was something like a Geography lesson, owing to which we could discover this wonderful city themselves.
Our group in Brussels
Among the tasks which we had to do was: marking on the map of the city center the route of our trip; finding and signing the pictures of characteristic buildings, monuments and places; reading from the map the altitude of the park and also answering a lot questions connected with the sights of Brussels. Discovering Brussels we saw The Parliament of Belgium – “Palace of Nations”, King’s Palace which is the official King’s residence; “Grand Place” surrounded by wonderful buildings which amazed us with variations of architectural styles; “St. Michael and St. Gudule’s Cathedral”, “Manneken-Pis”-a peeing boy- the symbol of Brussels; shops with Belgian laces and pralines and many, many other wonderful places.
Manneken-Pis the symbol of Brussels
In the evening we were honoured to take part in the official reception in the City Hall of Kortrijk, in the richly decorated, representative hall. We were received by the representative of Mayor of the city, from whom we got memorial pens whereas the teachers got silver spurs which are the symbol of Kortrijk. After speeches we were invited to wine or orange juice.
At 9:00 we started visiting KATHO - Polytechnics in Kortrijk. The principal of the university showed us different laboratories of such branches as: mechanics, electricity, electronics, informatics. Moreover, he presented us the profiles and course of education. We also had the possibility to laugh at our deformed faces by means of a special program to the treatment of photos.
In the afternoon we went to Brugge – the city called “Venice of North”. We were amazed at this picturesque, romantic city. The Church of Holly Mother with the original sculpture by Michael Angel, the Town Hall, Beginuge (a zero class monument ), which was written on UNESCO list), St. John’s Hospital- these are only some of the places we visited.
At 11:00 we met
Marcin Żewłakow- a Polish footballer who plays
in the Belgian club. We got autographs and we took a lot of
photos. However, we were not in the good mood- the end of our wonderful
trip was coming.
About 15:00 we met for the last time with our Belgian friends at the arranged place. There we exchanged our addresses and phone numbers. After that, we said goodbye and feeling sad but having a lot of impressions we got onto the bus. At 16:00 we left Kortrijk.
Frank Luts and Frederiek Berthier-the guardians of our group
THE END