Ann Mary Diary
Departure
Friday June 4.
A very big Hi! And Hello to all you people back home in India. This is Frau Uniyal reporting from Hirschorn about the where abouts of the entire exchange team since we disappeared from the the scene of Dhera doon on the 4th of June at 5. 45 precisely.Sorry for the delay in the reporting due to bad weather. Well to set the ball rolling , the drive from Doon to New Delhi was all in all a pleasant one except for the last hour of the journey being dampened by a little bit of heat. None the less all we arrived in New Delhi in high spirits . We drove straight to the YMCA and watch out, had a sumptuous lunch in the cool atmosphere of the hotel. My mouth is still watering at the mere thought of the lovely varities of ice- creams that we had there. Henceforth we proceeded to the German Embassy and at three sharp met the Deputy Ambassador of Germany to India Herr Kinderlenn . He interacted with each member of the exchange group for about 45 minutes enlightening us about Germany , its people , its food and culture . It was an enriching experience to know about the country we were about to visit. Then we were presented with a friendship badge by him It was a pretty little badge with both the German and the Indian flag on it alongwith it we were also presented a very useful and handy book on facts about Germany.From here we proceeded to the airport . While waiting at the airport ,we had lots of teas and snacks and laughed and talked amongst ourselves in the visitors lounge . Shortly we checked in with our luggage and soon in the dark dead of the night at 2.25 IST we were lifted by the the huge Lufthansa Airplane towards our destination Frankfurt.
BYE- BYE INDIA AND HELLO GERMANY
Day one
Saturday June 5th
– Guten MorgenWell dear parents this is your comrade Frau Neena Uniyal reporting from the day 2! of the programme . Here are the interesting wherabouts of the day, of the exchange team for all of you back in India .To begin with we had a comfortable and a smooth flight to Frankfurt. Shortly before landing the scene from the inside of the plane was simply breath-taking The clouds were were all around the air-craft and visibility was poor . The clouds in the sky were like small flecks of snow allaround you. The plane landed at the Frankfurt airport roughly around seven in the morning. It was a cold and a wet morning but it did not dampen the spirits of either the guests or the hosts of the exchange team. We were recieved warmly by our hosts and driven back to our would – be- homes for the coming two weeks from here on. We all bathed ,ate and drank and took the much needed rest for sometime. A little piece of news – bath in hot water in June.IMAGINE! Yes it is cold here . Dölöök forward to some nice cold weather we bring back to all of you as a German present. After resting a bit , we explored our surrondings. One more observation we would like to pass on to you that at the moment Germany we are having summers . The days are really L_O_N_G: It does not get dark till around nine at night. We already had a very good look at the beautiful valley of Neckar . It is quiet, green and clean with ever smiling ,friendly Germans around us. Language is not a problem to communicate at all because we communicate with each other on the basis of the most understood language in the world. The language of peace, friendship and love! Its bye for now but with promise that I will be reportingon the highlights of day 3! shortly.Aufwedeshien ( Good-Bye)
Day two
6th June
Guten Morgen! and as per my promise I am back with you to report the events and the proceedings of the third day of the exchange. Today is Sunday and it has dawned as a warm , beautiful and a relaxing day. The clouds of the previous day have given vent and the sunshine is making the valley look exceedingly beautiful with its picturesque green beauty. We are all relaxed and are ready to have a day out with our hosts. Today is a day to have different experiences. For example Saumya Sharma went to see a duck race with the Klaffke familyGoing by her version , she found it very amusing and re-creating. Similarly some of us went went to Heidelberg , the oldest university town. It being a Sunday lots of people were found relaxing on the streets. The culture of relaxing on holidays is very different then that in India. This fact became quite obvious to us while we were taking a stroll around the city of Hiedelberg. Yet another group of us went to see a small fair which was being held in the close vicinity of where they were residing. It was indeed an eye- opening experience for most of us to compare the German fairs to our traditional good old Indian Melas. We returned with our host families with a mixed feeling of relaxation and recreation. After a delicious German dinner, we retired early to bed so that we could be energised for the visit to the Freiherr vom Stein schule early next morning. We are extremely keyed up and excited to visit the school , the children and the staff members . More and detailed account of the school in the daily dairy report of the next day.Thtis is Frau Uniyal signing off for the time being.Will write to you soon.
Best wishes to everybody back in India.This is archit Agarwal reporting from Neckarsteinach,Germany for the 7th and 8th june.
7th :June
_ On the whole it was a good day for all of us. The whole group met at the school in Neckarsteinach early morning. Then we had a little meeting with Mr. Klaffke . There we talked how we spent our weekend. Fortunately it was a good one as you must have read in the previous report. Then we saw a lot of different things in the school, For example a wide range of German books in the library, the solar energy plant which produces a lot of energy for the school. We were a bit surprised to see that in German schools there are two to three big breaks of approximately twenty minutes each. We saw their canteen. A primary class played flute for us and sang a Swedish song for us . It was very melodious and deeply enjoyed by one and all. Then a class nine interviewed all the members of the exchange group. After this we all went home with our respective hosts except Neha and me and since our hosts had an extra lesson to attend. We were attending their class and were welcomed with a lot of warmth. The students wanted to talk to me but they could not as their teacher was also there but yet we managed a little chat. Now I would like to reflect upon how the rest of the day passed for me with the host family. I came home by the train and had some German pulao! , banana shake , apple cake and lots of cherries and strawberries for lunch. I went to a club to play table tennis . Then I along with Michael went for a walk in the town. I bought some things and we came back home a little late . I would like to say that my hosts and all the elderly German people are too good. Please do not worry about us we are all very happy . Needless to say that we are missing all you people back home and paranthas as well Its bye- bye for now . See you later .
8th June:
The day started more or less on the same footing as yesterday but only at the end of the day I came to know how much fun and surprises fate had for us. When i went to school this morning , I was welcomed into my hosts class with open arms. In the second period Akanksha gave a wonderful presentation about the religious set-up in India. At sharp nine in the morning we met the Mayor of Neckarsteinach and he spoke to us about the German history as well as the history of the castles which we were to see today. Then we went around the castles which was about ten kilometers walk in all. Imagine walking such a long distance ! We also visited a castle which is well maintained by the family living in it. It was an honour for all of us to be able to meet and interact with the Baron and his wife for a short while. After we had seen all the castles , we were quite tired and thirsty and it was also time to go back home . In the evening , Neha , Akanksha and Amrapali went to the swimming pool .Saumya went with her hosts to see some Taek- won- doo classes and I went to a party which was arranged in my honour exclusively by Michael,s friends . I made many new friends - Thomas, Robert, Christian ,Timoor and many more . That is all for the time being. Cheerio! Will mail again soon! Archit Aggarwal
From preeti sharma
Dear indian delegates to germany, it was very enlightning to hear from you.it was also very nice of you not to have forgotten us while having fun in germany.first of all mrs uniyal's first hand day to day report is amazing.those of us who have had the pleasure of reading it can very visualize what you people must be viewing.back home in india the heat is overwhelming,so it was very amusing to hear of a hot bath in middle of june.the other incident i found amusing was the duck race.it must have reminded you all of the traffic conditions in india.life is quite routine here so there is nothing much to report about.hoping to here more from you. your's truly preeti.
9th June,2004
Picking this up from where we left off yesterday(i.e. when wwe went back to our respective hosts and their families),the day started on a rather warm note!seems like the group of nine of us nine Indians have brought some of Indians have broughtsome of India’s tropical heat along with us to Germany !The day started with Amarpali Dixit and Mrs. Arora giving an unbelievable Yoga performance. It was surely an overwhelming experience for those who witnessed it. While these two were doing Yoga, some members went to the German class with Mr. Klaffke.The others took part in the orchestra class. What followed that wasone of the most stupendous experiences of my life, and I really think I can the say the same for the members of the group. At around 11 a.m., we boarded the ship that would carry us from Neckarsteinach to Heidelberg via the river Neckar . it was a breathtaking view from the top. Our hosts(of course) were with us.For about one and a half hour or so, we travelled through the Neckar.Germany, for sure, is an extremely pretty place.At around 12:30-1:00 p.m. we reached Heidelberg, informally also called the city of castles. Heidelberg is a very romantic place with medieval age styled pavements in the main market place. There are a lot of shops all around and it is rather fascinating having a look at them.Anyway, we were getting a bit late so we rushed off to our next destination- an Indian restaurant called RAJA RANI. It is a small and cosy place and fells very Indian. Everyone had something or the other and as for myself, I had “chole- bhature”. The people running the pülace were rather hospitable as they gave me an extra large helping of chole and surprisingly for them it was the small serving.So all filled up and revitalized, we started off to see the world famous Heidelberg castle. After a lot of climbing up(and a lot more photographs), we reached to the castle. It is an awfully big place and you can easily get intimidated by its structure. When we were going into the castle, we saw some interesting proceedings taking place. There was a dance troupe practicing for a performance and the choreography was also of the same style as that in the feudal age.After sometime, we met our guide Ms. Christine Möhle. She took us around and showed us everything from the library with the prototypes of the age old manuscripts that had been kept over there(now the litreture is in the Vatican) to tzhe banquet hall. There were statues of the princes all over the place, most of them infamous for their heavy drinking. The guide alsonarrated to us the story of Friedrich the Vth and his wife Elizabeth. It felt like it had just been taken out from a hindi movie with Elizabeth being a difficult and hard to please Londoner and Friedrich trying to do everything in order to please her. Christine proved to be a very interesting guide and it was fun to know the history of the charming little pladce. At the end, she took us to the church where mass weddings took place and still do. Japanese weddings being the most numerous followed by American and of course German !She also showed us the balcony where the prince liked to sit and had opaque glass put up so that if tzhe wedding ceremony was too boring, they could just get up, put their valets in their place and go to the wine cellar. That was whereour guided tour came to an end. After that, we went to the wine cellars and had a look at the wine barrels. Some of the princes even had upto 18 bottles of wine in aday. The barrels of wine are so big that you can fill two swimming pools worth of wine.With that I left off with my exchange partner Asisa Klaffke . She had fixed up a meeting with one of her friends as they were throwing a surprise party for her. It was rather hot(39 degrees) and Heidelberg felt like Delhi minus the traffic and chaos rather than Heidelberg. After half an hour worth of hunting(Asisa’s friend is a perfectionist !) they were able to find the right present. So we hopped on the bus and came back to my host’s village Bammental. We were thoroughly exhausted and even I was feeling very hot. After that we went to the tkd training. And I of course only did the simple things but it surely was a lot of fun. We came back at about 10 at night after which we sat outside in the garden near the fire and stayed up till 12 after which we went to sleep.On a concluding note, I’d like to say that of all 5 days I’ve spent here in Germany this was the coolest (not temperaturewise of course) ! saumya sharma
Tuesday 10th of June,
A big hello to everyone in India! This is Neha Gupta reporting from Langental (Germany) about the lovely day we had today. Thisd daystarted with a nice warm morning,bright sunshine. Today was a special day, catholic celebration day. M hoast family are catholics , so we went to Hirschhorn to see the celebrations going on. The church and the town was all decorated with beautiful flowers. I also saw some of the ceremonies going on in the church.Today we also were invited to a cofee party to Mr.Klaffkes house together with our hosts. My hosts mother dropped me at his house in Bammental at 3.30 pm. We had a nice time chatting with our friends and also enjoyed the delicious strawberry .- chockolate.- and apple cakes with a nice hot coffee.Then after the lovely snack we went for a walk into the pretty town. At5.15pm we bit good by to each other.
The climate today was rather funny. in the morning it was rather hot and in the evening it was rather cold with thunder and lightening. But alltogether we had a really nice day
Good By Neha Gupta
11 june
Dear friends at home in India,One week has gone and we are still trying to absorb all the new things we are learning day after day. I am supposed to report on the happenings of Friday the 11th of June.As every day we started early morning at 7am from home , reached the Freiherr vom Stein Schule at 7.30 and started straight with a meating to organize our German -Indian Evening on the 15th, At 9.15 am we boarded the S-Bahn (the local train and travelled for about an hour to a place called Heppenheim , a very pretty small town, pituresque and clean with old wooden houses decorated with flowers etc. We went for a walk through the old part of the town which was particularly nice and saw a baroque church from inside. Thereafter we had a reception with Mr.Wilkes someone like the Comissioner,the second man after the the Chiefminister of the State of Hessen. He gave an enlightening speech about the importance of a schoolfriendship like ours and what all we could learn from each other, about german engagement in India and longstanding friendship between the countries. He mentioned in particular Sonia Gandhis decission not to be Prime minister,which was well received in Germany, and said that this could have only done by a woman,and how good the indian women would be.We presented him with a peace kit from AMS and he wished us all the best for the rest of our stay.Afterwards we went to a place called Bensheim, a small town further up north and had a sort of a workshop with the Karl Kuebel Stiftung, the organisation that supported the school exchange Programm. Frau Thiez the lady who had also organized an indian vegetarian lunch for us is very well informed and managed to keep our thoughts and emotions ballanced while we were reflecting on intercultural differences and ways of overcomming wrong notions about each others culture.The day ended with tea and coffee and we travelled home again with the train . By about 7h pm everyone had reached home again and I guess all went to bed that day tired and excausted.Thats all from me with love from S.W.Arora
12 June
A big hello to everyone back home!This is Anita from Germany and I would like to tell you what all we did onsaturday the 12th of June 04.In the morning all the childeren went shopping with their hosts in smallgroups to places like Heidelberg and Mannheim.Mrs. Arora, Mrs. Uniyal and I also had great fun going around Mannheimshopping complex and buying certain things.We had some french meal , too.We all enjoyed a lot going around and seeing different things.On our way back home, Mrs. Uniyal and I travelled by train on ourselfs (abig achievement, isn´t it!).In the evening we were invited for an Indian meal by Mrs. Shanta who belongsto Kalkotta in India, but now she is in Germany for the last thirty-twoyears.Everyone enjoyed the meal a lot and we really appreciate Mrs. Shanta forpreparing the food so well keeping the Indian as well as the German taste inmind.We spend almost three hours with the couple.It was indeed a great evening for everyone.Enjoy some pictures from the evening.With lots of good wishes and love, Anita Agnihotri
A very big hello to all the readers of the Ann Mary School Exchange reportdiary,What a big day the Ann Marians had today!Ah! My back still aches while I´m writing about it.It began today morning at 7:30 with with the decoration of the wall fortomorrow´s function, the so called "Indian Evening".Although the Bacha Party was tired in that only but the main film was yet tobe directed!After we had been working on the decorations for nearly three (!) hours westarted with the cooking.Most of us were interested, not in cooking, but in having a Garam-Garam hotspicy pakoda meal.We all fried various kinds of Pakodas - Aloo, Pyaj, Gobhi and Bread Pakodas.Everytime we fried a new type Pakoda snack we made the kitchen teacher tasteit.After having tried so many types of Pakoda she must be thinking (in Indian)" ko main hi mili thi kya sare Pakode try karane ke liye"They were not that bad but I think she was pretty full then.Some of the lucky people brought an end to the cooking difficulties.At 1:30 everyone except the three ladies and myself went home with theirhosts.We four were left to cook and suffer.Then came the TEA SESSION:Uniyal Mam, who was dying for a cup of tea, went to look for the personrelated.But she couldn´t find him and since she didn´t know how to get the teamachine to working, she came back, to our great dissappointment, emptyhanded.Then Mrs. Arora had to go only to make some tea for the others.Uniyal mam to our surprise did not enjoy the tea much, later.Aa...ha! Then came finally the end!We had successfully completed our tasks of cooking snacks by five minutespast three.After that the half dead cooks went hurringly to their gost...I mean hostfamilies.In the evening I went to teh supermarket in Mannheim and shopped a bit outthere then returned home at ten o´clock, ate dinner and slept thinkingtomorrow is always better than today!In my point of view it was a nice day, a bit tiring one but it´s all part ofthe fun.HOIEJNG JHAII-tomorrow show would be a super-duper hit, Akanksha
13 June
Hallo everyone at home,Today the day started at eleven o,Clock in the morning for me , or perhaps for everybody. I had brunch at 12pm and then I helped my host-mother to clean the house which took two hours. Nadia (my friend) had a biologie test on 14th of June so I helped her to understand the" Mendels Law of Genetics "In the afternoon all of us Indians (our hosts were buissy studying)met at the harbour in Eberbach for a shipride. As soon as we boarded the ship fresh air passed through our lungs. It was a pleasant journey of two hours from Eberbach to Neckarsteinach and back. We had coffee and cake on the ship and a good chat.At six o'clock we bid goodbye to each other.I returned home, had my evening meal which consisted of bhindi ki sabzi and rice. At 8 o'clock I watched a documentary film on Dinosaurs. I am tired and yawning now , so good night to all yours Amrapali. Dated :15:6:04Well folks HELLO! And once again after douing the short dissapearing act as usual I am back again to tell you all about a very exciting day of the program .The Indian group was in Freiherr-vom-stein-schule in the morning as usual but we were all enthusiastic as we had to print some t- shirts alomg with the craft teacher of the school .We reported in the printing room at the scheduled time and then printted the t-shirts using the screen printing technique as it is done in Ann Mary scvhool back home .We printed the emblem of the host school with white colour on black t-shirts .It was great fun to print ,dry,iron the t-shirts .And hold your breath! Till I tell you all about the INDIAN EVENING which began exactly at 6:30 P.M. In Germany at this hour it is broad day light .Al ittle difficult for Indians to imagine .There was a lot of propagation among the people of Neckarsteinach about this evening and people flocked in huge numbers and occupied the seats well before the evening was about to start to set the ball rolling .,the evening stated in the traditional Indian way with the lighting of the lamp by the princpals of partnership schools Herr Klaffke and Arora .After a br4ief wellcoming words to the audience by Mrs.Silvia Arora ,Saumaya Sharma enthralled the audience by the recitel of theGANESH STUTI or Shloka .I am sure every one back in India knowsw about which shloka I am talking .If not , do me a favour and check it out please ! The children of the host school presented the orchestra show which was tremendously appreciated by one and all present in the gathering .During the course of the program there was also a slide show by Mr.Klaffke and Mrs.Juta Schwarz on INDIA and how they experienced the country whiler they were on their exghange trip .In Germany a löot many people are iinterested in Yoga .So there was our dear Amrapali Dixit with a Yoga demonstration for the audience .My words are not powerful enough to make you alll believe how much of interest was gernerated for thios presentation . For that you would have to be personally present in th audience .Well Done Amrapali! Now I am moving into the climax of the ewvening of the evening .Dr.Arora played a beautiful piece of music on his instrument Sitar .Let me inform you that like all of us the sitar has also undertaken a long jouney and come all the way to Germany -to Neckarsteinach .He captivated the audience by the well known Bhatyali dhun . And lo and behold! The applause from the audience refuserd to die out .My hands arte a bit aching a bit .It is not a joke to report about such a importasnt day of the program . Close on the heels of sitar recital was a favourite Bhajan of Mhatama Gandhi ''Vaqishnav Jan ------'' .This was sung by none other then Amrapali again while the accompanyaing instrument was the harmoniam . When the Indian students and the teahers of the exchange group were still in India they had prepared a short folk dance GIDDHA fom Punjab under the guidance of our dance teacher Anjali Sharma .Next on the program for this evening was this very dace .The people claped while the group danced ---all in thier lovely colourful and glitteringt costumes and Punjab for a few moments tip-toed into thaat small room of Germany .Like all gööd things come to an end so this very beautiful evening was also drawing towards conclusion but not before all the German hosts and the Indian guests circled around on the stage and sanf the song ''We are the World -------'' , while holding hands and the friendship shawls baring the German flag and the Indian tricolour on the other .It was a deeply touching moment for all of us when we presented these shawls to our host and hugged embraced each other .Our hosts in turn prsented us with remember those t-shirts we had printed in the morning ,a coffe mug and a cloth bag baring the emblem of the host school .Abis thanks to all our hosts for this kind gesture .And ------by this time everybody was hungry and thirsty ,so everyone present had some delicious Indian snacks prepared by us . Do you know what !Pakoras and tea .After a lot of eating ,drinking and chit chatting the Indian evening came to a close .It was a wonderful ,heavenly eveing and we all went back with our host families , a little tired but with a an elated feeling .CHERRIO! TATA! BYE! FOR NOW Neena Uniyal
16 june
After an exhausting evening the day before, Wednesday started on a more relaxed note with everyone's stomack recovering from the pakodas that we had the day before. In the morning, after attending the 1st period at the Frei-Herr-Vom-Stein Schule, we started off for Frankfurt at around 8:10-8:15. Class 6 also accompanied us. It takes some time to reach to Frankfurt. So after 1 and a half hours of travelling by bus...we finally got there. Our first destination(in Frankfurt) was the Senckenberg museum. Senckenberg museum is one of the most important museums in Europe with exhibits ranging from that of mammals,reptiles and birds to the ones illustrating the possible evolutionary paths of animals from marine invertebrate ancestors. We saw exhibits of dinosaurs and even had our pictures taken posing in front of the T-Rex. Among the exhibits on display were the ones explaining the process of mummification of dead people in ancient Egpyt. After an hour or so, we got out of the Senckenberg and went to neighbouring street to have a look. We had some refreshments and also saw the Frankfurt University.After that, we set off to the Frankfurt airport for a guided tour.We sat in one of the airport buses and it took us around the airport(one of the busiest in the world- where 1 plane lands every 45 seconds). The guide told us some unbelievable facts about the airplanes like the biggest lufthansa plane needs 35000HP to take off.The guided tour was great(of course) and it sharpened our math skills because we kept wondering how many 0s followed '125' when we tried to convert cost of an airplane from €s to Rs. .As all of us(the Indian Exchange Group) were very tired, we preferred to stay back in the bus while the others went to see the airport from inside. This relaxed our nerves a bit and at around 3:30 p.m. in the afternoon, we again set off for Neckarsteinach. Mr. Klaffke picked me on the way and i relaxed for the rest of the day.
17 june
On the 17 th, we had a trip to the zoo arranged for us. So we started off to Heidelberg with class 7 of the Frei-Herr-Vom -Stein Schule. After 45 min of journeying on the train, we went to the station and waited for the bus that would take us to the zoo. It was thefirst time for me on a bus in Germany, but I had to stand and the ride was a bit bumpy and the lady(sitting on the adjacent seat) whom i was standing next to, didn't seem to like me hanging around her so much. She was a bit irked and I really heaved a sigh of relief when she got down because with every passing second, she looked more formidable than before.We reached the zoo in about 15 minutes. There we met our guide and she took us around the zoo. We had a look at the orangutans,monkeys,chimps and lots of other things. I even touched a snake while the guide was holding it for me. At the end of our guided tour around the zoo, we had a bit of entertainment from the seals in the zoo. They did all sorts of tricks and it was a lot of fun.After that, the Indian exchange group members went to the library in Heidelberg to meet the members of a group of students who have started the movement for the building of a peace memorial protest of the American campaign against Iraq with wooden bricks. Every person who wants to be a part of this campaign has to just write his/her name on the brick along with the peace message and put the brick in the wall. The wall is growing longer in all parts of the world and next year, all the walls will be brought to New York from all over the world.We had a discussion about this in the library and afterwards, we continued the discussion in the adjoining afe.At about 1:30 in the afternoon, the discussion was over and some off us went to our hosts while the otherswent for shopping.As for me...i went to Shanta Di's place along with my host and Amarpali..on a generous invitation from her....and we did some ballet.That was followed by some lovely bengan ka pakodas and England vs. Switzerland football match.Shanta di dropped us home and i relaxed afterwards.16th and 17th June diary written by Saumya Sharma
18 june
Hallo everyone !Can´t believe it! tomorrow is already the farewell party for our group.Well I Dr.Arora am going to share with you our experience yesterday ie friday 18th.This day started late and went on till late in the evening.We all met in the town of Heppenheim at 1.30pm where the state of Hessen is celebrating "Hessen Festival".As part of this festival there is a Indian pavilion where 9 groups and initiatives were displaying their work and ideas.The whole indian pavilion was organised by the Karl Kübel Foundation.This organisation has been doing great work in the area of " child and Family" help in India since several decades.The chief guest was no less than the consulate general of India in Frankfurt, Mr.Ashok Kumar.Also the chief minister of the state of Hessen Mr. Koch visited the pavilion.The programme started with "Sounds of India" being played by me on the sitar.I was very nervous playing infront of the highly distinguished audience because as you all know I can play the instrument decently but I am not a sitar player- not yet!!!.Fortunately I had only to play for a short period after which our school group with all the students in their school uniforms and the teachers in beautiful sarees looking absolutely beautiful sang Vande Mataram.Both the presentations from our side were very well received and admired by all.We also had two panels full of information about our school and the exchange programme.Needless to say that our hosts as well as the principal of Freiherr vom Stein Schule Mr.Klaffke were with us and had also put up panels of information about their school`s visit to India.There after an Indian Arti was done and the Chief Guest lit the lamp as is the custom in India.Another great highlight of this programme was a super Bharat Natiyam dance presented by a 15 year old girl from Sri Lanka. The rest of the evening went on with eating potatoe chips and drinking coffee, talking to various people who visited the exebition,and moving around the area . The children enjoyed fun and amusement programms like a giantwheel and various merrygorounds. The weather was farely good apart from a few raindrops now and then. By about 6 pm we went back home with our hosts and spent the evening in different corners of the Neckarsteinach region. Thats it for today, we shall see you soon ,sincerely D.Arora
19 th June 04
Hello everyody! How is life in India ? We all are having good time in Germany . I,ARCHIT AGARWAL report to you about today .As you all must have read from the program that today we could do what ever we liked so some went for shopping some for visiting some different places and some relaxed at home only . Now I am going to write about my trip to FRANCE . We started early morning according to German style at 8:30 A.M. Within 2 hours we reached STRASBOURG .It is a big town near the frontier . At first we went around the city and then did a bit of shopping . Then we went to a huge cathedral named Notre Dame .It was just greeat .It’s architecture left an ever lasting impression on me . Even my host had never seen such a big churcch earlier .Then we went to the top most point of the church .For that we had to climb a few steps just 330 up and then 330 down .We were half dead after coming back . Then we went to recharge our batteries to a restaurant and had some French dishes like Baguette , Gugelupf , Flamekuchen ,a kind of French pizza and some more things whose names I don’t remember . Then we went to 2 huge shopping complexes .To tell the truth I had never seen such huge shopping complex ever before in my life . Their names were Auchan and Decothlon . . I did the shopping of my life in that . Infact at the end of the day 19 th June turned out to be the best day of the exchange tour for me . It was fun . By 8:00 P.M. we were all fully exhausted so then my host drove us back ,perhaps a strong man who could walk the whole day and then drive back a 150 kms. .But it was not the end . While driving back something took place which I love very much .Our car was moving at a speed of 180 kms. per hour . I know my mom always scolds me because I drive my cycle very fast . But this was something really special .Next time I come to Germany I would get a license and then I would like to drive at a speed of something around 250 kms.per hour . Don’t worry I will come back in one piece . Finally by 9:25 P.M we were back at our home sweet home .We were so tired that we just fell down on our beds after coming without taking care of even cleaning our teeth . Archit Agarwal
20 june
Dear parents and friends at home ,Today, our last day in Germany the heavens had mercy and the sun came out to spread its lovely warmth on the pretty neckar valley. The Festival "Living Neckar" which is been celebrated with lots of vigor in and around the towns along the NECKAR was the venue of our farewell to all the german hosts and their families. We, meaning some of us, like Akanksha and Mrs.Braner, Neha, Saumya,Isabell and her parents, Aziza and her father Mr. Klaffke, Sir and myself met in Neckargemuend from where we cycled to the next town Neckarsteinach , and met the rest of the group. We all sat in front of the church where there were tables and benches and had some nice refrechments, like juice and colddrinks,coffe and cakes and pancakes with apples. We met the peace- memorial people from Heidelberg and they gave us a piece of the memorial to take to india and a packet of building blocks to continue with the work started. After a short and unusual farewell- speech by Mr. Klaffke we were presented with a lot of things to fit into the allready overpacked suitcases. We liked the photographs and books, broshures and other reading material which will keep us buissy for some time. Thanks a lot to all our hostsfor their kindness and hospitality.Thank you Freiherr vom Stein Schule Neckarsteinach for the opportunities and experiences. After a while it was time to depart and say goodbye. All the ones who came with the car went first and in the end the bycycle party left for Neckargemuend too.Everyone went home packing and ready to go back to India by tomorrow. See you soon S.W.Arora
