Wided's diary

Monday, April 2nd
After a six-hour coach trip we arrive at Hageveld, our correspondents’ high school. There, our Dutch friends are waiting for us. I am welcomed by Kelly, her mother and other students who make us visit the school. I’m impressed: it’s a very big school with a lot of rooms and a huge yard.

Tuesday, April 3rd
As we arrive in Amsterdam, we start a treasure hunt, and we are divided into teams in order to visit a part of the city on our own. I find it beautiful. Led by two Dutch students, we discover different streets, we see an old cinema, an old church and a little museum. We learn some things about the famous Dutch city.
We are to meet at 1 pm in front of a pub at the end of the treasure hunt. Teachers allow us to do what we want until 4 pm. We eat at Burger King, which is not very typical of Holland but not too expensive for us. We spend a lot of time in a candy shop and find a place to seat near Anne Frank’s House where we have to be at 4 pm.
This museum is not so big; it relates the childhood of the famous young girl. It’s strangely gloomy and I don’t feel very comfortable inside, seeing all those videos showing the war and Anne’s house.

Wednesday, April 4th
Today, I get up earlier in order to ride to school. Five kilometres… In France I would never do it, I’m too lazy! Holland is flat, you don’t have to ride up and down so it’s easier to ride a bike.
In the morning, we attend English lessons at school. In Holland pupils have got a different way of working: lessons usually last only 50 minutes and the school day end at 2 or 3 pm so that they can do a lot of activities after school. The relationship between teachers and pupils is different from the one in France: it’s friendlier. In some lessons we saw pupils who were listening to music or chatting with their friends without being told of by their teacher. In fact, we have the feeling that everyone does what he wants to do. From my point of view it seems to be very cool but for teachers maybe it’s not…
At noon, when lessons are over, we leave the school to go to the beach with friends.

Thursday, April 5th
We drive to La Haye where we go to the Mauritshuis, a museum devoted to the art of the 18th century.
Everyone thought that the painting The Girl with a Pearl Earring would be a very big one and would have a lot of protection around it as a famous painting but in fact it is treated as all the other paintings. Some of us are disappointed but I’m not, I enjoy the painting.
We leave the museum at noon and have to eat quickly. We meet near the coach at 1 pm in order to go to the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia.

Friday, April 6th
Last day. The trip is too short. But all good things come to an end. After saying goodbye to our families and our Dutch friends, we leave Heemstede and its beautiful high school for good. After a while, we come to a little traditional village. There are a lot of tourist shops. We make new friends, goats and ducks!
We have lunch there before getting on the coach at 1 pm to leave Holland. I love travelling by coach so the six-hour journey doesn’t really seem long to me.
It’s 10 pm, there we are, in Rouen, back to normal life. No Dutch friends, no visits, and no more coach trips…

The differences between France and the Netherlands

by Marielle and Lucille

Architecture
There are many adjoining houses, which is characteristic of the Netherlands. The architecture is more modern than in France but it remains traditional. Outside, there are many gables and gantries, especially in Amsterdam.
There are many canals in cities. For example, Amsterdam counts 160 canals underneath the sea level, which explains the amount of vegetation.

Ecology
Dutch people really care for the environment.
There are many windmills in fields, cities...
…many tramlines and bicycles, bicycles tracks,...
The police officers ride horses or bicycles.
Finally, the streets are very clean and there are fewer animals in the street.

The way of life of young people / adults
People eat early and at any time. Young people don’t have a balanced diet; they eat many sweet and salty things and much food containing chocolate or peanuts.
Teenagers are active: all of them practice activities which are often late because the lessons end late.
Many of them follow the fashion.
As far as the adults are concerned, many women give birth at home and don’t want to know the sex of the baby.

To conclude, we like Holland. We think that it’s more reassuring than France and that people are ahead owing to the fact that they take care of their country with ecology.