Personal impressions of the project of the participants of 2016-2017
and some pieces of advice how to make it better
Hello, I’m Alexander Karasev!
I’m 16 years old. I’m studying in the 10th Grade. I have been to this project 3 times. And appreciate my experience greatly!
The best moments were when you are walking with your Dutch student-partner and the others after the program because you can talk to other Dutch students and practise your English.
I have a piece of advice for this project: to make Goodbye-Party longer and more interesting, to make Russian students organize it, to rent a nice place in the city and spend the time nicely.
Hi,I am Vitalii Hakala!
I am 16 years old. I’m studying in the 10th Grade. I have participated in this project 3 times already.
In my humble opinion, best moments were in the evenings because everyone could walk around the city with the group and chill out. It is a very nice experience of communicating with foreigners.
I think, that this project should take more care about its organization and activities. For example, when our Dutch partners came from school 181 they all said that it had been a boring day filled with lectures and talks but mostly I like this project because it is a very useful experience of learning English, besides, we are all looking forward to visiting the Netherlands in April!
Hello, I am Mariia Kosenko,
I’m 16 years old and now I’m studying in the 10th Grade. I’ve participated in this project once, in spring of 2017. I really appreciated this chance to visit this beautiful country and I’m dreaming of having this opportunity again.
In my opinion, there were so many great and memorable moments so I even can’t count and name them all. Our group had a chance to ride bicycles around the city and at the same time we could see beautiful landscapes of this country and also watch routine life of citizens. The atmosphere between our Russian and Dutch students was very cozy and friendly, we had a chance to communicate with foreigners in their mother country, they could show us interesting sights, places to visit.
For me, there were no negative moments in organization or the structure of this program because it was my first experience of visiting a foreign country, that’s why I liked everything. I’m hopefully looking forward to participating in this exchange program again.
Hi, I am Daria Khilchuk,
I’m 16 years old and now I’m studying in the 10th Grade. I have participated in this project 2 times. In my opinion, that is a wonderful chance to visit this country with original, unforgettable culture. Me and my partners walked a lot in the centre. I really liked the moments when we talked about our countries, traditions and customs. It seems to me, that it is a good idea to show them modern places. I think, sometimes it was a bit boring for students to visit all these sleepy museums but we compensated this moment by our own evening entertainments. I am looking forward to seeing my Dutch friends in April!
Hey, I am Alexandra Le Gall!
I’m 15 years old and I’m studying in the 10th Grade at school 204. I’ve participated in this project 3 times. I think,this exchange project was a wonderful chance to improve my English, because the Dutch students speak fluent English.
I enjoyed each day of this project on each consecutive year I participated in it. This exchange is a great possibility to feel the culture of our countries, to have new interesting experiences, to make a multitude of memories, to make new, funny, kind and cool friends.
In my opinion, it could have been better if the visit to Naturalis museum had been shorter and it would be great to visit the city of Utrecht or/and Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
I think, that the best solution to ameliorate this exchange would be to make it longer: not 1 week in each country but 2 weeks.
I’m waiting to see my Dutch friends in April!
Hi! My name is Arina.
I’m 16 years old and I’m studying in the 10th grade. I’ve taken part in this program for the first time and have no regrets.
In my opinion, the exchange program is a wonderful chance to improve the language level and I’m very thankful to our school for it. There were many unforgettable moments, funny stories and interesting meetings.
Unfortunately, all good things end very fast. The one and only thing that I would change is a desire to stay not one but 2 weeks in a country.
Hello!
My name is Ekaterina Mikheeva.
I am 16 years old and I’m studying in the 10th grade. I’ve taken part in this exchange program for the third time.
This program is very funny and you can find new friends. Of course, it is also an excellent chance to practise the language and see the culture of another country.
We also took an active part in making the program. I, for example, organised the excursion through the Mariinsky Palace where the Legislative Assembly is located, and everybody was delighted.
I like this program very much! I am looking forward to see my Dutch friends in April!!!
Hello! My name is Natalia Maksimova,
I am 16 years old and I’m studying in the 10th grade. I’ve taken part in this exchange program for the first time.
This project is very interesting, it is a wonderful chance to make new friends, visit new places. For example, during this project I had visited the Dutch Consulate and had an interesting conversation about relations between Russia and Holland. And of course I had also improved my language skills.
This program gave me unforgettable memories and opportunity to visit beautiful country with unique culture. I think,we will have a lot of fun in Holland with our new friends!
Hello!
My name is Anna Moshkina,
I am 15 years old and I’m studying in the 10th grade. I’ve taken part in this exchange program for the second time.
This program is very useful for the development of the languages skills and our social level. It’s an opportunity to share our cultures. After a week with our new friends we were tired, but very happy. In Russia the Dutch students visited a lot of cultural places, like the Hermitage, the Mariinsky Theater, the Russian museum etc.
Maybe it would be better, If the period of staying were more than one week. I look forward to meeting my new friends in April!
Hi,
My name is Marusya and I’d like to tell you about my experience of visiting Netherlands.
I’ve participated in this project for the second time, so everything wasn’t new and unpredictable for me, but even though my Dutch exchange-partner and Dutch teachers could manage to make a lot of interesting activities for us. I really enjoyed every day of this trip, we’ve been in such wonderful cities as Hague, Amsterdam, Delft, Leiden, I visited the tiny and startling city Utrecht.
I want to thank all the people who made this project real. The exchange program exists for 25 now and it proved that people from different countries, with different cultures and mentality can share the experience, get the new information and communicate with each other without the language barrier and any prejudice. Most of all I wanted to thank my exchange partner, Freya. I became friends with her, I think I even talked with her more than with others. We have a lot of common interests and still we’re chatting via Instagram, hoping to see each other again. Her family became my second family for this trip and I want to thank them for all the love and support. I love Freya’s lovely parents, her funny brother and her sausage dog Bauk of course J Freya and me also shared our experience about the trip and the project in general for The Hague Newspaper, it was a new and interesting experience for both of us.
Speaking about the program, I enjoyed the day we visited Amsterdam. We were in Van Gogh’s museum, where I was 2 years ago in this program, but still I found something new for myself and learnt a lot of new information there. I’m glad I had more time than others to see this city with my exchange partner and other Dutch student together. We also visited the exhibition of Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf in Hague, and it was so marvelous. I had an opportunity to spend more time with Freya and her family and to enjoy the interesting exposition with them. The next day Freya’s family and I had a car ride to Utrecht, the city I dreamt to see since my last trip to Netherlands. For me this city has a lot in common with Venice in its beauty and splendor. We walked a lot and had a nice time together.
It was hard to say goodbye to Freya and to this wonderful country. I’m full of hope that I’ll have the chance to see my exchange partner again and to see Netherlands of course! J
Marusya Kosenko, 2019
I would like to tell you about my Dutch trip
It was a school exchange project with a Dutch Lyceum HML. In this project the three Russian schools participated. The three people from my class joined me. It was a very positive, interesting and funny trip. Families which hosted us were very hospitable, fed us a lot and provided us with transportation for the city driving and talked with us a lot.
In Holland, I had no problems with the language because everyone understood that this project was for the English practice and if there were any problems then the Dutch or I would adjust to the situation.
The program was filled with interesting trips to beautiful places, famous and popular. Nobody was bored as there were Russian students and funny Dutchmen. It was always with whom to talk and express an opinion. Most of all I liked the people in Holland. They are very kind and positive.
I want to thank our teachers for their tremendous work. To manage such a huge crowd of people is very difficult but with this in the Netherlands there were no problems.
That’s all I wanted to say about the trip to Holland.
Fedor Golovchansky, 2019
Hello,
My name is Sasha and I took part in an exchange program in 2018-2019. I visited the Netherlands in April, 2019
This exchange program has existed for 25 years . I spent a whole week in The Netherlands. I was living in very beautiful city of Delft near The Hague. It was a little bit hard to ride a bike for 40-45 minutes from home to school (but now I am greatly missing it). I lived with a dutch and he has a close-knit family (his dad and older sister).
During the trip I visited many interesting places. But there are some places which impressed me most of all: Efteling (a theme park where I tried rollercoasters for the first time!), Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, farms near Leiden (and two hours biking) and Delft (I visited this beautiful and very cute city with my dutch student).
I really thank my teachers and my school for the opportunity to go to this fantastic country. I thank the host family where I lived. I also thank my friends from school for all fun and time we spent together there.
I am missing the time in The Netherlands and my Dutch friends I really hope to see them again.
Sasha Sidorova, 2019
Hello,
My name is Varya and I`d like to tell you about exchange program I participated in. This school exchange program exists thanks to the connection between the Dutch Lyceum HML and the three schools in Saint-Petersburg.
At first the Dutch came to St. Petersburg in October and stayed with our families for a week. We had a really great time and a lot of fun in our free time. My exchange student was really excited about Russia.
Then, in April, it was time to visit the Netherlands for a week. I was looking forward to going there for half a year and it finally happened. I`d never been to Holland before so I didn`t know what to expect, but everything was fine.
My host family was very kind and I felt like I was at home. They provided me with the food and warm clothes, because it was colder than I thought it would be.
Our program included visiting Efteling-a really cool theme park with different rollercoasters, a bout trip and Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam-very beautiful city, 2 hours bike riding in Leiden to cheese-making farms with cute animals and Humanity House in the centre of the Hague.
After the program each day my exchange student-a dutch boy-took me to his friends who also had Russian students and we were just hanging out together communicating, listening to music, watching films or just walking and talking.
I`m really thankful to our school and especially to the teachers for that exciting opportunity. We got unforgettable emotions, got to know the Netherlands like we were dutch and also we made a lot of new friends! Really hope I will ever visit Holland and all of the students again.
Varya Valueva, 2019
