Student Exchange Blog: "United Colours" in London, 1st Day by Eva
This year I got a chance to participate in a 5 day entrepreneurship project in London. I wanted to go as this year I had actually had experience with making my own business company and I wanted to obtain more knowledge in this area. I have never taken part in such projects before so I was really excited to try it out.
In London we had some business related lectures as well as tours and excursions. Our group had prepared two presentations, one of which was about our country, city and school and the other one about how to create your own company in Estonia. Other groups also had presentations on these topics.
On the first day we met with other participants of the project. We met students from Turkey, Spain, Portugal, North Macedonia, Greece and Saint Martin. We walked to the Greek host school where we saw a performance by the students. Unfortunately, the entire thing was in Greek and we did not understand anything. The acting was good but we did not get the plot. It would be great if it was in English but we enjoyed it anyway.
Next we were introduced to some Greek dancing and had a few snacks and drinks. We had a chance to meet all the students and warm up a bit before beginning the project activities. After that we played some introductory games. We shared our names, interests, and so on. We had to draw ourselves on little papers and make a garland out of the drawings. At this point we felt a lot more comfortable with other students and even became friends with some of them. Next we went to the city where we had an hour to have lunch. At 17:00 all the students got together again. We walked around a neighborhood, went to a playground and walked through a beautiful field. Later on we walked to Alexandra‘s palace from where we could see the entire London. Unfortunately, we did not get into the ice rink inside as it was closed. However, the view was nice and we had a lot of fun communicating with other students. This day was dedicated more to meeting and getting familiar with each other. We took a little break and walked to the pub where we had a ”welcome” dinner all together. We spent around 2 hours there before taking a bus and a subway back to the hostel. We had to ride 18 stops in the subway and were really tired by that time.
We loved the idea of the project but did not like the organization so much. We think all the groups could have been more time efficient. That way we would be able to learn and see even more. When we host the exchange, we will focus on using the time to the best of our abilities and doing as many practical activities as possible.
I would definitely recommend exchanges like that to my friends. The most memorable moments were the presentations done by other groups and the museums we visited.
Written by Eva
