“Let’s work together all as one”

Between the 2nd – 12th April Norfolk International Projects hosted an amazing youth exchange at New Eccles Hall School: 15 young people each from Bulgaria, Spain, Germany and England spent 11 days together to explore new and different cultures.

On the arrival day, everyone was welcomed with traditional English tea & cakes. Later on, we played get-to-know games to learn some names and break the ice.

The next day, we stuck to our topic of working together when we played team building games. In mixed groups of up to 10 people we passed physical and mind challenges. We really had to work together because some games you could only win by being a team.

In the evening, we had a disco and a local Dj played all of our favourite songs.

On Friday morning, we left early for our trip to London. We stayed in groups of our countries and visited all the famous sights, e.g. Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and Piccadilly Circus. At 5pm we met to have tea together and went off again afterwards to discover London at night. After a stroll through Soho we ended up in Covent Garden and watched brilliant street artists performing hilarious stunts.

The next day we had a treasure hunt through Norwich: In mixed groups we were walking along the Riverside and to the cathedral but had to find the way ourselves with only some hints given. As the weather was not too good we spent the afternoon mainly shopping but everyone seemed to enjoy it.

At night we had a cultural evening and all the groups were representing their countries and showed us some of their traditions. That way we could try some delicious English scones, watch a Bulgarian puppet performance, learn German dances and sing Spanish songs. It was totally amazing to see all those different traditions and to learn more about the other countries.

On Sunday, we walked to the nearby Snetterton Market and had a BBQ and campfire in the evening.

The next day was really exciting because we could take part in different activities such as clay pigeon shooting, climbing and high wire. We all were quite scared while climbing up that high but when we jumped back down all the adrenaline made us want to go again.

Tuesday and Wednesday we had art, drama, cooking and music workshops concerning “European Awareness” and a karaoke night which was so much fun. We all sang and danced together and had a fabulous night.

We had one last trip on Thursday when we went to Wroxham and chartered boats. In groups of 8 we could drive on the Broads and everyone had a go at the steering wheel.

The next day, we played funny sport games, such as egg race, 3-legged-race and skipping race. We were screaming and shouting to support our teams and everyone had so much fun.

Later that day we had a workshop about the European Union, presented pictures and collages we made earlier and celebrated our last night together.

When everyone departed on Saturday it was a really sad atmosphere because no one wanted to say goodbye to our new made friends. But we can look forward to see everyone again in August when we hopefully all meet up again in Spain this time.