Author: wolfgang.poeschl

Posted on

4am and we are heading towards the airport

It is 4:15 am, we are already awake for 1.5 hours and we fought our way out of the warm bedsheets to the cold parking lot of the school. To make it clear, we are none of these overexcited teachers, who want to be first at the copy machine! We are Bavarian exchange teachers, who collect a group of exchange students from the Munich airport!

Today is the day! After an 8 hour lasting direct flight our guests arrive at MUC airport. But it still takes some time till we can welcome them. After the arrival the Indians have to show their visa, passports and their invitation letter to Johannes-Turmair-Gymnasium. After that they hopefully will be allowed to enter Europe. The procedure continues whith baggage collect, German customs, last visits of the restrooms and first calls of the Indian parents. Depending on the time and day of the week it can take some hours till a group of young travelers finally arrives at the airport’s lobby. That’s one of many reasons why only two German teachers are waiting to greet the guests from Noida. And who knows, how long they still have to wait?

After the luggage is stored at the coach the students enter the bus in silence (they are tired, too). From time to time you can hear some snippets of conversation, or you can get the idea of the beat of some bollywood musik leaking from some headphones.

But as we get closer to Straubing the students talk more and more. Even the participating teachers ask happily about the school, weather and family issues and …

The conversation stops abruptly as the bus enters the parking lot of the Johannes-Turmair-Gymnasium. Nobody is on their seats any more. Noses are pressed against the windows. The parents and the German students are standing at the corner. Some even wear the traditional Bavarian costumes and wave banners and flags. You hear the warm noise of welcome cheers!

Everybody is leaving the bus, hands are shaken, some try to make a formal bow, suitcases are carried over the place. After some time the parking lot is nearly empty. Only four tired but happy German and Indian teachers stay back, looking forward to get some big breakfast.

The exchange 2017 has started!

Posted on

Some will travel – some have to stay

Our Indian student group is heading towards Germany. Of course, their plane didn’t take of yet. But you have to be at the airport hours in advance. Just imagine the time you need for all the farewells!

Maharishi G. - Pegasus
The young student Maharishi G. (Class vi Pegasus) is one of the students who would really like to come to Germany

But not everybody is leaving. Many students of LVIS would also like to travel to Germany. They  read so much about the country in their German language books. And they asked so many questions about the German food, the houses, the families. But there were only limited vacancies available or they are still to young for the exchcange.

But their time will come! And if they can’t take part in the exchange in the next years, they can pester the participating students with questions as soon as they arrive in India. And last but not least they can read the blog and comment to all the postings the students will make. 

We are looking forward to read all that comments! Greetings to all that had to stay at home!

Posted on

May Lord Ganesha bless your journey

For our Indian friends the journey is going to begin. The suitcases are packed, all the relatives got their hugs and the best wishes of all family members accompany our students and their teacher.

This weekend 17 students and 2 teachers of Lotus Valley International School are bording on a direct Lufthansa flight from Delhi to Munich and will start a great adventure. They are traveling to Germany to take part in the German-Indian exchange project “Different countries – different sports“.  So I ask Lord Ganesha to bless this journey.

But why Ganesha? Only few Germans know about Hinduism and even fewer can distinguish the different gods and deities that occure in that religion.

Ganesha - Der Beseitiger der Hindernisse
Ganesha – गणेश – Vinayaka – Vigneshvara – only view of his many names.

However Ganesha is easy to identify being always represented with an elephant head and often in company with a mouse or rat. The serpent is a common attribut of Ganesha, too. The snake is wrapped around his neck or his big stomach. The stories about the “birth” of Ganesha is well known and there are lot of other myths about his life.

Among others Ganesha is considered to be the Lord of letters and learning and you can pray to the deva to get knowledge and wisdom.

But Lord Ganesha is also the Lord of obstacles. He places them and removes them from the path.

And to tell the truth – obstacles are the last thing our small group of students need on their trip to Germany. So let’s pray to Ganesh, that the journey shall happen without obstacles.

And if there is some extra knowledge for our students included, nobody won’t complain 😉

Posted on

Things are moving ahead – but in which direction?

“Who of us is going to accompany the Indians during their trip to Regensburg?” asks a worried collegue of mine in our lunch break. As if I know such a thing five days in advance of the Indians’ stay in Germany! Of course the planning could have been already completed, but who thinks like that has surely never organized a student exchange yet.

Planungsskizzen
The latest schedule for the stay in Germany.

It all started when the date on Tuesday was in doubt. Three of the German students told me that they have to take part in a football tournament and that we have to change the day of our welcome dinner to another evening. But if we move our potluck event to Monday it will collide with an exam. While I ponder how to get rid of that problem I receive an email: The landing stage of the rowing club has to be replaced and we have to cancel our rowing activity. “But  when I put the Judo training onto Tuesday we could go rowing on Wednesday. I only have to rebook our bus!” While I shift more and more dates and activities into the right time slots I get onother mail. A sport club I couldn’t reach for a long time asks, whether thay can take part in our exchange project or not. I simply have to send them two possible dates and they would be happy to chose one of them. I decide to postpone the necessary phone call to the next day.

To calm myself a little bit I call some other partners instead. They should just verify some activities I booked weeks in advance. I shouldn’t have done that: The restaurant which was planned for our farewell dinner is renovating and we don’t have any replacement yet. But that doesn’t bother me any more: Rowing on Wednesday! Sport club on Tuesday morning and the Bavarian curling club has to be flexible and will be visited on another day!

And the college for the trip to Regensburg, who whas mentioned before?  At least I can rely on me fellow teachers. But the solution for the remaining schedule will be thrilling. At least I still have five more days. What could go wrong in such a short time?

 

Posted on

Before the exchange – Ashni’s first impressions

In this column students write about their preparations before the first trip to Germany starts. They write about their fears, their hopes and about their first contact with the German partner.

Today Ashni a student of Lotus Valley International school tells us about her thoughts about Germany. Speaking the German language quite well she wrote her small article in German.

Ashnis Überlegungen zur Deutschlandreise

Ich bereite mich für die Deutschlandreise vor, in dem ich Filme anschaue, Bücher lese und mehr mit meinen Partnern kommuniziere, weil bei einem Austausch handelt es um Interaktion und Lernen.

Ich habe grundsätzlich Angst vor dem Essen, weil ich Vegetarier bin, also weiß ich nicht, wie ich mit meinen Essgewohnheiten umgehen werde. Im Allgemeinen sind introvertierte Menschen schüchtern und interagieren nicht viel mit Fremden.

vegetarisch, bayerische Spezialitäten
Eating habits won’t matter – just a small part of our last year’s vegetarian potluck buffet.

Aber ich bin eine sozial extrovertierte Person und kann gut mit Menschen mischen. Ich freue mich darauf, mehr Freunde aus Deutschland zu machen.  Ich möchte  Denkmäler und berühmte Orte sehen. Ich bin eine weggehende und abenteuerliche Person, also möchte ich so viele Orte besuchen, die ich kann.

Ich möchte alles neu mit meinem Austauschpartner ausprobieren und viel Spaß mit ihr haben. Unsere täglichen Routinen werden anders sein, aber ich werde immer noch versuchen, wie sie zu leben. Das Gleiche zwischen uns wäre unsere Natur und Persönlichkeit, weil ich regelmäßig mit meinem Austauschpartner rede und sie scheint auch eine sehr abenteuerliche und freundliche Person zu sein. Also hoffe ich, dass unsere Freundschaft auch nach dem Austauschprogramm fortfährt und ich werde auf jeden Fall wieder nach Indien zurückkehren!