Category: From Mittelstand to Global Players

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Fake News: Exchange students taken into custody

Straubing: Ten Indian students and their German partners were taken into custody during their annually student exchange.

At the late afternoon, the teenagers who stayed during the day at the Johannes-Turmair-Gymnasium, were on field trips with their host families, or went shopping at the city centre gathered in front of the police building at Theresienplatz, Straubing.

The alert police officers, one of them being a “host dad” himself, couldn’t act otherwise and had to take the interested looking students into custody. The officers also showed them the building of the police station and tried to explain the work of the Bavarian police.

[Zeige Vorschaubilder]

During the extensive questioning of the teenagers it was also necessary to involve part of the K9 unit. Due to the high rate of interest, the unprecedented behaviour and the huge amount of fun the 20 students were sentenced to jail and were locked into one of the prison cells for a short moment. They all were released into freedom after everybody has taken their selfies.

Finally the German host parents picked up all the exchange students and took them “home”.

We want to thank Mr Buchs who made this field trip to the police station possible. Thank you for providing that unique insight in the work of the German police. 

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Parents’ feedback – Lakshya’s mother recapitalises the exchange

The opportunity to experience another culture firsthand, by living with a native family is a chance of a lifetime.
Good things and positive experiences don’t always come easy. I thanks my school Lotus Valley and their team for giving this chance to my son and will treasure forever.
This exchange program has impacted on his future in many ways like lifelong friendship, career goals, and personal goals.

Manisha Bhatia
(Mother of Lakshya Bhatia , class 10th vivevekanand )

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Parents’ feedback – Uday’s parents write about the exchange

Strawberry fields
Uday and Thomas plucking strawberries together

The experience has been truly very inspiring and full of lifetime memories for him. The excitement of going with friends to an unknown country was itself so exciting for him as well as us!! Thanks to technology – Thomas ( his German partner ) and Uday chatted regularly before the trip so a certain comfort zone had set in. I was also in touch with Christine ( Thomas”s mom ) who was sweet and welcomed Uday with open arms.

Uday has made so many friends and learnt about the German way of life too ! From becoming independent and understanding self and growing in confidence to understanding responsiblity not only for studies but in other spheres too – we see tremendous changes in Uday after the trip.

The host family also took great care, both Thomas and Uday have become very good friends. We now look forward to having them over and reciprocate to their hospitality !!

With Regards

Mona and Jai Bansal
Parents of Uday Bansal
class 10, Vivekanand

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KJF publishes an article about the exchange project

During their stay in Straubing the Indian students visited the “KJF Werkstaetten”. This company employees many handicapped people for high quality work. Car manufactures, or engineering enterprises outsource many jobs to KJF not only because they are morally obliged but because of the highly professionally work that is done there. 

The Indian students were really astonished to see the handicapped man and woman working at computer assisted machines, putting together parts for AC systems or digitizing documents. 

“KJF Werkstaetten” has now published a small article (in German language but with a nice picture) on their homepage, mentioning the visit of the Indian students and describing our exchange project.

The visit to KJF is not the first time that our exchange students wcooperate with handicapped people. Last year we also had a Basketball match with the students of St. Wolfgang, a school for mentally handicapped.

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The Consul General of India proposes a visit of the Johannes-Turmair-Gymnasium

What an honour!

Flag India
The flag of India

Last week our school received an email from the Consulate General of India in Munich. Our long lasting exchange project of Johannes-Turmair-Gymnasium Straubing (Germany) and Lotus Valley International School (India) aroused the interest of the members of the representatives of India.

Therefore the Consul General proposed to visit the Johannes-Turmair-Gymnasium to talk to the German participants of the exchange.  The planning of the event is underway and the whole “school family” is looking forward to meeting and welcoming the Consul General.

Here is an excerpt of the original email:
Continue reading “The Consul General of India proposes a visit of the Johannes-Turmair-Gymnasium”

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Day 16 – Our last weekend in Germany

This is our last weekend in Germany, with heavy hearts we come to the end of our memorable exchange.

This weekend my family took me and Kamakshi to Königsee. It is such a peaceful and pretty place. It took us 2 hours to reach there by car. We could see mountains and valleys as far as we could. We visited the königsee by ship and the view was amazing. We were told it is the second cleanest lake Europe. The water was so fresh and clean, that the reflection of the mountains could be seen. It was fun treking a bit on the mountains.

After that we went to the salt mine. It was really cold inside and we went there by an indoor train. We saw how the salt is extracted and how the salt machines work. It was really fascinating. We also saw how workers work there through a small video presentation.

I am really going to miss this trip a lot and the last weekend spent with my host family was really fun and memorable.
– Smahi Anand

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Day 8 and 9 – A great weekend full of activities

Hi,
I am Aditi Chotra.
This weekend was the best weekend I’ve ever had.

It was sooooo great.? On saturday we started our day with a great boom, the medieval reenactment. Wow! It just wooed my mind, and also gave me Some Indian Vibes.?like the smell of yummy food which was sold there. But the best was the way Mr Poschl described us the clothes of the medieval times. It was simply great, and the story was worth listening too! He told us how teenagers of that time revolted for clothes(just like we now?) but it was great. He is such a great person!? We saw the medieval times dance (looked pretty easy?) but no! It was great!!! I just loved the songs and dances. It was like an Indian village fair.

Then we ate crepes and started for the mountains for climbing activities, as soon as we reached there, the weather did not had luck with us. It was sad that we couldn’t go up, but there was another new experience waiting for me…. I saw for the first time in my life. I could literally see the clouds shifting towards us with great rain!?

It happens in India too but I never got a chance to see that. Yes, we got a bit drenched, but I could literally see and feel the clouds shifting towards us.?

Continue reading “Day 8 and 9 – A great weekend full of activities”