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The Arrival Reception
During the time Jan 30 – Feb 04 eleven Swedish pupils and two teachers
have been visiting the RSG School in Enkhuizen. During the stay the Swedish
pupils have been on several study visits and other activities in small
groups together with Dutch pupils.
What surprised us most when we stepped out of the plane was that there were “non smoking” signs, but everywhere people were smoking. It’s not a small airport Schiphol, so we had to walk a bit to get our luggage. When we finally had got our bags we were secretely filmed by Henk. The airline staff had thrashed Fredrik´s bag, a wheel had broken lose. Fredrik got stuck there, filling in forms about the bag. By that time, we had said hello to Henk, Stef and Harry. Another thing we noticed was that on every television there was skating on Eurosport or some other channel. We carried our bags to a big parking area. We packed our bags in Harry´s car and drove to the school, which is a rather big school compared to Kalltorpsskolan in Jarfalla. We got something to drink and we sat down in the cafeteria and talked about the cartrip and what we had seen on the way. Later on the cafeteria was crowded with Dutch and Swedes, who just sat there and looked at each other. Soon Henk or Stef (don’t remember), started to tell everybody how this project had started about 4-5 years ago. We took pictures of us and the Dutch who we were going to stay with and then we all just went home... /Simon Aspling 8:4 Kalltorpsskolan... At 8:15 the Swedish pupils and students met at the school. About 15 minutes later the Dutch penfriends came and visited the Swedish students for a while. Then the Swedish students were guided through the school by their penfriends. The other Dutch students in the school did a lot of pointing and laughing. Afterwards we went to the staffroom and had a snack with the Dutch pupils and the teachers. Everybody made a lot of internal jokes. Then we visited a Dutch lesson, some people went to Henk Hensgens’ class and some went to Ria Veken’s French class. After that we had a short break. Then we interviewed people who worked at the school; Henk Mikkers, Henk Hensgens, Harry Huisken, Richard Righart van Gelder and Frédéric Dorfmann. Afterwards we interviewed the Dutch students. Then we wrote the interviews on computer and then we had a lunchbreak. Gabriel and Johan  
Wednesday afternoon We went by bike to the railway station. Everyone went by bike except Malin, she went by car, also Gunvor & Mia. Henk split us up in different groups. Me, Malin, Mikaela & 3 from Holland were in one group. They took us for a puzzle tour around the city. It was very very COLD!…=) We saw lot of things. The houses were different, they looked very old, but nice. We were supposed to answer questions also. A teacher helped us a lot and that was good because the questions were difficult and they were in German. They showed us a store with candy and bought it for us. It wasn’t so very good. During the walk we saw a lot of famous buildings. One was called the Dromedaris (picture above). It was an old defence tower. Malin didn’t want to sit in the wheelchair but walked very well. She walked first and Harry came after with the wheelchair…=) When we got back everyone went to their place and a couple of hours later we went home to Gabriel’s host family and watched a movie. That was fun! Malin Our day in Amsterdam began at the Anne Frank house. Anne Frank is really important for the Dutch history. She lived in Holland when the second world war was on. Hitler wanted that all Jewish people should die so Anne Frank and her family hid in the attic of the house where her father worked. Anne lived in the attic for about 2.5 years and she wrote her diary every day all the time. She died only two weeks before the end of the war. I thought that it was really interesting to visit the Anne Frank house. We walked through the whole of Amsterdam. We had some spare time to do shopping and have a snack or whatever you wanted. So we walked to the nearest Mc Donalds and ate a hot meal which we are used to in Sweden. After the meal we went to buy a Dutch national shirt. After a while of shopping we were supposed to go on a canal trip. And so we did and after that we were on our way home. All the Swedish students liked Amsterdam and would have liked to spend some more time there. Perhaps we will come here on our own and explore Amsterdam more accurately. I give this city 4+ out of 5. Erik
Krister   We went on a boat trip in Amsterdam. It was a good trip because you could see many famous sights. If you take a boat trip you get a much better view of the city. One thing you observe is that all houses have different gables. The houses have very small doors and if you are going to move from your home you have to take your things out through your window. There is a hook up at the roof where you put a rope and you pull your furniture up or down. If you are going to visit Holland and Amsterdam I think that you must take a boat ride it is very nice. Thomas On Friday, February2, we first went to the bulb factory, in the morning. We went there by bike and it was snowing and there was a strong wind, right into our faces. It was very cold. When we arrived at the bulb factory we first got coffee and tea and our guide explaind a bit about the bulb business, for example that 40% of the customers are amatuers, which means that they are people who grow the flowers in their gardens. The other 60% of the customers are proffesional florists who grow the flowers and sell them in shops. When we had finished the tea and coffee we went for a tour in the factory. He showed us the place where the bulbs came in from the bulbfarms and were put in the washingmachine. Afterwards they were dried in some sort of machinery. Then the bulbs were sorted by size and counted in another machine and put in a warehouse where they dried out and waited for peeling in constantly cold aircondition. After two weeks they control and check the bulbs and put them in a steam chambre, the night before peeling them. The peeling is done by a machine that peels 90-95% of the bulbs. The rest is done by hand, often by 16 year- old- children. Then all the bulbs are sorted again, all the damaged bulbs are thrown away. Then they are put into warehouses waiting to be shipped away to the customers. Certain bulbs are in certain temperatures so that they won’t grow in the warehouse. After this we took our bikes again, and cycled to a greenhouse where they grow tulips from the bulbs. They had different rows with growing tulips. Some were more developed than others which were planted later this year. When we were finished we recieved some tulips and then we went home. Fredrik and Gabriel
CNB Bovenkarspel Today we visited the CNB (Coöperatieve Nederlandse Bloembollencentrale) Bovenkarspel Bulbstorage (picture to the left). It is a storage for flowerbulbs, corms and tubers. It is the world´s largest warehouse for bulbs. Bulbs from many different countries are stored here while waiting for the summer in the different parts of the world. By freezing the bulbs, which makes them stop growing, CNB can deliver fresh bulbs all over the world, any time of the year. There are two kinds of methods to keep the bulb fresh, one of them is to freeze them down, and the other way is the ULO- (Ultra Low Oxygen) way. It means that you put a lot of nitrogen in to the air in the bulbstorage room which pushes away almost all oxygen. The CNB provides a lot of bulbs to many countries, especially to Japan
and USA.
Krister and Gustav
When we came in to the Town Hall, we first went and asked for
the way .
Mikaela
Fia, Malin, Simon, Gabriel and Mikaela were interviewed by the local
newspaper here in Enkhuizen. They asked us a couple of question about the
diffrences in Sweden and Holland, the school and the host families. She
also asked about the stores and what we think about Holland.
Malin, Sofia and Mikaela |
