Eductional Exchanges - Klein Seminarie Roeselare
Eductional Exchanges - Klein Seminarie Roeselare

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Thursday – RaffaMUN Day 1

Day four in Milan! The first official day of RaffaMUN*. Everybody put on their most formal outfit, took their self written position paper, and walked into Liceo San Raffaele like a real professional delegate!

The day consisted out of 4 sessions. A whole day of discussing many different matters. From 8:30 until 16:45 we were having these debates. Between the sessions, the delegates could enjoy some time outside to eat and drink something. We had a sweet snack at 10:40, lunch at 13:00 and some dessert at 15:45… we were treated very well, I’d say!

When the first day of RaffaMUN was officially over, everybody went home to their host family to freshen up and get changed to go to Simone’s house. There everybody got together to end this day with a party. All of the parents cooked a very nice and delicious dish famous from Italy. They made us a whole buffet! We are so grateful for tonight!

*RaffaMUN refers to San Raffaele and MUN refers to ‘mundial’, or over the world. It involves Liceo San Raffaele, our Klein Seminarie Roeselare, some students from Lodi, Milan and of a Gymnasium in Munich. An international gathering, indeed!

A simulation of the United Nations makes the students reflect, do reasearch, be well prepared by writing a position paper, and it enables them to acquire and professionalize  skills such as negotiating, making compromises, defending their position and thinking about global issues.

Wednesday – Milan & San Raffaele

Hello Belgium! We started the day with a lesson on how to best prepare our opening speech. Each, in turn, we had to come forward to read our preparation and received critical thoughts from Romina. After everyone had come forward, we made our way into the cit, heading for the Duomo. An experience we will not forget soon, after taking many photos we returned to the well-known gallery where students could wish for eternal love. After the short trip, we returned to school, where we listened to an explanation about cancer, told by the mother of one of the children about cancer. After the explanation we returned to the city to visit a few more shops and relax for a while. Have a good night!

Tuesday – Sirmione

Today we woke up early to take the bus to the beautiful medieval town of Sirmione, situated at the south coast of Lake Garda. The bus drive was about one and a half hour. Once we arrived, our tour guide was already waiting for us. She gave us a well-explained tour through the Grotto Di Catullo, a Roman villa – or the remains of it – that was built at the farthest point of the peninsula.

The village is almost fully surrounded by water, making us enjoy all the beautiful views of the peninsula: the lake, the mountains, the ducks and the mediterranean trees and flowers everywhere. By then it was lunchtime, and of course we ate delicious pizza ?! In the afternoon, we were free to walk around in Sirmione. We also had the opportunity to buy and drink something. Of course, we also enjoyed an ice cream with our group.

At 16.30, we gathered again at the bus to return to Milan. Arriving in Milan, we went to our host families to eat dinner. After dinner, we met in smaller groups. Some at Simone’s place, some in other groups. The boys all watched football too, and then it was time to go to sleep, to be fully ready for tomorrow when we will be practising our opening speeches.

Monday – San Raffaele and Milan

Today was our first full day in Milan. After a good night of sleep and a delicious breakfast, we went to Liceo San Raffaele for the first time. In the morning, we had an online explanation about the RaffaMun-project by the legendary teacher of English, Romina.

After the coffee break, we had a simulation of how the debates will be done on Thursday and Friday. In the afternoon, we travelled into the city of Milan by metro and explored the city on foot. It was a nice combination of visiting historical buildings and a taste of the typical Italian ice cream. Really yummy ?!

After the city walk we went for an apero in a nice pub in the student and artistic neighbourhood of Navigli. Navigli is a system of canals, or a small river that centuries ago was dug by Leonardo da Vinci (or his construction team at least) to transport all marble stones from the mountains into the city to build the Duomo.

We had a wonderful start of this exchange week, first at school, then in historical Milan and to end the day with our Italian friends in Navigli. A fun night, but happy to go to bed as well! Good night! ??

Bye bye Belgium

The day began when we gathered at the station in Kortrijk at 11 o’clock. We said our goodbyes to our parents and went on the train. We had to switch trains in Gent, which was challenging with heavy luggage. We were all a little bit tired but when we arrived in Zaventem we were all so excited to go on the plane. Everything went very quickly. We didn’t have any problems when we checked in. Our flight was delayed for 10 minutes because the weather was not good in Italy. The flight passed by very fast, we even got a free drink and Italian cookies. Our landing in Milan Linate was smooth, and even with sunshine welcoming us. After picking up our luggage, we had a very pleasant welcome by our host family at the airport. After a tour of our home for the next week, we went out to eat some pizza which was very delicious. While we were eating, we had some time to talk to everyone, such as the teachers and the students, but also the parents. After that, we got back to our host family and  gave our welcome gifts. They were very happy and insisted on sharing them with us. And after a very long but fun day we went to sleep.

Here we come!
Meeting our Italian partners at the airport of Milan Linate, followed by a ?