Since the summer of 2021, the BG/BRG Weiz has been able to call itself an Erasmus+ accredited school. This project enables our school to finance a stay abroad for up to one school year for individual students. Entire classes can also carry out exchange projects. In addition, it allows teachers to continue their education abroad and broaden their horizons at other schools.

My class (5a) was allowed to take part in an exchange project. Finnish students of our age visited us for a week. The aim was to communicate with them in English and to bring them closer to our culture. One of the most important things was to show them our capital city Vienna.

On Sunday morning, May 1^st, we made our way to Vienna, where we met the Finns. We spent 2 days with them. We split into groups and showed them the most important sights in Vienna and  of course also the best shops. At night we went to the Prater to ride all the dangerous looking rollercoasters. We stayed one night in a hostel and had breakfast there. A hop on hop off bus was available for us to explore Vienna. You could sit on the bus while driving through Vienna and get information about the stops where you can get off via headphones.

On Tuesday morning the Finns visited the arsenal in Graz. Then they had a tour of the Schlossbergmuseum and Schloss Eggenberg. At the end of the school day, they were back in Weiz and we were able to show them Weiz in groups.

On Wednesday we watched a play by the „Theaterfabrik Weiz“. In the afternoon we were allowed to spend free time with the Finns again and entertain them. The girl group went shopping almost all afternoon and the boys played pool.

On Thursday it was planned to go to „Zotter“ and eat chocolate. Unfortunately, this had to be canceled because one Finn after the other fell ill. The healthy Finns joined us in class to learn about our school system. In the afternoon a few students went bowling with the Finns in the Jufa.

On Friday we celebrated a farewell party at school. The teachers ordered pizza and some of the students brought typical Austrian snacks. We spent the evening dancing simple Finnish and Austrian dances. We played hide and seek with the fins in the school building. At around 10:00 p.m. we had to say goodbye to the Finns. They flew back to Finland on Saturday. It was a though  goodbye.

Text: Rosa Steiner