On this page the students of the VOS-school in Most will describe their experiences in Meppel during their stay from 13 March till 9 April 2017.
13 March
Our first day in Meppel. We arrived in Meppel, we made a walk through the city and the foundation towntwinning Meppel-Most offered us a meal in "De Nachtwacht"
15 March
After breakfast we remounted on our new vehicle – bikes and we safely got to practice. It was a day of elections so we looked at different election places. First we were at the Town hall in election room. We met there some students of journalist highschool and we made an interview with them. Then we will be probaly famous! After that we went to other elections places (elderly home, primary school and so on). On the way we saw a windmill so we took the photo. At the evening we visited a small bistro in the centre of Meppel and we eated some dinner.
18 March
We met Bart and Janet at 8:45 at the train station. We arrived to Amsterdam about 11:30. After that we went to café and we took a cup of coffee. At 12 o‘clock we went to sightseeing boat. During our boat trip we could see a lot of sights. Boat trip through the canals we liked a lot. After boat trip we walked through the city. The weather wasn‘t really good. It was raining all the time but we had a lucky because we had an umbrella. The first we went trough the Red Light District. After that we went to the Dam square and we saw a National Monument and the Royal Palace. There was a lot of people because demonstration took place there. Thereafter was the time of lunch then we go to the restaurant and had lunch. With full bellies we went to the Art Square Amsterdam and we saw I Amsterdam Sign. We took the photos with this signs and went back through National Museum. During our way we also visited Begijnhof where lived unwed women and took care about elderly people. When we went back we had two hours for shopping. We went through the Kalverstraat and we bought some souvenirs. After shopping we met with Bart and Janet and went to the train station. This trip was awesome and we enjoyed it.
23 March
We got an invitation to theatre from mrs. Kaastra. We chose performance entitled South Africa Road Trip. Then we dressed up and went to the theatre at 8pm. This performance was about black people from South Africa. They were singing and dancing. It was wery nice and we enjoyed the whole performance. We are very grateful for this opportunity. After the performance we got glass of wine and talked about it. It was great experience.
25 March
This day we went on the trip in to Den Haag. Weather was amazing so we got in the train after 9 o’clock and we were in place at 11:30. First thing what we wanted to see was Scheveningen. It is a part of Den Haag where is a seaside. We envies you that you have so beatiful sea. We had a lunch on the beach which we prepared day before. After that we enjoyed a sun and sea we walk trough the shops with clothes and souvenirs and we bought an ice cream. Then we went by tram into centre of Den Haag for sight seeing. We saw Vredespalace - The International Court Of Justice, Binnenhof – seat of Parliament, Grote Kerk, Statue of William II., Monument of William Frederick Prince of Orange-Nassau and so on. We wanted to see more but it is impossible in one day. We walked trough famous streets in Den Haag and we came to Passage where we bought some postcards and then we went back at train station and went to Meppel.
7 April
Our work experience at the town hall
Every day of our internship at town hall we had some meetings with workers from certain departments. We talked about social problems, social services and education in Meppel. We got to know for what is municipality responsible. After every meeting we wrote some articles about what we got to know. It was very hard for us because we always fight. Each of us wanted to have her own way.
Sometimes we went to look at some social institutions and schools. We got to know how functions social care for people in need, for what is municipality responsible, what municipality can do for people with social problems. There exist a lot of institutions which are connected with municipality and cooperate together. For example we saw leisure time activity centre De Plataan, secondary school, conselling centre for people in debts, Senior’s Home and so on. During our stay in Meppel there took place elections so we went to different election places and we got to know how elections going.
In the town hall was very pleasant and friendly work atmosphere. We like it a lot.
I had a very nice time in the Netherlands. It seems that one month is a quite a long time but time spending in Netherland ran very fast. I’m very grateful for this opportunity because I got a lot of experiences and maybe I could apply it in my future job. This internship isn’t just about practise but it is about get to know culture, traditions, society and behavior of people. I was very delighted pleasant behavior of Dutch people. They are always smiling and I think that optimistic view on the world is very important because it’s base of succes. This is the reason that people in Holland are satisfied.
I love riding a bike here it’s very ecology and health way of travelling. The most important thing which I got from this internship is improvement skills in English language. I would like to thank members of twinning for great trips where we very enjoyed. It’s very hard to say goodbye because I got used to local lifestyle. I will miss it a lot. Thank you all.
Michaela Boušová
My internship ended so I would like to say something about it. First I would like to say that I am very glad that I was was chosen for this internship. I stayed here for four weeks but I think that is very short time for me. I enjoyed every day of my stay. We had a lot of trips for example to Amsterdam, to Den Haag, to Scheveningen, to Giethoorn and so on. I must say that it was amazing. Everybody here is very king and friendly. I also learned a lot of your country – culture, language, traditions, social system and so on. Very important thing for me is improvement of English. I think that the internship is beneficial for me. I found what makes our country different. In your country everybody smiles everytime. I like that your people say me „Hello“ on street and start a conversation. I don’t know it from Czech Republic. I like that here everybody speaks with everybody. The next thing which I learned here is riding a bike. I will miss riding a bike. This internship was big opportunity for me. I am so glad that I could be there.
I meet there a lot of new people and I get new friendships. I would like to stay here longer but it is not possible because I must return to school and my familly miss me. I would like to thank everybody for your time, help and understanding. I will miss you.