Monday June 6th.

An Apple a day keeps the doctor away.
On June 6th of 2016, began the annual appointment “English Week”, that appointment took place in Lycée René Cassin.
The schedule was:
– English Breakfast (even for students doing Ramadan who could take some to eat at night).
– Viewing of Selma which relates the story of Martin Luther King Jr. through his campaign for the civil rights of Black people.
And Yes, you should have guessed it, the English Week is English only week (speak, think, eat, sleep English).
A lot of things learnt on that day about English habits for breakfast, the history of Black Segregation in the US. And even more knowledge: by the way did you know that an apple a day keeps the doctor away? That was Day 1, there is more to come, stay tuned.

Nacime AMRANE ECT1

And about that afternoon:

Nice beginnings!
During this afternoon which we spent at the high school, we were divided into three groups.
During the first hour we debriefed in English on « Selma », the film which we had seen in the morning.
This film shows the battle that Martin luther King had to lead with the black community to get the right of vote in the south of the United States.
We then had a workshop on how to write a good press article.
This good afternoon ended at 5 PM, it was a real pity because we wanted some more!

Julien EBERSOLD ECT1

I am the journalist
The English Week is the perfect opportunity for us, students, to practice English and to realize how important it is in society today. The week will be organized around several interesting activities.
First on Monday June 6th at 8 AM, as part of the Anglo-Saxon week, our teacher organised in room 20 a presentation of the program of the “All-English” week.
Second at 9 AM, in order to respect tradition,, an English breakfast was organized which allowed students to exchange and meet their friends around something to eat. It also allowed us to get acquainted with a bit of the English culture (English muffins, bagels, peanut butter).
Third we came back in room 20 to watch a film, namely “Selma” which deals with civil rights for the black community. We followed Martin Luther King’s fight who devoted his life to equality for the black community.
Finally, after lunch, we were separated in groups for two different activities: debrief on the film and a workshop on how to write a press article.

Alexandre BABINGER ECT1

Tuesday June 7th

The Parliament’s secrets
Our day began with the visit of the European Parliament. We also discovered the role of this institution which is based on a system of collaboration between members from different political movements, as opposed to our French political habit of confrontation.
At least, we had the possibility to visit the hemicycle as spectators during a debate on the topic of tax evasion.
This morning was rich in terms of learning and gave us much food for thought.
Thanks to everyone!

Mikhael MAVOUENZELA, Noémie GIL, Rémi GRAS, ECT1

Thursday June 9th

A ride through Ohio and California?
A ride though Ohio and California on the same day? How is this possible? Was it a bus trip? In less than five minutes? Impossible! Let me explain…
On Thursday 9th we got into this American base in Ramstein. The trip was tough but it was worth it. After some difficulties in meeting with the guide we started the tour.
We went into that building called KMC which is a 350-room hotel and a very large mall. The guide told us that in this mall even if we paid in euro the change would be in dollars, so curious as we are we wanted to try but unfortunately we can’t buy anything there because of our nationality, even our guide cannot buy there because she is German!
Speaking about the guide, she was really nice and was really open to answer to any of our questions. Thanks to her!
We saw a lot of buildings, but the boys were only looking for the nice cars. During the bus tour we drove through some avenues which were exactly like in America with large houses and basketball hoops behind the garage door, we really thought for a while that we had left Europe, which we kinda did.
It is indeed through this bus trip that we rode though Ohio, Texas, Kansas… Here are the names of some of the streets:

Then after this really cool bus tour on which we learnt a lot about the life on the base (extra wages, healthcare services and veterinary services) we got onto tone of the US C17 airplane, yes the big one which can contain about 70tons of cargo!
Here is a picture of us all in this cargo plane, look at our happy faces!
It was really hot inside and the smartest found an air-conditioned area.
We took some pictures on which we pretended to be pilots. It was really really impressive:

everybody came in saying « wohaaa… » …
It was a really interesting day, it was the fourth day, the day we will remember.
And all this day has been possible thanks to our teachers! You envy us, don’t you?

Stéphanie LA ECT1

Hi U.S AIR FORCE!
The American base implanted in Ramstein is one of the biggest bases in Europe.
The day began with a bus ride inside the base where 3500 citizens live. The guide pinpointed different buildings like the KMCC which is a hotel and a shopping mall as well.
Then, we went by the houses of the inhabitants which seemed like real houses from the USA. It was as if we were really in the US because the name of their streets were the names of each state, by the way we can say that we were in California or in Georgia.
We were amazed by how clean it was as well as green, it seemed like we were in another world.
And for sure, we saw airplanes! We were lucky enough to visit a C17 Aircraft where you can transport roughly 70 tons of cargos. It was really huge!
It was an interesting ride where we learned many things about the US army, moreover we spent great moments together. Well, it was a good experience that we should at least live once in our life.

Elisabeth LO, ECT1

RAMSTEIN
→ 10h45: Meeting in front of Cassin
→ 11h00: Departure for the American military base of Ramstein by bus
We all settled on the bus and we left with our sandwiches for two hours by bus (the two hours by bus to go seemed shorter than return).
→ 13h00: Toilet break
We were very impressed with the toilets, indeed, Julie and myself, did not understand how that worked. Fortunately, Laetitia explained to us that the flush is activated on standing up from the toilet seat.
→ 13h30-14h45: Visit of the base
We thought we would exit the bus quickly after our toilet break but we remained on the bus to cross the entire military district (disappointment for me but I understand that we can not see everything walking).
The military district was great to see. Everything is square, tidy, in its place and clean. Everything looks clean, there is no waste on the ground.
The houses are all beige and brown. The gardens are green and perfectly mowed. Each street has houses of different sizes and each house has a different military rank. There are also apartments for singles. The street names were rather funny because they were 100% American, not German, for example: CALIFORNIA AVENUE. We also saw children playing soccer and a small hotel that has housed the president.
Under the sunshine, we discovered a world with perfect appearance. Many of us found it nice and imagined ourselves living there. Despite the long hours of bus it was really interesting and it was a nice day.

Manon GEURINCKX, ECP1

Friday June 10th

THE CREATION OF THE EUROPEAN UNION: THE EU IN SUM
After a century of sufferings engendered by devastating conflicts and the disaster of both world wars, the creation of the European Union opened a new era.
The Europeeeeean Economic Community (EEC) created in 1958, established an economic cooperation between six countries: Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
The EU worn after the Second World War, on the basis of coal and steel. The first objective was to strengthen the economic cooperation.

Over time the economic union turned into an organization including various political domains, such as climate, the environment, health, external relations and security, justice and the question of migrations.
To reflect this evolution, the European Economic Community (EEC) changed its name to become the European Union (EU), in 1993.
Afterward the EU adopted a political and economic union unique in the World of 28 countries.
MEPs elected Martin Schulz to be the new European Parliament president. The EU consists of political groups such as PPE, S&D, CRE, ALDE, GUE/NGL, VERT/ALE, EFDD, ENF, NI.
Today we live in a free and open Europe. But it actually is experiencing a restless period in its history.

KORKMAZ Fatima ECT1