Diss in Serres,Greece March 2017

Last summer, Diss High School was invited to participate in an exchange project with a number of other schools from all over Europe. The theme of the project was Tolerance and Cultural Diversity. On Thursday 23rd March, three students, accompanied by Mrs Chilvers, set out for Serres in Northern Greece, where the first of many Erasmus+ projects would take place. We arrived in the early afternoon and met up with students from France, the Netherlands and Sicily. Later on in the day, we were joined by students from Slovakia and Italy. We all stayed with Greek families who hosted us for the week, and we enjoyed nights out in the town of Serres with them. On Friday, we visited the local school to watch the students perform songs and poetry to celebrate the anniversary of Greece’s independence from Turkey, then we returned to Serres and visited the town hall, where we met the regional governor.

On Saturday, we once again went into Serres to watch their independence celebration parade, which featured hundreds of citizens wearing traditional Greek clothing. The rest of the day was spent with our host families. On Sunday, we visited the Alistrati Cave, the ancient ruins of Philippi, and the harbour town of Kavala. On Monday, we returned to the school and got to sit in some of the lessons, while the teachers held a meeting.

Following this, we watched each other’s presentations on their schools and culture, as well as presenting our own. On Tuesday, we visited Thessaloniki and explored an ancient Roman agora, took a boat ride across the harbour, and climbed the iconic White Tower. After that, we spent the rest of our Euros at the Cosmos shopping mall. In the evening, there was a farewell party for the Erasmus+ students who were leaving the following morning, and we had the opportunity to partake in some traditional Greek dancing! Overall, it was a fantastic experience and it was very fascinating to be able to become so involved in Greek culture. On behalf of myself and the two other students who went, I would like to thank Mrs Chilvers for overseeing and organising the trip and for looking after us while we were there.