It was an early start to our trip: quarter to six, at Rennes railway station, but everyone was in a positive mood and before we realised it, we were waiting to go through customs at Charles De Gaulle airport. Even the bomb scare did not affect our eager motivation. Two hours later we were descending on Prague airport.

We were organised – a group moving through Prague – bus - metro – streets – "stop – group – wait". The hotel was enough for our needs – a bed, a decent meal and a friendly owner. Friday evening we spent at a fountain-lights show to the sound of Beethoven's 9th symphony – well, Prague is in Europe, isn't it?

Saturday was spent in Prague, visiting the spots – the old town square and its "being repaired" astronomical clock.(It's strange, people stand and watch even when it's not working!) and Prague Castle. A nice traditional meal in a nice traditional restaurant, then on to the ballet – yes, you read right, the ballet – Swan Lake! Marvellous, impressive, wonderful - words are not enough to describe the theatre, the dancing, the music and the atmosphere – even the boys were enthralled.

Sunday, and on to Valasske – 5 hours on the train down through the Czech Republic and on, almost to the Slovak frontier. The tension rose as we pulled into the station – how would we recognise our partner? Easy, all we had to do was look for our name on a held-up piece of paper (why didn't we think of that?) and off we went into our Czech family.

The object of our trip was to manage to communicate with our Czech hosts using English. It wasn't always easy – not all our partners spoke very good English and the parents didn't speak any but when you are with people who make the effort to communicate, then everything is possible. The week was spent visiting local craft shops and activities – glass blowing, candle making, tapestry making – which gave us an idea of the economic activity of the region - and walking over the gently rolling mountains of the region. We spent one day in the neighbouring town of Olomouc and there we were welcomed by a group of students and their teachers who had organised a series of fun activities to get to know us.

Our main activity in Valasske was to work on a topic of local interest: find information, organise ideas and produce an oral presentation before a panel of teachers. Choosing, debating, deciding and agreeing in not easy when you do it with people speaking your own language but when you do it using a foreign language – it needs an effort, but we all did it!

We left Valasske sadder, but wiser. Not only had we had an interesting contact with people from a country we did not know but we had also established an excellent atmosphere in our own group.

It's up to us now to make sure that our part of the exchange, in March, is as successful as the part in Valasske.

European Section : Terminale L Mauve, Terminale ES Mauve, ES Orange, Terminale S Jade.