! POST IN TRANSLATION !
While we were getting ready to go to Germany, it was a long way. We had three trains with little time to make the transfers. Luckily, the next trains were next to where we got off meaning that we didn’t have to walk far in the train station to get to the other trains. While we were on the trains I had brought my cards to play games and I brought my Nintendo switch to be able to play video games, luckily I prepared for such a long travelling adventure. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get any sleep on the trains.
On the last train it was really interesting because we think there was a band going to a concert because they were all dressed up and drinking beers on the train and talking about their music sets or their theatre sets, I didn’t really understand it because it was in German, but that’s what I understood from what I got.
We finally got to the hotel around 8 pm having left at 10 am from Lyon, the hotel was quite fancy which we weren’t expecting at all. we then decided to eat at a Italian restaurant right in front of the hotel and it was really good, it was empty because I think Germans tend to eat really early their dinner so we had the restaurants to ourselves which was nice.
It was quite cold, Monday it snowed really hard and it was the day where we were supposed to walk two hours with the others whilst the German music students who participated gave us a tour of Leipzig. It was difficult at first to walk in the snow and keep up with everything but we made it, I know I learned a lot about the city and was able to sightsee most of it, even under the specific and very cold weather conditions. This was from 4 pm to around 6 pm and then we eat at an Indian restaurant, it was really good and not that expensive considering how much food there was. Some other students arrived after the tour so everyone was there including the teachers, we were 17 in total.
After that, we decided to go to an open mic, where a bunch of musicians played songs with a crowd listening to them, it was interesting to see what the musicians knew and especially how some musicians played their own songs and we got to hear original pieces, which was my favourite part I think.
The next day we got to the school and we did some exercises to warm us up in order to be able to offer our musical ideas to the German and Portuguese students. We did some games that Gilles taught us, the style games to get us more in tune with each other. we then showed them our ideas, they played our ideas and we played together while doing the A part in B part just like we did in France.
I was quite impressed by most of the musicians, it was nice to be able to play music with people especially having travel for so long and realising that it was worth it.
We then went to a pub and it was nice because we played cards and got to know each other a bit more, by talking and just being with each other it was nice, being able to laugh and have a good time with people that I didn’t even know existed two days ago. It was nice talking with everyone, it was especially nice how laid-back the teachers were with the students, as if the teachers were a part of the project and not considered the “teachers”, meaning that they were included or we were included, unlike a school project for a public school, there wasn’t really a hierarchy which felt really nice.
On the last day we went to a museum about the history of Bach, there was a virtual concert that we saw with augmented reality headsets, meaning that back was explaining his life story whilst playing pieces and explaining the context behind those pieces. Also, there were original Sheet music pieces by him with a bunch of the original objects from his era and his entourage, which was really cool to see.
The last night was really cool, we just played music in the school, it was an open mic/jam session, it was fun because we got to play what we want without judgement, and we were able to drink beer and laugh and have a good time all while playing music which was really nice.
I know I had a good time those four days.
On our way back, we had two trains instead of three, one that was six hours and one that was four hours. It went by faster than on the way to Germany, which was nice because we were tired and just wanted to get home. It was quite sad for me at least because I didn’t wanna leave quite yet because I felt like I was unable to fully play as much music as I would’ve wanted to, but that’s okay. There’s always gonna be when they come to France. I know I can’t wait to see what they have prepared for us and I already am thinking about what we can show them about where we live and where the school is.
Lucy (Feb. 23rd, 2026).