Rýmařov and Murrau in Belgium
Exploring European Values: Our Erasmus+ Journey to Belgium with Austrian Students
Our school was invited to join an accredited consortium created by the Moravian-Silesian Region, which provides support for projects within the Erasmus+ program. Thanks to this, we were able to embark on our first expedition, which included 11 students and one teacher. Together with a group of Austrian students, we visited Brussels from October 11th to 18th, 2024.
Belgium. A small but culturally and politically significant country in Western Europe, well known for its cuisine – waffles, chocolate, beer, and mussels. Brussels is one of the centers of the European Union and the main center of NATO, making it one of the most multicultural cities in the world. Belgium itself is home to many nationalities, which is reflected by the variety of official languages – French, Dutch, and German. But don’t get confused by the country’s strong political character. It also has an artistic tradition – some of the most significant artists, like surrealist painter René Magritte and the author of Tintin, Georges Remi, are Belgians.
It’s 9 o’clock, and we are leaving our hometown – Rýmařov, Czech Republic. Two cars full of lyceum students start their engines and hit the road. Přerov! Here we stay for a bit, have a coffee, and get on a train to our next station – Vienna. It’s evening by now, and we meet our soon-to-be friends from BORG Murau. We get on a night train, talk for a bit, and go to sleep.
We woke up to the most beautiful sights – as we passed the little villages of Belgium, we saw lots of different architectures, placements, and landscaping. Bruxelles-Midi. We hop off the train, drop off the baggage, and go explore the city center. From now on, we go there every day for guided tours or just simple exploring. The motto of our trip was “Understanding democracy and strengthening European values,” so we had to go to the European district. There, we visited the European Parliament, the Museum of European History, and the Parlamentarium. We dived into the history, mentality, and goals of the European Union. We learned a lot of new things and refreshed what we already knew. “As a person who wants to study European relations, this was one of the most useful trips of my life. It reminded me why I love learning about the EU so much,” said Tom, a Czech student who won our Belgium pop quiz. Some of the other stops were Atomium, Bruges, the Belgium National Museum, and the famous College of Europe, where we attended a lecture.
We also prepared some activities to do in our location. We did a Belgium pop quiz, as I mentioned before. We separated into small groups and tried to make our best guess on every question. The themes were: Belgium, current events, and the commonalities and differences between Czechia and Austria. We also played a game in which we discussed European values. We talked politics, the meaning of EU values, and even tried to resolve some ongoing problems in Europe. The last but not least thing we did was discuss communism. Austrian students didn’t have a good picture in mind when it came to the day-to-day life of the lower middle class under the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. So, they prepared some questions for the Czech students. “I had only heard about that phase briefly in school. Talking about it with people whose relatives lived through it was a bit scary but enriching. I can now see that period more clearly, and I can really imagine the struggles it carried,” responded one of the Austrian students after the discussion.
Everything comes to an end, and so did our journey. We are really grateful we could be a part of it and experience such wonderful places with very exciting people. Last but not least, we want to thank our teachers for preparing the program and coming with us, because without them, this trip wouldn’t have been possible.
