Page 22 - NJC Magazine Spring 2017

Dear
Parents
LETTERS HOME
In keeping with the practice instituted by first Head of School Leonard Wilde, to this day, the Head sends letters home to parents. The method has changed—once mailed letter post and now via e-mail—yet they continue to reflect an intellectually engaging, exhilarating, action-packed time abroad. Read excerpts from the Head’s letters to get a sense of the Class of 2017’s extraordinary year and to reminisce about yours.
Dear Parents:
October 4, 2016
Yes, as hard as it may be to believe, we are already into our second month of the new school year and therefore it is time for my first letter home. And what a month it has been! The students have already visited the Italian speaking canton of Ticino (under glorious skies), hiked alongside the Eiger and Jungfrau mountains near Grindelwald, visited the Trummelbach Falls – a series of ten waterfalls inside a mountain near Lauterbrunnen, taken a boat cruise on the largest lake entirely within Switzerland (Lake Neuchâtel), and either climbed to the top of the Creux du Van—the rock formation carved out centuries ago by the receding glacier— or negotiated the paths of the Gorges de l’Areuse—the river of waterfalls on the outskirts of Neuchâtel.
Students not taking a French credit course at NJC also did a scavenger hunt through the Saturday morning market in the city, and all students were required to participate in a Travel Safe workshop during the first weekend in Neuchâtel. This, of course, represents just some of the activities which took place in early September before or around meeting host families, starting classes and signing up for sports teams or other school activities.
The last weekend of September saw the annual Fête des Vendanges (annual grape harvest) celebrated once again. In a couple of weeks’ time, and only days after our Thanksgiving Dinner at the Alpes et Lac hotel, 37 students and three staff members will travel to the beautiful city of Krakow, Poland and also visit the haunting and tragic death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau. That same weekend, 18 students and two staff will visit the remarkable city
of Munich and the Nazi death camp of Dachau. These are the first of our optional trips for the 2016-17 school year.
November 28, 2016
The second mandatory trip for our students took place earlier this month when the full school visited the World War I battlefields in Belgium. Our students walked the WWI trenches and visited the spectacular memorial at Vimy Ridge, saw the fields where the Newfoundland Regiment was decimated on July 1, 1916 at Beaumont- Hamel, toured the museum at Hill 62, stopped at the John McRae memorial and the Brooding Soldier monument at Vancouver Corner, and walked solemnly through the cemeteries in Flanders Fields. They were also able to tour the beautiful cities of Bruges and Ghent before returning to Neuchâtel.
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Neuchâtel Junior College Magazine