EUMIND

2020-2021
 PRISHA:
I was exhilarated about the first video call
with the exchange team. However, at the same
time, I was a bit edgy since it was the first
time we were going to have alive face to face
meeting rather than our usual WhatsApp
conversations. We discussed the varied
lifestyles in the Netherlands and in India, the
impact of Coronavirus on our lives; and also
contrasted our research on school life. In
order to prepare for the conference, we
created a pallet to fill in the answers, along
with a video consisting of our interviews. We
also prepared a welcome video to mark the
beginning of our journey of Eumind with great
zeal and enthusiasm. I got to learn a lot about
the lives of the exchange team as we spoke
about diverse topics. All in all, this
conference was a great way to acquaint
ourselves with the other end of the groups. It
was a perfect event to give a warm start and
was a golden opportunity to share our
thoughts.
 MANAS:
I was extremely nervous to meet the
students from the Netherlands, even
though we had spoken before this was the
first time we were going to see them. We
had prepared an introduction video about
ourselves and we had also created a
WhatsApp group to communicate better
with them. We were also separated into
breakout rooms in the zoom meeting so we
could discuss our topic, school-life. The
first time meeting them was a tad awkward
but as time went on, we got on very well
and started answering each other's
questions about our topics. after which we
filled each other's 'padlets' so we could
document each other’s answers We also
had conducted interviews with our
grandparents and parents asking them
questions about their school life. We then
compared our answers to the answers they
had collected in the interview.
 AARYA:
Meeting the EUMIND exchange students for
the first time was exciting but at the same
time a little nerve-wracking. However, we
had reached out to them a while ago
through a WhatsApp group and that is how
we stayed in touch. We spoke to them
about their school life in the Netherlands.
We discussed the COVID situation, how
they were adjusting, and the differences
in our lives. For our video call on the 24th
November 2020, we had conducted small
interviews with our parents and
grandparents asking them about school
and general life. We also created a ‘padlet’
on google where the Netherlands students
filled out their answers to the same
questions, hence I got a glimpse of their
life. We spoke about sports, introduced
ourselves. We all had a laugh at how they
pronounced our names and vice versa.
During the meeting I asked them questions
about their school and subjects, we
learned a lot. It was extremely fun to do
something like this during these tough
times, and I thank the exchange students,
teachers, our school for being so
enthusiastic and cooperative. They too had
interviewed their family members and we
compared our research. We learned a lot
about the lifestyle in houses in the
Netherlands. I can not wait to learn more!
 RIANNA:
Meeting the EUMIND students was
really exciting. To prepare for the
videoconference we had
interviewed our parents,
grandparents, and even ourselves
and we created a padlet with the
questions we asked in our
interviews which the Netherlands
students filled out which helped
us compare the differences and
similarities between our school
lives. During the video conference
we talked about our interests and
our cultures and it turns out we
are not all that different. We
discussed school subjects and
extracurriculars and even how
we pronounced each other’s
names. It was interesting to learn
about the different cultures and
languages of their school life. We
also spoke over WhatsApp about
the different languages taught at
their school and ours. It was a
very interesting experience that
taught us a lot about not just our
differences but our similarities
which bridged the distance
between us.
 KRRISH:
Getting into our first breakout room in our first
Zoom meeting with our exchange group was
really fascinating, we had earlier spoken to
them through our groups on social media
platforms and astonishingly they were very
fluent in English even though they usually
speak Dutch, they were communicating with us
like how we usually speak to our friends on
groups too. We had conducted interviews with
all the students before the Zoom meeting about
their school life and how their school-life is
different compared to ours. Later, I reached out
on a personal chat to Nifémi, who was really
sweet and prompt at answering my questions
about how school life and schools, are
affected due to the pandemic, she replied by
saying that physical schooling is open but many
of the students and teachers had to go through
quarantine as there were a lot of rising cases
due to schools re-opening in the Netherlands
but the schools were very adjustable and they
gave the classes substitute teacher and overall
school is going well and there are a lot of
strict precautionary measures that all the
students go through.Though we all were a bit
nervous this was an amazing ice-breaking
session. It was fantastic to finally meet our
exchange groups after the excitement built on
by the regular WhatsApp conversations. We got
to know each other and got familiar with our
exchange groups through the conference. We
talked about our topic- School Life as well as
asked each other general questions. It was an
open area for us to talk about what all we
found, learned, and wanted to know about each
other.
 CONCLUSION:
Though we all were a bit nervous this was an amazing ice breaking session. It was
fantastic to finally meet our exchange groups after the excitement built on by the
regular whatsapp conversations. We got to know each other and got familiar with our
exchange groups through the conference. We talked about our topic- School Life as
well as asked each other general questions to warm up the room a bit. It was an open
area for us to talk about what all we found, learned and wanted to know about each
other. It was very exciting. We are really looking forward to our next video
conferencE.
 PADLET LINK

https://padlet.com/aaryamehta
/681e7qckoz5g48r9