By Roderick, Arya & Emma, students DP1
'Upon arriving in Leuven, we caught the bus and went to my favourite part of the trip: ice skating. Although it wasn't easy and I had several falls, I soon got the hang of it.
The next day revolved around Leuven University, Students were able to pick from visiting four university faculties, I decided to look at engineering and technology. I was surprised at how spread out the campus of the university is.
It was interesting to see all the different classrooms, particularly the lab. The following morning, we were scheduled to go to Brussels where we arrived one hour early (thanks Mr. Middleton!) and took part in a Model United Nations activity in the European Union HQ. Students were put into different government parties, then had to try and resolve a new legislation with other parties.' - Roderick
'On the second day we had a packed schedule, we first went and looked at the student life at Katholieke UniversiteitLeuven, then we started a guided tour of the city which lasted 2 hours and there was a lot of walking. Then we had a small lunch break and then continued with our tour guide for a tour of the university itself and the respective faculties that we chose (I chose Engineering Technology).Then we visited the university’s historical library and got to visit the top of the tower as well. Then we finally walked to a nearby pub called “Downtown Jacks” where we spent the evening playing pool table and eating.
European Union
The next day we had to wake up a bit earlier than usual and made our way to the EU, some of us wanted to do a bit of role play there so we split into 2 groups. After the EU visit, we walked towards our respective museums (I chose the natural science museum), then we had 3 hours of free time to roam around the city and do whatever we wanted. After we got back to the hotel, we were given some money to sort out our dinner’s ourselves (there was a shawarma place nearby, so I bought some from there).
Finally, on the last day we packed our stuff and headed to the Dutch theme park Efteling for a good 5 hours. Though the lines were long I managed to ride on all of the popular rides a few times, then we finally got to ISU waiting to be picked up by our parents.' - Arya
'After dropping off our bags, we went ice skating in Skateworld Leuven. I (like most people) was pretty bad at it, but I still enjoyed it regardless. The second day was definitely the busiest, and we went on a walking tour of the city. It was pretty tiring, but we got to see the whole city and many of the university buildings. About halfway through the tour, we went up the University bell tower, and they rang the 2 o’clock bell right next to us, which jump scared everyone.
MUN style role play
On the third day we went to the EU headquarters in Brussels. I was in the group that did the MUN-style role play, where we were grouped into political parties, and simulated part of the legislative process of the EU. Our party spent a lot of time disagreeing with the others, but we reached a compromise eventually.
On the final day we went to the amusement parkEfteling.I've only been once before, so I got to see all the parts of the park I'd missed. Overall, the trip was really enjoyable, although I could've used a whole other week just to recover! - Emma