Parsippany Students Exchange - First Week

For 31 students and two teachers - Lurdes Asensio and Henar Marchesi -  at IES Jorge Manrique, the beginning of this course is being a little unusual. We are spending two weeks in Parsippany, New Jersey, where our students are attending regular classes at Parsippany High School and staying with local families. Not only are they practising their English everyday, but also they are experiencing the American culture from within.

The School buses

One of the classes at Parsippany High School

We had a school dinner with the families, the mayor and the education authorities.

This exchange between IES Jorge Manrique and Palencia has been going on for 20 years now. We think it's a wonderful opportunity for both schools, as they get to learn a new culture, so different from their own.

The mascot of PHS is the red hawk

The first day, Sunday September 18, our students spent the day with their families. Next morning they went to school with their American partners where they attended all the lessons and that's what they've been doing for all this week. They've had two special lessons for them - one on British/American English, and another on American music. 
Yesterday we went to New York, where we walked along Brooklyn bridge, visited the Stock Exchange and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, got emotional at Ground Zero, had lunch and went shopping in Chinatown and wandered in Central Park to finish with.

Crossing Brooklys Bridge

At Groung Zero

Tomorrow we're going to Washington for the weekend.