Some of the Old Portena girls are off to Disney World, Paris for the Boarding house weekend trip today! Have Fun!!

We put up the Christmas decorations today. It was so cool when we were putting the toys on the Christmas tree and we felt like Christmas is coming soon. We are dreaming about the snow coming now!

(Ekaterina K, Anna S, Liza P)

Our weekends don’t have the same routine as the week days. Our tutors, Joanne and Beatriz, always find new activities for us to do that unite our house together. These activities are not compulsory but all the girls in the house have fun doing them – this weekend we had sweet hot chocolate and apple crumble baking to our movie night in the Old Portena office on Friday watching ‘The Holiday’ with popcorn and keeping warm under our duvets all together. This weekend we also made decorations for our bedrooms with Hama beads – I made a bowl for my desk which is very colourful. There was also the option to watch Skyfall at the cinema, play golf, go horseriding or play in the rock band as well as our usual shopping trip to Geneva and not to forget our study halls to get all our homework done. Our weekends feel more like a sleepover with all our friends so I really enjoy them. (Sofiya V. G8)

Every Saturday morning we have the option of going to play golf and today was the first day that Yuliya and I went to play.  We have never played golf before but we have already made big improvements. We had a good instructor who showed us how to play golf in the right way and we really liked it. We are already looking forward to playing again next week!

Ornella M & Yuliya Z G8)

Every Saturday morning and Monday after school we have music practice with the rock band. I am the singer and my friends play the electric and bass guitars. This morning I learned a new song called ‘Wild Horses’ by the Rolling Stones and I really liked it. We usually play a lot of different songs or else we play in a concert like the one we did for the school BBQ before the holidays. Our lessons with our music teacher, Mr Nigg, are always very interesting. (SV Grade 8)

All the Old Portena girls were divided into groups of two or three to sit in the sailing boats for our lesson on the lake. It was a very cool activity and our instructor taught us a lot of new things. After we had our sailing lesson, the water was still nice and warm so we went for a swim in the lake before we came back to the boarding house. We love doing this activity with the other girls that we live together with. (Ornella M, Anastasiya S. G8)

After dinner Old Portena took two big pumpkins to cut and make a scary face. It was a fun activity because it made us laugh a lot but it was very messy too. Then we looked at all the other pumpkins and took a group photo. We still think that Old Portena’s pumpkin was the best! 🙂  (Julia T. Grade 8)

As part of our activity schedule after school all the girls in our house go to a yoga class which I really enjoy. It is a time where we can learn how to relax properly, how to make our bodies more flexible and learn more gymnastic moves. After a busy day at school we feel much more relaxed and energised for our study hall, but also calm enough to study hard. (Anna K. iGCSE)

It took us almost two hours by bus to arrive at the salt mine. After we arrived we had a picnic lunch and then went to the tunnel that connects to a video room that gave us the history of the salt mine in this area. After that, we went on a small train deep into the mine which took about ten minutes to travel several kilometers. When we got off, the air was full of the smell of sulphur. After we investigated the mine we came back on the small train. The trip was fun and we also learned more about Chemistry, which I loved! By the time we arrived back at the boarding house we were all very tired but happy that we found out more about mining salt. (Carmiel Z. G7)