CIELBrest, France

“My comment has nothing to do with the actual lessons. It has to do with the afternoon activities and, unfortunately, with the school's location far away from the city. You might be able to book the excursions in advance. Unfortunately, I don't know, because I haven't looked into it, I have to admit. I thought it would be easy to find new things to see in a large foreign city. But here theory and reality were a bit apart. And to all of you who are travelling without a vehicle, it's really difficult to manage. The CIEL is really far outside Brest. It takes about 20-30 minutes by car via the motorway. Past the industrial harbour area and a little further. So it's really not central. The school is advertised as belonging to Brest, but it is already in another small town in the Brest area. About me: I was a single participant. So not involved in any programme, like the rest of the students in my class, who were all scholarship students and went on organised excursions almost every day. I actually don't know if it would have been possible for me to join them. It was never communicated about within the school. Maybe I should have asked? I don't know. I didn't and so I didn't find out. So I always spent my afternoons with myself and drove around the area a bit. I had travelled by car and that was very fortunate. As I said, with a car it was no problem. Without, more so. For the scholarship holders in my class, who lived in shared accommodation a little outside, it was a problem every day. They had to come by bus and were about 20 minutes late every day. This time, in turn, was missing from the overall lessons, which were only 4 hours a day. Here's a little tip for everyone under the theme: "Foreign countries, foreign customs". It happened to my classmates that the bus simply drove on without stopping. All 10 or so people were visibly standing at the bus stop. But the driver drove on. I think the journey to school took about 45 minutes. So it was a long time. The bus doesn't run often. There was no way to make it through the four hours of classes. This happened twice. We all wondered why the driver did that and couldn't find an answer at first. Not in the mood for chattering young people? :) No. Later I read on the internet that in France you always have to raise your hand to signal the driver to please stop. So the driver did everything right, but the students, who came from different countries, didn't know that. And no one had told them, because it is quite normal for French people to raise their arm when the bus is coming. ”

“nothing”

“most of the teachers lacked interest in their students. The lack of social activities.”