Thursday 13th October

The last day. The English students attended different lessons such as English, Music, History, Natural Sciences and Maths at IES Jabalcuz.
It was also the day on which the Highest Educative Authorities of the Andalusian Goverment in Jaén, Dª Angustias Rodríguez, and of the Town Hall of Jaén, Dª Francisca Molina, met the English group and wished them their stay in Jáen had been very happy and fruitful.
Dª Angustias came to IES Jabalcuz and remembered the years when she had been teaching here and the period of time when she had been the headmistress. She also emphasised the importance of learning languages nowadays and added that this exchange was one of the best methods of doing it.

Later, the English group accompanied by the headteacher, Juan Manuel Ángeles, and the teacher Juan Molina, went to the building of the Office of Social Services of the Town Hall of Jaén, where they had an appointment with the Town Councillor of Education, Dª Francisca Molina.

In her speech, Dª Francisca also emphasised the importance of learning foreign languages and knowing different cultures in the global society people are living nowdays. She also defended the continuity of the exchanges like this. After her speech, the people attending the meeting were given some souveniers from Jaén.

After that, they came back to IES Jabalcuz. There the English group and some of their Spanish partners, attended a Spanish lesson given by Dª María del Mar Cordero, a teacher of Spanish Language and Literature, who asked the English students about different aspects of their stay in Jaén so that they could answer speaking Spanish.
At the end of the lesson, they listened to two songs by La Oreja de Van Gogh, "La playa" y "Tu pelo". They had to fill in some blanks of the lyrics. After completing them, some students sang both songs.

That was the last activity for the English group in Jaén.

Then the lessons finished and English and Spanish students went to their respective homes to have lunch quickly and finish packing because at 5 p.m. the English group had to leave for Málaga airport.
The saddest moment of the exchange was coming. Spanish families took their English guests to IES Jabalcuz again, where the coach was waiting for them. It was very difficult to suppress sadness and tears. Most of them remembered the night when the Spanish group left Norton. The feeling was the same. Nobody liked goodbyes but time is inexorable and they had to leave. Students, families and teachers held each other in warm embraces before the English group got on the coach.
The second part of this marvellous experience was over.
But everybody is looking forward to repeating the experience next year.

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TO BE CONTINUED