Englandaustausch in England 2013

Wednesday, 6th March
Today we started our England Exchange 2013 trip to England. We went by plane and 1 ½ hours later we arrived at London Heathrow Airport. We took the bus to Kennet School and we were all very excited to finally meet our exchange partners. They were all there as we arrived and then we went “home” with our families.

Thursday, 7th March
We spent the day with our exchange pupils in Kennet School. In England school does not start before 9 am but lasts until 4 pm. Everybody at school must have known that we were the German pupils because we were not wearing uniforms and it felt like everybody was staring. First Mr. Dick, the headmaster, welcomed us and said a few words and then we went to the lessons with our partners. We had, for example, Maths, Science, German, French, History, Food Technology and so on. In the German lessons we talked with other English pupils and asked each other questions. We tried to speak English and they tried to speak German. It was a lot of fun.
The lunch break was quite an event. They have got a really cool system in the cafeteria. They just put their fingers on a sensor and with that they pay for their food. This day was also a so called ‘book-day’ which means that the pupils had 20 minutes during the last lesson for reading books. Unfortunately we had no books with us but the English pupils gave us some of their own.

Friday, 8th March
Today we went to Oxford with our exchange partners. Everything there was just huge and WOW! We saw Christ Church College, one of the largest colleges of the University of Oxford. When you know Harry Potter and Hogwarts, you know a bit what it looks like, because they shot some scenes of the movie there.
We also had a guided tour of Oxford Castle and the guides told us some pretty scary stories, which we did not all completely understand. It was used as a prison (until 1996!) and in former days life in the prison must have been very cruel.
After the visit we had time for ourselves and were allowed to go shopping.

Saturday, 9th March and Sunday, 10th March
At the weekend we spent a lot of time with our families. Most of us made some tours in the Thatcham area.

Monday, 11th March
Today we went to LONDON!! We went there by trainand at Paddington we changed to the London Underground. The Underground might seem to be confusing at first but the lines are all in different colours and then it is easy to understand.
We drove to Victoria Station where we started our ‘Original London Sightseeing Tour’ with one of the red double-decker buses. There were so many of them!
Everything in London was so big and we recognized famous sights we had talked about in English lessons. We wanted to sit on top to have a better view. It was a really cold day, it even started to snow. After an hour we were all freezing but the tour was not over yet. The teachers decided to use the tube instead of the bus to visit the other sights. The day was long and exhausting, but it was totally worth it. We saw almost everything: The Tower of London, Big Ben, The Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, The London Eye… AND we visited the London Dungeon. Forget Halloween… this was way scarier and I bet some of us could not sleep the whole night.

Tuesday, 12th March
It was our second day at school and again very interesting. In the evening we had a little party at school. Each of us brought something to eat and drink and we played different kinds of games. It was a funny and enjoyable evening.

Wednesday, 13th March
Today we took the train to Windsor Castle, which is one of the Queen’s homes. The flag was not on top, which meant the Queen was not at home. We got audio guides and then we did a tour through the castle. Wow! It was so big and beautiful. In the evening all the German pupils and their exchange partners went to a bowling centre. It was a private trip with our exchange partners and a lot of fun.

Thursday, 14th March
It was our last day in England and we were beginning to feel a little sad, because we all had such a great time. We took the train to Reading. First we visited a museum with an exhibition about “Reading Then and Now”.
After that the real fun started – we had lots of time to go shopping and most of us carried more than one bag on our way home.

Friday, 15th March
The morning was kind of sad. We had to leave our partners and quite a few of us started crying. We met at school and our bus arrived, then it was time to say good bye.
We drove to Heathrow Airport. Unfortunately, our plane was delayed and we had to wait a bit longer. Finally, we were on the plane and on our way back home to Germany.
All of us were happy to be back home and meet our families. The exchange was a great experience for everybody!

The England Exchange Group of 2013