This year, the students of the 9th grade had the opportunity to participate in a language trip to England again. About 80 students travelled to Bournemouth in two busses. After 15 hours of travel everyone was happy to have finally arrived. Groups of 2-6 students were assigned to host families, where they would spend the week. With a different program every day there were many exciting excursions and trips so it never got boring.
One of this year's excursions was to Lulworth Cove in Dorset, which is a cliff overlooking Durdle Door, a stone arch in the water. You can see it on the picture on the left. Every year, many tourists come here to admire it. This year, we were lucky and the weather was gorgeous that day.
On weekdays, a typical day was like this: After breakfast with the host family, all students were picked up at their assigned bus stops and taken to school. In total the students had three days of school at Cavendish School of English in Bournemouth. In the afternoon, after about 5 lessons of school we went on excursions to different towns (Winchester, Poole, Portsmouth). The students had the opportunity to eat their packed lunches or buy something to eat there. Very famous in England is the dish fish and chips, which could be bought at almost every snack bar. At each of the towns a guide from the school explained us about the history and interesting facts. We even had the chance to see the coronation ceremony of King Charles III live in Winchester Cathedral.
In the evenings, the school usually provided program such as a karaoke night, laser tag and a movie night at the school. On the remaining free evenings, the students could decide themselves what they wanted to do. With the agreement of their host parents the students were allowed to move freely in the city, as long as they were back on time and everyone stayed together. So, meeting up with friends was no problem at all.
As in the years before, we went to London on the last day. Again, there was a short guided tour of the city where London's most famous sights were shown to us such as Houses of Parliament with BIg Ben, Westminster Abbey, Downing Street 10, Buckingham Palace, The Mall, Trafalgar Square). After that everyone had 6 hours of free time in London which we could spend in small groups wherever we wanted. So we explored Chinatown, Covent Garden, Soho... and walked miles and miles. In the evening the buses came again to pick us up and drive us home.
After 15 hours of driving and more than 2 hours on the ferry everyone was a little sad that the week was already over, but also happy to have finally arrived home again.
(Text: Luisa/Sina 9e, SRS; Fotos: SRS)
