TRIP TO ENGLAND (SEPTEMBER 2014)

When we met at the Burgring and had an eight-hours trip ahead of us, we could not imagine what it would be like to spend two weeks in England with host families. But when we arrived in Oxford and were picked up by our „families“ we instantly felt welcome.

Starting the next morning with a typical English breakfast we were very excited to visit Shakespeare’s birthplace – Stratford-upon-Avon. After visiting the Cotswolds and going for a hike there we had a look around in Stratford: the famous Shakespeare museum, the poet’s house and of course the Swan Theatre. Some of us even took part in one of his plays, that was performed in the garden of his house!

The best thing about school in Oxford was that it started at 9:15 a.m., so we met all well-rested at Lake School. Besides doing grammar and writing exercises we still had a lot of fun learning new vocabulary and idioms. Furthermore, we did a lot of speaking activities by playing games like speed dating.

After school we really enjoyed our free time: We had the chance to go shopping, strolling through the lovely city or to spend the evenings with our host families. On Tuesday we got divided in two groups to visit Christ Church College, which is one of the oldest and most beautiful colleges in the world – and also known for its staircase, where the first part of Harry Potter was filmed. Another afternoon activity was punting, while sitting in a boat you only use a stick and a paddle to move forward, or when you think you are going too slow, you can of course jump into the water to pull the boat – as someone decided to do ... We also visited the Ashmolean Museum, where we had the chance to see ancient exhibits as well as paintings from Renaissance to Baroque.

Although we had a few minor problems with the bus driver, who refused to drive us, we securely arrived in London – with two hours delay.

Everyday after school we went sightseeing – Tate Modern, Globe Theatre, boat trip on the Thames, National Gallery, British Museum, National History Museum, Science Museum, Harrods, and of course the picturesque parks. Although we really liked it, it was quite tiring; London is an enormous city and very crowded – going by tube during the rush hour is not an experience you have to make!

On Thursday afternoon we finally had some leisure time to go shopping and roam through the famous Oxford Street.

(Phoebe Wagner & Dorothea Hollwöger)

LANGUAGE JOURNEY TO OXFORD & LONDON

We started on the 13^th September to Oxford with British Airways. Our host families picked us up really late in the evening and we all went home to get a little bit of sleep.

On Sunday we had a really nice walk through the countryside and a nice visit in Stratford, Shakespeare’s birthplace. Sunday was the only day in Oxford where we had no school.

School was so great in Oxford, it was really relaxing, funny but we still learned so much. It was not like normal school but we did activities and spoke and discussed all the time. We did not learn any grammar which was really good because we were able to improve our English and just learned new expressions and phrases.

Oxford in general was really relaxing because we had much free time to explore the city on our own which was great because all met after the lessons to go shopping and we even met 2 times in the evening and stayed out till 10:00 clock. We think everyone was really pleased with their host families only Thomas changed his family and he also loved his second one. Some of us also had their own bathroom which really surprised us.

After we had enjoyed our 7-day-stay in Oxford very much, we were all looking forward to going to London where we then stayed from September 20th to September 26th. When we arrived on Saturday we were picked up by our host families and a bit showed around Muswell Hill (the district where we were all accommodated). The rest of the weekend passed quickly with a visit to Tate Modern, Greenwich.. and we also had a boat trip down the Thames.

From Monday to Friday we had (intensive) language acquisition in the mornings and in the afternoons we saw those great museums like National Gallery, British Museum, Natural History Museum and Science Museum. And naturally also the typical London sights like Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Hyde Park, Covent Garden, Elizabeth Tower (Big Ben).

During our free time in the evening we had a bit time to have a glance at Oxford Street, Piccadilly Circus, Harrods and more (e.g. to mind the gap).

We all definitely benefited a great deal from our stay there and were sad to leave, but also grateful for this absolutely great time we had spent in Oxford and in London.

(Dora Kleinhapl & Chiara Hirsch, 7.c)