12 Nov Our trip to Broadstairs
Day 1/2
After fourteen hours on a coach and a very shaky ferry ride across the English Channel, all students and their four teachers arrived near Dover on Sunday afternoon. There we visited the ancient “Dover Castle”. Some parts of the old castle were built in the 11th century. It was impressive to see the big and high walls which still surround the big castle today. We had a fantastic view from the huge towers at the centre of the castle. Either you looked at the sea and saw a wonderful skyline or you looked at the landscape and saw a beautiful scenery. At five o´clock the students and teachers rode to Broadstairs by bus. There we were picked up by our host-families.
On Monday we had to go our school, the Kent School of English, at nine o´clock. There we wrote a test whose individual results divided us into small groups of 16 students. At two o´clock the observation quiz started. It was a funny and difficult quiz about Broadstairs. To answer the questions we had to find places in the village. In groups of four we discovered our home away from home. The winners of the quiz got some candy as a prize. After lunch at the homes of our host-families we met again for the evening program which was an evening of Karaoke! There was a big stage and everybody could sing. The funny evening ended at ten o´clock.
(by Jakob K.)
Day 3
This was our second day at the Kent School of English. Once again, we were divided into groups according to the test we had written a day ago. In my group, we learned to describe ourselves. It was a very funny lesson, because we had a nice teacher and there was no pressure at all. So the morning passed very fast. After the end of the lesson we had an almost two-hour break. Most of us ate the most traditional and well-known English food: fish and chips. It was very delicious, but only if you didn’t put vinegar on it! After we had strengthened ourselves, we went to the afternoon classes. They were also a lot of fun. Before the evening activity we had a little time to relax. For this we also got divided into groups: Group 1 and Group 2. While the first group visited the drama workshop, the second group went to the cinema and watched the new movie Thor. It was a fantastic and interesting film. After the movie had ended, we all went home to our host families looking forward to the next day.
Day 4
After a short night and a traditional breakfast we walked from our host family to the coach to drive to Canterbury. The whole group was really excited.
And then we reached it: The great, medieval city of Canterbury. We started with a sightseeing tour. The highlight of it was clearly the beautiful cathedral. It is the seat of the archbishop of the Anglican Church and very famous. Unfortunately, the cathedral was full of scaffolding on the outside, so we could not see a lot of its beautiful façade. But inside, it was a fantastic sight. Everything is richly decorated, it looks so majestic. After that we got the possibility to go shopping. So we spent most of our time with shopping, but some of us went to McDonalds or Starbucks, too. So the day went by very quickly. We drove home, had a little time to relax and then we had the same activities like the day before, but just the other way round. We had the drama workshop: It was quite funny because we had invented our own little theatre plays. Everybody had decided to make detective stories. We had a lot of fun. But the other group was very unhappy about their movie at the cinema: „Lego Ninjago“! The poor guys!
(by Jonathan H.)
Day 5
Like every day, we went to school. In the afternoon we went to the the beach where the beach walk began and started to walk for about 90 minutes to Ramsgate. In Ramsgate the architecture is very old and in the Royal harbour there were many ships. About 100m away from the coast is an old ship which is now a very exclusive restaurant. In the downtown of Ramsgate, there are many cafes and souvenir shops. At the coast, there is an arcade, too. In the evening we went to Margate where we could party at the KSE Disco. But we were unlucky and we had a low tide so the coast smelled a lot like dying fish! But in fact it was just rotting seaweed which creates this truly horrible smell. At the disco we danced to the latest chart music and the greatest classics. We arrived back in Broadstairs at about half past ten.
Day 6
On Friday we went to KSE for the last time. After classes had ended, some of us went to the arcade to spend our last British coins there. In the afternoon we went to the Westwood Cross Shopping center. In there you can find about 40 stores with clothes, games and cafes. It was a great fun and even our teachers bought some stuff. And in the evening we went to the barn-dance, which, in my opinion, was the greatest activity of all during our stay in Broadstairs. There were many dances and everybody had a lot of fun. In the end, everybody laughed, had fun and danced, but some of our teachers didn’t want to get hurt and stayed away from the dancing! When we went home it was very late and we prepared for our trip to London and packed our things so we didn’t have to do it on Saturday morning. All in all, we all really enjoyed our stay in Broadstairs which is a lovely little town with a lot of really friendly people!
(by Vinzenz U.)
Day 7
On our last day we drove to London. After a two-hour trip we finally reached London and boarded a Thames Clippers boat, which is basically like a really fast water taxi.
We stopped at the Tower of London and waited there until we got our tickets. The Tower was very impressive and we also learned a lot about British history.
Next, we went to Big Ben which is being renovated at the moment, so we could neither see the Elisabeth tower (Big Ben is only the name of the biggest bell inside the tower!) nor could we hear its famous chime. Located near Big Ben are the Houses of Parliament and the Westminster cathedral. From there we walked by Downing Street #10, where Prime Minister Theresa May now lives, continued through St. James’s parks, saw the famous Buckingham Palace (unfortunately, the queen wasn’t there at the moment) and finally got to Covent Garden where we got some free-time.
In the evening we walked to the banks of the Thames, took the Thames Clippers for a last ride to the o2-Arena where our busses were already waiting and then we drove back to Dover to catch our ferry. Everybody was very tired, but at least the ferry ride to Calais wasn’t as shaky as the first one! At 12 o’clock the next day, we arrived at the Paul-Klee-Gymnasium.
A special thanks to Ms Steiner who organized the whole trip, but also to Mrs Buffinton, Mrs Miller, Mr Korn and Mr Steinbrecher who also came along to keep an eye on us. Our week in England was very exciting, a lot of fun and our English has certainly improved!
(by Michael L.)
