In den folgenden Aufätzen schildern einige der britischen und deutschen Teilnehmer ihre Erfahrungen und Erlebnisse in Deutschland beziehungsweise England.

Erlebnisbericht

London exchange 2010/2011

Hey!!!

Last year we (14 students of the eighth grade) took part in our school's London exchange program. The program has two parts; first we stayed in London for one week with our exchange partners' families. It was a great week and we went on many trips to famous places. Thus we had a very strict timetable.

We arrived in London on Tuesday afternoon and were introduced to our exchange partners and their families. On the following day we went on a trip to the London Eye and the London Aquarium. It was a great opportunity for sightseeing because from the top of the London Eye you have an amazing view of the city! The London Aquarium was also exciting at the beginning, but after some time it got a little boring because it was just lots and lots of fish... ;) We spent the evenings with our exchange families, and got a feeling of the different culture and some different habits.

On Thursday, we visited lots of important places like Buckingham Palace, Big Ben etc. and we also managed to squeeze in a quick look in the Houses of Parliament. We did all this while our exchange partners had to attend their normal school lessons, but on Friday we all went on a trip to Oxford together. Oxford was great! Not only because of the great universities but also because of all the beautiful old buildings there. It's a lovely city. We went on a tour around the city, and were shown many important places, which was also good and very interesting.

At the weekend we spent all our time with our exchange families. Some of us went to the London Dungeon (which - in my opinion- isn't as exciting as everybody says it is!) with our exchange partners, and then to the famous London Bridge. We also went shopping on Oxford Street and met other family members at small parties that our exchanges had arranged for us.

Monday was our last full day in London, and after an English workshop at our exchange school our teachers gave us some time to go shopping on Oxford Street and in Covent Garden. Everybody found a small souvenir for their families back home - and then we spent our last evening with our exchange families.

On Tuesday, our last day in England, we accompanied our partners to their first lessons and then we left. Although we were sad to leave London and our exchange families, most of us had one thing on our minds:

HOME

There was so much to talk about with our families and friends...

The second part of the exchange program took place in July, when the English students visited us here in Aachen. They arrived on Tuesday afternoon and spent the first evening with their exchange families. Now we could show them our homes and introduce our families and friends to them.

The next day they accompanied us to school all day, and almost everybody went into town afterwards. It was a long and exciting day and many fell into their beds, happy to sleep.

On Thursday our partners arrived at school with us, but then left us to go on a sightseeing tour of Aachen. This took until 17:30 and afterwards we all went bowling in the city, which was great fun!

On Friday, all of us went on a tour of Maastricht together. We traveled to Maastricht by bus, and attended a tour through the caves there. Afterwards we went shopping in the city center. When we arrived at school in the evening, our parents had already prepared a school barbecue and we ate until we could not eat anymore.

The weekend was different in every family, but we all went to the three-country-point and had a party at somebody's home afterwards.

The English students spent their last day with us in Cologne. In the evening they had their final meal with us and next morning we could sleep a little longer, as their train would leave at about nine o'clock. Of course we all accompanied our partners to the station to wave them farewell!

Our final walk back to school was a nice end to this really interesting and important experience.

Fiona Kasperk, 8d