The way to London –
On Wednesday, 18th September, we started our journey to London. We met at 7.25 a.m. at Bonn Central Station. First, we had to solve the hardest part of our journey: getting from Bonn to Cologne. We went there with the line 16, which took us a whole hour. After a bit of waiting, we were able to go into the ICE that took us to Brussels. We reached Brussels without any problems (maybe because we were driving with an ICE that wasn’t completely German) and then entered to the passport control. After we all went through, we took the Eurostar to London St. Pancras. When we first saw the station in London, we were very surprised because it was so much more beautiful than any station in Germany. Then we went to East Croydon Station, where the school buses of our schools (Yes, they have own buses) awaited us to drive us to our exchange schools, where we met or exchange partners who took us to their homes.
Thursday: An English school day
On Thursday, we went to school with our exchange students. The boys had to wear their best clothes so that we were not completely underdressed, while the girls were only told to wear normal clothes. First, we went to the registration, where a teacher checked if every students were there. Then we went to our first lessons in England. A big difference to the lessons in our school in Germany is that the students are using their own devices in most of the lessons. After a few lessons, we had lunch. The food at the schools in England was much better than at our school. After the lunch we had other lessons until around 4 o’clock, which was very different to our school. After school, some of us stayed in the library for a while. The library was much bigger than the library in our school and we had to be very quiet. After that long day, we were all happy to relax with our exchange partners.
Friday
On Friday morning, we dressed up smartly: shirt, blazer, suit trousers, and polished shoes were the order of the day. After registering, we took the train to East Croydon Station to meet the German girls who were staying at the girls‘ school. Together, we headed to the famous Globe Theatre in London.
There, we were treated to a guided tour, learning fascinating facts about the history of the theatre and Shakespeare’s works. The atmosphere at the Globe Theatre was particularly impressive – it was stunning and one of the highlights of our day. Afterward, we participated in an acting workshop focused on Romeo and Juliet. It was exciting to step into the shoes of the famous characters and learn more about acting.
Following the workshop, we had about an hour of free time to explore the area. During this time, we coincidentally met another German class from Bonn, which was quite amusing! At the end of the day, we said goodbye to the girls at East Croydon Station before heading back to our schools and then to our host families.
At my host family’s place, we enjoyed a lovely dinner and then played some football on the console, with the game EAFC24. I almost always won by a wide margin. After that, we went to bed, ready to prepare for the next day.
Saturday
On Saturday, we woke up and enjoyed a delicious breakfast together, followed by some time watching TV. After that, my exchange partner Tobi and I set off for the bowling alley, where we met up with other German and English students who were also part of the exchange. We spent a fun time bowling together.
After bowling, we headed to the mall next to the bowling alley. We wandered around, exploring the shops and enjoying the lively atmosphere. Once we had finished, everyone went home with their exchange partners to spend the evening with their host families.
At home, we had a tasty dinner, followed by a relaxing movie night. By the end of the day, we were quite tired from all the fun, so we went to bed early to recharge for Sunday.
Sunday
On Sunday morning, we woke up and quickly had breakfast before getting ready to watch Tobi’s football match. The field was about an hour’s drive away. When we arrived, Tobi’s team played an exciting match, winning with an impressive score of 14-5. Tobi scored 4 goals and had an outstanding performance.
After the match, we returned home to relax a bit, as we had plans to go to a restaurant in the evening. The food there was delicious, and we enjoyed a great dinner together. By the time we got back, it was already late, so we went to bed early, knowing we had school on Monday.
That was my weekend in England! (Alijan Hasan)
Monday: Visit at Madame Tussaud’s
On Monday, we visited Madame Tussaud’s. First, we went to the registration like every day. Then, we took the train to London Bridge where we started our first underground trip to Baker Street Station. After we arrived there, we went to the place that was the favourite one of many students: Madame Tussaud’s. We made pictures with the wax statues of many celebrities, e.g. Ed Sheeran, The Rock, Yoda, The Beatles, The Queen and Spider-Man. After the tour through most of the museum, there was something called “The spirit of London” which showed the history of London with wax figures. Then came a 3D cinema where we watched a short, animated Marvel film. After this film, we had to hurry a bit, so that we only made a few pictures in the Star Wars part of the museum. When we all had left Madame Tussaud’s, we had free time at Oxford Street. One and a half hours later, we went back to the schools, where our exchange partners were waiting for us.
Tuesday: Museums and Covent Garden
On Tuesday, we had a lot to do. Two museums and Covent Garden. After the registration at school, we went by train to the Science Museum. There, we had one and a half hour to discover the exhibition which included a lot of interactive elements. The museum had exhibitions about different scientific topics, e.g. space, technicians and pharmacy. There was also a huge souvenir shop. After the Science Museum, we went on to the Natural History Museum. It shows very impressive dinosaurs and beautiful stones. There are also other animals in the museum, but these are not really what it is known for and we hadn’t had enough time to see them. After we were there for one hour, we had to wait for Mr. May who went to the false meeting point. When he had made it to us, we went on to Covent Garden, a place with very nice shops and a lot of street artists. We had one hour to go shopping or just enjoy the flair. To see a bit of London on our last day, we walked from Covent Garden to the Tower Bridge. After this day, we arrived a bit later at the schools than normally. It was definitely a nice last day.
The way back or waiting, waiting, waiting
On this day, we had to come to school in our best clothes again, because we wanted to take a group photo with our exchange partners. After we took the photo, we said goodbye and then went to East Croydon Station with the school buses that also drove us to school on the very first day. We took a train to St. Pancras Station, where we stayed for 3 hours. First, we had decide who was the lucky one to write this text (Me!). Mr. Frankenhauser had made a list during the exchange with everyone who had done something wrong, like being late, being (playfully) mean or not attending to his suitcase for ten seconds (like I did). To put it in short, nearly everyone was on that list. We made a tournament of “Rock, Paper, Scissors” with everyone who was on that list. I, as the complete loser, was told to write about five days of our trip while Alijan just had to write a text about three days of his choice. After this disappointing game, we went through the passport control. And now came the most interesting part of the journey: WAITING! One hour later, we were able to take the Eurostar to Brussels. I used this time to write this text, which was a quite good idea because I didn’t get bored. Then, in Brussels, we had to: WAIT! But it wasn’t too bad because we were able to go around in the central station. We ate very good waffles there. After that, we took the ICE to Siegburg. And now comes the final big question: What did we do in Cologne/Ehrenfeld? Yes, WAITING! When we reached Siegburg, most of us where picked up by their family, while some others had to drive to Bonn first. We were all very happy to see our families.
All the boys looking good together at Trinity High
All the girls looking good together at Croydon High
Written by Paul Busch and Alijan Hasan
