Monday, 18th March
2013 [Ferdinand and Leo]
Our day started very early in the
morning. We woke up at 7 and went to breakfast. Since there was chapel on
Sunday evening, there wasn't chapel this morning. We went to school for the
first time here and went to different lessons. After the second lesson we had a
short break and went to our boardings. Again we lived in different ones. After
3 more lessons there was the main lunch break. We went to the dining hall. Our
exchange partners told us the dining hall was supposed to become a chapel, but
after noticing they built it facing the wrong direction, they decided just to
build a new one.
After lunch we went to explore the
town. We all got a map and were supposed to find various sights. We split into
two groups of three and started searching. First, we were supposed to find the
grave of John Higgs at a church's graveyard. Apparently he loved killing pigs.
At the graveyard, we met a strange old woman feeding birds. She started telling
us what is written on John Higgs' grave. Then she told us that the oldest bird
was 1,500 years old. At the end, she wanted to show off with her language
skills, telling us that "Arrivederci" was Spanish. The weirdest thing
was that the other group met the same old woman telling them exactly the same
things.
After taking a photo of the grave
just mentioned, we went to encounter the town hall of Cheltenham. Apparently it
is used a theater. We took a photo of that as well and asked for the architect
of the building, which we were supposed to find out, too.
The last sight was the Pittville
Pump Room, which was our final meeting point. A long time ago, people noticed
that birds were always flying to one specific place. They then discovered that
at the mentioned place there is the best water you can get, which can cure
various diseases. We took a final look and went back to our boarding for
dinner.
After dinner, everyone went to his
room and did whatever he wanted to do. The evening was relaxing, we went to bed
at 10 o'clock.
Monday, 18th March
2013 [Jones and Jamin]
After having breakfast, we joined our
exchange partners and went to lessons.
At first, we got English, which was about
reading the Shakespeare theatre-play “Julius Caesar”. The German lessons we had afterwards were
pretty weird, because the teacher, who actually was a native speaker of the German
language, made spelling mistakes. In our Music lessons, we were composing
music.
In DT, which means design & technology,
our British exchange partners had to craft models out of wood and metal
plates. After that, we met a really nice
girl from Switzerland who was able to talk in German.
Then
we had lunch: since the juice machines didn’t work, we discovered a nice bottle
with orange liquid in it. And since the machines were out of order, we guessed
that there would be juice in this curious bottle, and filled up our glasses
while other students around us were watching us with growing astonishment. And
soon we realized our mistake: bottles like these usually contain no juice, but
syrup.
In
the afternoon we had an interesting rally through Cheltenham town. Which means,
we had to find certain sights and closer information about them.
First we went to the Cheltenham town. After
we found out about the architect, Frederick William Waller, we went to St.
Mary’s church. Right when we arrived, a strange old lady started talking to us:
“You might fall in there”, she said, while pointing at a covered drain. “Well,
actually you can’t, because it’s covered, but you MIGHT fall in.” Afterwards
she was telling stories about lost souls and old seagulls. After a while she
said goodbye to us, saying farewell in many different languages. To have a break, we decided to go to
Poundland: since we were really thirsty, we wanted to buy a coke. And as the
price tag said, one would be 45 pences, we went to the cash desk, wanting to
pay. But it turned out, as this was Poundland, you had to buy three cans of
coke for a pound. Or, as the cashier used to tell us: “It’s because this is
Poundland, and everything is a pound here!”
This little break was followed by a very
long walk to the Pittville Pump Rooms. We really were in a hurry, because our
teacher told us we were late, but it turned out, we were the first group to
arrive there.
On
the way back, we had a little free time, which we used to go to Burger King –
and we had to leave it early, because we were late for dinner.
In
the evening there was a little concert of the school chamber orchestra,
featuring a solo flutist and violinist.
So,
we had a really exhausting, but also funny and interesting day in Cheltenham.
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