Monday

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.