On Monday, the 27th of November, 3 o’clock we started off here in Aurich and drove in a minibus, driven by Mr. Heine, to Newquay. We drove through the Netherlands, Belgium and France. In Calais we crossed the channel with a ferry. After having passed Dover and Corn-wall we finally reached Newquay and Redruth in the evening. There we were welcomed by our host families. Since we were so exhausted we fell asleep soon.
On the next morning after having breakfast we all took the minibus to go and visit our work-places. We introduced ourselves to the employers and left a first impression of ourselves. The tour was quite nice. We made stops at a kinder-garden, a horse-doctor, a drug store, a library, a lawyer office and a computer-company.
In the afternoon we went on a sightseeing tour in Newquay. We also went shopping. In the evening we returned to our host families to have dinner. Two friends of my exchange student came by for a visit and brought their German exchange students with them.
On the next morning our work experience started at around 9.30 am. We worked until after-noon and then we went bowling and went to restaurant to have dinner with all exchange students.
The next day was the birthday of a friend of my exchange student. They took me to a pub close to our house where we spent a quite amusing night. On Friday it was Halloween and we had a party at my host family’s house. Around 30 to 40 English guests were invited and also two of the other German exchange students came.
On the following day (Saturday) our group drove to the coast of Cornwall and we visited the ruins of the legendary castle of King Arthur, Tintagel (but Camelot was also quite close). In the evening we again hung out with our host families. Just the two whose exchange students had visited my host family for the last couple of days and had come to the Halloween party stayed with my family again. We spent the evening watching videos (in English, of course).
On Sunday we made a trip to the Eden-Project, a great botanic centre, consisting of two im-mense halls and several exterior earthworks, in which plants from all over the world grow in their natural atmosphere. In the one hall they simulated a tropic environment. All sorts of plants like palms and banana-plants grew here. There also was a little waterfall and didactical projects for students. In the other hall they exhibited agricultural plants from South America, Africa and Asia. The different sorts of citrus fruits, chilli and nuts were really impressing. The exterior earthworks were beautiful, too. There were several statues. One of them was a grass covered figure which looked like a woman. Her hair was made of reed. Another statue de-picted a man made who dragged a cart and symbolized the agriculture quite impressively.
When we had finished our visit we drove home. One of us had the idea of going swimming. The swimming-pool wasn’t very clean and also pretty small, but there were three different kind of slides. So in the end it was a quite fun night.
On Monday and Tuesday we again had to go to our workplaces. Mr. Heine visited all of us during the work experience time to see how we were doing and what we had been doing at our work places for the last week.
On Wednesday we left Newquay to drive to London where we stayed in a really awful hotel until Friday. It was so dirty and the beds were extremely uncomfortable.
We spent most of our time in London sightseeing. Of course we also went shopping. It was quite hard but we tried to not spend all of our money on all the things we would have liked to buy. We finally started our trip home on Friday. It again took quite a long time to get to Aurich.
All together I can say that I enjoyed my time in Great Britain and that I am happy to have made this experience.

German Version by Karen Weber Translated by Barbara Schunicht

last change: 10.03.2004 18:32