Der Besuch der deutschen Gruppe in England erfolgte vom 28. September bis zum 6. Oktober 2008 (verantwortliche/r Lehrer/in: Walter Hagmann, Barbara Pfeiffer-Schultz).
Die englische Gruppe besuchte uns in Tübingen vom 17. bis 26. Oktober. Begleitet wurde sie von Mr. John Clark (Headmaster) und Mr. Richard Brookes (Head of the language department).
Im Folgenden berichten die deutschen Schüler/innen über ihre Erlebnisse in Birkenhead.
Montag, 29. September, unser erster Tag in Birkenhead
Um 8.30 Uhr treffen langsam alle auf dem Schulgelände ein.
Das Schulgelände besteht im Wesentlichen aus mehreren kleinen Häusern (für jedes Fach ein anderes Haus), die um einen Rasen und ein kleines Stück Weg angeordnet sind. Der Rasen darf nur betreten werden von LehrerInnen und den Prefects, einer Art Schülersprecher, die man an roten Bändern erkennt, die von den Schultern ihrer Uniform harabhängen.
Jeder ist erst mit seinem Austauschschüler zur Registration (Feststellung der Anwesenheit) gegangen, danach hat sich die ganze Mittel- und Oberstufe zur Assembly versammelt. Dort wurden wir erst mal von dem Co-Director willkommen geheißen. Dann wurden für die Schüler wichtige Dinge für die bevorstehende Woche verkündet. Es wurde gesungen und gebetet, generell erinnerte viel an Kirche.
In der nächsten Stunde waren wir im Computerraum. Mister Brookes hat mit uns dann an den Computern und den Headsets gearbeitet. Er hat uns in verschiedene Diskussionsgruppen eingeteilt, in denen wir über die Headsets miteinander diskutieren konnten. Es hat viel Spaß gemacht, mit den Headsets zu arbeiten.
Es folgte eine Science-Stunde, in der wir mit bestimmten Materialien (Papier, straws, Klebstoff und Schere) versuchen mussten, einen möglichst hohen Turm zu bauen, ohne dass ein Metallgewicht von 100 gr den Turm zum Umkippen brachte.
Hungrig sind wir dann alle zum Mittagessen gegangen. Hier herrschte eine Art Rangordnung, nicht, wer zuerst kommt, bekommt sein Mittagessen, sondern die Älteren. Wir wurden auch hier total bevorzugt und durften vor allen anderen rein gehen. Das Essen war kostenlos und sehr lecker: Es gab Nudeln mit Käsesahnesoße...lecker.... ! Aber auch viele andere Gerichte, unter denen man auswählen konnte.
Mit einem vollem Magen, ging's nach der Mittagspause weiter im Programm. Ein Teil der Gruppe war beim Klettern (im schuleigenen Kletterraum), der andere Teil im Deutschunterricht der Klasse 12, die nur aus 2 Schülern bestand. Später wurde gewechselt.
Marie Kost (9c) und Franziska Bickelmann (9c)
Tuesday, 30th September 2008
Today we went to Birkenhead station by the Birkenhead schoolbus, then we took the train to Chester. In Chester Mrs Hardy, a former Birkenhead School teacher, who now lives in Chester, showed us some popular sights:
- the reconstructed Roman Gardens and a typical Roman central heating system
- the Amphitheatre, the largest amphitheatre of its kind existing in Britain, today you can sit on one of those seats and conjure up the gladiatorial combats
- “The Rowsâ€, a series of covered galleries above the shops on the street lining,
- Watergate Street, Eastgate Street and Bridge Street, where you can do a lot of good shopping, but where it is very expensive.
We also saw another medieval building, Chester Cathedral, originally built as an abbey church for a Benedictine monastery.
The prettiest sight was the Eastgate Clock, built to celebrate the Queen Victoria Jubilee in 1897.
After we had seen the sights, we walked along the river Dee and then went shopping.
In the afternoon, when we had returned to school, some of us went to Johnny’s house and waited there for Ed and Alex, because they still had to stay at school for their drama lesson. Then we all went to a bowling alley, where we all had a lot of fun.
Some others met at a restaurant in Haysville and had dinner there. They had a lot of fun, too.
Anna-Lena and Tessi
Wednesday, 1st October 2008
We met at school on Wednesday morning at about 8 o'clock and started from there to the Blue Planet Aquarium by bus and taxi. As we arrived too early we had to wait for half an hour in the Birkenhead School Bus, because it rained heavily.
We stayed in the aquarium for at least 3 hours. There you could stroke a ray, watch some divers feeding the fish, eat something in the canteen and stand on a conveyor under the aquarium and enjoy the wonderful view above into the aquarium filled with rays, sharks and many other fish.
After our return to school we visited two of our exchange partners' lessons.Thereupon we had individual programmes with our exchange partners.
Kai Rückheim und Claudius Hoffmann, 9a
Thursday, 2nd October 2008, Anfield Road
On Thursday morning we met the other German students at Birkenhead School to get the minibus of the school to Anfield Road, the stadium of Liverpool FC.
On the minibus we found out that nobody had got lunch from our exchange partners, because it had said nothing about lunch on the programme. So Mr Brookes, the English teacher, went to get some French fries and sausage for all of us. Then we went to the fanshop of Liverpool and some students bought a jersey from Liverpool. While we were spending our time in the fanshop Mr Brookes bought the tickets for all the German students and teachers. The guy who told us a lot about the stadium had a strong Welsh accent, therefore we couldn’t very well understand him very and a lot of the things he told us.
The cabin of the players wasn’t really interesting, because there was nothing special to see. But when we walked to the tribune it was a great feeling because we knew that usually a lot of the world´s best players like Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard walk into the stadium that way. The guide told us something about the stadium, for example that 45.522 people fit in it. We were allowed to sit on the seats where the players usually sit and we had a great view over the stadium and were surprised that it wasn’t as big as we thought it was.
Everybody took a lot of pictures of the stadium and after looking at it for some time we went into the Liverpool FC museum. In the museum we watched a movie about the champions league final from Liverpool FC vs. AC Mailand in Istanbul. The movie was really good. Liverpool fell back by three goals and then made three goals within the last seven minutes, so it stood three to three and after extra time they won the game in the penalties.
After we got out of the museum we read a sign which wasn’t translated into German properly. It said: ,,Willkommen, Fußball Ventilatoren der Welt’’, but meant: ,,Willkommen, Fußball Fans der Welt’’. They had made the mistake because fan has got two meanings: one of them is just ,,Fan’’ and the other one is ,,Ventilator’’. Still laughing about the wrong translation we got onto the minibus back to Birkenhead School, where we met our English exchange partners and went with them for another two lessons. At the end of the day we went home and everybody was tired and fell asleep.
Axel, Bene, Lukas, 9c
Friday, 3rd October
We met at the minibus at 8.30.
Led by Mr Hagmann we arrived at the wrong terminal, had to move to another one and then wait for the next ferry. At 9.40 am we departed from Birkenhead to Liverpool by ferry. After we had got off the ferry, we went to the Beatles museum.
We got some headphones instead of a guided tour. That enabled us to go through the museum at our own pace.
Afterwards we were allowed to go shopping in the mall near the old docks. When we met again, our teachers took us to the city centre, where we were allowed to walk around the different parts of the city on our own.
With full bags we met at 1.15 pm in front of Mc Donalds.
We wanted to visit Liverpool Cathedral (Anglican Church), but when we arrived, it was closed. That´s why we walked to Metropolitan Cathedral (Catholic) to see at least one of the cathedrals.
It is a really expensive and modern Church. We were impressed.
We went back to Birkenhead School by underground at 2.45 pm, where we met our exchange partners.
Samstag, 4. Oktober
Am Samstag hatte ich einen Tag mit der Gastfamilie, der aber leider durch einen schweren Unfall meines Austauschpartners Jeremy Williams durcheinander geriet. Morgens hatte ich ausgeschlafen, schön gefrühstückt und etwas für die Schule gelernt, als July aufgebracht von dem Unfall beim Rugbyspiel erzählte, bei dem Jeremy sich die Nase verletzt hatte und ins Krankenhaus gebracht werden musste. Dort verbrachte er den halben Tag.
Von den Plänen des Tages informiert, machten wir uns auf den Weg zu Alexander Hind, wo wir uns mit anderen deutschen SchülerInnen und deren Partnern trafen. Als wir alle beisammen waren, machten wir uns per Bahn auf den Weg nach Liverpool. Die Fahrt kam mir ziemlich lang vor, immerhin waren wir ca. 25 Minuten unterwegs.
In Liverpool angekommen, gingen wir in ein paar Geschäfte, manche kauften ein paar Sachen. Das Wetter war an diesem Tag auch ziemlich miserabel, denn es regnete nur. Wir machten uns nun auf den Weg zu Johnny D., der eine Party veranstaltete. Als wir nach langem Hin und Her im richtigen Bus zu Johnny saßen, machten wir uns teils Gedanken, wie es Jeremy ging, teils, ob der Regen mal nachließe. Vor uns lagen 30 Minuten Fußmarsch durch die nasse kalte Gegend. Bei Johnny angekommen, gab es erst einmal für alle etwas zu essen. Nach dem leckerem Essen machten wir noch witzige Spiele, die alle amüsant fanden und die von Johnnys Eltern erklärt und vorgeschlagen wurden. Als wir fertig waren mit den Spielen, ging ich mit Jeremy und seiner Mutter nach Hause, wo ich dann auch gleich ins Bett ging, um mich für den nächsten tollen Tag in England stark zu machen.
Von Liane Matijas, Klasse 10 F
Saturday, 4th October
Saturday was the day we spent with our host families. Everybody did something different. I lived with Georgina Martin in West Kirby.
We got up at 8 o'clock in the morning, then had breakfast. Afterwards we went to the hockeyfield of Birkenhead School, where Georgina had a match against the boys team. But they lost 2:1 ...! At the same time was the boys' rugby match. It was very aggressive - one of the players broke his nose!! But they won the match. After that Georgina's mum took us to th "Art Gallery", an art museum, where Georgina had an art lesson. The teacher was really nice and it was interesting, because there was an exhibition for a young artist, who died at 23. Two hours later Georgina's mum picked us up and took us to the station in Birkenhead. We went to Liverpool by underground with Georgina's friend Jenny. She had been at art, too. In Liverpool we went to some shops together with Jenny and her friends. Then, after about 30 minutes, we met Caro, Mike, Tom, Jake, Franzi, Luki and Elliot in another shop. We went to some more shops and at last to "PRIMARK'S", where we stayed for about two hours. But then the boys wanted to go and we did. We walked along the street to a coffeeshop where Georgina and I took a hot chocolate and met Ben, her brother. Together we went home by underground again. We left the train at West Kirby and Georgina's mum picked us up and drove us home.
Half an hour later we had to go to Ina, a friend of Georgina's mum. We went there for dinner. She lives in a very nice house. We had Schnitzel with potatoes and salad. It was very good!! After the meal Georgina and I watched TV. Ina is German, therefore we could watch the German TV programme. But my partner didn't understand very much. We went home soon, because the next day we had to get up very early. It was a nice day and I enjoyed it.
Lisa Michel, 9c
Sunday, October 5th: Alton Towers
On our last day , the whole group went to Alton Towers, a roller coaster park.We had to get up early, because we had to drive about 2 hours with the bus. We were all really excited.
When we arrived we split up into groups. In our group were Caro, Sophie, Catha, Tessi, Franzi, Lisa, Marie, Ewan and Ed.
First, we wanted to ride on "Rita", the fastest roller coaster in the park. It goes from 0 km/h to 100 km/h in 3 sec., but unfortunately it had a technical fault and we couldn't go on it.
So we went on "Air", which was the coolest roller coaster: when we saw it we all were scared, because it looked really heavy, but it was really funny and we wanted to ride on it again and again. We went on other roller coasters, too, and then had something in "Pizza Hut". Afterwards we went on a rafting parcour and bought presents.
Then we went on a roller coaster called "Oblivion", which was the scariest one. Caro, Franzi and Ewan didn't go on it and while Catha, Sophie, Lisa, Marie, Tessi and Ed were on "Oblivion", Caro, Franzi and Ewan rode on "Circle", which was funny, too.
After that we met at the entrance and went home. We all were very sad and tired, but it was a really cool day.
In the evening everyone had to pack and spent their last evening with their families, because we had to fly home the next day…
More pictures of our time in England You'll find here!!!
Diary of our visit in Birkenhead
On Sunday, 28 September, we met at 5.00 pm at Stuttgart airport. The whole group was excited and curious to meet their English partners. Our flight was due at 7:00 pm, but was delayed for about 20 minutes.
At our arrival at Manchester airport everybody was welcomed by their host families and went home with them. My exchange partner was Edward Small, one of the older pupils taking part in the exchange. My house was a typical English black and white one with a perfectly cut lawn in the front garden. It wasn't very big, but had enough room for everyone. I got my own room. Then we had dinner. As it was my host-mother's birthday, we had a huge chocolate cake after the meal. At about 11:30 mp, British time, I went to bed.
The next morning I had to get up at 7:30 am, we went to school at 8:15. Our exchange partners had to attend their lessons, but we got a tour around the campus by a prefect and afterwards did a technology challenge. We received goodie-bags, too, including some brochures and a dvd about the school.
In the afternoon we did climbing at the climbing wall in the sports hall of the school.
Afterwards we went home. Together with Edward I went to Nick Ramsbottom's house. He was my exchange partner two years ago. His mother didn't recognize me first, but then was very happy to see me again. We watched a movie and went home again.
The next day, Tuesday, we went on a trip to Chester with Mrs Hardy, a former teacher at Birkenhead School. There we had a tour around the town and went shopping. We came back to school in the afternoon and met our partners to go home. Ed had to do a lot of homework, so I was in my room reading a book. At 6 pm we met at Johnny Daly's house with some other people from the exchange and went out for bowling and having dinner at McDonald's.
On Wednesday morning we went to the Blue Planet Aquarium. We had a look around and watched some divers feeding rays. The most interesting animals were the sharks. At 1 o'clock we headed back to school, where we had three lessons together with our partners. Because it was Jeremy William's birthday, we went to his house and had a little party.
Thursday was kind of a boys' day, because we went to the stadium of Liverpool FC. There we had a guided tour around the stadium, especially the changing rooms of the players. The shirts of the different players hang at the places where they usually get dressed and we could take picture of them. We also went to the fan shop. Near the stadium we found a sign saying "Willkommen Fußball-Ventilatoren der Welt", which is a terrible translation of "football fans".
At 3:50 we were back at school to meet our partners again. Edward and I were picked up by his mother. After having a small dinner we went to Nick's house again to meet some people and watch a movie.
On Friday, despite the bad weather, we went to Liverpool by ferry. There we visited the Beatles mueseum in the Albert Docks and had some time to look around the shops. We were impressed by all the new shops in the new "Liverpool 1" mall. We also went to both cathedrals that couldn't be more different. The evening programme was to go to Liverpool again with Ed and his parents to have dinner and watch the "Queen Elisabeth 2" leave the harbour for the last time.
On Saturday we had a lie-in. At about 11:30 we had breakfast, then went to Liverpool again to meet some friends of Ed's and Edward Gibbs with Anna, one of the Germans. Until 5 o'clock we did some shopping and then took the train home. We spent the evening at Johnny's house, having dinner.
Sunday morning was very rainy and cold, we had to leave the house at 7:15 am, because the whole group was going to Alton Towers, a fun park with great roller coasters. We spent the whole day there and it was really worth getting up this early. It was really the best day of the whole exchange! When we came back to the school Edward had to go to a choir rehearsal. At 6:30 I went to the service in school chapel to listen to the choir. We spent the rest of the evening at home, having dinner and watching a movie.
On Monday morning I had to get up at 5 o'clock, because we had to be at school at 5:30 to go by coach to Manchester airport. We said good-bye to our host families. Our plane was due at 8:30, but we had to wait for about 30 minutes. We arrived in Stuttgart at 12:10 with 40 minutes delay. Our families were already waiting for us to take us home.
All in all, it was a very nice stay in England and I think everybody enjoyed it.
Nora Klinger, 12