German exchange-Minden - The long Journey to Minden.

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German exchange-Minden

The long Journey to Minden

Der Lange Reise nach Minden

We set off from Nonsuch at 8 in the morning, after various passport checks by Mr Sides and number checks by the teachers who never seemed to get the right number! It was a long coach trip of people chatting amongst themselves, and this leg of the trip was mainly filled up with people only talking to those others that they knew. Finally, we arrived at Dover. After a short wait, we were allowed to board the ferry, and everyone rushed onto deck.

The ferry was wonderful! The shop sold everything from CD’s to clothes, from cameras to perfume! We all spent a short while exploring the ship, and then the boys found a café to eat in, and the girls all tried to find somewhere to sit and rest! By the end of the ferry trip, the boys had joined the girls in the lounge area, and everyone had started the difficult task of learning and remembering names!

The ferry arrived at Calais, and everyone piled back onto the coach and started to swap seats so they could talk to their new-found friends. There was then an extremely long journey through France, and our first pit-stop was in Belgium, where everyone rushed inside to use the toilets. After this 20 minute break, we all loaded back onto the coach and carried on our long journey.

We then had another long drive before we had to stop to change drivers in the Netherlands. This held us up a little at the time, but we had no idea how it would effect the later part of our journey!

When the coach finally started moving again, more seat swapping took place, and the boys started to read the girl magazines and visa-versa! We all asked for a film and the teachers put on Pearl Harbour, much to many of the boys’ disgust.

The film was watched for a short while, but then everyone went back to talking over it. We then managed to persuade Mr Sides to put Shrek on after Pearl Harbour had finished, and most of the passengers on the coach enjoyed it.

The subject on the coach suddenly turned to “who cries in films?” and we found out that Amy cries in all sad/romantic films and that Ye-Soon even cried in Scary Movie!

After Shrek there was a short pause before Mr Sides and Mr Owen decided to put on a film called “The Rules Of Engagement” which about two people watched while everyone else slept or talked quietly over it.

We stopped at Burger King for a short while where Jack, Harry, Michael, David and Tom started a “point’s game” which no one seemed to understand! We finally carried on our journey, only to get stuck in a traffic jam and to come to a complete standstill!

At 8:30, which was when we had hoped to arrive in Minden, we were still in the traffic jam only a few metres away from Burger King, and it became obvious that we would be arriving very late. Time then flew by and all of a sudden the film had finished and we were out of the traffic jam and we entered the outskirts of Minden.

We finally arrived outside the school at 11:30, said goodbye to our English friends and met up with our German families.

Luckily, my German family lived just down the road, so we had a 5minute walk to the house. They live on the bottom floor of a flat. Corinna, my exchange partner, showed me around the rooms and explained how to use things such as the shower (while managing to soak the whole room!) and the many different types of light switches. We then all sat down and I gave them their presents and we discussed what was going to happen over the weekend and the weekly plan. They had printed off a list of the things the school had organised for us to do, and this had been left, with a present and many chocolates, on my bed.

Corinna and I stayed up talking until 1:30 the next morning, when we finally decided to go to bed!

Saturday – the first day!

Samstag – Der Ersten Tag!

On Saturday morning I woke up at about 8 o’clock and tried to read a bit of a German novel. It was surprising that I could actually read it and understand it as if it had been in English! Felicia – Corinna’s sister – came in and told me that breakfast was on the table. I went into the kitchen and had a big surprise. On the table was a basket full of bread, many types of meat, honey, many types of marmalade, three types of cheese and many more things.

I sat down and we all started to eat. I do not normally eat breakfast, so I only ate one roll with a slice of cheese on it before I was full, but the German family ate four rolls full of meat each and then proceeded to get out yogurts and eat them as well! I was amazed at how they could eat so much and yet stay so thin.

After breakfast we all got dressed and walked over to Dr Martin Kamp’s practice where he had been working all morning. We then all piled into the car and drove to a town called Bűckeburg. We visited the castle there with Emma Cruickshank and her German partner Stephie, and then went out to lunch. After lunch we drove back home again, and on the way stopped off at the Kaiser Wilhelm monument on top of a very high hill, where we saw Sabrina.

When we finally arrived home, everyone got changed and we went out to the “GOP Variety show”. We arrived back at Corinna’s house at 10:30 after this, and ate yet another meal, before watching a little German TV and then going to bed.

Sunday – the Second Day

Sonntag – Der Seconden Tag.

On Sunday morning we did not wake up until 10, when we ate breakfast and then got dressed for the day ahead. We all piled into the car at 12 o’clock and arrived at the swimming pool, where we met up with Jack and Emma and their German exchange partners.

We then swam all day and finally left the swimming pool at 6o’clock. Corinna’s family and I then went to an Italian restaurant which was very posh, and we had a buffet dinner. I do not think I have ever seen anyone eat so much! It was an “eat as much as you like” buffet, and everyone certainly tucked in!

The food on the buffet was not really what the English would call Italian, as they had lamb, chicken, chips, many different fish dishes and plenty of other types of delicious delicacies. The desert table was just as amazing, and had ten different deserts on it!

When we finally left the restaurant it was already 10 o’clock, so we went straight home. When we arrived back at the Kamp’s house, we watched a little German TV, a program called “Deutschland sucht den Supastar!” which is the German version of “pop-idol”.

After the TV program had finished, I spent a little time talking to Felicia, Corinna’s younger sister, and she showed me her photo albums of the parts of Germany she had been to that we were not going to see on the trip.

Eventually, at about midnight, we decided to go to bed, as they had school the next day and we were going to have a long day with them.

Monday – our day at the school

Montag – unserer Tag auf dem Schule

We woke up at 6:30 and got dressed quickly. We then sat down for the usual breakfast and had to rush out of the house as Corinna had to do things on the way to school.

We arrived at the school just as the first bell went, and proceeded to the hall. There the head master gave a welcome speech for the first period. After that we went with our exchange partners to their first lessons.

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My partner had a P.E lesson, in which they played hand ball. After this we all went to break for 30mins. We then had to go upstairs for an English lesson, in which we had a debate about the war in Iraq. After the long English lesson, all of the English students walked in to the town centre and had an hour to shop. We then went into the town hall and had a talk from the mayor.

After the talk we were free to shop again for just over an hour. We managed to find a ...

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