Our trip to Eastbourne

29.01. – 03.02.2012

 

This year again, eighty four students from our school spent five days in the UK. Many of us had never been to England before, which made the trip even more exciting.

We left Dudenhofen on a Sunday morning and arrived at the Congress Hotel in Eastbourne around six p.m. local time. The rest of the evening we unpacked in our rooms and enjoyed dinner at the hotel.

 

All of Monday could be used for a quest through Eastbourne exploring the town with its beautiful seaside and small shops. For the quest, we had to do different tasks, for example finding certain places, asking people about their holidays, searching for the post office and finding out the meaning of typical British words (e.g. Marmite, see „Live ticker“) and things. We were surprised how cooperative and  kind the people reacted and how they made us feel at home in Eastbourne. The results of our quests were handed in to our teachers.

This day gave us a first, very positive impresssion of the town and its inhabitants.

Day three was the project day. There were many different groups, most of us looking forward to an exciting project: Buying books in  English bookstores, interviewing people about three issues (binge drinking, the image of the germans and young Britons and their free time activities), visiting Sussex Downs College and Sussex University Brighton of Eastbourne. Some of us even hat the privilege to meet the Deputy Mayour at the town hall. He told us many fascinating historical facts about the town and current issues. Ohters hat interesting talks at a retirement home with the World-War-II Generation.

 

Wednesday with gorgeous sunshine took us along the coast for cultural studies and guided tours. One group had a guided tour through seven sisters country park with a lady from a wildlife trust. Another group walked from the hotel to Beachy Head (the famous „suicide location“ of Great Britain). The third group got an insight into the eventful history of the arts at Berwick curch, another one had a history-lesson in the sleepy beautiful village of Alfriston. After the trips, we had the opptortunity have lunch at an original English pub, Ye Olde Smugglers Inne, or had tea at the quaint tearooms.

At the end of the day, we all were deeply impressed of everything Eastbourne’s countryside has to offer.

 

Thursday, day five, (we could’nt believe this was already our last day in England) we were excited about visiting famous seaside town of Brighton. Besides lots of shops (yes, there was another Primark…) Brighton also has an old-fashioned pier with some sort of „London eye“ and of course the famous Brighton pavillion.

That evening the winners of the quest got their prizes, we had a Union-Jack evening and our teachers came up with the great idea of playing a live version of Cluedo at the hotel using locations in and around Eastbourne.

 

Friday morning England seemed to have her own way of waving us good bye, by letting us enjoy a fantastic sunrise at the seaside. In my case, I didn’t feel like going home at all, and finally everyione felt certain about one thing – our days in Eastbourne had passed to soon.

 

Thanks for the good organisation Mrs. Neumann and Mr. Springer! They were assisted by Mr. Bach (with some „dry“ humour) and a very enthusiastic Mr. Neudörfer (keen on Cluedo, his English is excellent, by the way) plus the senior students Linda, Lioba, Lisa and Monique (thanks for bringing your guitars, Linda and Lisa) and the kind bus drivers who had to stay very „cool'“ in the super traffic jam at Brussels.

by Laura Dürrschmidt

Tut Neudörfer