Intensivsprachwoche in England, 12. – 21. Mai 2019

The language school

I was in England for a week and my classmates and I went to a language school there. It was called LTC, that means Language Teaching Centre. The LTC is a very old mansion in the middle of a huge park with trees, bushes and sports grounds. Our classroom wasn’t in the main building, it was an old stable, which was restored and renovated with big glass windows. As we arrived there on Sunday evening, a very friendly teacher welcomed us. She wasn’t hard to understand her, because she spoke really clearly and slowly. She told us everything we needed to know, for example the most important thing, to be very polite. Our teachers‘ names were Tony and Mark and both of them were quite funny and entertaining. Every day we had four lessons. School started at 9 and ended at 12.20. Mark taught us a lot about Britain and the British. Sometimes we sang songs with him and even wrote them ourselves. It was really nice and I would rather attend this school than a school in Austria.

Timo Zwicklhuber, Tanja Grill, beide 5A

Eastbourne, a cosy town by the sea and the coastline

Eastbourne is a seaside resort on the south coast of England, which is called East Sussex. The town has a population of 100.000 inhabitants. There is a beautiful pier, a seaside promenade with hotels and many streets with houses, that all look the same. All the houses are made of redbrick and have a small front garden. There are high chalk cliffs, called Beachy Head, with a height of 162 metres. We visited Beachy Head on our fifth day and honestly it was a bit cold there, but the trip was worth it.  Next to the cliffs there was a 44-metere-high lighthouse, which looked very small next to the high chalk cliffs. The people who live in Eastbourne are very friendly and polite.

Magdalena Huemer, Max Ramerstorfer, beide 5A

British politeness

Being polite is very important, because the English are friendly and they always say “please“ and “thank you“ and everyone does this. It doesn’t matter if he or she is the boss of a company or a taxi driver. And the English really don’t like you if you don’t do this. Also, queueing is very important. If you go to the front of a queue, people around you will get angry and they will say something against you. I think the English are a bit too polite.

Marco Simonitsch, 5A

The food in England

Everyone says that the food in England isn’t good, but that isn’t true. During our stay at the host family we always had cereals for breakfast. The cereals were very different from ours in Austria, but I liked them. A typical English breakfast is ham and eggs with baked beans and sausages. I’m glad we did not get that. Another typical English dish is fish and chips. We had that once at the LTC, it is a piece of breaded fish with chips and mushy peas. For dinner we mostly got rice. All in all, I liked the food in England.

Elisa Astner, 5A

Impressions of London

On Saturday we left Eastbourne and it took us 3 hours to reach our hotel in London the “Hyde Park Inn”. After our arrival, we left our luggage in the “storage room“ and then went to Leicester Square via underground. There we had a break, in which we had lunch and had the opportunity to go shopping in one of the most exciting areas in London. Our next destinations were the famous Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery, where we especially wanted to see one particular painting by William Turner. We then walked through the city to get to know one of the most visited places in London, the Buckingham Palace, where the Queen of Great Britain lives. Afterwards, we had some time to relax in the beautiful St. James‘s Park and went to the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. Our ride with the impressive London Eye was the highlight of the day. We then took the underground again to reach Covent Garden, a very lively area full of street artists. It was an exciting and interesting day, but also quite exhausting.

On Sunday we took the underground to travel to St. Paul’s Cathedral, which is in the financial district of London, a very clean and calm area. Our next destination was the Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. We had a guided tour with an actor, who regularly acts in Shakespeare’s plays. After the tour we walked to the Tower of London. During our walk we saw London Bridge and Tower Bridge. At the Tower we visited the exhibition of the Crown Jewels of most kings of the UK. In the afternoon we went back to the hotel to get changed for “Thriller“, a musical we watched in the Lyric Theatre.

Vincent Reisner, 5B

A long way home

In the morning we got up at 7 o’clock and thought, that this would be a great day and a great ending of our journey. At 8 o’clock we left our hotel and took the underground to the airport and everything went as planned. After the check-in and the security-check we were at the gate and ready to fly. Everyone was excited to see their parents and pets again. But while we were waiting for our flight the weather got worse and our flight was cancelled. Our teachers did a good job and organised us a stay at a 4-star hotel, where we got food at 11 p.m. and where we were able to take a shower and get some sleep. But we didn’t sleep very well that night, because we had to get up at 4:30 a.m., because we had to catch our bus at 5 a.m. Everything seemed perfect, but as life goes, our flight was delayed and cancelled again, because of a strike at an Italian airport. Finally, the tired and exhausted group got a flight back to Austria, but not to Linz, like we had planned, but to Vienna. At 9 o’clock everyone was at home and our exciting journey ended.

Julian Hübner, 5B