Weitere Exkursionen
The Choir in Wales: 10/05/08 -10/11/08
10/05/08: Day of departure to Wales
The last two days when I packed my bags, I didn't feel as excited and happy as I did at this moment before leaving Mannheim.
I was very curious about what my exchange family will be like and couldn’t help but wonder, what the next few days have in store for us. My family drove me to the bus terminal at 9 o'clock at night, where a few of my friends were already anxiously awaiting our teachers Mrs. Diehl and Mrs. Weidmann and the bus. The bus left Mannheim at 10 pm and the trip to Swansea began. From the very start you could already see that we were a choir because everybody tuned into the songs that Melanie and David began to sing.
10/06/08:
Everybody sang, hardly anybody slept. We crossed another two countries, Belgium and France, until we arrived at the tunnel.Our bus was then checked and we all had to pass through immigration. After another 5 minutes we continued our drive to the English Chanel where our bus was driven into a larger wagon with other vehicles.
Some of us got out while we accompanied David who started playing some songs on his guitar.
After 35 minutes in the tunnel we finally surfaced back on land and entered the left-hand traffic. Eventhough I only slept for two hours, the party continued. We sang some more songs, but altered them in a highly amusing way that you could hardly recognize the original song. Near London we got stuck in traffic because of the rush hour.
We passed the Windsor Castle, and everybody started to fidget around because after 12 hours of driving nobody could sit still anymore. We crossed the Severn Bridge to get to Wales and started to count the miles about 80 miles before Swansea. At a junction in Swansea ( Abertawe in Welsh), Dawida picked us up to show us the way.
Shortly before our arrival the first accident occured. Our bus driver Ute couldn't properly calculate the hight of the bridge and then the cooling system from our bus was launched off the roof. Smoke appeared and the younger ones started to panic, but calmed down again quickly. It was raining the whole time. We arrived at the school, where we were all led to the music hall and met our exchange families for the first time.
Sarah and my family was not yet there when we arrived, we were only told that they were members of stuff .So we decided to join two girls and went into class with them, but we were then asked to leave and go to the computer room, because we could not follow the Welsh lesson anyways. So we wrote our first E-mails to our families. 2 hours after our arrival, Mrs. Collwell, our exchange mother, picked us up. After arriving "at home" , we ate something, got to know our whole “family”, showered and went back to school again because of the reception, where we sang 2 songs. Everybody talked about their first experiences with their families.
At 9.30 pm Mrs. Collwell picked us up again and after 25 minutes of driving to Pontadauwyr, we fell asleep exhausted.
10/07/08:
We got up 7.30 and the first thing I saw was..... raaain. We had breakfast with the family and were driven to school. We arrived almost 20 minutes too late. We had our first choir rehearsal in the music hall. Our bus arrived 10 minutes too late. We drove to Cardiff to the Queen's Mall where we got to go shopping for two hours. We met back up at the Hilton Hotel and awaited our bus driver, who came 30 mintues too late.
We drove to an open-air museum, where a some houses were shown in their contemporary state.
On site we had one hour of free time, in which we went to a Café and drank some hot chocolate. Sarah and I went to the souvenir shop and made our own coins there . We got back to our bus to get to the service.
Our exchange mother wasn't there, so we had to wait with Dawida, Mrs. Diehl and Mrs. Weidmann. After waiting for one hour Berian, Dawida’s son and the Welsh choirleader, brought us home. At home we had dinner with the whole family, talked a lot and were happy. In the evening we showed the family some videos of Mannheim, that I made myself.
We went to bed at 11 pm.
10/08/08:
We got up at 7.30 again, sunshine. Once again we arrived 4 songs too late, but Mrs. Diehl didnt get mad at us. We got into the bus and drove to Rhossili to the ocean. It was just low tied there, so we climbed on the rocks that would regularily have been under water.
The boys scared the goats, which were there.
We drove back to Swansea to the major. During the drive Arne talked about his first day in Swansea, he was offended in the schoolbus.
The boy who offended him had to write him an apology letter. His name was Ashley Jones.
At the town hall we got to drink some coffee with the major and ate some cookies. We got some crests which we immediately pinned to our shirts.
After that, we walked into a big hall, where some giant tableaus hang, which were once bound for the Houses of Parliament.
David Buhl asked the major how much pipes the organ had and the major asked him if he played organ or piano,and so David had to play a song on the piano.He played very well. After that, the major wanted us to write in the guestbook of Swansea after he showed us the guestbook of very important people, like the Queen, Diana, Charles and Mother Theresa.On the way back to home, we made a stop in Mumbles, which is a little beautiful city by the sea. There was also low tied , and so Sarah and I climbed on the rocks. We found a little grot with two girls from the sixth class, Lea and Sarah.
On the trip to Swansea , Tanja wrote Arne an apology letter, because she wanted to “kill” him with her ballpen.
We made a joke out of Ashley Jones’ apology letter, which was so written in so bad English.
Mrs Diehl told us through the microphone, that we will meet us at 8.45 in the morning, Mrs. Weidmann and Mrs Diehl will come like every morning at 9 o’ clock and Sarah and Adrienne, she didn’t know, when we’ll come, but we’ll come.
At 5 o ‘ clock in the afternoon, we got back to the service , where our host- father waited for us. At home arrived, we watched “FRIENDS” on TV, had lunch and heard lots of very funny stories of the family ,like the summer holidays of them where the son wanted to make horsebackriding.
Then we helped Kate with her German homework and talked to her. She wanted to know how we sense to the German history. At 11 o’clock in the evening we went to bed.
10/09/08:
We woke up at 7.30 in the morning, and had breakfast with the whole family. We came too late to the rehearsal, but this time only 3 songs too late J
We drove all together to Swansea and went to the Swansea museum. After a little sightseeing, we went to the city where Sarah and I bought a few souvenirs for our families at home. After that, we met Mrs. Weidmann and Mrs. Diehl at the Church of Swansea. We drove to our school ,where we had a little rehearsal for the big concert , which we had in the evening. We convened us in the Assembly Hall and sang a few songs, also one, we haven’t practised before. That was our addition for the concert. Our host-mother fetched us and drove us home,where we began to pack our bags. We made a few pictures of our family and their pets, had dinner and went to Waunarlwydd, where our concert took place. After a great performance of the three choirs ,including our choir, we went to the Rugby Club. The Welshmen organized a big buffet. We had a lot of fun there . Mrs. Weidmann thanked our host-families for the great effort and for the awesome gathering of 2 or more pupils in their families. And also Lisa, from the 11th class, thanked all our families , Berian, Dawida and of course our two teachers. Then our host-mother fetched us, and we went back home where we went to bed directly.
10/10/08:
Our homeward journey began. We went downstairs with all our bags and ate something.
Nick, Della, Kate and Rob awaited us in the garden, where we made a few pictures of the family.
After that, Della drove us to our school, where nearly everybody awaited us.
We said goodbye to Della and went to our bus, where a lot of the host-brothers and sisters cried. We sang all together the national anthem of Wales “Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau” , which means “Land of my fathers” and entered the bus.
Then we drove away and left Wales nearly 2 hours later.
And then the party started.
After 2 hours we arrived in London, where we left the bus in front of the Buckingham Palace. Then the sightseeing tour started. At first, Melanie, Stefanie, Tanja, Sarah, Claudia and me made a picture in front of the Buckingham Palace. We passed through a park to get to the Hard Rock Café, where we bought presents for our friends and parents.
The places ,we went to, were the Parliament, Westminster Abbey, London Eye and then we went to Mc Donald’s. After a while, the boys, David Buhl, David Günther, Arne Becker and Jonas Janik, have called us, because they had to buy our presents for Mrs. Diehl, Mrs. Weidmann and for Ute, our busdriver.
So we went straightly to Picadilly Circus, where the boys awaited us.
All together we went to the biggest toys store on earth,where we wanted to buy something for Mrs. Diehl. There we decided, that we wanted to make a collage for her.
After 4 hours, we left London, but got stuck on traffic there.
At 9 o’clock in the evening we arrived at the channel, made a little break and then we got the information, that all waggons were occupied.
So we had to wait more than 2 hours for the next one.
It was cold outside and so we decided to get into the building to drink a hot chocolate.
In the channel we sang a song for our bus driver because she couldn’t attend our concert, she had to sleep . Because David annoyed me the whole time, I expected an apology song, which he had to play in the bus.
On our travel back home, I couldn’t sleep anymore.
Back to Mannheim, our parents and friends awaited us.
I said goodbye .
Those 5 days were extremely interesting for me and a great enrichment.
Cymru am byth!!! (Wales forever)
Adrienne Köhler, 12
10/05/08: Day of departure to Wales
The last two days when I packed my bags, I didn't feel as excited and happy as I did at this moment before leaving Mannheim.
I was very curious about what my exchange family will be like and couldn’t help but wonder, what the next few days have in store for us. My family drove me to the bus terminal at 9 o'clock at night, where a few of my friends were already anxiously awaiting our teachers Mrs. Diehl and Mrs. Weidmann and the bus. The bus left Mannheim at 10 pm and the trip to Swansea began. From the very start you could already see that we were a choir because everybody tuned into the songs that Melanie and David began to sing.
10/06/08:
Everybody sang, hardly anybody slept. We crossed another two countries, Belgium and France, until we arrived at the tunnel.Our bus was then checked and we all had to pass through immigration. After another 5 minutes we continued our drive to the English Chanel where our bus was driven into a larger wagon with other vehicles.
Some of us got out while we accompanied David who started playing some songs on his guitar.
After 35 minutes in the tunnel we finally surfaced back on land and entered the left-hand traffic. Eventhough I only slept for two hours, the party continued. We sang some more songs, but altered them in a highly amusing way that you could hardly recognize the original song. Near London we got stuck in traffic because of the rush hour.
We passed the Windsor Castle, and everybody started to fidget around because after 12 hours of driving nobody could sit still anymore. We crossed the Severn Bridge to get to Wales and started to count the miles about 80 miles before Swansea. At a junction in Swansea ( Abertawe in Welsh), Dawida picked us up to show us the way.
Shortly before our arrival the first accident occured. Our bus driver Ute couldn't properly calculate the hight of the bridge and then the cooling system from our bus was launched off the roof. Smoke appeared and the younger ones started to panic, but calmed down again quickly. It was raining the whole time. We arrived at the school, where we were all led to the music hall and met our exchange families for the first time.
Sarah and my family was not yet there when we arrived, we were only told that they were members of stuff .So we decided to join two girls and went into class with them, but we were then asked to leave and go to the computer room, because we could not follow the Welsh lesson anyways. So we wrote our first E-mails to our families. 2 hours after our arrival, Mrs. Collwell, our exchange mother, picked us up. After arriving "at home" , we ate something, got to know our whole “family”, showered and went back to school again because of the reception, where we sang 2 songs. Everybody talked about their first experiences with their families.
At 9.30 pm Mrs. Collwell picked us up again and after 25 minutes of driving to Pontadauwyr, we fell asleep exhausted.
10/07/08:
We got up 7.30 and the first thing I saw was..... raaain. We had breakfast with the family and were driven to school. We arrived almost 20 minutes too late. We had our first choir rehearsal in the music hall. Our bus arrived 10 minutes too late. We drove to Cardiff to the Queen's Mall where we got to go shopping for two hours. We met back up at the Hilton Hotel and awaited our bus driver, who came 30 mintues too late.
We drove to an open-air museum, where a some houses were shown in their contemporary state.
On site we had one hour of free time, in which we went to a Café and drank some hot chocolate. Sarah and I went to the souvenir shop and made our own coins there . We got back to our bus to get to the service.
Our exchange mother wasn't there, so we had to wait with Dawida, Mrs. Diehl and Mrs. Weidmann. After waiting for one hour Berian, Dawida’s son and the Welsh choirleader, brought us home. At home we had dinner with the whole family, talked a lot and were happy. In the evening we showed the family some videos of Mannheim, that I made myself.
We went to bed at 11 pm.
10/08/08:
We got up at 7.30 again, sunshine. Once again we arrived 4 songs too late, but Mrs. Diehl didnt get mad at us. We got into the bus and drove to Rhossili to the ocean. It was just low tied there, so we climbed on the rocks that would regularily have been under water.
The boys scared the goats, which were there.
We drove back to Swansea to the major. During the drive Arne talked about his first day in Swansea, he was offended in the schoolbus.
The boy who offended him had to write him an apology letter. His name was Ashley Jones.
At the town hall we got to drink some coffee with the major and ate some cookies. We got some crests which we immediately pinned to our shirts.
After that, we walked into a big hall, where some giant tableaus hang, which were once bound for the Houses of Parliament.
David Buhl asked the major how much pipes the organ had and the major asked him if he played organ or piano,and so David had to play a song on the piano.He played very well. After that, the major wanted us to write in the guestbook of Swansea after he showed us the guestbook of very important people, like the Queen, Diana, Charles and Mother Theresa.On the way back to home, we made a stop in Mumbles, which is a little beautiful city by the sea. There was also low tied , and so Sarah and I climbed on the rocks. We found a little grot with two girls from the sixth class, Lea and Sarah.
On the trip to Swansea , Tanja wrote Arne an apology letter, because she wanted to “kill” him with her ballpen.
We made a joke out of Ashley Jones’ apology letter, which was so written in so bad English.
Mrs Diehl told us through the microphone, that we will meet us at 8.45 in the morning, Mrs. Weidmann and Mrs Diehl will come like every morning at 9 o’ clock and Sarah and Adrienne, she didn’t know, when we’ll come, but we’ll come.
At 5 o ‘ clock in the afternoon, we got back to the service , where our host- father waited for us. At home arrived, we watched “FRIENDS” on TV, had lunch and heard lots of very funny stories of the family ,like the summer holidays of them where the son wanted to make horsebackriding.
Then we helped Kate with her German homework and talked to her. She wanted to know how we sense to the German history. At 11 o’clock in the evening we went to bed.
10/09/08:
We woke up at 7.30 in the morning, and had breakfast with the whole family. We came too late to the rehearsal, but this time only 3 songs too late J
We drove all together to Swansea and went to the Swansea museum. After a little sightseeing, we went to the city where Sarah and I bought a few souvenirs for our families at home. After that, we met Mrs. Weidmann and Mrs. Diehl at the Church of Swansea. We drove to our school ,where we had a little rehearsal for the big concert , which we had in the evening. We convened us in the Assembly Hall and sang a few songs, also one, we haven’t practised before. That was our addition for the concert. Our host-mother fetched us and drove us home,where we began to pack our bags. We made a few pictures of our family and their pets, had dinner and went to Waunarlwydd, where our concert took place. After a great performance of the three choirs ,including our choir, we went to the Rugby Club. The Welshmen organized a big buffet. We had a lot of fun there . Mrs. Weidmann thanked our host-families for the great effort and for the awesome gathering of 2 or more pupils in their families. And also Lisa, from the 11th class, thanked all our families , Berian, Dawida and of course our two teachers. Then our host-mother fetched us, and we went back home where we went to bed directly.
10/10/08:
Our homeward journey began. We went downstairs with all our bags and ate something.
Nick, Della, Kate and Rob awaited us in the garden, where we made a few pictures of the family.
After that, Della drove us to our school, where nearly everybody awaited us.
We said goodbye to Della and went to our bus, where a lot of the host-brothers and sisters cried. We sang all together the national anthem of Wales “Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau” , which means “Land of my fathers” and entered the bus.
Then we drove away and left Wales nearly 2 hours later.
And then the party started.
After 2 hours we arrived in London, where we left the bus in front of the Buckingham Palace. Then the sightseeing tour started. At first, Melanie, Stefanie, Tanja, Sarah, Claudia and me made a picture in front of the Buckingham Palace. We passed through a park to get to the Hard Rock Café, where we bought presents for our friends and parents.
The places ,we went to, were the Parliament, Westminster Abbey, London Eye and then we went to Mc Donald’s. After a while, the boys, David Buhl, David Günther, Arne Becker and Jonas Janik, have called us, because they had to buy our presents for Mrs. Diehl, Mrs. Weidmann and for Ute, our busdriver.
So we went straightly to Picadilly Circus, where the boys awaited us.
All together we went to the biggest toys store on earth,where we wanted to buy something for Mrs. Diehl. There we decided, that we wanted to make a collage for her.
After 4 hours, we left London, but got stuck on traffic there.
At 9 o’clock in the evening we arrived at the channel, made a little break and then we got the information, that all waggons were occupied.
So we had to wait more than 2 hours for the next one.
It was cold outside and so we decided to get into the building to drink a hot chocolate.
In the channel we sang a song for our bus driver because she couldn’t attend our concert, she had to sleep . Because David annoyed me the whole time, I expected an apology song, which he had to play in the bus.
On our travel back home, I couldn’t sleep anymore.
Back to Mannheim, our parents and friends awaited us.
I said goodbye .
Those 5 days were extremely interesting for me and a great enrichment.
Cymru am byth!!! (Wales forever)
Adrienne Köhler, 12
