We started our school exchange trip to Manchester on Thursday the 19th Sep. 2019.
We, a group of 20 KFG pupils accompanied by Mrs Düring and Mr Wenig, met at Frankfurt Airport in the morning. We were all very excited as we were looking forward to meet our exchange students and their families but did not know what really to expect. The flight took us directly to Manchester Airport. After our luggage had been picked up by Mr Wyton from our partner school, we took the train to Manchester Piccadilly and got a guided tour through the city centre. After that a bus took us to Rawtenstall where we met our host families for the first time. Everyone went home with their families and spent the rest of the evening with them.
The second day all of us made a day trip to York with our exchange students. York is a beautiful old city. We did some sightseeing and visited the interesting Castle Museum. In the evening we returned back home to our exchange families.
At the weekend, everyone was with their families and took some trips to sport games, shopping and cities like Liverpool and much more.
The last three days of our stay we accompanied our exchange students to their school BRGS, which means Bacup and Rawtenstall grammar School. On Monday afternoon two local teachers gave us a hike in the hills around the school, which was quite fun. From the top hill we had a great view over Waterford, the town where the school is located, and the scenic landscape.
The school there has some similarities to ours, but it is also very different regarding some aspects like school uniforms. We were really impressed by their P.E. lessons (sports) because all students of the whole year were taught together at one time. It was quite fun watching the lessons and sometimes we worked with them together in class, especially in the German lessons where we could support them.
After a week, on Thursday we had to say goodbye to our exchange students and friendly guest families because the time for our departure had come. So, we took the bus back to Manchester airport and flew back.
In conclusion is was a great trip as we experienced the everyday life of someone of your age in another country, we could improve our English in a fun way and we discovered interesting places in Northern England.
Jarno Kibies, Ben Roese