Our time in Cambridge
7B, 3/10/2012 - 10/10/2012

Wednesday, October 3^rd:
After enduring the long-lasting flight and following travel by bus we eventually arrived in Cambridge. There we got to know our host families by exchanging information and asking general questions about our bus connection as well as what to see and do in the city. However, we spent most of our time either at school or on doing activities with our teachers the rest of the week.

Thursday, October 4^th:
Although we had lots of difficulties to find each other in the city centre in the morning, we finally gathered around in front of a shopping mall called Grand Arcade. On the walk to our school, situated closely to the famous Round Church, we were guided through the centre, so that we did not have to do so many enquiries of where to go any more. The famous colleges there look like small castles! During the lessons we were introduced to the teacher at first, and were divided into two groups: The one developed a part of the questionnaires in the classroom, the other had to do fieldwork, which means doing research in the library, going around and interviewing people.
After a short break where we ate lunch, the groups changed. In the evening, we went to the leisure centre to play snookers and bowling, which turned out to be very exciting and we had fun .

Friday, October 5^th:
On Friday, we finished defining the questions for our survey, before we started to write the text for our speech – therefore we got an idea of how to structure our presentations planned on Tuesday. Furthermore, we went to the library to continue working on the text and even managed to interview the first people.
In the evening, we watched a relatively new film called “Taken 2“ in the cinema, which was about a man who was chased and persecuted by a network of killers wanting revenge, but had a happy ending. It was both exciting and thrilling as well as quite easy to understand.

Saturday, October 6^th:
Because we did not have to go to school, we went on a trip to London. Our first destination was a little market, but we did not consider it interesting. Later, we got the permission to walk along Oxford Street, the most famous shopping street of Britain, where we bought some clothes and tasted traditional fish and chips.
Next, we met each other to visit some of the most popular sights in London, including Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and Trafalgar Square. Thus, we used the occasion to take some photos of these amazing buildings. But the walk through the city made our feet hurt so much that we decided to stop for a little break in the Hyde Park before we eventually returned to Cambridge.

Sunday, October 7^th:
To spend our freetime sensibly, we intended to travel to London again. There we discovered all features of multi-cultural Britain by visiting another – to most of us more interesting – market where several kinds of ethnic food and clothes were offered; and we went through London´s most problematic quarter Brick Lane, where there is the highest percentage of immigrants and ethnic minorities of the United Kingdom, too.
In the afternoon we continued and finished our sightseeing tour, walking from the Tower of London to Tate Modern, a museum of contemporary arts. On our way, we also crossed the river Thames on the worldwide known Tower Bridge. At the end of the trip, we were given the consent to get on the London Eye if we wanted to. Some of us did and hence could enjoy a great view over the whole megacity.
Back in Cambridge, it was too late to stay up and do any other activities at the weekend.

Monday, October 8^th:
On Monday, we had to get accustomed to our usual daily routine in Cambridge again. However, due to some reasons we have not been informed about we moved to another college being much bigger than our school . As far as our lessons were concerned, we got the opportunity to finish and polish up the text for our speech and started to design our posters. Moreover, we achieved to communicate with more people and printed out some images for our wallpapers.
As soon as school had been over, we waited for each other at – the really gigantic – King´s College to participate in a service in the nearby chapel. Then we walked over to the leisure centre to eat dinner and play games.

Tuesday, October 9^th:
At our old school we returned to we were granted some time to prepare for our presentations and get ready. After that, groups of two or three students presented all the work and effort they had put into the last days. All in all, everyone succeeded in fulfilling the expectations and requirements of our teacher because we received a certificate as reward for both our attendance and achievements.
Around midday, we tried punting, which is steering a boat via a long stick and often associated with Venice, on a small river. Then, we used our freetime to buy presents for our real and host families.
In the evening, we visited the theatre of Cambridge where we watched “Macbeth“ by Shakespeare, but because of the complexity of the old English language and the high speed the actors spoke the play turned out to be extremely difficult to understand.

Wednesday, October 10^th:
On our last day in Cambridge nothing spectacular happened. We said goodbye to our host families and met in front of the train station. Fortunately, we could catch the plane and arrive in Austria on time, but we travelled so long that we were given two free lessons the next day to have enough sleep.
Despite a few complaints about bad access to public transport or bad food we agreed that we enjoyed our time in Britain and made lots of unique experiences.

This report was written by Daniel, 7B