Broadstairs, une semaine en anglais

You certainly know it: last week more or less eighty students from third year in immersion went on a trip to Broadstairs (in England) with 6 teachers from the school. So, if you had some free hours during that week, you can thank the school and the teachers who organised this. You’ll not be the only or the first ones because the trip was really cool. Hein, quoi ? J’écris en Anglais ? Ah, oui ! En fait je suis trop habituée à parler anglais. Bon, ok, j’ai peut-être parlé en français à mes amies, mais seulement 4-5…40-50 fois. Oui, bon, je ne suis pas encore au top. Excuse my English!

Sunday, twelve o’clock. We’re all at school, everybody is a bit excited. Remember: our last trip was the “classes d’amitié”, two years ago. The buses finally start, and the parents wave. But the students don’t care: the trip has begun! After about three hours of bus, one of waiting, one hour and a half of boat and more than a half hour of bus, we are in Broadstairs and it’s 7 pm (which is 8 in Belgium). It’s time to meet our families. Mine is very friendly!  There are two girls with us. They’re from Italy. We speak a bit (in English of course), we eat, and we go to bed.

Monday: We walk to the school and speak with the other students “How is your family? Do you have a big room? Are there any pets?” etc. Then we have course, so we check our level in the list (it goes from 1 to 8, with a level 9 for the Italians) and are looking for the different classrooms. Everybody learns almost the same things, but in different ways and using different levels of vocabulary. After lunch, we must go out for a quiz. But it’s cold. Really cold. We receive two sheets of paper and eighty minutes to do it. We need to walk, to look for signs with information, to ask people. But the most difficult is to keep the sheets with that wind, to write with that cold. Backat school, we watch a video with the rules of the centre, and we can go back home. There we eat and relax before the evening activities. Group A does drama, and B street dance. I was in group B. I’m not sure if everybody loved it, but I did! Now I’m bushed, night-night, and see you tomorrow. (dedication to Mr Bento)

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Tuesday: We had class during the morning and a visit to Canterbury in the afternoon. The visit happened in groups, with guides. After the visit we had an hour and a half of free time. The common activities were shopping and walking, without forgetting to eat and to take pictures! One of my best memories happened there, in a café named Creams. If you pass there, better do it on a Tuesday because you have one waffle for free for one bought ! You need to know that the waffles are huge and delicious (type “Creams café” on the internet). The evening activity was drama for us, street dance for the other group. We played “pan”, “thin, big, twist” and funny mimicry games.

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Wednesday was the trip to London. A breakfast, two hours of train and the visit can begin. We see a lot of famous and beautiful things, we take a lot of pictures (another dedication to Mr Bento). But the moment that everybody is waiting for is free time. And we are not disappointed: we have 4 free hours! We stay near Piccadilly Circus, the meeting place. M&M’s store, Kingdom of Sweets, Regent street, fast foods, souvenir shops, …All the bags (and stomachs) are full after the visit. We arrived at the family houses around 9 pm with only one idea: sleeping.

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Thursday was a whole day of class. Normal class in the morning, outside class during the afternoon. We needed to collect data by asking some questions to people in the street (all the groups had different questions). Back in class we analysed them, and we had to make a presentation of the results to the class. The activity was disco…and too short if you listen to the students. Nearly everybody danced. We were all together, with the two Italian schools too. The best memory for a lot of people, and maybe the worst for some others.

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Friday. We have different classes during the morning because the Italians are in London. We try to enjoy this last day by laughing together during the course. But it passes quickly, and it’s already time to take the bus. It’s raining and windy, we’re not feeling very well, and we now need to take the boat. On the deck, the wind is extraordinary! Last step: we take the buses and we watch a film, we try to sleep or to play with the others for the last time of the trip ); . At school we take our luggage and say goodbye. We are looking for our family, and the trip ends. The English also. Il ne nous reste plus qu’à raconter, à rattraper nos heures de sommeil, et à nous remettre au travail le lendemain, des souvenirs plein la bouche et de l’anglais plein la tête.

Anaïs Larue