But either way, I figured I could tell you guys about England and Scotland before it escapes my mind completely.
Backdrop of the story: this is an exchange between a boarding school in England and our school in Germany. The 7th graders go to England to improve their English skills and experience the culture. Then, the British kids who host the Germans will come to Germany next year for a similar exchange. I find that this is the cool thing about Europe--you can get to another country in a matter of hours, unlike in the US.
Saturday, March 9th
We arrive at the school at about 1:30 PM. Everyone else has an English host family except me, because I signed up last minute (I technically wasn't even supposed to go on this trip, but the teacher was nice and let me), so I stayed at the boarding school at Longridge Towers. I had dinner, met everyone in the Common Room, and chilled. The lady in charge told me that the next day, I would be going to Cracksite. I heard that as Crackhouse, and was extremely confused. British people and their accents..:P
Sunday, March 10th
The family who was supposed to bring me to Cracksite forgot to pick me up, so I ended up going to the movie theater with the rest of the boarding kids. It was probably for the better, since I really wasn't interested in seeing castles or Victorian houses. We ended up watching Parker, which was, in short, a horrible film. Well, at least I didn't enjoy it, and neither did the rest of the group. It was just one of those films where the main goal is to show off killing effects, and has no sensible plot whatsoever. Sherry and I (another Chinese girl at the boarding school--there were about 6 people from China there) left the film early and decided to go shopping. Let me just say, stuff in England is not cheap. Plus the horrible exchange rate, and you'll be broke in a matter of seconds. We just browsed, and I ended up getting a white vest at New Look for 8 pounds.
Monday, March 11th
In the morning, we were supposed to go to periods 1-4 with the British students, but I ended up getting a tour of the school along with my Spanish and English teacher. Later, I sat in on a German lesson (which I was not impressed by--more on that later) and a technology class. The tech class was building the set for the school play, Mr. Toad, and I drew a huge tree for on wood (or at least part of it) :) It actually didn't turn out that bad--I was surprised, considering my horrible drawing skills.
Later, the Germans and I went to Bamburgh Beach. It would have been a nice trip, had it not been for the extremely windy weather. The wind was blowing so hard that it could move me. There was also a cool castle there, but it unfortunately wasn't open for viewing, as someone was living in it. I thought it was so cool that people could rent out parts of the castle to live in.
I seriously wouldn't hesitate to visit this place again, but next time, it has to be in the summer. This beach is absolutely gorgeous in the summer.
Tuesday, March 12th
Who would have known that I would be celebrating my birthday in the capital of Scotland..
It was a horribly windy day, and I would have much preferred to be in London instead. But it's ok, Scotland is good too. Well, kind of. First, we went to the Scottish Parliament...honestly, there wasn't much to see there, and it was quite boring, as we did not have a tour. However, I did learn that in 2014, Scotland will have a vote on whether it'll continue to be a part of the UK. Personally, I think they should, since Scotland is such a small country. And I guess now they are rich due to their natural resources, but those resources will dry out one day, won't it?
Later, we headed off to the Camera Obscura Museum. It was a pretty cool museum with many optical illusions-- too bad I never got the 3D ones because my eyes can never focus good enough to see them. But other than that, it was pretty cool. I got beheaded, got to see a projected older version of me, walked through a mirror maze, and much more :) If I ever find those pictures on my SD card, that would be great..
Finally, we got a nice view of Edinburgh from the top, directly across from a nice castle. It was really pretty, but like I said, the weather screwed it up. We got back to school at about 5, and they also happened to have a Ceilidh (Scottish dancing) event then. I didn't join in on the dancing, but it was funny to watch square dancing and guys dressed in skirts.
Wednesday, March 13th/ Thursday, March 14th
We were supposed to go visit the Rathaus (town hall) in Berwick and see the mayor, but I really didn't feel like going, so I stayed back to have a normal school day. I figured it would be a good chance to see what private schools in England were like, and I wanted to see if they had any special tricks or teaching methods that I could learn. To put this in the best sounding way possible, I wasn't too amazed. A post will come soon about my opinion on this matter. I sat in on Careers, English, Business, Psychology, Math, and Art. I actually enjoyed Math and Business though, so not all hope was lost.
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