A
fter two weeks at home in
the Easter holidays, our
group of 4th formers and 61
rolled up at King's, most
looking forward to the week
ahead, a few wishing they
had paid a little more attention in their German
lessons! After flying to Berlin and a two and a
half hour car journey, we arrived in
Sangerhausen where the friendly exchange
parents met us and took us to their houses
where we collapsed into our beds.
The following morning we were allowed a lie-in
to get some much needed sleep after the
previous night's late arrival. Then it was off to
the Geschwister-Scholl Gymnasium for our first
experience of a German school. After a guided
tour of the school by the headmaster, we were
taken to an assortment of lessons with our
partners, including a competitive PE lesson,
and an English lesson in German!
After trying our best to grasp the German in
these lessons, we headed off to the local
museum, full of interesting artefacts of the
region, and housing a huge mammoth skeleton,
discovered close to Sangerhausen. Then we
went to the town centre where we had our first
experience of 'Bratwurst' which were set to
become a favourite throughout the coming
week. We met with our partners after their
lessons and enjoyed some free time in the
sunshine, which included a fiercely-fought
international football game, which was
unfortunately lost by England, 10-7!
On Wednesday it was an early start for a visit
to Halle, the nearest city to Sangerhausen and
the birthplace of Handel. We enjoyed an
interesting tour of the MDR radio station and
saw how much hard work was put into making
a radio programme. After a trip to the Handel
museum, we enjoyed some free time in the city
centre to do some shopping and sample more
Bratwurst.
The following day we travelled to Berlin and
packed in as much of the capital as possible.
We visited the Brandenburg gate, the Holocaust
memorial and the German National History
museum, finishing off at the Television Tower
followed by some free time. Friday was our
penultimate day in school with a few more
lessons, then a trip down a local copper mine,
hard hats and all!
Saturday was soaked in glorious sunshine and
we started off by touring Quedlinburg, a
beautiful Tudor-style town in the Harz
Mountains. Then we took a stunning cable-car
ride, which gave us amazing views over the
local area. At the top we enjoyed the
exhilarating toboggan run, with all the boys
competing to go the fastest!
On Sunday we spent the day with our host
families, with many of us getting some much
needed sleep after the week's busy schedule,
and all of us doing a variety of things, such as
visiting the International Auto Show in Leipzig,
or the huge chocolate factory near Halle. On
our last day we spent the morning in Eisleben,
the birthplace of Martin Luther, followed by a
final trip round Sangerhausen to see all the
churches and have a last Bratwurst, before
sadly saying goodbye to our partners and
returning to England.
All seven of us thought the trip was extremely
fun and worthwhile, and we are all looking
forward to seeing our partners again in
September. We thoroughly recommend all
future linguists to go on it, as we managed to
learn some German amongst the good times we
had. Many thanks to Mr and Mrs Wrobel and
Tommy for such a great trip!
Aluredian
19
The
German
Exchange
2008
by
Henry Close
and Freddie
Barker