St. Mary’s Sports College, Hull - Gymnasium Süd Buxtehude
Exchange 06/07 (March 18^th – 25^th)

Sunday:       

The flight was scheduled for 8.15pm but there was a delay due to bad weather. We finally boarded the plane at around midnight but we couldn’t land in Hamburg because it was closed to avoid noise pollution. Instead, we were diverted to Hannover where we were put on a bus to Hamburg, which took 2 hours. We then had to get 2 trains to Buxtehude, where Frau Pawelak picked us up and drove us to the school.

Monday:       

We arrived at the school at 7am and met the head-teacher Herrn Kröger, who was very welcoming. Then we met our partners, who were also very nice. They showed us around the school and then Frau Pawelak took us to her class to play a game where students had to speak in English about a topic for 30seconds in order to move their counters along the board. In the evening we were given a tour of Buxtehude, it was ‘interesting’ but very cold.

Tuesday:      

We went to school with our partners and took part in all of their lessons. We also watched an enlightening play about National Socialism. After school we went bowling, Chalkey won because he bowls in a league and Josh came second because he is awesome. Richard lost, he had no excuse. Then we played pool and Richard won but it didn’t make up for his bad bowling. After this we went for a meal in Amadeus which was very nice.

Wednesday:

We went to Lübeck and were shown the city gate from three different angles. It was too cold and wet to continue with the tour so we left our group and visited St. Petri church. Later we went to Jenni’s house to watch a film called “Running Scared”. Kristin fell asleep although the film was quite good.

Thursday:

We didn’t have to get up as early because we didn’t have to meet until 9.20am before travelling to Hamburg by train. In Hamburg we visited a museum about the history of Hamburg, probably the best tour we had. In the evening we watched “Germany’s next Topmodel “. The Germans couldn’t believe that none of the boys knew who Heidi Klum was.

Friday:

We spent the day in school before being shown the local nightlife in a club called “Die Garage”. A good time was had by all.

Saturday:  

We spent the morning with our partners’ families at a handball game. Frau Pawelak kindly invited us to her house in the evening where we ate pizza which she had cooked for us.

Sunday:

Fond memories. We hope to visit again if they will have us.