For two weeks my colleague and I’ve done a language stay, in England’s second most visited city, in York. We’ve already had a lot of fun together everywhere, sometimes with friends, sometimes without and this report will tell you more about our adventures. Every day on 10 pm (UTC Time!) I loaded my report up until the 21st October 2018. I hope you will enjoy my reports.

Sunday, 7 October, Arrival 🛫

We started our trip by car and with my parents, who drove my colleague and me to the EuroAirport in Bale. From there we took our first flight alone to Manchester. I was a bit surprised that on a Sunday on vacation time, so fewer people were at the airport. With ten minutes delay, we took off and discovered a sky with plenty of clouds. At 8 pm we landed in Manchester. Then, we meet our transfer person, who took us and another Swiss girl to York. After two hours of travelling and one traffic jam, we arrived at our host family’s home around 9 pm. Very kind and friendly, our host family has welcomed us very kindly and showed us their home „castle“. Afterwards, we went sleeping into our beds, because we were quietly tired of our about 1200 kilometres journey.

Monday, 8 October, First Day at Melton College 🏫

The next day. We were awakened at 7 am by our host mother. We ate all together breakfast (some cereals and a mug of coffee). Afterwards, our host father drove us to school. At Melton College, we first received our student ID. Later we had to do a difficult entry test consisting of a listening, writing, grammar & vocabulary part. After the exam, we had a long break about half an hour, we talked to each other. Well, there were about 75% Germans, 15% Swiss and 10% Russians & other nationalities. There were four people from Switzerland. One guy from Solothurn, a girl from Zurich and of course the two of us from Lucerne. Then we were spat into different classes. Surprisingly, I was placed into the highest class however I didn’t get back my test results. They were only about six or seven people in every class. Later, we had about three lessons school and in between a lunch break. We got a sandwich, fruit and a biscuit for lunch. When the lessons were over, we drove all together by bus to the bowling centre. The late-afternoon we joined there and we also had dinner there (Cheeseburger with fries). I scored pretty good and won in our team. At 7 pm our host parents picked us up and took us home, where I started writing this day review.

Tuesday, 9 October, Sunny & cultural day 🏛

Well, we started our day with the typical English breakfast (bacon, scrambled egg, mushrooms) because today our host father celebrated his birthday. We left the house at about half past eight and we walked to our Bus stop, without using a map. I know York already better than many other Swiss cities, I think. From there we picked the Bus number 5A, unfortunately, it wasn’t a double-decker for my friend, but we had a quiet beautiful bus ride to school with the old town, the sunrise and the narrow gates. On time, we arrived at Melton College. In the first lessons (Reading) we talked about the fire in the York cathedral in 1829 and we had also to prepare a small presentation about a big fire in a town. I had chosen the major fire of Berne with the history of the small onion market. Later we had Listening, Speaking, Grammar & Vocabulary. My lunch was consisted of a sandwich, an fruit and a biscuit, as usual for the next two weeks. The afternoon we spent in the cathedral of York, but sadly they had done a lot of repairs. After school we (some students) discovered York. We relaxed on the promenade of the Ouse (the river, which flows through York), ate some Yorkshire food and discussed a lot. At the evening we walked home and I got a shoot of a TransPennieExpress train. The dinner today was a Mexican Dish „Paella“ you will know it. As normal we spook about history, culture, sport, countries, etc … Since the arrival I had looked up to approximately a hundred or more words. My vocabulary got quiet fast extended. It hopes you can notice it when you’re reading my reports.

Wednesday, 10 October, Treasure Hunt & First Flight 🚁

I didn’t have much time to write today’s report. I keep myself short as I do have a lot of homework to do as usual. Today, we took the bus to school (it was no double-decker) afterwards in Reading we had to write about a famous attraction of one of our cities. I wrote about the Château Gütsch with the funicular railway and the great sight over Lucerne’s sights. Our lunch break was short. The afternoon we talked about Apps with my friend’s favourite teacher („An Arsenal Enemy“). He likes joking about Arsenal in almost every lesson. For example; Why you don’t get tea in the Arsenal stadium? Because they have no cups. Funny! The afternoon activity we spent on a treasure hunt in the city. We, the Swiss team won, because of our (my) technique. Not to run through the city and find the information. Searching on the internet for it, it’s much quicker. At 6 pm I took the first view of York from the air with my drone. I had only 5 minutes time left for it because we were on the way home. I’m quite content with the pictures. I hope you too.

Thursday, 11 October, Markt Research ❓

In Reading we read a newspaper article about; „Villagers strike it rich as they discover cash machine is doubling their money“ and in Listening, we heard and chat talk about the augmented reality in their use in the future. After lunch, we spent our afternoon lessons out. We had to do some market research and asked some questions to people in the city centre about Apps, which we had prepared yesterday in Writing. For example; If you could create an app what would it be? We got a lot of interesting chats. After school, we stayed in the city centre and we walked through it. The evening dish was a typical English one: Yorkshire pudding with roasted potatoes and Worcestershire Sauce. Yummy!

Friday, 12 October, A cool evening 🌃

The rainy day. In school, we occupied ourselves with plans for our school trip that we’ll do on Saturday. The place or city chosen is known for their mean industry Wool Trade, it has also a famous football club and another fact, Mark & Spencers had opened the first shop there in 1884. Do you find out the place where we are going? In the afternoon we had to do a presentation about our Market Research and we had to design an App. We designed a sports App called Sportify. Later, I went into the city with two college students. At 8 pm we had to return to our college for the activity and the meal. We had to create a story of a little egg which wanted to be an astronaut and fly to the moon. Furthermore, we had to create a space ship for it. Afterwards, when we tested our space ship, Henry threw it on the roof of the College. It is still on the roof. On the way to home, my colleague had his first double-decker experience, not only the view. Some drunken girls had fallen in love with him, however, my colleague wasn’t interested in them. He wanted to be at home on time to watch the football match Belgium vs. Switzerland, but unfortunately, they lost.

Saturday, 13 October, Day trip to Leeds 🛍

We started our day with my favourite English breakfast Porridge. Today was our day trip to Leeds. Our host father drove us to school. From there we travelled by coach to the Royal Armouries Museum. For about two hours we stayed there. There were so huge guns and so many wars, which I did not hear of them yet. Afterwards, we walked along the river Aire and their canals into the city centre to the Corn Exchange (shopping area). Today it was full of people. I’ve seen an apple shop there. I bought some sweets, I love Yorkshire chocolate. I’ll hope that I do not eat too much of it already.

Sunday, 14 October, Heavy rain 💦

Today we got up at 11 am because we were quite tired from yesterday. We stayed at home most of the time because it rained a lot and we were not allowed to leave York during our language stay. We need someone over 18 years old to leave the city. I worked then a little on my report in the morning. Afterwards, in the afternoon my college and I took a walk through the city and looked at the end of the marathon. It was so wet that sometimes my mobile phone didn’t work to take pictures. Our host family came home earlier because the rain became stronger in the afternoon and therefore the rowing races were cancelled. Many people had hypothermia, like our host son. Only had 32 body temperature. But fortunately, there were the grandparents and brought him home to their apartment for a hot shower. William did not win the race, but he won the prize for the person with the lowest body temperature. I’m now just finishing my writing because I’m very tired of doing nothing.

Monday, 15 October, New Students 👨‍🎓

The day started with cereals. The way to school was a bit jinx, everything was going wrong. First, our bus Nr. 1 was cancelled and we had to wait for the next one, which came about ten minutes delayed and because of that it was very crowded with people. Afterwards, there was a huge traffic jam in the city centre. Third, the driver change had been taking hours in my view and finally two stops before our stop. The bus had to make a redirection, which also cost us more than five minutes. Normally, we had about twenty minutes to school, but today it was twice as long. The main or the most important thing, that I have to say, we arrived exactly on time in our classroom. In the morning we were only three students in our class. We talked about travelling, nightmare journeys and finally about the Geography of our countries. Later, our class became a lot of new students about nine. In comparison to our class size in the last week (7 students), we were quite more in total twelve. The new students came from Germany and Danemark. In the afternoon activity was the same as the week before. Who knows it? Yes, exactly bowling. Sadly, I lost the game this time twice only the third place out of six. Sniff, sniff!

Tuesday, 16 October, Cooking & Trains 🚂

At 6:40 we got up, my colleague had had the idea to cook breakfast for our host family yesterday. We cooked together (my colleague did most of the work) traditionally Rösti with bacon. Mmmh! Luckily, our family liked it, despite the colour and the form of the Rösti. Afterwards, we took the bus to school. It was the shit (sorry for my expression) as yesterday with these buses. I think I have never had a bus which was on time when I was in England. The next day I won’t make the same mistake. That was one of the only negative aspects of my language stay. Let’s come to college. In Reading, we read about the history of one of the most famous trains in Britain “ The Flying Scotsman „, which had run between London and Edinburgh in the 1930s. The journey had taken the whole eight hours. In contrast today the journey takes only about four and a half hours with an HST or Class 91 Train, but in 2021 with the new Japanese Azuma’s Trains (Class 801) it will take under four hours as the new high-speed route between Munich and Berlin. Have you know the Flying Scotsman has two world records. The first for the fastest locomotive in the UK with a top speed of 100 mph (161 km/h) and the second record as the oldest mainline working locomotive on Britain’s track. In the afternoon we had, of course, our lessons in the national railway museum. Unfortunately, we haven’t got much time, we had to hurry up a bit with the working sheets to see the other parts of the museum. Here some in interesting facts:
– The first railway line was between Manchester and Liverpool and was built in the 1830s. The first locomotive was called Rocket.
– The Mallard is the fastest steam locomotive with a top speed of 201km/h
– In 1912 the government of the UK built an ambulance train (a hospital on tracks) for the forthcoming war.
– Another name for the Japanese high trains is Bullet Train or Shinkansen.

In the evening we prepared another meal for our host family, a typical Swiss dish, Cheese Fondue. I was a bit a challenge to try the Fondue didn’t get cold. The love it also likes the breakfast dish said them. Surprisingly, my Swiss colleague had lost his bread and had to run up and downstairs the stairs. That was it for today.

Wednesday, 17 October, Cinema 📽

As I said in my last report, today we walked to school. On our way, we saw a lot of trains. At every time when we passed the bridge over the river, we saw the train to Scarborough until Friday. After we crossed the railway tracks and the freight station over bridges. Finally, we arrived on time at the college. Today we talked about advertising. How the products have to look attractive for the customers. In Grammar, we spook about relative causes and we had a difficult dictation. In the afternoon we did some exercises about food, what typical specialities are from York. But unfortunately, we couldn’t taste and try these at the lessons. From specialities to popcorn. The evening activity was in a cinema and we watched the new movie with Johnny English. It wasn’t very spectacular but I still enjoyed it. In my view, I was too short. It only lasts around 70 minutes. After the film, we had to hurry up to watch my friend’s football match Switzerland vs Island. This time Switzerland won and my friend was happy.

Thursday, 18 October, „Normal day“ 🙃

It was a normal day. Nothing special happened today. We walked to school, had school, ate lunch and had again school, but in the Inner city. We had to ask people questions about restaurants and their favourite meals. It was as last Thursday with the Markt Research, but now it was more wet and rainy. The High Light of the day was dinner. Again Yorkshire Pudding, but this time with more side dishes. Yummy!

Friday, 19 October, Last School day 🎉

Today was our last school day at Melton College. We started the day with some cereals and then we walked to school. When we crossed the footbridge near the railway museum I saw the new type of train for the TPE. The new Class 802. I felt so happy and luckily that I could take a short clip with my phone on this train. That was a great event.  Here you see my shoot. In school, we talked about non and relative clauses. Later we did listening. In the short break suddenly everyone arranged his folder because the principal had said on the first day of school that the tidiest folder owner will win a price. Sadly nobody in our class won the price. In our lunch break, we ate our sandwiches. These sandwiches I properly won’t miss. Then we burned our calories by playing football altogether. Afterwards, we had our last lesson with my friend „most favourite teacher“. For once he tried not to say anything negative about Arsenal. That was very difficult for him. After school, we (some colleges and me) went to the city and we bought some souvenirs. My friend bought, of course, some tricots and I bought a lot of sweets and a great book about Railway which was published two days before. Finally, we returned for the evening activity to the College. In the way back we took some selfies of us. The evening activity was a Quiz about Geography and Famous People. Our team Lucerne & Bielefeld won the Quiz surprisingly with 60 out of 120 points. I felt so astonished. The price was a tiny teddy bear with a College hoodies on it. At the end of the activity, the principle congratulates us and gave a work report and a certificate to us. Next, we took the bus home and prepared us for the day trip to Whitby tomorrow.

Saturday, 20 October, Day Trip to Whitby 🐟

Let’s go to Whitby! We got up at seven and had the usual morning ceremony. Then our host father drove us to the Meeting point. From there we should depart at nine but some students were missing. Because these three „punctual and reliable“ students we later haven’t got time to visit the Robin Hood Bay. Mrrr! At ten our coach left and drove through the Yorkshire countryside to the Whitby. We drove back and forth, the road becomes smaller and worse but we finally arrived at one at Whitby with two hours delay. I thought the driver didn’t have an idea in which direction Whitby was. Let’s come to the more fun part. We enjoyed our typical English meal Fish & Chips on a cliff with a great view over the village and the sea. Later, we discovered the village (the hoe, the drawbridge, the beach, the Whitby Abbey and a lot more) Have you knew that Whitby was the cradle of Dracula. Before we returned back to the coach I took some drone shoots but the sunlight was a bit too bright. At three o’clock we should depart, well, it took a half an hour when the Italiens students with their teachers noticed that we would like to leave. They had to smoke their cigarettes was their excuse. How reckless could they be? On the way back we passed the famous Harry Potter steam railway station and RAF Flying-dales. Then we got into traffic in the surrounding area of York. Sadly we arrived at six at the car park and we haven’t got the time to went into the city to celebrate our last day with our colleges. As my parents later said. It’s more important to have a great time then a good farewell. The evening we spent at home with our host family and gave them some presents from Switzerland. That’s was it!

Sunday, 21 October, Flight back to Switzerland 🛬

We stood up quite early to pack our luggage. Then at point nine, our transfer to the Airport arrived in front of the house to pick up us. We said goodbye to each other and then we move to the Airport. On the way, the transfer picked up some more students. One of them was the Solothurner. Together with him we went through the Airport, ate lunch at BurgerKing and boarded the Airplane Airbus 319. In the flight back I did some work for the school. I’ve never done math homework on a plane. That was a hilarious thing. You had should see this picture. Then we’ve landed at Bale, we took our luggage, said goodbye to the Solothurner and my friend’s mother drove us home. On the way back we reflected about that amazing language stay and later I created a video of it and added some more information to this report, which you finally finished with reading. I hope you enjoyed reading my report as good as I enjoyed my amazing, awesome, exciting, funny, intensive language stay.