24th March, 2009 - 3rd April, 2009

Tuesday, 24th March

We took the bus to Madrid at 7:30 at I.E.S. Vasco de la Zarza; then we arrived at Barajas airport. At 11:30 we took the plane to Gatwick. We noticed a great difference, carpet everywhere!!!!; next, we took the train to Chichester and we went by bus to Cobnor. At first we thought it was rubbish, but we ended loving it.After we settled, Mr Ellis explained us the timetable and later we had some free time and we spent it playing cards until we had dinner at Bosham Inn. We found it very welcoming and nice,there we met some English teachers. During the night we were impatient and we couldn't sleep so we spent the night talking to each other until we got bored and fell asleep.

Wednesday, 25th March

We got up one hour earlier because Alonso forgot to change the time in the mobile phone. We prepared ourselves and we took the bus to Bourne Community College where we had breakfast. We watched a Spanish play.
Then our partners toured us around the school and we had a Spanish class in which we talked to English students about our hobbies. When we finished the classes, we went to the County Hall where we had a reception with the chairman of West Sussex and we had lunch; we visited the council chamber and we went to an Art Gallery; next we went to Portsmouth where we went shopping in an outdoors shopping centre. We met again and we visited the Spinnaker Tower; it was quite high and impressive; it had quite good views as well. Then we met the English students again and we went to a bowling alley all together: we played bowling and we had dinner and finally we came back to Cobnor. We talked a bit about our friends and we went to bed.

Thursday, 26th March

We woke up at 7:00 in the morning to prepare for the rest of the day, we took our mini-bus to travel to Bourne Community College (BCC) where we had breakfast.
After having breakfast, we met our English partners and we attended a lesson with Mr Ellis to start our windmill project. He firstly explained us what we were going to build and he taught us basic knowledge about the problems and benefits of renewable energy. After that we started to build our windmills with our respective partners, we drew a scheme of our windmill and we started building the Eolical Generator. After 4 hours of hard work (with the school planned breaks for having lunch) we had some pieces of our project finished including the platform and support for the blades and the copper (bobinas) which we wound by ourselves.
The bell rang and we went to a very big gym in the centre of the school complex of buildings. It seemed very modern with good water and light supplies all over the gym. When we entered the basketball pitch, the floor was made of wood and the P.E. teachers were there giving us balls. After some time of warming up, we played basketball for an hour playing in different teams, we recognized the team we belonged to thanks to jerseys of different colours.
After that, we returned to Cobnor and we had dinner all together in Bosham Inn.

Friday, 27th March

We got up early and had lunch at Cobnor; as it was inset-day at school, we took the train to visit Brighton. We went to Royal Pavilion which was like a palace with a Chinese decoration (and very expensive as it was the case of the lamp). We visited most of the palace and we saw a small video about it; we had a guide who spoke Spanish but he explained everything in English and we understood very well and we noticed his strong French accent; we asked him a lot of questions about the palace because we had to fill in the questionnaire of the diary.

We also visited the Pier where there were a lot of slot machines and played games there as it was raining and a bit cold outside. We came back early and had dinner all together and talked a lot about everything.

Saturday, 28th and Sunday, 29th March

On Saturday we travelled to London by train. When we arrived at Waterloo Station, we walked to the theatre where we were going to watch the musical “The Lion King”. We had lunch, and later at 2 o'clock we watched the musical. It was one of the best musicals ever. We had a really good time watching it, remembering our childhood and enjoying the work of these good actors.
After that, we visited Covent Garden. It was very beautiful, it mixes new shops with a traditional market. Then we took a walk over the city: Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus, etc. We had some free time for shopping at Oxford Street. We had dinner at McDonalds and we took the underground and later a bus to Youth Hostel at Rotherhithe.

The next morning, we took a bus to London Centre. We visited the London Eye. It was a great experience from which we saw the whole city: St. Paul's Cathedral, Aubergin building, the Parliament, the Big Ben, the Thames, etc. Next, we had a tour on a bus over the city, we saw many important monuments as Westminster Abbey or Buckingham Palace. Then, the bus got inside the river and we had a fabulous time sailing at the Thames.
We had lunch and another cruise over the Thames to get to the Tower of London. We visited it and we went back to the city centre, where we walked to the train station to come back to Havant, and later to Cobnor.

Monday, 30 March 2009

We got up early and went to school where we had breakfast.
After that, we attended lessons with our partners and we noticed the differences between our Spanish lessons and the English ones; after the third hour we had lunch and then we finished with two more classes.
In the afternoon, we returned to Cobnor where we practiced climbing; it was very funny and the two councilors, Andy and Tom, helped us. When we finished doing that, we had some free time and completed our diaries and at 7 o'clock we had dinner in a good restaurant, the same where we had lunch the first day, when we arrived from Spain.
Finally, we went back to Cobnor and as we were tired we went to bed; it was strange for us because it was the first night in Cobnor that we really slept.

Tuesday, 31 March

As the rest of the days, we got up too early and we went to Bourne Community College in order to take breakfast at the canteen.
Then we attended a technology class in which we tried to finish our windmill project that we had started the previous week, with our English partners.
After school, we travelled to Chichester. There we visited the cathedral that was very different to our cathedrals and had some free time for shopping.
In this city we had dinner , however we returned to Cobnor early and were working on the diaries with the teachers before going to bed.

Wednesday, 1st April

We had luch at the canteen where our partners were waiting for us. It was a special day because some other foreign students came (French and German); so we went to a big room and helped to make mixed groups. When everybody arrived, all of us worked in different teams: one British, one Spanish, one French and two Germans, and the topic was Youth Culture 09. We organised ourselves to find information and pictures on internet and then we put everything on a big poster.

Then, we had lunch in the playground where there were many stalls with typical food and drinks and some students played music. After lunch, we all played a stoolball match; it was new for us but also new for French and German; it was funny.

In the evening, we had a typical British dinner with roast beef at Cobnor and many teachers came. It was delicious.

Thursday, 2nd April

We got up a bit later because we didn't go to the school for breakfast because we were sailing to Bosham and some protected areas. We got dressed in special clothes and got ready to board the boat and then the zodiac. It was great, we enjoyed a lot. When we came back to Cobnor, we had a shower and went to school for the last part of the morning.

When we finished lessons, we went orienteering with our partners. We were given a map and we had to look for some chocolate Easter eggs. Then, we went to Bosham for a special ice-cream and then to Cobnor to cook and eat paella. We didn't cook, the teachers did and they prepared three paellas because there were many students and teachers. It was delicious and when we finished desserts, we had a very good time with our partners and we were very sad because that was the last night all together.

Friday, 3rd April

It was our last breakfast at the canteen and our last morning in the school. We worked with our partners on a presentation with the summary of all activities. We could see all photos and use them for the presentation. We had lunch together and then we had to say good-bye. We were very sad.

We arrived at Gatwick airport and we had to wait a lot because our plane was delayed. Finally, we arrived in Madrid at 23,30 and home at 1,00. We were very tired and very sad because the trip had finished and we came back home again.

Personal opinions

We think the trip was good, we maintained good relationship with the English students; we improved our English skills and we had a really good time there.
We think that the trip has been very interesting and useful to improve our English.

By Alonso and Ricardo

This trip was not as we had imagined before because almost everything is different from our culture, customs and the educational system because they are apparently strict and the truth is that in Spain the system is more strict than theirs.

By Sara and Ángela

This trip has been unforgettable. We think it is a very good opportunity for all students to learn about English culture, the language and to manage themselves alone.
This has been an excellent chance for knowing each other better and for learning how to live together.

By Beatriz Pérez and Paula Plaza.