Host families

Als wir mit dem Car in Kidlington ankamen standen die Mütter oder die Väter teils auch mit ihren Kindern schon auf dem Parkplatz. Wir wurden unserer zugeteilten Familie vorgestellt und danach fuhren sie uns mit dem Auto zu ihrem Haus. Dort lernte ich den Rest der Familie Sherlock kennen. Sie hatten 2 Söhne, einer 13 und der andere 7 Jahre alt. Es war  ein wenig gewöhnungsbedürftig in einer fremden Familie „zuhause“ zu sein. Doch auch die Kinder waren immer sehr lustig und sie genossen es ab und  zu jemanden  Fremden im Haus zu haben.

Die Mutter war eine typische Engländerin. Sie streckte sich jeden Morgen die Haare und lackierte sich ihre Nägel irgendwie zu jeder Zeit. Sie kochte immer Chips zum Abendessen, was sehr schmeckte. Der Vater war stets am Arbeiten, ihn sah ich nur bei dem ihm entgegenkommenden, üppigen Abendessen oder er sass vor dem Fernseher im Schaukelstuhl und schlief. Die beiden Söhne erzählten oft von ihren Fussballkarrieren und stritten sich stundenlang darüber, ob Figo für Portugal oder für Spanien spielt.

Eines Abends führte Paula, meine Host Mother, ein persönliches Gespräch mit mir, dies gab mir einen sehr positiven Eindruck, denn ich merkte, dass sie sich um das Wohlbefinden ihrer Gäste wirklich bemühte. Mit dem jüngeren der Söhne sprangen wir, wenn wir nichts zu tun hatten, auf dem grossen Trampolin im Garten herum. 

Am letzten Samstag Morgen packten wir unsere Sachen und Paula fuhr uns zum Parkplatz. Dort verabschiedeten wir uns von ihr, und wir stiegen in den grossen Car ein. Auf der langen Rückfahrt zum Flughafen in London konnten wir auf zwei aufregende, lehrreiche Wochen zurückschauen.

Ich habe mich in meiner „host family“ stets akzeptiert und gut behandelt gefühlt. Es war toll in einer englischen Familie zuhause zu sein.

Irina Müller

Der Longleat-Park

Nach einer ziemlich langen Carfahrt, die zuletzt durch eine Art Tierpark mit frei herum laufenden Löwen, Tigern und vielen anderen Tieren führte, stiegen wir vor einem Park aus. Zu unserer Freude durften wir ihn auch gleich auf eigene Faust erkunden. Nebst dem riesigen Labyrinth, durch das wir uns verzweifelt kämpfen mussten, um dann aber die spektakuläre Aussicht von einem Aussichtsturm inmitten des Irrgartens geniessen zu dürfen, gab es auch noch das prächtige Longleat-House, eine Miniatur-Eisenbahn, eine witzige Papageien-Show, sowie einen grusligen Fledermaus-Kerker. Besonders das Longleat-House ist erwähnenswert, da dieses heute noch von einer adligen Familie bewohnt wird und dennoch zur Besichtigung freisteht. Nach diesem eindrucksvollen Tag stiegen wir müde wieder in den Car.

Fabio Eisenhut

One day at Warwick Castle

After one week of hard learning and working at school a visit to a castle near Birmingham was planned. It was that Sunday; we had spent the day before in London. The majority of us, and probably the teachers as well, were sort of exhausted because of that wonderful, but also tiring expedition to UK’s capital city, so we were requested to get up later than usual. After a pleasant Sunday morning we met around lunch time at the meeting point. Of course, our loved ATLAS ENGLISH SCHOOL teacher James wasn’t missing, Mrs.Haueter, and certainly Mr.Heiniger joined us.

Then, Steve, the friendly bus driver and host dad, took us by coach to Warwick castle. After an entertaining journey we finally (after having eaten the content of our lunchboxes) reached the goal. I would say, the first impression of it was good. It seemed like an extensive, classical and in great condition kept English castle. Great, intimidating stone walls, some huge sky-high towers and a dangerous seeming draw bridge above a moat, which must have existed since the early middle ages. The castle was actually quite large. The backside was connected to a probably about fifty meter wide river, which takes its way through the park. There were a few activities to do in and around the area, such as climbing on one of the towers (after spending half an hour waiting in a queue), meeting the creepy ghost, who haunts the castle, having a snack, visiting the museum to see how the nobles lived once, having a look at the landscape and of course taking pictures.

As usual, the class rapidly split up in several groups and spread all over the park, but still most of all remained in a good mood. The weather, which was quite bright and mild for English standard, stayed warm and according to autumn. The most interesting options we could enjoy, was the tour through the rooms used to live in by the nobility. The life of the duchess named Daisy was presented in a pretty coloured, imaginable way. Actually the inhabitants were rebuilt as (uncanny) wax figures, put in old fashioned clothes and remaining in the same position for ever. But the most amazing thing was the man (out of flesh and blood), who welcomed the visitors at the entrance; he was really dedicated to his work as a fake butler directly from the eighteenth century. He made jokes in a black humoured way and even made fun of us Swiss girls, as we switched off the light in the hall way (not on purpose), where he was situated. Afterwards he began to talk to us and certainly asked us about our nationality. But, how could an English inhabitant not make fun of Swiss German? He compared it to Welsh. We didn’t really understand the funny part of that joke, but a friendly man, who was lined up behind us, explained it. Well, even jokes are not every man’s thing.

After having visited the wax museum, we went to the tower, it was an intimidating high one and the queue wasn’t different. But at the end we received the reward for waiting, the wonderful view to a few hills in the East and the City of Warwick in the South. Then, we saw something similar to a fair. Several men, disguised as strong knights with dangerous weapons, fought against each other or trained themselves at archery, close combat and horseback riding.

Last, but not least we called in at the Souvenir shop and had a look at some rather funny souvenirs. You could buy nearly anything, plastic crowns for little princesses, weird hats with the England flag printed on them and lots of other rather useless stuff. Suddenly, it was time to get back to the coach and I can’t remember any details of getting back home, because a sleepy mood spread all over the coach.

Katja Brunner

Museum und Botanischer Garten

In Oxford hatten wir am Morgen Schule, am Nachmittag hat einer der Lehrer ein Programm aufgestellt. An einem Nachmittag gingen wir zuerst ins Museum und später in den Botanischen Garten. Das Museum war in verschiedene Abteilungen unterteilt. In einer Abteilung waren Werkzeuge, Waffen und Töpfe von Menschen aus Vorzeiten ausgestellt. Wir interessierten uns aber vor allem für die Schrumpfköpfe: normale Köpfe von Menschen, denen man das Gehirn ausgesaugt hatte, wodurch diese ganz klein wurden. Die waren ziemlich eklig. Wir wurden mit Stolz darauf hingewiesen, dass diese Schrumpfköpfe in Harry Potter verwendet wurden.

Nach dem Museum wollten wir den botanischen Garten besuchen. Für den Weg brauchten wir eine halbe Stunde, aber es hat sich gelohnt. Der Garten war wunderschön! Ein riesiger Park mit kleinen Teichen, auf dem Enten schwammen. Man konnte viele verschiedene Pflanzen und Blumen in allen Farben bewundern. Den ganzen Nachmittag spazierten wir durch den Park und fotografierten. Danach gingen wir wieder Richtung Zentrum. Wer wollte, konnte noch einkaufen gehen, oder den Bus zurück nach Kidlington nehmen. Der botanische Garten und auch das Museum sind jedenfalls sehr empfehlenswert.

Maria Sautter, Mirella Tschudin, Isabelle Schulz

The famous Laserquest in Oxford

What’s laserquest? Laserquest is a game, which is played by max. 15 people at once. Every person gets two things: 1. a laser gun and 2. a vest, on that vest laser sensors are attached. The game is played in a big room with several smaller rooms, brigdes and hideouts. The players have to try to shoot the others, which means that the laser sensors on the vest have to be hit. The game’s over after 10 minutes. The winner is the one, who got shot the fewest times and who shot other players the most.

It was the third day in England, it was on a Tuesday. It was our first night out and we, the pupils of the class 3i with the teachers (Heiniger, Müller) took the bus from Kidlington to Oxford. When we arrived at the centre station, we had to walk about another two minutes until we were at the location, where the laserquest resort was. At that point it was already was 7.30 pm. We went into the house, where two instructors waited for us. We all had to tell him, which codename we would like for the quest. Some people chose some very weird names, but I think for a game that’s o.k. Then one of the instructors divided us into two groups. After he did that, he took one group into the laserquest, where every one got a laser gun and a vest with laser sensors. Then the first group had a go. During the ten minutes of playtime the other group was outside in the lobby, where you could play videogames and buy small snacks. After both groups had played once, there was a winner with the most point, it was Lucien Segessemann. Everybody also got a list, on which was written, who and how many times the person had shot. At the end we could all ride the rodeo in the lobby, but only once. After that was over, we all wanted to ride one more time, but we only were allowed to ride it one time. Those, who wanted to ride it another time, could pay one pound from their own money. Although this was a really high price for one round, many paid that one pound. I suppose we all know that having fun sometimes costs a lot of money.

After the rodeo riding was over, we all went home together the same way we had come. The teachers split up and everyone of them brought one of the two groups to their host-families. Everyone went to bed and could sleep straight away, because we were all totally exhausted. That really was an exciting and funny evening!

Valentino Piasini