Off we go!

It's eight in the morning and the students are waiting at Colombia underground station. They say goodbye to their parents and we head to Barajas airport where the rest of the kids are waiting for us. As soon as we arrive we find the easyjet queue and wait to check in, crossing our fingers not to surpass the weight limit! We finally make it and cross security with plenty of time to walk along thousands of corridors till we reach the gate, the farthest in the airport, undoubtedly. The flight is ok but for some turbulence that shakes the plane like a milkshake when landing. Anyway, we arrive safe and sound and some of the students are even lucky enough to see the cockpit.

Once at Lutton it is time for more long corridors and waiting. It is about 8.20 when we finally get on the minibus to go to the youth hostel, a georgian house situated in a village called Alveston. We arrive at the hostel an hour and a half later and allocate the rooms. Two four bedded for the girls and one six bedded for the boys. All the rooms have bunk beds and a funny ensuite toilet and shower that reminds me of those of an astronaut's.

In the afternoon we planned an orientation trip to Stratford so we get to the bus stop to wait for the 16.56 bus. But buses seem to have their own rules here so we eventually walk to town. It is a 45 minute walk but it is great because we can see fantastic houses on our way. It is freezing in Stratford but we manage to walk around the town and see some of the wonderful fifteenth century houses, the Swan, the Royal Shakespeare Company theatre and the river Avon with its boats.

At 6 we decide to go back to the hostel and have our dinner, which is very good indeed. We have a buffet dinner with chicken curry, fish and chips and sausages. We also have three different cakes to choose as well, ummmm!

After dinner we have time to relax, watch tv and play hide and seek in the gardens.

Evesham!

Our second day in England starts veeery early! We have an English breakfast and get ready for a school day at Evesham High School. The bus takes us to Evesham, which is about half an hour from the hostel. There we are welcomed by Sue Robinson at the Language Studies hall and we are asked to come into her class. We have the opportunity to help her Spanish students and practice our English as well. After that each Spanish student follows an English student to their lessons. Some of our mates have Maths or History class.

One of the things that surprises us most is their trampoline lesson, on elastic beds! At lunch the students go to the canteen with their “twins”.
When the school day finishes our bus brings us to Stratford where we try to visit Shakespeare’s birthplace. Again, the timetables we have seem to be just for the summer and we find it closed. We spend the rest of the afternoon shopping, walking around the town or having a hot chocolate to counteract the freezing afternoon. Time for dinner comes and we go to the hostel for a good dinner and some after dinner chat and billiards playing.

Oxford

It’s Saturday and we head off to Oxford! We get up relatively early, have our breakfast and take the bus. We arrive at Oxford at about eleven so we only have some hours to visit it.

We walk around the city and though some of the Colleges are closed for visitors we manage to pop in and have a look at them. After that we all have some free time for strolling, having a sandwich or buying souvenirs. We leave Oxford at 2 and we are brought to Warwick, famous for its medieval castle.

A hailstorm begins, so even those reluctant to enter the castle decide to visit it! We are all glad to have entered! It’s a fantastic recreation of life in the castle and there are real life wax figures inside that help us to imagine how their life was.

We also decide to climb the steep circular steps that lead to the towers of the castle, which ends up as an adventure when after walking up hundreds of stairs and along many passages we discover the door at the end closed! We eventually leave the place in one piece and try to go back to Stratford, which again becomes an adventure when we find out that the buses will take ages to collect us. Finally, after Pedro’s negotiation a nice bus driver offers to bring us home. We reach the hotel completely freezing and tired but in time to warm ourselves up with dinner and games.

Off to London!

We are off to London! Eventually we managed to organise a short trip to London so we have to get up really early. This morning we are the first to have breakfast, 7.30! We fill our still asleep stomachs and get on the bus. The trip takes about 2 hours so some of the students take advantage of it and have a little nap. When we get to London we discover they have prepared a wonderfully sunny day for us. The first thing we visit is the British Museum, with its amazing court (a covered square designed by Norman Foster to commemorate the year 2000) and the fabulous art collections. Students especially enjoy the Persian and Egyptian section, with its mummies and sarcophaguses.

After a quick sandwich we get on the bus again and go to Trafalgar Square, where we have a look at St Martin in the fields, the National Gallery and Nelson’s Column and start our walk to Buckingham Palace.


After paying our respectful visit to the Queen we decide to visit the Prime Minister, so we go to Downing Street. Once the most famous door in England has been seen we go to The Houses of Parliament to see the famous Big Ben. After that we have an hour free to visit the area or admire the London Eye, the giant wheel created by British Airways to commemorate the Millennium. Our last stop in London is a quick photo stop at Tower Bridge and the Tower of London.

Happy but exhausted we return to the youth hostel to finish our exciting day.

Back to school

It’s Monday and it’s time to go back to school. We arrive at Evesham at 9.20, just in time for the students to start their lessons. Again, some of them help with Spanish lessons and some go with their twins to Business, Language or Computer lessons. They also spend some free time with the English students socialising and getting to know the school facilities and the neighbourhood.

When classes finish we go back to the hostel where we have an early dinner, because we have

booked a Ghost walk for tonight! At 7.30 we are told to wait for a man next to the river Avon. We go there and a man wearing a black cloak and a stick comes to the group.

This sinister character takes us around the town showing us where the plague started, telling us the most horrible stories about ghosts and appearances in the city and finally bringing us to the graveyard! A terrific, terrifying night for all of us!

Shakespeare's day

Tuesday is our last day in town, so we go to Stratford and start the day by visiting Shakespeare’s birthplace and getting to know more about the dramatist.

After the visit the students visit Shakespeare’s grave at Holy Church, walk around the city and do some shopping. As it is our farewell we have planned a traditional English dinner, so we go to the most famous pub in Stratford, The Black Swan, better known as the Dirty Duck, and we all have fish and chips.

After this gorgeous dinner we go to the Royal Shakespeare Company where we enjoy Shakespeare’s play: A Winter’s Tale, a wonderful closing for this seven day experience around Shakespeare’s land.

Good bye!

We are coming back! It is Wednesday and that means we have to go back to Spain. The rooms must be left at 10, so we all pack and have breakfast early in the morning. We still have some hours till the bus comes to collect us so we go for a nice walk to the river. We walk across the village, Alveston, we pass some amazing cottages and walk along the country paths that lead to the river bank, where some of the students have a competition to throw stones.

On our way back to the hostel we see two wonderful churches surrounded by graveyards, the same graveyards some students explored a few days ago. Back to the hostel we eat our packed lunches, share some food, Spanish ham included and say goodbye to the place. We get the bus and arrive at the airport with plenty of time to spare, especially after seeing that our flight was delayed. So we spend our last hours together reading and talking at the airport, speculating about our plane and our luggage. We finally arrive at Madrid airport at about 10 and say goodbye to each other wishing to be able to repeat the experience some time.