On September 20th we (a group of 15 students from class 7A/B) flew from Vienna to London with our teachers Mrs. Eberl and Mrs. Zeweri. We spent three days exploring this exciting city before travelling to Paignton, Devon, where we spent a week at a language school in order to improve our English skills.

We arrived in London in the early afternoon – a bit tired but excited. After leaving our luggage in the hotel, our sightseeing program started right off the bat. The hotel was a stone’s throw away from the tube station, which was a great location. We really enjoyed the breakfast buffet, which included some traditional British dishes, for example baked beans and black pudding. We had a wonderful time in London and visited many well-known sights, such as Saint Paul’s Cathedral and The Tower of London. We could also explore East London by participating in a spooky Jack the Ripper tour.

On Saturday we travelled to Paignton by bus and met our host families there. They picked us up and showed us our homes for the remaining 7 days. The next day, we went on a trip to Cornwall organized by our language school, the Devon School of English. We visited the Eden Project botanical gardens. Seeing the two huge biomes and discovering a lot of exotic plants was fascinating.

On Monday the language school introduced us to their teaching program and we got split up into two small groups. In the mornings we had English classes and in the afternoons we went on various different trips. We were always looking forward to our trip of the day! The activities included a guided walk around Paignton, a visit to Agatha Christie’s holiday home in Greenway, a trip to Dartmouth by steam train along the coast, a coastal walk on the high cliffs, which gave us a spectacular view of the sea, and a city tour of Exeter.

We had a lot of opportunities to go shopping, not only in Oxford Street in London but also in Exeter and Paignton. Although Paignton isn’t that famous, the beach there is very beautiful. We really liked the pier and went there every day. In addition, the weather was really pleasant – apparently it doesn’t always rain in England!

In conclusion, everybody was really happy with their host families and we got to stay in a stunning location. We are convinced that our English has improved a lot, in particular our speaking skills and our range of vocabulary. All in all, it was a really informative trip and a lot of fun as well. We would love to do it again!

 

Swittalek Franziska and Schaufler Marlies