England, Mate!

Last week I had the incredible opportunity to go to England with a group of teenagers and two teachers from the school I am working with-- the whole process of adding me to this trip went like this:
(my mentor)-"Ulrike, do you have any plans for project week?  We need to find something for Emily to do."
(Ulrike)- "Oh no, I'll be in England for the school trip. Want to join me, Emily?"
(me, completely freaking out but trying to act like I get offered free trips to the UK all the time) "Sure!"

And that's how I got to go on an all expenses paid school trip to England!

The morning of my trip was a bit... overwhelming.  I had to be at the school at 5:45AM to help load up the bus of students so that we could hit the road at 6AM. The only problem was that I am now living in the city next to Rotenburg (Kassel) so I have to commute and the only train that early in the morning arrives in Rotenburg at 5:48AM and then it's a 20 minute walk to the school... uhhh.... I told this to Ulrike (the teacher who organized the trip) and she assured me it wouldn't be a problem. (sigh of relief)
So I wake up at 3:45AM Monday morning to shower, finish packing and walk to the train station to catch what I thought was the 5:07AM train to Rotenburg.  I ended up leaving my apartment 10 minutes later than I wanted to but knew that I would still have a few minutes in order to buy some breakfast/snacks for the long day. And then I realized that I had dropped my scarf and it was at the other end of the block... ugggghhh... I ran to the end of the block, grabbed my scarf and picked up my pace. At this point I still had 15 minutes to get to the strain station- I can do this.  Then there was a creepy hobo having a yelling match... with himself. So I decided to walk on the other side of the street which delayed me a few minutes - okay so now I wouldn't have 5 minutes to peruse the bakery for some treats but maybe 2.  As I'm walking through the train station doors I look down at my watch and see that it is exactly 5:05AM -- do I risk it and run to the bakery right next to my track or do I go straight to the train? I check the train times one more time and see that my train doesn't leave at 5:07AM but at 5:06AM! AHHHHHH! I break out in a dead sprint to my platform, push the button to the train doors, hop on, and no sooner do the doors close than the train starts moving. Whew. It's safe to say that if I would've missed that train, I would've spent the week in Kassel.  There were no other trains, a taxi would've been outrageously expensive and I would've had no way of contacting the teacher to let her know I would be late (she doesn't own a cellphone).

By the time the train arrives in Rotenburg, my heart rate is finally beating at a normal pace, I'm no longer panting and feel a bit more relaxed.  As soon as I walk off the train I notice this guy staring at me- I try to ignore his gaze but he starts walking up to me and says in a thick German accent, "Hello. I'm waiting for you." Ummmm.... what?  He then explains that Ulrike sent him to pick me up so that I wouldn't be late. Yay! When we get to the school I notice that there are TONS of students... and not so many teachers. In fact, there were 44 students (45 signed up but one got sick last minute) to Ulrike, the man who picked me up at the train station and myself. No chaperones. Oh dear, this was going to be an interesting week.

We leave promptly at 6AM and make our way through northern Germany, Belgium, and France.  We finally arrive at our ferry in Calais, France about 10 hours later, settle in on the ferry and enjoy the beautiful weather.  It was the smoothest ferry ride!  The sea was like glass. It took about an hour and a half to make it to the Dover Port in England.  It's incredible to think that people swim that distance!

The place we were staying was like a Chuckie Cheese's on steroids. Very kitschy, but the kids LOVED it!  The staff was so friendly and I ended up getting my very own apartment for the week- YES.

Our first full day in England was spent in Battle, England.  We visited the old battlefield and Abbey- so much history!  The town of Battle was so charming, too!  After touring the grounds, the teachers and I found an adorable cafe and indulged in some tea and crumpets- YUM.  Wednesday was spent in London. WOW.  I am already planning my trip back.  It felt so much like the States which was comforting to me-- it really made me realize how foreign Germany is.  Everyone there was dressed so nicely and had such great accents, too!  It was also nice to experience friendliness and conversations with random strangers again-- Germans aren't unfriendly per se, but they are very reserved and independent. Walking through Covent Garden, seeing Big Ben and going to the Globe Theatre was definitely a dream come true. It was also the perfect London day: chilly and cloudy.

Thursday was spent in Dover, England.  The day was spent exploring the town and in the afternoon we separated into three groups to tour the castle on top of the hill. Incredible!  The English Heritage Society has worked hard to restore the castle to its former brilliance, decoration and all!  I was very impressed.

Thursday night we settled in for the loooong drive back to Germany.  All was well until we got to the ferry-- the weather was so terrible that we ended up coasting around the channel for THREE hours.  I am so thankful I remembered my seasickness pills.  Many of our poor students didn't fare as well. We were all happy when we were finally on solid ground again.

I think the most surprising part of the trip for me was the relationship between the teachers and the students.  The students were given so much free/unsupervised time.  For example, when we were in London, they were given FOUR hours of completely free time and were just told to meet back at the bus at 7PM. Umm, seriously?  44 German teenagers (ages 14-15) in a foreign country?  Not to mention none of them had the phone number of the one teacher who actually owned a cell phone.  I asked Ulrike if she was worried about them and she said "Let's just say it's part of their project for the week-- to make it back to the bus on time!" Well, I guess that's one way to think of it.  I felt kind of like the dad from Finding Nemo when he finds out the teacher is taking his kid to the drop-off. I guess you gotta let them grow up sooner or later?  Definitely a cultural difference there I think.

Regardless, it was a fantastic albeit exhausting week!  Now I have fall break from school but University classes start this week... eeeeh!  And the adventure continues...