ENGLAND-PROJEKTWOCHE DES ERZHERZOG JOHANN BORG BAD AUSSEE
Eastbourne an der englischen Südküste – ursprünglich nur als Ausweichquartier zu London gedacht –erwies sich als idealer Standort für die heurige Sprachwoche der beiden achten Klassen des Erzherzog Johann BORG Bad Aussee. Das Flair eines alten Seebades mit seiner reizvollen Umgebung, die engagierten „native speaker“ der örtlichen Sprachschule, ein interessantes Programm, das genügend Zeit für eigene Interessen ließ, das herrliche Wetter und – nicht zuletzt- die umsichtige Leitung durch Frau Prof. Anita Wichert trugen zum Gelingen ganz wesentlich bei. Eastbourne erwies sich auch als guter Ausgangspunkt für Ausflüge in die Umgebung: so ging es per Schiff zu den berühmten Klippen von „Beachy Head“, eine Wanderung entlang des „South Down Way“ erweckte Assoziationen mit Rosemarie Pilcher Filmen, mit dem Zug ging es in das berühmte Seebad Brighton, wegen seiner Internationalität auch „London am Meer“ genannt, per Bus nach Windsor und Eton, wo der „Tag der offenen Tür“ Einblicke in das Leben der wohl berühmtesten Schule der Welt bot. Im Kontakt mit den Gasteltern wurden Sprechhemmungen, soweit überhaupt vorhanden, rasch abgebaut, die Unterhaltung in der Fremdsprache oder die tägliche Lektüre englischer Zeitungen wurden zur Selbstverständlichkeit. Eine besondere Auszeichnung war der überaus freundliche Empfang durch den Bürgermeister der 80000 Einwohner zählenden Stadt, bei dem nicht nur die Gemeinde und ihre Aufgaben vorgestellt und Vergleiche mit Österreich gezogen wurden, sondern auch Insignien, Roben und Rituale der Ratsmitglieder vorgestellt wurden. Alles in allem eine überaus gelungene Woche, an deren Zustandekommen die Volksbank Steirisches Salzkammergut sowie der Elternverein des Erzherzog Johann BORG maßgeblich beteiligt waren.
Our Trip to Eastbourne!!!!
(September 20th to 27th 2005)
We started our journey in Bad Aussee at the school very early in the morning (something like six o’clock…almost night…) with Zwetti-Reisen-Robert who took us (A&B-class) to Salzburg – to the airport. We checked in (Ryan-Air → be careful how much your luggage weighs!!!!! Or you’ll pay!!) and waited for our flight in the Duty Free Shop (even more luggage then…). The flight itself wasn’t very interesting, it lasted for about two hours and then we arrived at London – Stansted. There we had our first experience with the traffic on the wrong side when the very nice bus driver took us to Eastbourne. (We changed the target of our journey from London to the nice seaside city Eastbourne because of those terrible attacks in London) After we had seen a little of the charming inner city, we waited curiously at the language school for our host families to come and get us (Theresa & Irene – we were the only ones left!!!) which was really exciting because we saw them for the 1st time. The rest of the day was used for getting to know the family and making ourselves comfortable there. (at this part: thanks to our host families for being so nice and friendly → especially our family: Mr & Mrs Roberts and the dog “Zach”!!!) The next day: Wednesday! School started at 9 o’clock (like all the following days, except the week end) and we got to know our really funny and friendly teacher Geoffrey who wanted to be called Geoff. With him we spent lots of interesting, comfortable and creative hours, reading through newspapers, doing useful dialogues or just kidding around. (thanks to Geoff, too, he was a very nice teacher!!) The following days we were very busy seeing Brighton (Royal Pavilion, beautiful park, shopping…), Windsor (very, very, very beautiful castle, the doll house, the Royal Guards…) or Eton (the Evans (Boys) House, the boys J, the great Jumble Market where we spent our last money!!!…) and even the Town Hall of Eastbourne where the Mayor himself guided us (very interesting, especially the friendliness of the Mayor has to be mentioned here!!) Another time we went on a great boat trip out to Beachy Head (high cliffs, most famous site in Eastbourne, known for many suicides…but very beautiful). On Sunday we had a day off to do whatever we liked. On this day we went down to the Pier where a interesting concert in the Band Stand took place and we went for a walk along the seaside promenade with all the nice little shops what was a real pleasure with the sun shining brightly. On Monday we were able to do the Hop-on-and-off-Tour by bus through the whole city with all its interesting sites including Beachy Head from the other side – on the cliffs (very windy, but very beautiful with the sheep, cows and crows up there). Furthermore we have to mention that thanks to the perfect organising there were always a few hours time to shop which is really great in Eastbourne because of the charming atmosphere of the inner city. It is not as busy as London or Brighton, which we enjoyed very much. Especially the book shops were visited frequently by all the students who were looking for books for their special fields, supported by the teachers. The time passed at the speed of lightning and soon it was time to say goodbye what was a pity, we would have wanted to stay another week or even longer for we enjoyed it so much and got used to the language, the people and their way of life so fast (getting up at 8:30, having dinner together…great!!!!)
At this point we want to say “thank you” to our teachers who had a lot of effort organizing the week and everything belonging to it! It was unforgettable for us and we can recommend to visit this marvellous city in East-Sussex!!
Theresa Köberl & Irene Schwarz