From 18 to 24 April, the students of classes 3C and 3D took part in a language trip to Ireland. The following two texts, written by students Aaliyah Hafez and Aischa Muftic, describe their impressions of the trip.
I love English, that was the main reason why I was so thrilled to find out about the school trip to Ireland. At first I was not really sure if I would get along with my classmates but in the end it brought me closer to them. We all stayed with host families; my friend and I chose to stay together.
Before we went on the plane, I was very scared because it was my first flight ever, but looking back it was not even that bad. When we stepped off the plane the fear was instantly gone and I suddenly felt excitement and joy. Next, we had to take the bus, which was not a very long drive. When we got off the bus, we had to wait for our host families. When they finally arrived, the mum greeted us warmly. On the drive to the house they spoke with us a lot and talked a bit about Bray, where we stayed for the week.
The highlight of the trip was definitely the funny teachers, because they made the lessons enjoyable but still they managed to teach us things. What challenged me the most was probably having to live with strangers for the week. They had a cat, which made it better.
I have to admit this was the longest time I have ever been away from my family but for some reason I did not really feel homesick like I normally do.
Aischa Muftic
When I first heard that my class and I were going to fly to Ireland I was really excited. The trip was from 18th April to April 24th, these were the best six days of my life. My grandma made me go because before she died, she was always talking about Ireland.
The flight plus the bus ride were about six to eight hours long. Thankfully my host family picked me up. I felt really excited, because I’ve never been to a host family. My host family had a pretty house in Bray.
The highlight of the trip was when my friends and I went to the beach with our host families. We got ourselves some ice cream and went to an arcade. After that we went to the bus stop and spotted the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen.
There was one tiny problem. On our last day in Ireland we went on a treasure hunt. It was cool but we got completely lost. My friends’ phones were dead and I had 10%. Quickly I opened Google Maps and we ran back to the school, just to find out that we were way too early in the school building. While we were waiting we ate some tasty chips from the corner shop.
To be honest, I did not learn a single new English word. The school was not good, we were just playing some games. My host family was really charming, and the host mom made really memorable food that I loved. I learned to trust people more. I also learned to mind my own business otherwise some drunk Irish teenager will try to slap me, but most importantly I learned that family isn’t always connected by blood and I also realised that some of my classmates are actually pretty cool. All in all, I had a really good time in Ireland.
Aaliyah Hafez
We (6C, 6D and 6I) had the opportunity to visit the city of New York in 9 days. While we were there, we stayed on a campus in Tarrytown, a small and quiet village just outside the city. Living on the campus was very enjoyable. We had English classes, explored both Tarrytown and NY and spoke English all day. This helped us improve our English understanding and speaking skills.
After spending some time in Tarrytown, we went to New York City, where we spent some time. The city impressed us with its people, the energy there was, how diverse the city was, the size of the buildings and streets and how crowded it was. We visited famous places like Times Square, which was full of billboards with bright lights, Central Park, where we saw a bit of nature. We also saw the High line, the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building.
Exploring New York together as a class made the trip even more special. We discovered so many places in Manhattan, tried so much food and enjoyed the unique atmosphere of the city.
Overall, the whole trip was an unforgettable experience and an amazing and exciting adventure.
