Awesome trip.

Friday 15^th October I took the plane, with Julia and Marion, to Birmingham. At the airport we met the Finnish people I was glad because I like meeting new people they were kind and we talked a bit with them before taking the plane.

We arrived in Birmingham at about 9.30 pm, and then we met our host families. It was a bit stressing because we didn’t know what to do. Sam and his father brought me to their house and then I met the rest of the family, Sam’s mother and little sister they were veryfriendly. It was good to meet them. I showed them some documents about Thuin and Belgium they looked very interested.

Saturday 16^th October I woke up at 7.30pm (yes I was tired) and then we went to Sam’s string orchestra. There were about 70 people in it, it was really impressive to listen to. We stayed there a while and then Ray (Sam’s father) brought me to his work to show me what he does. Basically he produces flyers/prints to the restaurants, the parties,... He was very excited to show that to me that was funny, I enjoyed it. After a little ride downtown we took Sam back to his orchestra. That midday we ate at Macdonald. LaterRay showed me the channels and typical things in the city. The rest of the day I went to Ray’s wife library, it is different from here because there were lots of kids playing the Wii, and other games. Good atmosphere. In the evening I came back home… tired.

Sunday 17^th October

I could taste a typical English breakfast, I don’t need to tell more about it but it was delightful! Afterwards we went to visit the town, the Selfridges was huge I had never seen such a big mall before that. We visited the church,…That family was practitioner catholic. In the afternoon we went to something like a meeting. There was a preacher (I suppose) who told us about Jesus and who asked us some questions. It was philosophic.

The evening came, I could taste a typical English Christmas meal.

Monday 18^th October

First day at school! I found back Julia and Marion it was good to hear what they had done. We went to a girls school called ‘Selly park technology school’. It was big. We had lessons like English technologic,…Later I could meet the other students from the Comenius project through some team activities.

At the end we came back to Archbishop School. I ate Fish and Chips with mashed peas that evening. It was delicious.

Tuesday 19th October

I went to school with Sam. I had never seen such a huge school before! I attended all the lessons with him. It was weird because everyone was looking at me and was asking to Sam about my name, how old I was,…but they were funny and kind, I had a free lunch at the canteen that midday. I saw that after school people could stay and do some activities. Sam was in a band with his friends and one of his teachers I could attend the practice.

That evening Ray showed me the Spitfires (a sort of plane) that were very important for England during the world war. I saw some very expensive cars too. Back at home they gave me some presents (very kind of them).

Wednesday 20^th October

I got up early said good bye to Sam because he couldn’t bring me to the airport then with the rest of the family we took a magnetic train (Ray told me that the train was floating in the air) we arrived at the airport. My teachers met my host family. I thanked Ray and his wife Anne for everything and they went away. Later we took the plane and we were back in Belgium.

BY ROBIN ANANABA, IND THUIN