JOURNAL OF A GREAT GRANT:

10 DAYS IN CAMBRIDGE

Helena de Sola Díaz

Once upon a time thirty students from the Secondary school IES Néstor Almendros received fantastic news, they would go to England for ten days and they wouldn’t have to pay for it. It was amazing! This is a diary of what they did there:

Tuesday, 17^th April.

Today was the day! Everybody was nervous, they were checking whether they had everything, some girls were vomiting because of the trip, others were requesting for help and information about how was travelling by plane because it was their first time.

At 16.00 almost everyone was at the airport. We checked in and then you could only see kisses, and kisses and more kisses... We said goodbye to our families and we waited for the plane. The plane arrived on time and there we listened to music, read, talked and looked out the window. It was a very nice landscape.

We arrived in Madrid and immediately we took the plane to London. After arriving in London we took the coach to Cambridge. It was a long trip and we were very tired. We took taxis to our houses and we met our families. In my house, there were a beautiful Mexican woman with her daughter and one girl from Valencia.

Wednesday, 18^th April.

At 11 o’clock we were at the meeting point talking about our experiences. We were surprised at some of the stories. In one of the houses a thief tried to steal but the owner went out with a baseball bate, two girls couldn’t enter their house because nobody opened the door, others couldn’t eat anything because the owners closed the fridge with key... We laughed a lot! Then we visited Cambridge and Trinity College. We had lunch and we went shopping. Finally, we went to our houses and everyone did different things. I watched Ugly Betty on TV and Friends, one of my favourite programmes.

Thursday, 19^th April.

I got up because the sun was shining a lot. It was a nice day and it was the birthday of the girl who is living in my house. She was singing, everybody was happy, I went to the meeting point whistling, it was a nice day!

We took the bus to London and we visited Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, London Eye and Trafalgar Square, the centre of the city. We ate in Hyde Park. It was hot and we sunbathed. We also went to Harrods but it’s too expensive! We were all the day walking, and walking, and walking, almost everyone was tired. When I went to bed I thought that there wasn’t anything better and I dreamt deeply. Alex, the Mexican in my house arrived home late, she was with her ex-husband, what did she do? Are they going to get married for a second time? It’ll be continued...

Friday, 20^th April.

We went to Stratford to visit the house where Shakespeare was born. It was a very interesting place. The guide told us that people in there slept sitting on the bed, but they didn’t lie because they thought that devils could go into them, they were very superstitious! They also had red curtains (to remove bad things) and green (to bring good things). I was surprised! Then we went shopping and we went to McDonald’s. We found a wallet; we also met some English students and a handsome French boy! At the end we went to the meeting point, but we arrived late and we had to pay.   Carmen and I were angry! Because we thought that we had to be there at another hour. On the coach, Román read our hands, he is a fortune teller. When I arrived home, Alex was having a shower, she was too happy, she told me that she had a meeting with someone, she was nervous because she didn’t know how to dress, and I was nervous because I wanted to know with whom she was going out....It could be her ex-husband!

Saturday, 21^st April.

Today has been a long but a fantastic day! We’ve been to London and we’ve visited British museum, a punk market (it was amazing; people were very strange, spectacular!!! I liked it a lot!) We also went to Oxford Street, it’s enormous, and there are a lot of shops and big sales!! But we only stayed there for a little time.... Then we went to Piccadilly Circus, it was also great! There were a lot of people and shows. We walked a lot and when we returned we were too tired to do anything else, it was also too late. But today has been a fantastic day!

Sunday, 22^nd April.

A relaxing day!! I got up at 10 o’clock and I was resting. We went to watch a football match: Spanish people vs. English people. We’ve been lying on the grass until lunch time. Boys and some girls were playing all the time. I was singing, dancing and eating all the time! We didn’t stop eating! Histon people had lunch at the Green and we’ve spent all day there, it was a nice day.

Monday, 23^rd April.

We’ve been to Oxford. It was precious, excellent, and witty, I did like it very much, but it was 3 hours by bus. We’ve visited Oxford University. Some scenes of Harry Potter’s film were shot in the dining-room of this University. We went shopping, there were a lot of different shops but I didn’t buy anything. We got on the coach and we arrived at about half past seven, my family was eating.

Tuesday, 24^th April.

We went to Ely, near Cambridge and we saw the Cathedral. It was very big and it’s the most important in Cambridge. It’s a Protestant Cathedral. Three of us had to pay a fine because they took the parish priest’s microphone and they started to talk with it, people were angry!!

Then we had free time and we went shopping in Cambridge. I bought many things. There was a sports shop with big, big sales! Everyone was there and teachers too. It was fantastic! Cambridge is a nice place.

When I arrived home, I played with the little daughter, I learn a lot with her! She was always teaching me!       

Wednesday, 25^th April.

I think it was the best day! We met a lot of people; we went to St Ivo School. It’s enormous!! And people there are very friendly and we had a nice welcome.

At first, we went to a Spanish lesson. There were only ten students and we made groups of four Spanish and an English student. My English student was James. He is very friendly and he was all the time talking to us. Then we went to a Language lesson. I was surprised! I thought they were very formal because they call their teachers with Mr. or Mrs. and their surname, but they were walking in the class without shoes, they were always talking, they didn’t listen and almost everyone didn’t do anything. It’s really strange! They have a low level, I think because it’s a state school.

At a quarter past eleven we had break time. We met James’ friends; they are very friendly too. We ate something and we went to Maths class but the teacher didn’t want us to stay there and we stayed with the other Spanish in a room talking about our experiences.

An hour later we went to Geography lessons. When it finished we had lunch time and we ate pizza!

Finally, we had Sciences. I think it was the best lesson. We saw some interesting things and we studied the parts of the eye and how to correct the sight of a person. We dismissed everyone and we took the bus to Cambridge.

I had a really nice day. I like that school, it has a lot of things: tennis courts, two climate swimming-pools, cooking lessons, different amazing activities... I hope that we keep this relationship and we’ll go back or they come to Spain. It’s fun to meet people from different areas!

Thursday, 26^th April.

Today, my family woke me up early because they had to go and they wanted to dismiss me. It’s a great family, I’ve learnt a lot with them because they were always talking to me.

At 12 o’clock we took the bus to the airport and we arrived there three hours later. We ate, went shopping and then we waited for the plane.

Now I’m on the plane, we’re waiting to take off. It’s the end of our fantastic trip. I think it has been a nice experience! I wish we come again and meet our new England friends. I advice you to go to England if you can, it’s fantastic!