Friday, September 30, 2011

Almost home

Addis Ababa 7.30 local time, just arrived from Paris and found out that our Lilongwe flight is scheduled on time, so you can expect us 4 p.m. this very afternoon. Yesterday Disneyland Paris, air balloon flight included: everybody was having so much fun! Some shoppings at the airport Charles de Gaulle, timely departure. Yes we do have a lot of pictures and no we cannot upload them here, sorry. But the students' stories this afternoon will tell so much more. Hope to see you later today.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

some photos








Thursday

Extra late breakfast today, we needed some extra sleep. Then we went to Versailles by train: the splendor of the castle! Louis XIV's taste was quite sumptuous, "overwhelming" as one of the students said. We were lead by mobile guides. By the way: the weather was splendid again, blue sky, bright sun, temperatures approaching the 30s. It seems to be the hottest September in a century and it makes up for a totally spoilt summer in this part of Europe. After Versailles we went to the Louvre where Frenglish speaking guides told us more about some of the top paintings and sculptures, just to name a few: the Mona Lisa of course -actually bigger than I had in mind- and the Venus of Milo; loads of interested questions by our students. Dinner in a food court. And last but not least: Aquaboulevard with lots of water fun like artificial waves and very long (some quite scary !) slides. One of the students cried out "This is love at first sight, sir". Now it is after eleven and everybody is ready to go to sleep, preparing for another fantastic but tiring and -o misfortune- our last day in Paris - at Disneyland.

photos







Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Wednesday

It's Thursday already and we are tired, sorry no photos today but tomorrow, we promise.


Wednesday - From Paris to London and back - some comments from the students :

London was a great day. We woke up at five. We were so excited !
We got to the rain station and eventually got on the Eurostar which traveled at about 300 miles an hour ! It took us about two hours to get to London – we were jumping with excitement ! We went by bus to near to the Tate Modern and walked across the “wobbly” bridge. Then we went to the London Eye. From the top of the London Eye the city looked as big as an elephant, except bigger ! It went very slowly, but it was amazing.
After that we headed for lunch (traditional fish and chips) to an old pub called Ye Olde Cock Tavern.
And then we went to a live show called “We Will Rock You”. It was amazing and a fantastic experience!
We got to go shopping for half an hour at St Pancras Station. And then it was time to head back to Paris on the Eurostar.
We were a bunch of exhausted kids, but we were so happy to go to London and have an amazing day !


Guess what we did ? Well, we went to London on the Eurostar !We went to the London Eye and we did some shopping. Everyone should have a chance to experience this.


Today we had to wake up at 4.45 in the morning !
After rushing to the station, we boarded the Eurostar and used the fastest train in Europe to go to London. Once we had arrived and got off, we boarded a bus and a gentleman gave us an interesting tour of a small part of London.
We then went to the Tate Modern, with its very nice displays.
After this we went to the London Eye. The amount we could see was amazing ! Did you know you can see as far as 40 kilometers on a clear day ?
We had a classic fish and chips lunch. Everyone’s opinion “It was divine !”
Then we saw a musical based on the group Queen’s greatest hits. The whole group was excited and sang along !
Then we shopped for a bit and left for Paris again.


Today our whole group went to England. We were up very early this morning although some people did not have visas so they could not go. Some people were late coming downstairs so we had to rush to the Gare du Nord.
When we arrived, we had to go through the process of check-in. When we got on the train we had a picnic breakfast.
When we got to London we had a small tour of the city. We saw things like the Court of Justice and the Tate Modern museum. After the Tate, we went to the London Eye. We then went to a pub called Ye Olde Cock Tavern where we had fish and chips and lemonade. After that we went to a live show about the group Queen. It was amazing ! After that we went shopping at the train station.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

tuesday

Tuesday – another exciting day of adventures in Paris ! We started off with the awe-inspiring cathedral of Notre Dame with its beautiful famous rose stained-glass windows.
Next a journey underground, way down below the streets, below the metro trains,… down into the bowels of the earth beneath southern Paris … into the catacombs, …where the bones of around 6 million people have been carefully built into intriguingly macabre long winding walls … !
After a treat of crêpes (traditional French pancakes), when the students chose from the French menu and ordered their own crêpe (in French !), we went to the bewilderingly huge shopping mall, Les Halles, where everyone was let loose for a wonderful three hours of shopping till they dropped !
But they weren’t allowed to drop ! After meeting up and checking out everyone’s purchases, off we set, walking through the evening streets of Paris to the Latin quarter for a sumptuous meal of Moroccan couscous !
We are just back and everyone has gone to bed. We have a very early start tomorrow morning – we can’t miss that TGV to London !

I’m sorry but we can’t post photos this evening as the internet is very slow and we need to get to bed ready for our early start … But more photos will be posted tomorrow we hope.

Monday, September 26, 2011








Paris on Monday. Comments from the students :

It was surreal, mind-blowing, extraordinary aaaj-mei-zing !! The Eiffel Tower was probably the highlight of the day, overwhelming by just being sooo humungous ! But not forgetting the Pompidou Centre, where we got to see various artists’ (Picasso, Matisse, Braque and others) pieces of work.
We started off after breakfast, walking to the Père Lachaise cemetery, a quiet place, with very grandiose graves and monuments. We got to see the graves of Jim Morrison (the lead singer of The Doors), Oscar Wilde (a famous poet and playwrite), Frederic Chopin (a famous composer of classical music) and Victor Noir (a famous journalist who was assassinated). Some groups went to see the graves of Pissaro and Seurat, (both impressionist painters which year 7 have been studying).

I like Paris. I liked the tour in Paris. I hope I will enjoy everything in this week.

When we had our picnic this evening, I saw the Eiffel Tower light up at night. It was beautiful !

I had so much fun !