Diary
Written by
EF students of
The Isle of Wight
July 5th-18th 1999

Leaders :
Joanie and Sarah

Tuesday July 6th

We were all to meet at the school at 9am. There we discovered it was a church hall that was not meant to be a classroom, but we arranged the tables in a hoof to make it easy to see each other.

Sarah was our local leader and Claire her work experience. While Joanie was trying to figure out what was to be done on that day, Sarah organised games to get to know everyone. Then there was the placement test and the students got a big break to let Sarah, Claire, Dounia and Joanie mark them. Joanie made a speech about being careful with money and important habits in England.

We went to the park for lunch. Around 2pm Joanie dictated the questions for the town quiz and then the students went on their town walk. They came back quite late and we didn't have time to go through the questions together. Then they all went for dinner in their host families.

We met again at 6.15pm to take the bus to Ryde, to go to the EF disco. The disco begins at 7pm and finishes at 10 o'clock, but the kids in a junior group have to be back to their host families at 10pm, so they had to take a bus around 9pm to go back to Newport.

Wednesday, July 7th

This morning we had the teaching together, we received our books and made games.

This afternoon a group went to do sports and we went sailing. There were Rodolphe, David, Elsa, Dounia, Nadège and Amélie. We took the bus to Cowes and went to the sailing school. We made three groups, in a group there are two or three students and a teacher. We are with a very nice teacher. First we were in a ship with a motor. We went safely, we had to see how sailing works. The son of the owner was over his ship and his ship was vertical. We sailed and we played : we had a bucket in the boat and we took water from the sea to squirt the other groups.

In the evening we went to the disco.

Thursday, July 8th

Today, we are learning in the morning (group 1 with Sarah and group 2 with Joanie). Then we go to the park to eat lunch and someone took photographs of the group.

In the afternoon, we take a bus and we go to visit the island. All the girls are at the back of the bus and we sing very loud and we deafen the chauffeur. First we went to the Needles, the little village has carrousels and small shops. Elsa, Ladina and Tina went on the carrousel.. Then we went to another village (Blackgang Chine), there was a giant standing there. We stopped at a third village (Godshill), it was a nice village.

We had a free evening so we stayed in the park (we = Elsa, Hannah, Jean, David, Ladina, Michael, Steven, Julien, Tina and Karin) and we played "action ou vérité". Then we asked Elsa who she loved and she said : Jean. Later in the evening she goes out with Jean.

Friday, July 9th

We went to school at 9am and we worked in our books.

After lunch, Claire showed us the way to Carisbrook Castle. The students went to make a tour of the ramparts and visit the donkeys. A bit later we had a demonstration. A donkey was walking in a wheel to bring up water from a very deep well. If you pour water in the well it takes 6 seconds before you hear the noise of it.

When we came back in Newport, the students had one free hour and Sarah, Dounia and Joanie went shopping for the beach BBQ.

Then we all went to the beach in Ryde. The meat was a bit black but everyone seemed happy and they went to bath in the sea too.

Saturday, July 10th

This morning we can sleep because there isn't any school. But the little boy of the family was screaming at about 7 o'clock. We wake up at 9 o'clock. The weather was good. It was very hot, but there were many clouds.

At 1.30pm we went to the beach, but it was low tide. The beach expended for about 1km (?). The ocean's temperature was good. I think we are not going to bed very late because tomorrow we are going to London. The leader will wait for us at 6.45am.

It was a very good day. Goodnight.

Sunday, July 11th

The bus left Newport at seven in the morning. We took the ferry and then we had a coach to drive us to London. It was a long trip. When we arrived in London, we all wanted to get out of the coach, but we had to do the sightseeing tour first, that took one more hour and the students were not really interested.

Finally we stopped at Hyde Park and we had lunch there. Joanie showed everyone on the map where the coach was and where we were going.

Then we headed to Piccadilly Circus by foot. We wanted to visit the Rock Circus. It's a part of Mme Tussaud's but only for people that have something to do with music.

After the Rock Circus, we walked to Oxford Street and we were left by groups of four to go shopping. We had to meet again at the coach two hours later.

All together we walked about 5km, it was a very tiring and hot day.

Monday, July 12th

Today it is Rodolphe's birthday. We have a very special day. We talked about London. Sarah had taken her CD player so we listened to music, we danced and we sang. At the end of the morning, we all sat on the floor and we offered Rodolphe a basketball. Then we all played basket.

We were free in the first part of the afternoon. At 4 oíclock we went bowling in Ryde and then we had a KFC dinner on the docks.

At seven we went to the disco.

Tuesday, July 13th

In the morning we went to school and to the market !

In the afternoon we went to the beach, but not in Ryde, in Sandown. Stuart (our new work experience) said it was "nearer", but it took 45 minutes to get there. The water was cold, but when we got into the sea it was OK.

We were taking the bus back, however we missed the first one and waited for over an hour for the next one to come. Joanie was angry and this was understandable. Then it started to rain, luckily we didn't wait for long in the rain, the bus finally came.

In the evening we went to the disco. We were bored of the disco so we decided to catch the 9.05pm bus back to Newport. When we got to Newport we chatted in the park. An English guy came over to us and sat with the group and talked to us in English. So Dounia tried to translate what he was saying. Thankfully he got up and left, phew !

Wednesday, July 14th

Like everyday, in the morning we had lessons.

But in the afternoon, after lunch, we went to Queen Victoria's Castle (Osborne House). It was very interesting, but I think it was a shame we couldn't take pictures. Joanie gave to everyone a question about something or someone in the Castle (Grrrrr!). My question was : "who gave Queen Victoria the giant vase that can be seen in the room something ?" I asked a keeper the question and she told me that the vase wasn't there any more ! Doesn't matter, the answer was Tsar something 1st. Next we went out and looked at the gardens.

In the evening we went to the disco, in Ryde (which is the second biggest city of the Isle of Wight). Actually I donít really like the disco, because the volume was (and is) too high !

Thursday, July 15th

We go to school at 9am. And at lunch we eat in the park. When the lunch is finished we have about one hour for shopping or walking, at 1.30pm we are going to the cinema. The film begins at 2 o'clock and it's Star Wars, the movie of the year, so there is a very long queue.

Now we are seating in the cinema, we are very excited. But the movie is very disappointing, it's only for little children.

After that we are going to our host families for dinner and to relax. Tonight it's free so everyone goes where he wants. Steven and me are going to the park with friends. We are making some jokes. It's 9.45, Hannah and me must go home because we must walk and the night is coming. The other ones are doing the same. Goodnight.

Friday, July 16th

Today morning we went to school and we answered a questionnaire until 9.40am and there was a 20-minute break. Then we had to fill in two more tests. At 11.45 we went to the park for lunch. At 1.15pm we took the bus heading to the laser game.

When we arrived, we were told about the rules and we painted our faces with camouflage. We went into the woods and we were shown the base. We had to fight against a Finnish group, they were thirty-two and we were twenty-two. We played for two hours. When the game finished we went back to the organiser and he said there were 176 dead people in our team and 178 in the Finnish team. We won ! We all took off our camouflage and went home.

We met again at 6.45pm, half of us took a bus to Ryde and waited there three quarters for the rest of the group. Then we all went to the ice-skating disco. We got out at 9.45pm to take a bus home.

Saturday, July 17th

We went to the bus station at half past eight, we took the bus to East Cowes to take the ferry at 9am. We arrived in Southampton at 10 o'clock and we went shopping for four hours. At 3pm we came back to East Cowes and some of the group took the bus to Newport but there wasn't enough seats so the rest had to wait for an hour.

We ate in our families for the last time and our host parents drove us to the ferry station and said "goodbye". We took the ferry to Southampton at half past ten and we took a coach to Heathrow at midnight. Then we had to sleep on the floor in the airport. It was a horrible night, and we came back to Geneva at 12.30pm the next day.