On Thursday 10th October 50 Cheney students (mostly in year 10) and six teachers flew to Berlin for the first leg of the second annual Oxford-Berlin exchange. The 20 students studying German stayed with German host families. The 30 historians stayed in a youth hostel. They returned very late on Monday 14th October. 

 

We think the Berlin trip was brilliant and we had a really fun time there. We went all around the city on buses, trams and trains looking at museums, architecture, historical sites, shopping and much more. Because we were on the German side of the trip, we stayed with German families. They were very kind and spoke very good English. When we had time with the family we went out with the children (our age) from the family and met up with other German students and friends. Also we had dinner every night with the family and the food was 'banging' (very good). My favourite bit was going bowling. It was really nice to get to get to know the German students and have a fun night with my English friends. My other favourite bit was the flea market where I bought lots of really cool stuff.

 

The first thing the history students did was check into the youth hostel which was right around the corner from the German School. The hostel was really nice and was a lovely place to stay. On Thursday evening we went to the heart of what used to be East Berlin, Alexanderplatz, and had our first free time. Then we went to a local mall called Alexa where we all had dinner and had a chance to look around the shops. The next day we spoke to some German year 7s about what Oxford was like. They could definitely speak better than our English year 7s speak German! Then we went to the Reichstag, it was such a sunny and clear day and the view was lovely. It was really nice looking out over the entire city. Then we walked around a bit and looked at the Brandenburger gate. In the evening we went bowling with the whole group and some of the German host kids which was super fun. The next day we went to the DDR museum which had loads of interactive stuff. In the evening the history students played pool together at the hostel with the teachers which was one of the group's favourite activities. The next day we went to the flea market where everyone bought some really fun items, for example lots of fluffy communist hats! On our last day we took a boat ride through the centre of Berlin. There were really nice views even though it was super cold! Then we walked to checkpoint Charlie and explored the area. The final thing we did was have a big amount of free time where we explored Alexanderplatz and the shopping centres around it. The trip was really good even though we spent half our time travelling on trains!

 

Khadijah M, Year 10 German

Alex A, Year 10 German

Freya P-H, Year 10 History

Halit X, Year 10 History