Looking back

On Sunday evening I came back home from London. I had spent a week there together with 13 students and another teacher. The week was physically and, to a much lesser degree, mentally hard. But it was also full of excitement and fun.
  
One often wonders what makes one take a group of students to a big city and take responsibility of their lives and security. What makes one work 16 hours a day with very few breaks in between? Surely, one must be a little mad.

Well, I've been doing this regularly for the past 30 years. I can say that all the trips have been different. There have been difficult moments in each of them, but afterwards you always look back to them with joy.

One wants to give young people a chance to get to know the culture of the country that has taken one as its own. One wants to give them a chance to notice that they can manage with the language skills they have acquired at school. And one wants to give them a  chance to experience exciting things together with other young people.

The moment we got on our coach at Heathrow Airport and started our trip to the hotel, you noticed that the cultural intake had started immediately. The students were reading aloud the names of shops, restaurants and shops. Later they had to use the language to buy their travel cards at an underground station. The next day there was a tube trip to the London Zoo and a bus ride back to the Underground station. You also learnt how to order your food at a restaurant and learned to use the magic words 'please', 'thank you' and 'excuse me'.

Later during the week you noticed in Liverpool that not all Englishmen speak their mother tongue in the same way. There are different dialects with Scouse being one of the most delightful ones. That's due to the fact that 38 years ago the first people I made friends with at a London camping site happened to come from Liverpool.

The week was full of music, history, zoology and shopping, of course. On our last night we went to watch William Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Many of the students found to their delight that they could follow the play with very little effort. The actors played their parts well and the play was full of laughter and fun. It was an unforgettable theatre experience.

I was lucky to stay a week in London with a group of students who were open and active, eager to notice and learn new things. You had a great sense of humour and never lost it, not even when buying an ice cream. You showed that you appreciated the English way of life. And that is something that makes my heart sing. I thank you all for it.

Matti