On Saturday, many students went shopping in various German towns like Dusseldorf, Oberhausen, and Essen. Some popular activities included going up tall towers, visiting amusement parks, attending festivals and parades, playing sports, and going to the movies. On Sunday, more shopping was done and additional activities involved going to museums, ice skating, playing mini golf, watching sports games, and spending time with host families. Overall, most people seemed to have fun weekends exploring Germany with their exchange partners and families.

1. So what exactly do you do at
the weekend on the German
Exchange?

2. Jasmine F: Me and Anna went shopping in
Dusseldorf and went up the tower and had lunch
right at the top. But the floor revolved around so
it made us feel kind of sick. On Sunday we went
in the woods with Eleanor and Helena and went
up the wooden tower that‟s used to see if there is
a forest fire.

3. Emily H: on Saturday, Lena, me and her mum
went shopping to Oberhausen, which was fun as
its quite big and there are a lot of English shops
there, like H & M. On Sunday me, Lena, David
(her brother), Jonas (her boyfriend) and her
mum went to center parcs in the Netherlands. It
was really fun because it was a swimming place
where there was a lazy river, an outdoor ride, a
tubed slide, jacuzzis, an eating area, a pool with
waves, kids pool and more!! It was a good day,
and really enjoyable.

4. Maisie: On Saturday I went shopping in
Dusseldorf and met up with some people. I also
took a tour bus of Dusseldorf. Me and Julias
family then went out for tea. On Sunday I went
to a carneval and I then met Alicia and Marie
there. In the afternoon I saw Mollie and Svenja
we all went for a walk around the town and had
an ice cream!

5. Eleanor: On Saturday I went shopping in
Monchengladbach and bought some leggings, and
after met up with Jasmine and Anna. On Sunday
me, Helena, Jasmine and Anna went to this forest
and went up a tower, then we went to have lunch
at this place and met the old English woman! She
was very nice!

6. Ella: On Saturday me, Katharina, Samuel (her
younger brother) and her mother went and
walked the dog round some lakes that lead
straight to the sea. After that we met up with
Katarina‟s older brother Miguel and his girlfriend
(Julie) and her dad. We then picked up Mike (her
boyfriend) and we went shopping in a giant
centre. Then I helped them set up for “KWON,
Touch the spirit”. We blew up balloons and put up
flags and were up till midnight making waffle
batter. It was funny because Samuel made the
mix go everywhere and on me. On Sunday I
watched many fights of taekwondo. We did that
until four o‟clock then we went home to get
ready for Saint Martin‟s Sunday parade. Samuel
was in it you see. We watched that then went
home and had waffles and then it was time for
bed.

7. Rachel: On Saturday we went shopping around the town and
got some ice cream then we went to a dance festival called
„Street Beats‟ which Franzi‟s friend was participating in, her
group came 1st place which was cool  after that we went to
McDonalds!
On Sunday we went ice skating with Molly H and her partner
until 6pm, then me and Franzi went to a restaurant, called
„Steakhaus Rustika‟, with her family and that was very
delicious!
It was an extremely fun weekend 

8. Chelsie: On Saturday we went to Sealife with Molly K and
Svenja after that we went shopping in Centro. Centro is a
massive shopping centre. We had Asian noodles and then we
did more shopping. When we got home we played on the wii
and got ready to go to Becca‟s partners house for a sleepover.
On Sunday we went to Moonlight minigolf. It was amazing. It
was really fun and Kati‟s mum won the game, we then went to
a restaurant and had pizza.

9. Alex:
On Saturday we went to Oberhausen shopping and to see sea
creatures,t hen on Sunday we went to watch ice age live in
Dusseldorf.

10. Molly H:
Sup‟ guys! On Saturday I went to see Lisa play football and
went to a street dance competition. They filmed it and I‟m
going to be on t.v! Awesome. On Sunday we went ice skating
with Selena, Katsie and Rachel. I fell over 5 times and Rachel
fell over once. Great. I think I‟m pretty good now though!  It
was fun!

11. Becca: On Saturday we went shopping in Essen. We spent
like, 2 hours in Primark and all I bought was a jacket and
shirt:L Then, because it was dark, we went for a walk and
looked at all the Christmas lights. They were so beautiful.
Then Chelsie, Mollie, Alex and their partners came round for a
little party. On Sunday we went into Dusseldorf and took loads
of amazing pictures. It was really fun.

12. George:
At the weekend I played football in Hattrick hall, 5 a side
football. It was very exciting. England beat Germany! In the
afternoon I played mini golf with Nico and his parents and
that was also very good. Then we had tea in a very good
Pizzeria, the pizza was amazing. On Sunday I watched Nico
play basketball and went to Towerland, a German Theme
Park. For tea we went to a steak house, the steak was the
best steak I have ever had. It was a very enjoyable weekend
where I always had something to do.

13. Joe: On Saturday I went to monchen gladbach stadium
for a tour it was really good. Also I went to a st martins
parade with Emily, Gideon, Sunny, Kathrin and Jasmine.

14. Jamie: What an exciting weekend! Saturday saw me playing
football with seven other people. We had a match where
England (and Benedikt) played Germany, and guess who won?
What? No – not Germany… However, there‟s always something
that goes wrong no matter how hard you try to avert disaster. I
got hit in the nose by someone‟s elbow and had a really bad
nosebleed, but miraculously I managed to not get any blood on
my virtually brand new white t-shirt. In the afternoon we went
to see a handball match in which my exchange partner was a
reserve. As with most of the few sports teams that I
occasionally support, we lost but I found he game really fun to
watch. It is not very common in the UK and it is a fast, high-
adrenaline and exciting sport. I don‟t think there are many good
excuses why we don‟t play it in Great Britain. We went to see a
festival in the evening to commemorate Sankt Martin, a well-
known saint in Germany. It involved a parade and then a
ceremony in which the story of Sankt Martin was told. After all
the festivities, lots of children received a bag with lots of fruit
and chocolate. (continued…)

15. Jamie (continued):
On Sunday morning we went to a science museum in the city of Essen
(I thought that we were going to a food museum). It was full of tricks
and experiments to do with sight, sound and touch. It was a lot of fun
and I learnt some things that I would never have known otherwise. On
the way back we stopped at a fire tower in the middle of the woods
near Hinsbeck (ironically built of wood). The view was absolutely
phenomenal – you could see the amazing colours of the autumn forest
in the foreground and you could see the Netherlands and all sorts of
castles and church spires in the distance. On top of that, it was the day
with the best weather of the whole trip, so the sun was shining and the
sky was blue. We walked back with the atmosphere of a lovely late
afternoon in autumn and that ended the fantastic weekend of an
amazing stay in Germany.

16. Jasmine H: I went up a tall tower in the middle of the forest,
and got chased by a dog. We then went to meet family, I also
saw the parade and the carnival. I then watched a football
match with the family and Monchen Gladbach won! I had
three takeaways that were lecker, lecker, lecker! I also sat in
the town hall with friends eating pizza and we did a raffle and
we won a dead skinned rabbit, a bag of sweets and black
pudding. It was a weird, but good weekend!

17. Charlie: On Saturday we went to a Sankt Martin festival at
ate a special tradition for the celebration, afterwards we met
up with some friends and went to a fire and saw Sankt
Martin on a horse. On Sunday we went up a big tower in
Dusseldorf, it was great and Mrs Hampson told us about how
last year she had a dinner in the revolving restaurant and lost
her bag as she put it down on the non-revolving part! 
hehe!

18. Eva: On Saturday we went to a coal mining museum and it was
massive. It was very different to the English ones and was actually
quite interesting. After that we went to Dusseldorf and went
shopping. I found out that they have a Primark here too. I guess you
do learn something new every day! When we were shopping we ran
into a couple of Eva‟s mums friends. One of them knew a lot of
English because she lived in America for two years… We went to a
bar and I taught her brothers spit which is a card game. I am usually
very good at this game but I somehow lost every match… Oh well I
guess you win some you lose some but in this case I lost a lot! It was
different but I had a very good time! 

19. Gregor: on Saturday Nils and I went to play football with
some other friends in a place called hat-trick hall. It was
strange because rather being a grass pitch it was an indoor
astro turf pitch. After this we went with Harry and Kai to see
skyfall in a cinema. On Sunday we went to a special variety
show. It was very exciting and I had a great time.

20. Emily C: On Saturday we went to the town shopping, we
looked around the Supermarket and I got to choose what food
I would like to eat. Then we went for an ice cream.

21. Harry: On Saturday we went to Aqualand, a swimming pool
in Köln. It was pretty good. Many of the slides were similar to
the ones in England apart from one which involved a verticle
drop and a loop the loop. Afterwards we met up with Gregor
and Nils to go watch skyfall in german. On Sunday it was Kais
granddad‟s birthday so we went to his town and met up with
his family to play kegeln, which was pretty unusual but fun.