Spanish trip – Mallorca April 2023 • Ben Ketteley & Michael Beacon Ben Ketteley and Michael Beacon (Year 9) recall how they improved their Spanish as well as having fun on the Year 9 trip to Mallorca We arrived at Gatwick on Saturday in good spirits and wrapped up in trousers and jumpers suitable for the cold English spring. Two or so hours later we stepped off in Mallorca in equally high spirits but quickly in shorts, t-shirts and bucket hats, in 20-degree evening heat. After settling into the Hotel Caballero, and eating a mas- sive dinner, we started early on Sunday to head to our classrooms, where we were joined by four local teachers who had grown up surrounded by the culture and lan- guage of Mallorca. As well as revision of key grammar, we worked on useful vocabulary for talking in Spain and beyond, and on our pronunciation and speaking. That afternoon, after a swim at the hotel pool, we went to the Kathmandu theme park, which contained the spooky upside-down house and a fun crazy golf course. The second day followed a similar pattern, with break- fast, class and pool, but this time followed by a journey on an old historic train through tunnels, forests and lemon groves to arrive at Port Soller, where the beaches looked more Caribbean than European. The next afternoon, Go-Karting became another special moment of the trip. Every race had its one-on-one’s and battles – it is fair to say the students were the better drivers than the teachers! Everyone enjoyed the day, and football, volleyball or even sandcastle-making on the beach capped it off brilliantly. As the trip came to a close, we drove to the centre of the island where we went paintballing, playing two games in different outdoor arenas. All coming away bruised and tired, we cooled ourselves down with some ice cream in Palma, the capital of the island of Mallorca. We visited the city centre afterwards, heard about its rich history and explored the cathedral and its gardens. It was a brilliant way to cap off a fantastic trip. Overall, our busy days and smoothly run trip were enjoyed by all and it was a fantas- tic experience for everyone. Not only did we improve our Spanish, but we also had a lot of fun! ◎
Ben Gbadamosi (Year 13) and George Clark (Year 12) had the unique opportunity of working in the local radio station. They conducted – in Spanish – their own afternoon programme about the trip, involving all the students as well as Mr Iltchev – who led the trip – and Mr José Herrera and his wife, Mafalda, who organised the week’s activities. They interviewed their peers about their placements and played music. Aside from the work experience activities, all students also immersed themselves in adolescent life in Spain whilst learning and making friends. The pupils had the opportu- nity to engage in activities with Spanish students from sev- eral schools in rural Cantabria and Santander on a daily basis. They explored Gaudi’s Capricho in Comillas, visited the 18,000-year-old cave in Altamira, and the nearby colonial town of Castillana de la Mar. Pupils felt stretched yet invigorated at the end of the trip and full of confidence ahead of the examination season in the Summer term. Sixth Form Economics trip to Frankfurt Easter 2023 • Oliver Hime (Year 12) Frankfurt is an eccentric mix of quaint houses, a languid, murky river and a cascade of cherry blossoms framed by a cluster of piercing skyscrapers that lure financiers from across the world. The pinnacle of pride for our tour guide, as we trekked across Frankfurt at the start of our trip, was Commer- zbank, the tallest building in Germany, thanks to its 41m antenna, which he gleefully exclaimed to be classed locally as a ‘skyper’. We were lucky enough to be ushered into its lobby, where a vast Foster-designed hollow triangular chamber stretched all the way to the top to allow light to flood into every office. Our first full day was filled with visits to the twin hawks of Germany’s banking system: the Bundesbank and the European Central Bank (ECB). While the glass-cloaked ECB stood like a lone soldier watching from afar, the Bun- desbank was nestled in the heart of the Frankfurt financial machine, embodying the necessarily impartial nature of the ECB in juxtaposition with the deeply personal and inter- twined relationship a central bank must have with its do- mestic banks to ensure they remain obedient. At lunch, the allure of traditional German food was quickly overwhelmed
Work experience trip to Cantabria 2023 Easter 2023 • Ben Gbadamosi (Year 13) In the first week of the Easter holidays, a group of eight Year 12s and 13s (and one Year 11) went to Cantabria to immerse themselves in work experience in a na- tive-speaker setting, meeting their Spanish counterparts and taking advantage of Spain’s culinary delights in the Cantabrian seaside towns of Comillas, Cabezón de la Sal, and Santander. The essence of the trip involves working alongside na- tive-speaker mentors individually or in pairs every morn- ing, dealing directly with local customers in industries chosen by the students, which range from local shops, cafés, restaurants, schools and real estate agencies to radio stations.
by the wealth of affordable kebab stalls that crisscrossed central Frankfurt; we soon found that schnitzel was some- what a luxury item in the local tourist haven. The next day, we had the incredible opportunity to visit JP Morgan’s European headquarters for a tour of their offices and a talk from two of their managing directors and a sen- ior asset manager. Everything was just as to be expected from the most valuable bank in the world: gleaming glass offices, plush wood panelling, traders with six computer screens each displaying ever-fluctuating graphs – and free pretzels. This contrasted starkly with the Boerse Frank- furt, Frankfurt’s stock exchange, where we peered over a glass balcony to watch a cluster of traders that echoed caged zoo animals on exhibition. Analogue black and white displays of a plethora of stock prices lined the walls, ticking back and forth to delight tourists, but representing a stressful reality for thousands of traders and executives across the world. Our trip culminated in a tour of Frankfurt airport, which involved sitting on a bus for two hours while the tour guide chattered to himself in German about the scattering of aeroplanes that littered the tarmac. Until then, the oddly old-fashioned but modern town that is Frankfurt was a delight, and I highly encourage you to visit.
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THE ALLEYNIAN 711
TRIPS
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