Svea Z. - Ilfracombe

This summer I spent two weeks in the small seaside town Ilfracombe in the west of England. I arrived on Saturday by plane. After the baggage claim I immediately found my escort from the language school and together with many other international students I was brought to Ilfracombe where my host family picked me up. My host family welcomed me and I got to know my host sisters. They were from Sweden and Czech Republic and we all became friends.

At the first day at school we were put into classes consisting of roughly 15 students of many different nationalities and we had to write a test which actually was very loose. In the afternoon I finally had my first surfing lesson. Everyone got his or her own wetsuit and then we went to Woolacombe beach. Although the weather wasn't that good it was so much fun! I could have stayed in the water the whole day.

At 5 p.m. we returned to school and at 6 p.m. I had dinner with my host family. Later in the evening there was a barbecue at school where we could meet our new friends and play tennis.

In my two weeks in Ilfracombe I had two daytrips. The first one was shopping in Exeter and the next one walking through Exmoor and along the coast which was pretty cool!

The school every day was also a lot of fun because the lessons weren't like normal boring school lessons at home. We just talked about interesting things and for example wrote a song. I really enjoyed the time in my class! At some days after school I also went to disco and karaoke with my new friends and we had a lot of fun. But most of all I enjoyed the surfing lessons. The feeling when you stand on the board for the first time is just unbelievable!

Now where I am back at home I really miss Ilfracombe, my host family, surfing and my new friends and next year I maybe will come back to Ilfracombe.