DAY 4
The first morning before we got to London was all about beating the fatigue, because we had stayed up late the night before. After that we prepared everything for the London trip and got our typical English breakfast. Pancakes and a cup of tea. After we had said goodbye to our host family, we walked the way with the best view of the landscape. There was fresh air and the atmosphere was chilly and windy. After arriving at Cambridge train station, we talked with some of our classmates. David was the central topic in our conversations, because he had become really ill after vomiting all the time and had to be taken into hospital.
It took us about 45 minutes to get to King's Cross in London and then we took the underground where our destination was Westminster. Tower Bridge, the London Eye and the Tower are all must-sees when you're in London, we didn't have the chance to go into all of these buildings but we enjoyed getting to see how grand everything was.
First we went into the Tate Modern Museum. At first I wasn't really interested in it, because I don't like art. But the Tate Modern Museum changed my way of thinking about art and the “Art of Art". One bizzare and also scary picture was really interesting, it was a picture by Rudolf Schlichter with the name: “The two hanged women".
This piece of art shows two dead hanged women as the name indicates.
One has blonde hair, a white dress and brown boots and the other one has a red dress and black boots. The boots are important for his artworks, because Rudolf Schlichter had a boot-fetish. In the background, there are a green wall and a wardrobe. On the right hand side there is an unknown person in white and a sofa. Some people speculate that this person could be the artist himself. Back then it was normal to see pictures of dead women, because neither corpses nor women were treated the way they are now.
Afterwards we visited The Globe where we had a tour guide to show us around and who explained the architecture and how plays were performed. It was very interesting and it's nice that they keep this masterpiece from Shakespearean times alive. After visiting The Globe we took the underground again and we got off at Oxford Street. Our teachers gave us one hour to explore this place, but we were so hungry that we spent our time at Mc Donald's. After many hours of walking and going by train back to Cambridge we were then exhausted and tired. So we had to beat the fatigue again...
By Viktor Duong 5a
Today we went to London again. This time I saw some popular sights,
like Big Ben, but you can't see it because of construction work, the
London Eye, the Tower, Tower Bridge and the Houses of Parliament.
We were on our way to the Tate Modern, when we saw all this.
There we could look at some art in the free display areas. There was a
city made of sand and couscous and a tower made of radios!
We had to describe a picture or a sculpture. I chose this piece of art to write about. It was made by Haegue Yang, who explores the history of conceptual art shaped by a set of rules. She often uses things you use every day.
The sculpture, which was built in 2015, consists of over 500 window blinds. Yang wanted to observe the change of light while moving, privacy and visibility. But when I looked at this piece of art, I thought of something very different. All the blinds seem like cages and they reminded me of animals, e.g. birds. I thought about experiments with animals and I could nearly see the birds sitting in their cages. But the thought “cages” reminded me of prison too, and of the security custody (Sicherungshaft) Kickl wants to introduce in Austria.
Again we had some time to look around and eat, then we split up into two groups, one went on an old war ship. I went to the Globe Theatre, which had originally been built and used by Shakespeare! I think it’s amazing, it was very interesting! People in Shakespeare's times thought of the stage like they did of the world. So the bad characters in plays came out of a trap door on the stage floor, out of hell, and they could lift people up, so the good characters came from heaven. And there were also the names of the people who spent money to rebuild the Globe on walls and stone tiles.
After The Globe we met up again and went to
Oxford Street. I think it was big, loud, crowded and
glaring. Simply put: boring.
But it was a really nice day!
By Luka Messner 5a
Dear diary,
yesterday (Saturday) we went to London again. And although I was there not long ago, it was as fascinating and exciting to see this big city again as it had been at the first time. I took a bunch of pictures of the London Eye and of my friends and me in front of it. While posing in front of the camera and walking down the street we had so much fun!
After that we visited the Tate Modern and got the assignment to chose one picture or sculpture and find out something about it.
Well, the sculpture I’ve chosen is called “Lobster Telephone“, which is a surrealist object made by Salvador Dalí in 1936. It looks just like an old telephone, but instead of the receiver, there is a lobster. The one, I saw, is not the only “Lobster Telephone“. There are five coloured ones of them in the UK, Austria and Germany and there are also some off-white ones in the USA, Portugal and South Africa. They cost nearly £9 000, because Dalí thinks they could “reveal the secret desires of the unconscious“.
Well, I like it a lot, but somehow I can’t really say why. That may sound strange, but it’s the truth.
After the Tate Modern we visited The Globe Theatre and I liked that even more! The rest of the day we went through the whole city to get to Oxford street to go shopping.
This was another taxing day, but it was totally worth it.
Bye, Fiona.
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Fiona Mayramhof 5a
Today was our second trip to London. We took the train to King's Cross station again (which really looks like it does in the Harry Potter movies!) and first went to the spot where most of the tourist attractions are. There we had time to walk along the riverside promenade and take photos of the London Eye or the Houses of Parliament. I don't think that I've ever seen so many tourists at once!
We then went to the Tate Modern and could have a look at some of the displays.
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The artwork I liked best was a high, round tower built of radios. You can hear various sounds, so that it seems like it’s really a lot of radios broadcasting on different frequencies. At the bottom there are old, big ones and at the top newer, smaller ones. According to the description ,Cildo Meireles, who made the tower, got inspired by the Tower of Babel. In the story humans want to build a tower that is so high that it reaches heaven, but god doesn’t want them to and gets angry and makes them all speak different languages, so that they can’t talk to each other anymore and have to stop building the tower. The artist apparently used radios because they’re all similar but each one is unique, and the artwork is about “information overload and failed communication”.
I really like the artist’s statement about radios, because you could say the same thing about humans: They’re all similar, have two arms, two feet, a head (well, most of them), but no two humans are the same, we all differ from each other in DNA, fingerprints and, more importantly, character and personality.
The atmosphere in the room reminded me of a big city, everyone is just trying to get somewhere, most people are stressed, it’s loud, some of them are talking on their phones, you can hear music and cars, and the people just care about their own lives and problems, everybody on another frequency, trying to ignore and to drown out the others, and misunderstandings happen all the time.
When we met again we split up into two groups, one was going to the Globe Theatre, the other one, which I was in, went to see the HMS Belfast, an old ship that has been used in several wars. It hasn’t been changed a lot and still looks like it used to do. As I am interested in history and like ships in general, I enjoyed seeing the captain’s bridge, the machine room, the passenger’s bunks, the big steering wheel and so on. I think I’d like to live on a ship for a few months some day, but rather a research vessel or something like that than a warship.
Our next destination was Oxford Street. Some of us went shopping, others got some food and Luca and I just wandered around and here and there we went into a shop. Although I enjoyed the day, I was glad when I sat on the train to Cambridge again because I was quite exhausted.
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By Redinger Miriam 5a
Dear Diary!
Today was our second day in London, and because I didn't think it could be better than the first one, I got proven wrong once again. In the morning we took the bus to the rail station, and because we wanted to be on time, we took one of the earliest ones. So we had enough time to go to Cafè Nero, where all of us bought a Chai Latte. I'm sure I'll never forget that taste, the slight smell of cinnamon, milk, and other ingredients. On the train all of us did something for school or tried to relax, but in each tunnel we went through, I had such a terrible pressure in my ears. It was seriously kind of weird, because just us students seemed to notice that. Maybe the other passengers are already used to it.
Anyway, we went to Westminster by Tube, and passed by the London Eye. It is even taller than I've always imagined. But we didn't go on there, we went straight to 'Black Friars Bridge'. Then we arrived at the Tate Modern, where we had about 2 hours‘ time to look at all the paintings, sculptures, and other kinds of art.
Especially one caught my attention. It's called "Atlantic Civilisation", and it was done by André Fougeron in 1953. It shows many people and every day situations of all kinds. I'd be able to interpret a lot into the painting. In the middle of it, there's a car, above it a soldier in the war, ready to shoot. A man in a tuxedo is crossing the street and attempts to get into the car, and he's holding up his hat. Behind him on the left, there is a mother with her child, dressed all in white, which probably stands for innocence. At the top, there are children dancing and holding hands, while the dark fog from the factories envelopes them. Right next to them is a torture chair, and the friendly looking apartments are covered by placards of war.A coffin is being pulled into heaven, and down on earth someone's crying for the person who has died. A woman with darker skin holds the dead body of a baby, children are alone in an old car, babies are starving, and in the middle of all that is a man sitting on a chair, reading a magazine and does not even care at all. He doesn't even notice all the things that are happening. I do not really know a lot about the time when the painting was drawn, but I think the man in the middle stands for the richer people with no problems, for ignorance, and the ones who don't want to see what is in front of their eyes.
For me this was the painting with the strongest statement, and it really impressed me. I was standing there in front of it for about 5 minutes to take in everything on there.
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After visiting the Tate Modern we could decide if we'd rather go and see the
Globe Theatre, or visit a famous war ship. I chose the Globe Theatre,
because I love Shakespeare and I've also read many books of him. When we
were on the tour, I really could imagine how the people felt back then while
watching such amazing plays. Our tour guide was amazing and she really
made us all listen attentively.
And then the best thing happened. We went to famous Baker Street, where
Sherlock Holmes lived. We were only six people going there, and actually that
was very funny. At first we went to the shop, and it was amazing there!
Everything felt so real, the assistant called us all "Miss" and "Sir", and
they even opened the door for us. Next to the shop, there was the museum,
where a man was standing. He actually just checked the tickets, but when
we took photos of him, he asked us if we wanted to take one with hin. It was
such a great feeling being there!
Afterwards we went to Dunkin' Donuts.
Back at King's Cross,we had to wait for the others, and Miss Haider
bought each of us something at Cafe Nero, which was really nice of her!
Then it sadly was time to go back to Cambridge, and we were all very happy
to get a rest!
I'll see you tomorrow,
Yours Katharina Peer 5a
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DESCRIPTION OF A PIECE OF ART AT TATE MODERN
In the midst of the Syrian civil war a video was made by Erkan Özgen which shows a little boy trying to explain what he has seen even though he is voiceless.
When I saw this video in the Tate Modern I was overwhelmed by the power of his body language. It made me feel extremely sad and uneasy to see what he showed me. This poor little boy had seen so many atrocities. It is so unfair that this boy has to live in a destroyed country while we in Europe live an abundant life. It makes me angry that some people are just fighting for power while the rest is suffering. I hope that a peace deal will end their misery.
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By Noah Plattner 5a
HSM BELFAST
WAR CRUISER ON THE RIVER THAMES
Next station King’s Cross and here we are again for our second day in London.
Today, the sixth of April, we met at nine o’clock at the train station in Cambridge. Some of the students were very excited, the others went to the M&S shop inside the station. At 9:15 a.m. 47 students squeezed into the train to London. An hour later we go onto the Tube at King’s Cross, more clearly, we took the Victoria Line to Westminster. On leaving the station, we saw the covered Big Ben due to being refurbished. We crossed the bridge down to the London Eye. The whole area was packed with tourists.
Afterwards we had an incredible walk along the Thames. We went into Tate Modern to see works of modern art. We were told to write a description of our favourite painting or sculpture. For this task we had only one hour and in the end, we went of top of the building to enjoy the astonishing view of London.
Later the two classes were split up into two groups to visit either The Globe or The HSM Belfast.
Both activities were very interesting and awesome. But afterwards the best part of this day came:
Oxford Street. The teachers told us “In one hour you have to be back on Argyl Street, sharp” Immediately a cluster of students started off to their shopping spree. An hour later all students had more than one bag full of clothes. After a very long, exhausting but smashing day we were back home at seven o’clock.
By Maximilian Haslinger and Fares Melhiba 5b
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