The 10^th of January was a relatively peaceful night (for Johannesburg anyway.) However when the clock struck 21:00, the peace was broken by the roaring engine of  a Range Rover, racing to O.R. Tambo International Airport. Yes – as usual – I was late.

I arrived at the airport that night in the nick of time, thanks mainly to my Dad. We unloaded my bags and raced to the check-in counters. After the reassurance of the flight attendant that I was still going to make my flight, everybody relaxed. Everybody except me anyway, I was still anxious about my first day at Wrekin College. I said my goodbyes to my family and headed off towards my boarding gate, content about the prospect of a good movie on the plane.

I landed at London Heathrow Airport on the morning of the 11^th of January, pleased that everything had gone smoothly up till then. I met with Mr de Weymarn ( the person in charge of exchanges to and from Wrekin College) and his wife. He informed me that we were to wait for two students from Australia, one exchange student and one gap student. "Great! A couple of guys to make friends with before getting to Wrekin College", was my first thought. My hopes were cruelly crushed when Mrs de Weymarn informed me that they were both girls. I quickly bolted for the restrooms to freshen up, but after seeing my reflection in the bathroom, I realized that no amount of freshening up could compensate for a sleepless night.

The Australian girls landed – thankfully in a worse off state than me as their travelling time amounted to twenty-six hours, as opposed to my eleven – and together we began our three hour trip to Wrekin.

Wrekin College is a co-educational private school, located in the Midlands of England in a small town called Wellington. Wellington is a forty-five minute drive from Birmingham and is very near to the boarder of Wales. Wellington is part of Shropshire one of the largest counties in England which includes neighbouring towns and cities such as Shrewsbury and Newport. Wrekin has full-boarding facilities, but also caters for weekly boarders and daily scholars, aged 11 – 18.

The United Kingdom is well-known for being such an international place. What I mean by this is a lot of people from other European countries, and indeed a number of people from countries in other parts of the world live and work in the UK. Wrekin was made up of mainly English,  German and Russian students, but there were also students of other nationalities. This fact, coupled with the co-educational environment of Wrekin College gave the school a very diverse group of students. This, in turn, gave the school a very welcoming atmosphere, a place where people were warmly welcomed and integrated. An atmosphere that everybody at Wrekin College could benefit from, including myself. Being the new South African kid on the block, the people at the school had many questions to ask about where I came from. The most frequently asked questions were: “Was South Africa as dangerous a place as advertised?” and “Whilst in South Africa, do you often see lions and other wildlife roaming around?” Some posed these questions simply for a good laugh, whilst other were genuinely curious as to whether I kept a lion as a pet or not.

Wrekin College had three boys Houses and two girls Houses.  Nonetheless there is the same number of boys as girls. The three boys Houses were Bayley house (the house which I was placed in), Tudor house, and York house. The two girls Houses were Clarkson and Roslyn, however the girls also had a communal boarding building called Haddon.

A class trip to Birmingham university

My first day at Wrekin ( a Sunday) was quite challenging for me, I felt out of sorts, and not to mention jet-lagged, but such feelings settled quickly. I was introduced to my Housemaster, Mr Brennan, and Mr and Mrs John who took care of the boarders in particular. My head of boarding helped make arrangements for the next day, my first day of actual school. I went to sleep that night both thankful for a warm bed and excited about the day that lay ahead of me.

The next day I was surprised to find that the number of people in the house had trebled as all the day scholars and weekly boarders arrived for school. I was introduced to the House in their version of House Prayers and was greeted with a lot of smiling faces. From that moment onwards I knew I would enjoy my time greatly as a Bayley boy, and indeed as a pupil at Wrekin College.

I was taken to choose my subjects, and was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that I was only required to do four subjects as opposed to the seven or eight at Hilton. I decided on Maths, Psychology, Business Studies, and Politics, which I quickly swapped for Art – to my Politics teacher/headmaster's dismay, as they were one and the same. Of all the subjects I took, Psychology was the most interesting, as it allowed me to take my knowledge of Biology and apply it to real life situations – in the Social Psychology section – as well as to increase my knowledge of human biology, specifically pertaining to the brain. Art, however, was great fun as I showed both the teacher and myself my latent talent – to be more accurate, yet to be discovered talent.

I entered my first co-educational classroom since kindergarten – if you could call kindergarten class. I had heard stories about the co-educational school environment, but no story teller can describe the contrast between mono-gendered and co-educational classrooms. The learning environments were just too different. For one thing, your comments and questions in the classroom were opened to “constructive” criticism from both the teacher and the students. To be made fun of by your teacher is bad enough, but to have such an ordeal followed by a chorus of, high-pitched giggling makes it all the more worse. However, this English humour made for some memorable lessons. It was also refreshing to see that people did not take such comments seriously, accepting them as good, old-fashioned fun. Having a co-educational classroom also helped to provide a more well-rounded opinion, as girls and boys have different perspectives. This did lead to some constructive arguments in the classroom, but just as often did not. I enjoyed the co-educational atmosphere at Wrekin immensely. It kept me on my toes and alert, so as not to be caught off guard by a question that could lead to me being the subject of laughter.

While I was at Wrekin, I was “privileged” enough to have braved the coldest winter England has had in decades. Coming out of a warm South African summer, with temperatures often reaching the mid thirties straight into subzero temperatures was a shock to the system. It took me a couple of days to get used to being pelted by snowballs and passing by large snow men and snow angels on the way to school in the mornings but it was definitely an experience to be remembered. The school looked beautiful whilst it was snowed under and I took the opportunity to take some pictures of the grounds of Wrekin for art class, which proved to be more aesthetically pleasing than I expected from a school in England.

After school there were inter-house snowball fights. These weren't really organised events but rather the work of seniors, rounding up the house and attacking other houses. It was all great fun!

While I was at Wrekin, there were several school events that I was lucky enough to attend: The Bayley Ball, The Clarkson Cocktail, and The Roslyn party. The Bayley ball was a formal, black tie event. All the boys in Bayley dressed up and invited their partners to this event.

It was a time when people in the school to get to know each other in a setting less serious than school, and a chance for students and teachers to interact on a more social level and a chance for the whole house to come together and have some good old-fashioned fun. The boys could invite dates from within the school or from outside the school. It was a great event that was enjoyed by all – including me. The Clarkson Cocktail was a cocktail party for the senior girls of Clarkson. They too had to invite dates, either from the school or from outside of the school. I was fortunate enough to be invited. The Roslyn party was sort of a house party with a theme, at the girls'. house, Roslyn. The theme there was 999 – Emergency services, and peoples costumes proved interesting. Everybody got involved and this again was an event where fun was had by all. I loved some of the costumes!

The Roslyn Party

Parties, balls and cocktails are great, but the thing that stood out most for me about Wrekin, and indeed England, was their amazing love of music and their appreciation of musical talent. There were many bands and musical groups that gave musicians an opportunity to perform in public. The UK has a certain appreciation for music in general that seems to be absent here in South Africa, and because of this I managed to watch quite a few performances in Wrekin's theatre, which were great! While I was at Wrekin I was encouraged to start an instrument too, and I decided I should start guitar. I took lessons at the school, and used my prep sessions to go play at Music School (their Music Department.) I was also able to play with some of the bands formed by the students. I acquired a taste for classical music while I was there, something I had never really appreciated here at Hilton. Events like the Choir or Jazz Band performing I used to take for granted but since my Exchange I enjoy such events. The amount of musicians at Wrekin College could easily be compared to the number of rugby players we here at Hilton have, which was amazing. Music was the one thing that brought different parts of the school together. It encouraged integration between the different gender and different age groups.

There were many other aspects of my exchange that I enjoyed, after all its often the little things that count. I had an amazing three months on my exchange, and I loved every minute of it. I would just like to thank Mr. Guthrie and Mr. de Weymarn for organising my exchange and making my time at Wrekin College possible. I was afforded a once in a life-time opportunity, and for that I am eternally grateful.