A trip to Gibraltar

 Many years ago I decided to take  my high school students to Gibraltar and spend the day there exploring the town, carrying out some surveys, checking that they - the Gibraltarians-  really did speak English and doing some shopping. Of course my students would only buy chocolate and t-shirts, my students were too young for tobacco or alcohol, the other interesting items cheaper than in Spain!

Gibraltar - The Rock  - A distant dream

During the previous weeks in my lessons of English, they had prepared their visit very carefully with "serious" essays about the Rock and they also had long lists of questions in English to ask passers-by, a kind of survey, for our class. It was going to be a Study Trip!!

They were all excited and delighted about this excursion because our school was in a poor rural area and it was their first important excursion. 

There was a long distance from our school to Gibraltar and we had planned to spend the night in a nearby cheap hotel on the Costa del Sol before coming back to our little town.  It was also a long trip so that day started very early and our bus finally arrived at the "The Fence of Gibraltar" - Customs -  just before noon. 

But just then things didn't turn out as we expected.

The problem was that the customs police wouldn't let us in because we only had an official permit that I had got at the police station, but they didn't have passports and they were all under age!

It was a terrible disappointment. We had to get on the bus again and accept it was an impossible visit!

The funny thing is that many years later I met one of the boys who had been on the trip with me and he told me:

- Pilar, what a great time we had in Gibraltar!

- But we couldn't get in!  I replied

- I know, he said, but I loved the beach where we stayed all day, the hotel and the disco!! We all had a great time. Thanks to you who organized this trip and to the other teachers who came with us.