The trip began for us at Barrow Market Place, we had a very enjoyable bus ride down to the hull docks. We then got off the bus and on to the ferry, other wise known as the 'Party Boat', we had a brilliant dinner (All you can eat baby!) and we partied all night to the 'cha cha slide' and the 'Macarena'.

When we got over to Zebrugge we had a long tiring journey to Belgium, but managed to eat 'a'la pav menté' on the way.

Whilst we were in Belgium we had many tasks to do and complete, I was in a team 'Katana's' with ‘The Auntie Mel’.

My favourite part of Belgium would have to be the woods challenge, (we had to go through the woods in the dark) and the swimming was fantastic, (you’ve gotta take risks to have fun!).

After the week had finished we all had a hard time leaving, and hoped next year came very quick!!!, so I will be hoping to go to Belgium again next year.

I made many new friends including: Matthias(Woo), Kenny, Yanick, Michiel, Peter and many more…, I really enjoyed it and will be looking forward to when the Belgians come over in August.

p.s. Thank you to Chris for the code name: etalocohc

On the 9th of April we met at Ken and Anna’s house at around 3:30 pm to pack our bags in the mini bus ready for Belgium. Then we eventually got in and went to Barrow to pick the rest up.
After a very short ride to hull we got on the ferry and looked around a bit. At I think it was 7 pm we had tea. It was a buffet so you could have what ever you wanted and how ever much you wanted. There was this man who served us at dinner and he did this magic trick which we all tried to copy but it was so hard, it was really good though. After that we went to the disco it was ace we danced the night away. Then we went to bed and I talked for ages with Ana and Jess and Brodie and Emily. Then we went to sleep.

In the morning we all woke up quite early then had a huge breakfast, packed our overnight bags then got back on the mini bus to go to the place we were staying.
We were all set for about a two hour trip so we set off. Then after a bit we found out that there had been a crash on the road we needed to take and the road was blocked so we had to take a detour. We eventually stopped to ask for directions and had some lunch then set off again. We were meant to be at the place we were staying at, at 11 and I think we got there late after noon.
We did get there and when we did we unpacked our bags in to our room and laid out our sleeping bags. After all that we met in the hall of the place we were staying at and played a game. In the games we had to do lots of activities and two people from every team had 2 do it. My team was called the Katanas auntie Mel was the team captain then there was Kenny, Wout, Jorn, Austen and me. When I did it I fell over and lost my shoe. Then we did a really long walk through the woods which lasted 3 hours, when we eventually finished we went back to Eric’s and went on a zip wire down his garden it was ace. Then went to sleep.
The next day we got up and had breakfast then went swimming. The swimming was one of the best parts of the trip. There were rapids which Brodie, Jess and me didn’t like. I went on them 3 times the 1st two times I enjoyed but the 3rd time the rapids were much stronger and I hurt my self quite a bit. There were twists, turns and waterfalls which you had to go down and I got trapped under the water then and banged my head owch. There was also an ace slide which every one went down we also went as a group. Even Alex went down the baby version. After swimming we went back and had lunch. then we did some sword fighting which was really good.

Then on Thursday we got dropped off somewhere then went to this castle and had to do tasks around it. We then came back for a Flemish test and then had dinner.

On Friday we had a Flemish lesson first thing then after that we did karate. All the English people went outside to practice for the competition. Then we went around Hasselt doing tasks and our team came back first for that. I had the shortest bus ride ever that day we got on it for literally one minutes then got off again. Then we had the party which was brilliant we all danced and sung and acted crazy. Jess and me plated Matthias’s and Michiel’s hair for a bit it looked really cool. Haha. Matthias plated my hair to be honest it wasn’t that bad.   Then I was really tired so I went to bed.

Saturday was hard but rewarding. First of all we had a karate rehearsal for the competition then we played volley ball which lasted ages but it was fun. Then we had pancakes for lunch yumm. After all that we gave out the prizes for the winning team, the Tantos won it ( Andy’s team). Finally it was the competition I was so nervous before we went in we ran around the garden so many times. After that the competition had started. First it was team Kata. Emma, Jess and me were in a team and I thought we did very well (we came 3rd), Liam, Chris and Elliot came second and Brodie, Shannon and Emily came 1st. I had a little time to practice for fighting after that because there were other mixed (English and Flemish) teams fighting which included Jess, Emma, Ana and loads more. However when I actually fought I didn’t win, but I was a bit cross at first but then I realized not every one can win so I felt better. After everyone had fought they announced the winner and we won.  We celebrated and got pizza, but I was a bit sad because I had made friends with so many people and I knew I wouldn’t see them in ages.

Then we came home on the ferry and partied again. Then when I went home I went on msn and I spoke to all the friends I had made Matthias, Kenny, Yannick and Michiel.

The end

I really enjoyed the trip (especially the waffles, meeting new friends and the swimming) and I will definitely go next year.
Xxxx Ellie xxxX

The journey began when everybody went to Ken and Anna’s house on Monday 9th April. As this was my first time going to Belgium with karate, I was really excited and didn’t know what to expect. When the mini-van finally arrived, we all piled in and set off for the ferry docks at Hull. When we got on the ferry, we went to our cabins, dumped our belongings and hit the shops before tea. I shared a cabin with Brodie and Emily. The next morning we set off to Hasselt. After many detours on the motorway, we finally arrived. All of our Belgian karate friends were waiting for us at the building where we were staying and training and having fun.  When we had set up our beds, we went downstairs into the hall to be sorted into groups. I was in the Tai Chi's, with the leader Caleb, Yaan, Rubin (?), Yannick and Elliot.

During the week we went on an evening walk in the forests doing tasks along the way, went swimming at the most amazing swimming pool I have ever been to, we did sword training, had a dropping and orienteering, did language tasks and much more.  Near the very end of our trip on the Saturday evening, we had a competition against the two proud countries; we did kata, kumite, and the big fights. As Belgium had won the cup last year, we were determined to get it back, and with lots of luck we did. It was incredibly hard saying bye to all of my, now very close, friends, but I will hopefully see them all again next year.

Buster (Jess) xxxx

This was my first trip to Belgium with Karate and I was very excited!  On Monday 9 April 2007 most of us met up at Ken and Anna’s house, waiting for the mini bus to arrive.

When it did, everyone crammed in, and we headed off to our first stop, which was Barrow, to collect everyone else. Once we had all our passengers we drove on to Hull to catch the ferry. This was also my first time on a ferry and I was very anxious as to what it would be like. We got to go shopping, have fab food, and do some dancing! That night I shared a cabin with Jess and Brodie.

The next morning we all had to wake up early to have our breakfast before leaving the ferry and driving to Hasselt. After a long drive and lots of de tours we finally arrived in Hasselt. As we pulled into the car park, all our Belgian karate friends hurried out to see us. We unpacked and then we all gathered in the main hall, where we were split up into groups. I was with Wendy, Liam, Michiel, Geoffrey, and Rafael. In these groups throughout the week we did a number of tasks and activities, including volleyball, drop-offs and night walks in a forest; and, just for fun we went to the best swimming pool that I have ever been to!

On Saturday 14 April, we had a big fighting and kata competition. Unfortunately last year England lost the fighting competition, so we were really pleased to win it back this year. So was Ken. Many of the fights lasted a long time but mine seemed to go very fast! England also won the kata side of the competition: in first place came Shannon, Brodie and I; in second Chris, Elliot and Liam; and in third Emma, Jess and Ellie.

We left Hasselt on Sunday 15 April, after lunch to drive to catch the ferry back home. This time I shared a cabin with Martha. We all had a great night in the disco. Then in the morning we arrived back in Scotter just after 10am, absolutely tired out, but having had a great time.

I’m glad you’ve booked next years trip already Ken!
Wiggle (Emily)

On Monday 9th April we all met at Ken and Anna’s house, ready to put all our  things onto the mini bus whilst we said goodbye to our parents. After everything was loaded up and everyone had said they’re goodbyes . We set off and sang all the way to the ferry docks in the bus. Everyone was so excited and happy.

Later on in the evening when we’d got on the ferry and sorted out all our things in our cabins, everyone each sharing one between two. We all freshened up ready for tea at 7 which was very nice and we had an all you can eat buffet. Then a bit later on we made friends with a funny Chinese waiter who gave us all paper roses. After tea when we were all full we went back to the rooms and got ready as there was a disco which started at 9.30 and we partied until just gone midnight then went back to the rooms, talked for a bit and then we all finally went too sleep, as it was an early start in the morning.

The next day or should I say later on in the morning, about 7, (6 in English time) we were all woken by a customer services alarm that went off to tell us we were near to docking and breakfast had started.  Then later on at a bout 9 we all packed up our things, got on the mini bus and set off  for  camp. It was a really long journey because all the roads were closed, so we stopped for dinner and then not  long after that, we arrived at camp where all the Belgium lot were there waiting for us.

We unloaded the mini bus and then set everything up, such as our beds then afterwards we all went downstairs. Got put in out groups and grabbed some lunch and played a game. It was hilarious, We had to put a box on and climb over a ladder and do a little obstacle course thing whilst trying to hold a cup of water without spilling any whilst people where throwing water bombs at you.  After we had all settled down we waited until it got dark and went for an evening walk to get to know our team better then have a campfire afterwards.

On Wednesday we went swimming. The swimming pool we go to is great, never seen one like it. It has lots of different swimming pools and slides and too top it all off it has rapids which are fab. They were really good and we all spent most of the day in there.  Later when we got back, the Belgium lot and the English lot were separated too have separate language lessons.  Our England lot were learning Flemish whilst the Belgium lot were learning English, even though most of them really don’t need to as it is already brilliant. The Flemish lessons were really interesting and Auntie Mel gave us all a great laugh with some of the things she came out with. We all then had some dinner and then did an hour and a half of training and after  an hour of sword fighting. It was great fun and something completely new and different to us all. At the end of the trip, the winning team won a sword each and some people bought a sword with the remainder of their money.
Everybody was extremely tired after today, so Eric decided to finish it off with a few games which were a laugh and got our teams some really good points.

Thursday was also an extremely busy day and when we woke up a few of the older lads had gone on the drop off, which is where at stupid o clock in the morning, like 4 or maybe 5 o clock they are all told too get up, pack a bag, make a lunch and then are made to get on a bus and get dropped off in a random place with a few tasks to do. Whilst they were all gone, the rest of us got up, had our breakfast and then trained for a couple of hours. We had three parts, each with a different teacher. One of which being Eric, the other being Ken and the third being Anna. Each session was very different but good fun and hard work. Later we had the smaller drop off which was where we went in the remainders of our groups and got dropped off at the start of a woods with  a map to find our way back.  When we all got back we had dinner and then get ready for the evening activity which was watching two cartoon movies, but it turned out the younger children watching the movies and the older ones playing football outside.

When we got up Friday morning we had our usual routine get up, dressed and washed then down for breakfast with 5 minutes to spare for ourselves afterwards, giving us time too get ready for our morning task, which was not too hard this day. We did a half an hour language sessions and during this the drop off boys came back. We were all given a bit of time too get ready after, as we were about to start  a long training session but again in two parts. One part, usual training and the other training in our England/Belgium teams ready for the competition on Saturday. After we then had dinner and headed off into the city of Hasselt to do some tasks which was really quite tiring but again great fun as we had to do them in our groups and saw some great things, such as the church.  Later on after tea we had a party which was good fun and then afterwards we did some special Greek dancing which was really quite funny as everyone was getting their legs tangled up and falling all over.

The next day which was Saturday was the final big day. We first had a karate rehearsal in our own teams, then after sorted out prizes and had dinner. Then at about two o’ clock we started the volleyball competition which was good fun as the team I was on were crowned champions after Ken had had us running round the camp because we didn’t try hard enough the first game we had, Which for the next games as you can probably guess we put 100 % effort  in.  After we had dinner and then got ready for the competition.
The one we have been preparing for, for ages….

The competition went great. England won *WOOOT*  Our team kata’s all went great. We victoriously came first throughout the overall competition within our fighting and kata. The whole team were great and it was a great feeling to of won, celebrating with the whole tea. Having a great week with a fantastic ending.
We all ordered pizza, the Belgium team too. Then took pictures and had a bit of another disco.  The whole course had finally come to a finish and some of the Belgians went home, whilst some also stayed.

Sunday was the very last day for us too and we had too pack up our things and say our goodbyes. It was really quite emotional as we all made such great friends over there, throughout the week and the previous year. But we all know that maybe in August and next April we will see them again. Also throughout the year we all keep in contact over instant messaging, emailing and texting.

By Ana Burns

When we got on the mini-bus we were squished!!!

So we couldn’t move much! Austen and Chris kept on laughing their heads off! Chris also played with his cards all the time. I kept on being mean to Andy because he always shouted "I’ll break your nose!".

When we got onto the ferry we couldn’t find the way to the keys for our cabin and the cabins were tiny; you could visit Tom and have a shower at the same time!

We went to the bar, Me, Ana and Martha went on the outside platform of the boat and when we looked down at the water we thought it was very far down so we hurried back inside! We then partied all night!

The next day we arrived at Belgium, we met all the Belgian people and got our bags inside and unpacked. We then made the teams up and had a game of "Run from the water balloons".

Each day we had many tasks to do; one of them was going into the woods and running from goblins! We had to find swords too. It was really dark! People made scary noises and voices to get you scared!

My favourite parts of Belgium were: Going swimming, sword fighting, doing the competition and playing volley-ball, even though we came last.

I hope to go next year and have a great time…again!

Elliot

We were the last pickup of the day. We all got on the mini-bus at barrow market place and set off for the ferry at Hull. After we boarded the ferry we went to our cabins then all met up for an evening meal, I enjoyed the meal because it was a buffet (all you can eat), afterwards we went to the disco on the boat.

After breakfast next morning we all got back on the mini-bus and set off for Belgium, but there had been a accident on the motorway, so we used up time by having a pavement picnic until the road was cleared!

On arrival in Hasselt we had some tea and were put in our teams. I was in a team with: Andy, Ana, Martha, Kevin and Matthias. Each team had tasks to complete everyday of our stay.

On the first day we had a night walk through the woods. We had to hunt for swords and watch out for goblins!, the walk ended in Eric’s garden, going down a zip line then having hot chocolate by a warm camp fire.

We had Flemish lessons every day with Christos, which was useful for our treasure hunt in Hasselt. We had a volley-ball competition, a cinema evening and a games evening with lots of different tasks.

We had weapon (sword) one day which I really enjoyed and at the end of our trip our team (tantos) were the winners off the challenges!

My favourite parts off Belgium were:
Wining the karate competition.
Making new friends.
Getting to know old friends better.
Singing songs on the mini-bus.
Listening to the song Emma made up.
Receiving t-shirts for Belgium 2007.
Gaining a big sister (Ana adopted me).
Language lessons.
Trying different foods.

                                             Billie-Jo xx

My week in Paradise

On the 9th of April 07, we all set off on our usual yearly visit to Belgium.

Everyone was excited. I couldn’t help but have a big smile on face as I was going back to paradise. It feels like heaven every time I go there as everyone is so happy to see you, even if they have never met you before. I was eager to make new friends.
On the ferry, we had to share rooms. After we got sorted into are rooms, we all went exploring the ferry. We had to meet up at a certain point and time for tea, by that time we were all starving. We ate are food like there was no tomorrow. Whilst we were eating are food, a funny Chinese man came up to us and handed us all paper roses. Later on that night, we went to the disco that the ferry holds. As usual I was dancing with all my friends, not having a care in the world. When we all became tired (which was past 12o’clock) we all went to bed wondering what was awaiting us later that day.

When I was awoken at 7.00 a.m. (6.00 a.m. in English time) by the alarms, I got up as fast as I could and woke up my room mate (Shannon). I have never got that changed so fast before in the morning. I just couldn’t wait to have my breakfast and to get back into the car to carry on with are journey to Hasselt.

As we arrived at the camp, I saw the usual faces coming to greet us all and I just couldn’t stop myself from smiling. We were there. First thing I did was when I got out of the car was jump on everyone. They new I was there and I was happy to be there.
The activities started on day one. After they had sorted out the groups I was with Jon (minibus driver), Christopher, Brodie, Peter, and Sermone. I was eager to join in, until I saw the activity. I thought “o” this is going to be great, getting wet on my first day. I didn’t particularly want to do it, I just wanted to cheer and show my support and let somebody else get wet. Unfortunately I got chosen to run for our team as the girl. I wasn’t happy. I dreaded the thought of getting wet, but I wanted the team to win so I was up for it, as long as I went last. The team agreed so I was happy.

The race started and we were all cheering, hoping to win, but we didn’t really care about winning, we all wanted to have fun and boy did we. We had to through an attack of water bombs from the apposing team. They were coming out of no where and people screaming with laughter. It was great. I was next so I had to run quickly back to the starting to point to get ready. I heard a lot of cheers and I knew they were coming. I was ready.
When it was my turn to hold the cup with water in, it was spilling everywhere but I couldn’t help but laugh. As I was coming up to the part where everyone threw water balloons there wasn’t many left and I thought I could avoid getting wet, until ken turned up with a bucket of water (drenched). Everyone laughed and I was like it’s not funny, but I couldn’t help but laugh myself. I just got back inside and completed the rest of the course. Wet through but had a great fun. It was nice to know that we had beaten Kens team so the bucket of water was worth it.

Tea time. I knew the meal would be great as it always is (thanks Robert).
Tea over. We had more games. This time we had to go on a journey into the woods and get back to Eric’s house. Our team decided to take a short cut but we were caught out and had to go the right way. The task finished at the tallest tree ever. We had to climb to the top and slide down on a wire rope.
I’m not so good with heights so I was a bit scared, but I got told plenty of encouragement from the others. I was so scared that I had to be literally be pushed out of the tree to do the absailing part. But after my first go I wanted to go and again. In the end I went 4 times. After the excitement, we all crowded round the camp fire to keep warm. But as we moved away from the fire to go back to camp, we all became cold and ran to the mini bus which took us back to camp. 1 in the morning, bit of chatting then to sleep.

Wednesday we all had our breakfast quickly and headed off to the swimming theme park. I got changed quickly and I was nearly running out of the changing rooms. Everyone was asking me what we should do first. For me it had to be THE RAPIDS! So we gathered all of the adults together and made them go with us to help with the younger ones. We all went on together in one big line, until we got to the larger rapids and went individually. Boy had the rapids got harder to get out of. It was either me becoming weaker or they had become stronger. I went with that they had got stronger. After that, we went on a big yellow slide to do our traditional one long line and everybody landing on everybody in the pool at the end. Lots of bruises for all.
Soon it was time to go (sigh). We all got changed and everything and came out, but me and Ana were stood outside the changing rooms, wondering where everyone was. We had forgotten that after you got changed you had to go outside. We felt so stupid as everybody laughed when we arrived.

Dinner of sandwiches, waffles and drink were awaiting us as usual. It was so nice and it did fill you up. I had one, couldn’t manage the second, so I gave it to Yo. It was gone in seconds (big mouth). Dinner over back to camp.
When we got back to camp or “paastage”, we had are first flemish lesson. I couldn’t wait to actually try and learn a bit of the language instead of asking for someone to translate all the time for me.

Sword training came next. For this we had to split up into 2 groups. One with the young ones and one with the older ones. I was classed as an older. First the younger ones went sword training, we trained as normal. It was a great lesson but I was really looking forward to training with a sword. We all staggered out of the dojo after Ken’s lesson, to go onto the grass area. It was our turn to train with the swords. I wished we had another session as I enjoyed it that much and I still remember the moves.
Tea time arrived and then on to the activities for that night. 12 types of old pub games. It was great fun as I had never seen these before. Bedtime.

Morning came Thursday, myself and Ana snuck into the boys’ room to wake them all up. The senior guys had gone off during the night to do their orienteering in the Ardennes.
I laughed to myself thinking about what trouble they were letting themselves in for this year.
After breakfast, we had training straight away 3 hours.  After the training, we all had our dinner then came our second flemish lesson (yippee).
It felt like school again but it was a fun lesson as AUNTIE MEL was there making us all giggle. Next tea time then we all got to watch the film “Scorpion King”. I love the film. After the film finished we all went to bed late again. But that’s the best part about watching late night movies.

Friday morning came and I woke up early for some strange reason. So did everyone. Breakfast came then it was onto our last flemish lesson (brilliant job, thank you Christos). Well I have never learnt so much in 3 days.

After the lesson the drop off people were meant to arrive, but they were running late, so we all started practicing for the competition. Half way through the training the drop off people arrived all hot and sweaty. I thought it might be best if I stayed far away from them until they had a showed so I wouldn’t get soaked with sweat. Boy had I missed them. After they had all freshened up, we all had our dinners together. And I must say, I did enjoy mine Dinner over.

When everyone was ready we all set off to catch the bus into Hasselt. As we waited I saw the bus coming but it went straight past us. Eric explained to me that the bus driver has to do drop off his passengers before he could pick us up.  When the bus driver pulled up I ran to the back seat but wasn’t quick enough. All the lads got to the back. So me and Ana sat just in front of them. As we were patiently waiting to get into Hasselt, the bus all of a sudden became terribly hot and everyone was gasping for air. No matter how much the windows were open, no cool air was to be found. It felt like a sauna. As we all got off, we all took a big breath of fresh air. But it was also boiling outside (31 degrees). You couldn’t win.
(thanks guys much appreciated).

In Hasselt all sorts of tasks were awaiting us. As we were doing one of the tasks, we had to go in a shop to ask who lived at a certain number. Just as we was about to leave, we all got ice creams. Mine was gone in about 1minute. All of the tasks covered most of the city including the old cemetery and it was really strange putting a tent up in the city centre.
Finally we had finished all the tasks and went back on the bus. Luckily it wasn’t as hot as it was on the way there. As we got off the bus and staggered back to camp, we all saw Eric sitting at a bench drinking a nice cool drink. I was so jealous. After I had a quick drink, I freshened myself up to get ready for the dance. Before the dance happened, we all had a big BBQ outside, but it was my teams turn to clean up and they had a movie on at the same time. The film was James Bond, and I love the film! So every time I had something to clear up I Made sure that I went passed so I could watch bits of the film. In the end my team mates were very nice to let me go and watch the film (thanks guys much appreciated). Half way through the film, Eric made an announcement to see whether we wanted to watch the rest or start the disco. Everyone said disco. I had so much fun that night dancing around and going loopy, but the best part of it was when Greek music came on, and two people were doing Greek dancing, so we all decided to join and we had ton’s of fun. When the DJ had gone home, most of us just sat in the bar area drinking (not alcohol) and chatting away, and who came through asking for 3 shots. Anna. Her, Auntie Mel and Wendy (my mum) were going to have a very merry night, and I could just see one of them making an absolute fool out of themselves.
After Anna left, I could feel my eyes slowly dropping and I knew it was time to go to bed. So me, Jess and Nicky all headed for bed and as soon as my head dropped to my pillow, I fell asleep. just.

Saturday morning, I got up and got changed went down for breakfast. I had my normal seat and sat with the usual people. At 10:30, we had a competition rehearsal, so we all got ready by 10:15. As we went down stairs, all the belgium people were there to, so I was wondering on how we were going to practice without the belgium having a peak at our performances. So we all went outside. We were all practicing so hard, just so that we could win as much as we could. But in the end, all we all wanted to do was have fun. After an hour, we all got changed and had our lunches, and PRIZES! We all got our own funky T-shirts and wore them with pride. With all of the points put together for the games that took place, Anna and Andy’s team won the whole lot. Their prizes were the swords that we practiced with on the day we did sword fighting. I really wanted one of them as well. After we had all got over the excitement over the T-shirts, it was time to have the volley ball tournament. We had tons of fun and most of us got a bit sun burnt, but who cares. We had proof we had been to a hot country! Unfortunately Kens team won, but not on how many games they won, but on points. I didn’t really care as I had, had so much fun that day and it was nice to see other people just as happy as I.

We all had are dinners afterwards and then got changed for the competition.
To get us all warmed up and into team spirit, we all jogged around the grass area singing a song, making it get louder and louder and louder. The team spirit was good. Unfortunately I stood on a thorn and couldn’t carry on jogging around. I had several people try to remove the thorn. Caleb successfully got it out and stopped the bleeding. I could walk again! We all lined up in order outside, with the Flemish people on the opposite side. The theme tune came on (which was “I like to move it move it”) and we all started walking into the dojo. As we all lined up in the dojo, all of us English people started cheering “ENGLAND”, so the Flemish team started shouting “BELGIUM”. We were all trying to out chant each other.

At the beginning of the competition, we had team Kata and everyone did brilliant. Fortunately England came 1st 2nd and 3rd. I couldn’t believe it.
Team fighting was next. Four teams in all Eric had mixed all the kumite teams so that it wasn’t an England vs. Belgium event just a great event for all us kids to enjoy. It worked fantastically. (Thank you Eric).
In my team, I had two English people (Me and Ana) and one Belgian person (Yorgo). My team had a break first as we were fighting second, and in that time, I tried to get the team spirit going and we succeeded. In the first round of my team fighting, we won 2-1, and in the finals my team won 3-0. I was so happy! And I was so proud of my team. Straight after team fighting, came the England vs. Belgium. We started off great. The team spirit was good and everyone looked like they were having fun. We had some ups and downs in fighting, but the best fight was Emily’s. Emily stood up to fight her opponent and stepped forward to fight, whilst her opponent slowly walked up to Eric and whispered into his ear. He walked back into his line of team mates and Eric put his flag up high for our team. We couldn’t believe it.
Emily didn’t have to fight and she won! I was gob smacked. When my fight came up, I was warm and ready to fight. My Opponent put up a good fight but even though Our team was in front , I was still determined to win. I won, but I couldn’t have won without the support from my team mates. I must say we had great team work. We all lined up to be presented with the Karden International Cup which Martha as team captain, collected with pride. As she walked back we all cheered.

We were just having a normal, boring standing photograph when I decided I just had to liven it up. So I ran into the middle and did a pose that everyone could do. In the end everyone did it, and the photo turned out great. The Belgium people also had a photo taken like ours, so we decided to join them in the photo and we all had big grins on our faces. I had so much fun that night. After everyone had calmed down and got changed, we all had a chill outside. I tried to ride Yannick’s bike several times nearly falling off. I did have some laughs. When it got quite cold outside, we all went inside and started playing cards. I sat down at the side of a table and watched Thomas trying to make a pyramid. It looked so easy so I had a go at doing it but as I got to a certain point, Thomas blew them down. So I shifted to one side so that he couldn’t blow it down, but who was to sit next to me afterwards. Matthias, Thomas’s little brother. He also decided to ruin my pyramid of cards by doing the same. (Bloody brothers sticking together).

I was deeply upset when they left. Afterwards I sat in the bar with Auntie Mel, Ana, Andy, Chris, Austen, Martha, Caleb, Ken, Kenny, Michiel, Anna, Wendy and Egg (Elliot). The rest had gone to bed. We all had a great laugh but I couldn’t help thinking that this was the last night I would be in Belgium, so I made the most of it and had a whale of a time. When I went to bed, which was early Sunday morning, my head touched my pillow and I was gone again. Talk about sleeping beauty.
myself

Later on Sunday morning, I did the usual routine by getting up and getting dressed. I glanced into the boys’ bedroom and it was empty. There were about 4 Belgium people that stayed an extra night. When I got down stairs, we had to make our own breakfast and dinner as the cooks had gone home now. It was fun. After we had breakfast we all went up packing. When we had finished your packing we all dragged our bags down to the car and mini-bus, we sat and relaxed for the rest of the day. For our home cooked dinner, we prepared sausage and chips and it wasn’t that bad.

Soon after this it was time to leave I didn’t want to go again. I always hate leaving. As we all said our good byes, a couple of us had tears streaming down our cheeks, me being one of them. As I hopped into the car I could feel the intense heat on me and was gasping for air. Luckily the all the windows were open myself and Shannon had a nice cool breeze at the back of the car. The week was over.

As we were traveling, I fell asleep as usual, and the next thing I knew we were at the docks, waiting to board the ferry. We must have waited for about an hour as there was a delay on the ferry. Finally we started traveling onto the ferry. After we were all settled in our rooms, we went exploring the ferry, inside and out. We all met up for dinner at a certain time again, and all went in again as one big party. The food was great as usual without fail.

After we finished our meals, we went back to our rooms to get ready for the disco. By the time I got there, they were doing a quiz about music. In parts of the quiz, we were asked to get up and dance and I couldn’t resist. It wasn’t the whole song, but it was still fun. After the quiz had finished and the prize was given out (which was a bottle of wine), we all got up dancing and had a whale of a time. When some songs came, I just had to sit down as I was out of breathe, but whilst I was having a breather, a handsome young German lad came up to me and asked me if I wanted to dance.

Naturally I said yes. As we were dancing he asked me the usual questions, and I could see just behind him, Ken, John and Andy coming towards the edge of the dance floor. I couldn’t believe what they were doing. I carried on acting normal, trying to ignore that the fact that my 3 dads were at the edge of the dance floor watching my every move.
By midnight, all the young ones had to go to bed. So I decided to go, I quietly opened the door but found the other girls still up. So they all got their pyjamas’s out, and before long we were all fast asleep. Luckily we had an extra hours sleep as the clocks were turned back an hour.

At 7 o’clock in the morning, the alarm went off and it was my duty again to get everyone up.
We all started getting changed quickly and ran towards the meeting place. As we got in, I went straight for the food and made myself a good English breakfast. After we had finished we all dashed back to the rooms and started collecting our stuff together, but we had forgotten where we were suppose to be meeting. Luckily we weren’t the only ones. We decided to just make our way down the stairs and hope that someone was waiting for us. When we got to the floor, we started panicking as no one was their. Luckily, Anna came around the corner and showed us where to go. We made it out in good time with seconds to spare.
As we drove off, you could tell you were back in England. The weather was duller and you could see litter.

We were home. As we started to drop people off in Barrow, there was a plan to stop on the motorway and get me into the mini-bus and Ana into the car. We had no problems with that. Ken was dropping off the people who lived in Scunthorpe and Jon was doing the rest.
Me and my mum were the 3rd to last to be dropped off so we had a nice drive.
As we grabbed our stuff from the back of the mini-bus and said our good- byes I couldn’t help but think about what the Belgium people were doing now and wondering if they had better weather than us. But I knew I would see and talk to them soon. As soon as I got in the house I dumped my stuff and walked upstairs. I was tired. I remember putting my head on the pillow and then I was gone.

I had a great experience in Belgium, and I couldn’t have done this without my fellow team mates and fellow friends from Belgium. Thank you for such a great experience. I can’t wait till next year!

MONDAY
I have just nicely got back from Belgium and it was great. We all went to kens house to meet, and then we got in the mini-bus, we was heading for Hull, where we was getting on the ferry. But before we got to Hull we had to make a stop at Barrow to pick the rest up. When we reached Hull we got on the ferry, we all dropped our stuff in our rooms then we went on a tour around the ferry. Me and jess were sharing a room so we decided to buy a bottle of water it was HORRID so we didn’t drink much of it. We had booked our tea for 7:30 and the time passed so quickly, one of the waiters did a magic trick for us, we was all impressed, so we decided to have ago but we wasn't very successful Emma just kept trying (she never got it right.).It was a buffet so we could have what we liked and how much we wanted of it. There was a disco on the ferry, and we all danced the night away even Andrew and Alex. Everyone then went to bed Jess, Emily and me went next door into Ana and Ellie's room and we was talking our way through the night, we all fell to sleep in there, but it took us ages coz Ana kept coughing and keeping us awake.

TUESDAY
In the morning we had to get up early to have breakfast and then get back, on the mini-bus but as soon as we was getting on Jess was thinking she had left her handbag on the ferry so Jess and Me went running into our room but it wasn't in there or next door, so then we just headed back to the mini-bus without the bag but then we had a look in Jess's overnight bag and it was in there. When we was nearly there we had to go down a road to get on the right motorway to get to where we wanted to be, then we found that there had been a crash on the motor way, so they had to close off the whole road. Then finally we asked for directions and we eventually got back onto the motorway. We were meant to be at the place where we were staying at 11:00 but we actually got there late afternoon. We went straight up to our room and got unpacked and got our beds ready.

WEDNESDAY
The next day we got up got dressed and then we packed, we then headed to swimming it was ace, there was a rapid that Jess, Ellie and Me went on it three times, the first time we went on we all enjoyed it the second time we also enjoyed it, mine and Ellie’s goggles came off, and Ken saved the day because he found them for us, but the third time it was dreadful I did a back flip(and it was funny), and I banged my head(that wasn't funny though), Ellie also banged her head, and Jess just didn't like it. There was a normal slide as well and everybody liked that one we even went down in groups and we sang a song as we went down. After swimming we had some dinner outside, then we went back did some sword fighting, then we did karate.

THURSDAY
After we had breakfast we got dropped off near a castle, and we had to do all different kinds of tasks in our groups, Sais was the name of the group I was in, in my group there was Jon the group leader, Chris, Kenny, Simone, Emma and Me. When we had got back from doing the tasks we had a Flemish lesson then we had dinner.

FRIDAY
We had a Flemish lesson first thing, then after that we had a karate lesson and we were actually practicing for the big competition which was taking place the next day. We then had dinner then we went into Hasselt to do another game and we had to do more tasks, Ellie's team got back first, Emily’s got back second and mine got back third. At night we had a disco (party) Ellie and Jess plaited Michiels and Matthias hair, when they had finished, Matthias plaited Ellie’s and it actually didn’t look that bad, then we were all tired so we went to bed.

SATURDAY
It was the hardest day of them all today, because it was the day of the competition, first we had a Karate lesson which was just practicing, and then we had a volley ball tournament which lasted a few hours. After that we then went for dinner after we had that they gave out prizes to the winning team which was the Tantos (Andy’s team). We then had to run up stairs and get ready for the competition it was kata first, Ellie, Jess and Emma was the first team to go up and they came third Liam, Chris and Elliot came second and Emily, Shannon and Me came first. Next was the team fighting and there were mixed teams which includes Ana, Emma, Shannon, Jess, Chris and many more. In the end came the fighting ENGLISH vs. BELGIUM and when I fought I actually won my opponent 10-3. Over all the English won the Belgium’s. We celebrated then we got pizza for tea. Yummy yummy. I was also upset because all the Belgium’s was leaving so the English was the only ones left.

SUNDAY
Home time on the ferry was another disco and it was also fun and again we danced the night away.

Love Brodie
xxxxxxxxxxxx
P.S. I would definitely go next year and from that trip we've all now got nicknames!

We left Hull on the ferry to get to Belgium. We were delayed on the way to Hasselt though dues to an accident on the motorway. We made the most of the time by having a lovely picnic on the street in the sunshine.

When we got there we unpacked and got together with our friends from Belgium.

Throughout the week we were set tasks, went on long walks, swimming, volleyball and of course karate training and the competition.

We all really enjoyed ourselves and each other company.

Along with Brodie and Emily we won the team kata and I won a further kata category with Chris and Jorgo.

The trip was everything I wanted it to be and more; we are all friends and like one big family.

 

When we all said our goodbyes we went on our way to the ferry port in hull for the annual trip to Hasselt Belgium. Because it was my first time going, I felt really nervous but so did most of the others.

We had a really good laugh in the mini bus and Ana kept on singing, when we arrived on the ferry we rushed up to our rooms, I shared a room with Austen, Ken and Andy, which was scary because they said if I clapped they would throw me overboard.

When we unpacked we went to look around the boat and did whatever we wanted until we went for tea, which was cool because it was all you can eat!!, then we partied the rest of the night away, even better we won some wine by playing the song game.

At 6am we were woke up by the breakfast bell, so we showered and got ready for our first steps in Belgium. We went for another buffet breakfast, re-packed our stuff and eventually found our bus, we said goodbye to the ferry and started our 2 hour trip to Hasselt.

We were half way there and ended up hitting a traffic jam, so we took a detour and ended up in the same place! So we called Erik [Bortels] and met him at a shop, me and Chris got out of the bus and went in Erik’s car and headed to Hasselt.

When we got there we got out of the cars to cheers from the Belgian’s…

After we all said hello we went up to the rooms and unpacked our stuff then we went downstairs for a well deserved meal, after which we were put into our teams. I was in the Wachizachis, with Wendy, Emily, Michiel, Geoffrey and Rafael.

We then went out and adventured in a forest, doing lots of tasks; we had to make a sword out of stuff we found in the forest and near the end we opened our bag to find some waffles and some food. When we got back we stopped at Erik’s house and found out the winner of the tasks; it was my team.

It was really fun because we found out the sword I made was the winner, so I was very proud of our team that night, when we got back we all went to sleep ready for the next day.

On Wednesday we went to a giant swimming pool, we were all excited to get in; after we were changed we all ran in and headed straight for the rapids. I was really nervous the first time in the rapids because I didn’t know that there were falls and dips everywhere, so when I got to the first dip I was pushed straight under until the speed stopped, then we went outside and then the speed picked up again and we were all pushed round and round until they ended.

After the rapids we all raced down the slides to see who could make the biggest splash, which was funny because when Ken came down he made a really big splash and wet us all.
After swimming we had a baguette lunch, returned to camp and the English had a Flemish lesson and the Belgian’s had an English lesson, after that we put on our karate suits and did an hour of karate and an hour of sword fighting, (as this year’s theme was swords) then after a meal and a talk we played these old fashion games and went to bed.

On Thursday the over 15 boys were woken at 3am and taken on a ‘drop-off’; they had to do tasks to find their way back to the camp. Later on when we were all up we decided to do a little drop off in our teams, we had to do these weird tasks but when we got back we found out that Ken’s team was lost so they didn’t get back for another hour, we all had time to hit a well deserved shower and get ready for another Flemish lesson and had a barbecue and watched a film, then when we were all tired we went to bed.

On Friday after we had a tasty breakfast we had another Flemish lesson, which was funny because ‘Auntie Mel’ and Ken were saying really weird things, but it was funny, so it didn’t matter, then we had a practice for the big competition the next day!

After dinner we went into Hasselt and had to do a number of tasks, which was good because Michiel was telling me about the ‘drop off’ and how they ended up getting lost a few times because of Gashs map reading! We then went back to camp had a shower and got into our party clothes and partied the night away.

On Saturday we were all nervous because of the big competition, so we were practicing as hard as we could, but because it was so hot we couldn’t move to well.

After dinner we had a volleyball tournament which lasted about 3 hours, we had tea and afterwards found out which team won the whole competition. Andy’s team came 1st and they got a Boken each (wooden katana).

We put on our gi’s ready for the competition, first was the team kata the results were Emma, Jess and Ellie (3rd place), (2nd) was me, Chris and Elliot and first was Shannon, Emily and Brodie. Well done.

Then came the team fighting which looked good because the Belgian and English were in mixed teams so they all had a chance to win, after a little break we all sat in our numbers, I was number 4, so when it was my turn I was against Kevin, unfortunately I lost 3:2 but at least we won the competition.

Then after the awards and photos the Belgians went home, we celebrated by ordering pizza and a very tasty burger for me, then at about midnight we all went to bed.

On Sunday we were bored just sitting around, so we all got our money and went to the Spar shop next door to get an ice cream (delicious). We then headed off for the port, when we got there we unpacked had tea and partied the night away, we all went to bed with laughs and yawns

Monday we arrived back in England and dropped everyone off back at our houses.

I am definitely going back next year and that’s because I made lots of new friends and got to know old ones even better. Also because we got cool nicknames hahaha mines HOOTER

 

The end

In April 2007 myself and several other people from the Hara Shotokan Academy went on a spectacular trip to Belgium...

To begin our journey we went by ferry, where many of us 'disco-ed down'. We arrived the next day at Zebrugge, after a long drive we finally arrived at our destination where we were staying and training.

Every year in Belgium we have a theme; this year the theme was 'swords'.

We were split into seven teams,; the Tachis, Katanas, Wakizachis, Tantos, Sais (my team), Shinkens and the Knives, these are all names of different swords.

Rather than train all week we were set tasks such as, finding clues in the city and do activities at night. As teams we also had a volleyball championship, where after lots of hard work, my team still lost to Ken Button and his team.

All the activities were great fun and during out training we were taught how to use a Japanese sword, but these weren't metal swords, but ones made out of wood, this was called a 'Boken'. We were taught how to hold the sword, how to stand with the sword, how to defend and also how to attack with the sword.

At the end of the week the usual England v's Belgium championship took place; first on the agenda was 'Team Kata', Gold, Silver and Bronze were all won by England. Next up was the 'Team Kumite', where my team came second, as we also did with the 'Team Kata', the 'Team Kumite' was very good because there were some very good fighters.

Last but not least was the fight off for the Karden Cup, and after a tremendous fight from everyone the results came to England and we once again triumphed over the Belgians.

Chris

On Thursday 3rd April we met at Anna and Kens’ house and waited for people to arrive so we could set off to Barrow, where we picked up more people. We then set off to the Hull ferry docks.

When we arrived we got on the ferry and got the keys for our cabins (which were small),  we sorted our rooms out then met at the restaurant and enjoyed the buffet; as it was a buffet you could eat whatever you wanted; I chose three plates of chips. After that we went upstairs to the disco and it was Andrew and Alex who danced most! Then we all went to bed.

The next day we went back to the restaurant and enjoyed breakfast, when we had finished and had packed our luggage we went down to the car & coach deck and got back on the minibuses, we left Zeebrugge and headed for Hasselt. 

When we arrived at the community centre we unpacked our bags and the Belgian people helped us take our luggage upstairs where we unpacked our belongings. Then we had a snack downstairs followed by going to Eric’s house and made some pots with clay. Afterwards we had some soup and a hotdog’s, when we had finished making our pots we all went on a walk through the forest with tasks, which consisted of finding certain items, we then enjoyed a bonfire and drove back home. The under 15s went to bed, whilst the over 15s went on the drop-off.

The next day we got up and had breakfast, followed by some warm-up training and a competition rehearsal, after that we had a midday snack then the real competition
‘England vs. Belgium’; England won 6-5, after this we had a barbeque, party (during the party we learnt an interesting dance called the ‘jump’, which was far too complicated for me, finally we all went to sleep.

First thing in the morning we got up, packed lunch and went to Tongeren; which is the oldest city in Belgium, we had to do a number of tasks and after the trip to Tongeren we had dinner and watched a film called ‘Druids’. After the film we had a live performance from a Belgian band.

The next day we got up, sorted teams out and played volleyball and then went swimming; the best parts about swimming were: the rapids (which are extremely powerful) and the wave machine in the pool (which dragged you about a lot). When we arrived back at the community centre we had dinner then had a karate session with Ken and then with Eric.

Again we got up and packed our lunch and visited the Bokrijk open air museum, where we could see all the old Belgian houses and went inside an old sweet shop followed by going in a play area (with massive slides). When we got back we had dinner and sorted ourselves into teams for our competition of buried treasure; which my team found in Eric’s front yard. Afterwards we burnt the Celtic cross with our wishes on. Then back to the community centre and then to sleep.

Next day we got up and visited Hasselt city for shopping and then instead of going to Dirk Heene’s we stayed at Eric’s house and spent a while cleaning the sheds out for the boys to sleep in while the girls slept in Eric’s house. Although I ended up sleeping on Eric’s sofa.

The next day we set off for Zeebrugge and then boarded our ferry back to Hull, when we got on the ferry we went to our cabins got ready and then went to the buffet; with more chips for me, followed by dessert and the disco.

The next day we had breakfast and got off the ferry by foot and drove back to Barrow and dropped off the people who needed to go to their homes directly, afterwards we went back to Ken and Anna’s house and that was the trip complete!

My favourite parts were: participating in the competition, swimming, Bokrijk and the ferry buffet!

I hope to go back next year.

 

I left school after pulling Lucy and Michelle (my friends) off of my legs. We met at Ken and Anna’s house at about 3.30 and set off to Hull and got on the ferry. The ferry was called the Pride of Bruges. We went to have some tea which was all you can eat! Then went to the disco and danced the night away. We went to bed (Me, Shannon, Brodie & Billy-Jo).

 We woke up and all went to the restaurant again to have breakfast which was also all you can eat, then pulled into Zeebrugge port and all got into our mini buses and drove to get to where we were staying.

We went to Eric’s house and had a snack. We all made pots out of clay and all got teamed up with a Belgian person; me and Ronan got paired with Wim. We had to walk in the forest and we had to be Asterix and Obelix. We met up with Ellie, Becky and two more Belgian boys. As we started walking we found a farm with Pigs & Horses, we kept walking and got lost.
We didn’t know where to go next, so we took a route the rest of the teams told us to take when they finished, we ended up getting annoyed and very mucky and got in very late and sat near the campfire.

We all got the mini bus back to where we were staying, waved off the people that were going on the drop off and settled into bed. After we woke up and had breakfast, we got into our Gi’s and went downstairs to rehearse for the competition; Emma got us all ready for kumite.

We got ready and first we did team kumite with two English and one Belgian. My team got third place and we were very proud of ourselves, next was kata, Me, Ellie and Jess.

We got into our positions as we were first up and did our kata (Heian Shodan Embusen), we made a few mistakes and got marked down and didn’t get placed for that.

Then came England vs. Belgium, both sides got into a line and we examined our opponents, we all took it in turns to fight; it was a draw. We had to pick one fighter to fight against any fighter that the Belgian kids picked. We chose Chris, and we needed him to win, in order to win the cup. HE WON! Yet again the English had beat the Belgians.

We all got changed and had a barbeque. We had a party and most of the grown ups were drunk and dancing like fools. We learnt a new dance called the ‘jump’ and we did it all night long.

On Saturday we woke up had breakfast and packed our lunches, as we were going to Tongeren the oldest city in Belgium. We had some tasks to do there. We went back to where we were staying and the Belgian kids had to go. We watched two movies and then Yanik and his band played for us.

We woke up and had breakfast. We played volley ball and our team won!
We all got our bags together and we went swimming. We all had amazing time, but I bumped my head in the rapids. We had dinner then had a 2 hour course with Ken and Eric. We got back and had dinner.
We woke up and had breakfast and packed our lunch. We visited an open air museum and got some old sour sweets and some biscuits. We played games and then walked to Eric’s and burnt the Celtic cross. Then we got home and went to bed.

We woke up and had breakfast then we went to Hasselt town and went shopping where I bought my friends Lucy, Sam and Michelle a present. We went training and then we had pizza (Austen ate half of mine). We went to Eric’s and slept at his for the night.

We woke up and Me & Ellie married Chinte (Eric’s Dog!). It was time to get on the ferry.

We had tea and went to bed, we woke up had breakfast and then went home even though everyone wanted to go back again.

P.s: Monkey Kata.
We did monkey kata at half 12 in the morning and we were really humiliated it was the highlight of the trip.

Amazing is one word I could use to describe this year’s annual trip , to visit the Go No Sen Karate Club in Belgium; it all started on 3rd April when half of our group met up at Kens house, we packed the mini buses. The first bus left early to pick up the students from Barrow and the second later left for hull! Both the buses met at the port and we were all ready to get onboard The Pride of Zeebrugge. The first thing we did onboard the ferry was to find our cabins and get settled in, then onto the shops! At around 7:30 we all met again at the Four Seasons Restaurant to have our dinner; after dinner everybody went back to the cabins to get ready for the disco. In the early hours of the morning (after the disco) we all went to bed. On Friday we all got woken up by the announcement, and then hurried to breakfast. After breakfast everyone packed up their stuff and got on our way Hasselt.

When we arrived we met up with all our old friends, met new ones and organized all our things; at around 3 O’clock we all went to Eric’s house to make Celtic clay models. Afterwards we had dinner and then got in groups to go on a evening walk with, I was with Nicky and Connor. When we got back to the hall after the campfire the over 15s left for the drop off and the rest of us eventually went to sleep.

On Saturday morning everybody woke up, had breakfast, and then got ready to train with Eric for about 2 hours and we then rehearsed for the Karden Cup Competition. In the early hours of the afternoon we all had a snack and then had a barbeque and a party that lasted into the early hours of the next morning.

On Sunday we woke up, had breakfast and made a pack lunch as we were going to the oldest city in Belgium, Tongeran, throughout the day we had to do tasks around the city , including doing a amazing drawing ( by me and Nicky =]]). In the evening we had our dinner and said goodbye to the Flemish kids, afterwards we watched a film and then enjoyed a performance by Yannick’s band.

During the rest of the week we played team volleyball, went to Bokrijk, the swimming leisure canter, had three karate courses, burnt the Celtic cross, played games and visited Hasselt City.

On the way back everyone was very tired yet looking forward to see their friends and family. I really enjoyed this years trip and can’t wait until next year.