I can barely move tonight. I ate a ridiculous amount of food at Tatjana's "Goodbye BBQ" that was organised by her host family and neighbours. Crisps, peanuts, chicken, salmon, various salads and desserts. Yeah, dessertS, with an "s". Ridiculous. It was lovely though, I had a jolly good time! What a nice way to say goodbye! And we were so lucky with the weather! It stayed dry and the sun showed itself quite a bit. We could have done without the wind though... It made me cold. I have to say I'm happy to be inside now!
Here are a couple of pictures!
It really enjoyed myself and I hope I'll see Tatjana again soon too! Germany is not so far away from Switzerland and after a weekend in Berlin, I'd really like to see more of this country. And of course, Tatjana is most welcome in Switzerland, if she ever feels like paying me a visit =D I'm glad we got along so well her and I and I really enjoyed our trips and days and nights out!!
Farewell, Tatjana!!! We shouldn't be too sad to say goodbye, as I'm sure we'll meet again! And the Internet makes it really easy to stay in touch; we have NO excuse!!!
Well guys, that's it. Today was my very last day as a Foreign Language Assistant. It feels strange. Time has gone by SO quickly, it's incredible! I remember my first day and it feels like it was ages ago and yesterday at the same time. It's confusing.
We had a lovely farewell meal in Ely on Wednesday, at The Cutter Inn. We chatted and laughed a lot. I had an amazing time. And the food was great! I had a fruity chicken curry and a massive slice of chocolate fudge cake. Yum! I think everyone enjoyed their food. It was a lovely way to say goodbye!
Today, I had to sort out some paperwork: tax forms, certificate of service, pay slip etc etc... It took some time, but it's done now, phew! No more dreadful paperwork. God I hate it.
At lunch time, Tatjana and I got some presents! Again! It's SO nice =) We got: a lovely card, again, full of heart-warming compliments, a bar of Cadbury chocolate, a Union Jack pen and a Union Jack mug. I'm really happy about that last thing, as I was seriously thinking about bringing one home hehehe. All the teachers said that they'd enjoyed working with us and stuff. It made me a bit emotional.
Also, I've now got another really good reference letter. I'll keep those preciously, as I'm sure they're gonna be useful for the future!
And then it was time to say goodbye! We hugged and kissed and said we'd stay in touch and that was it! I think we were lucky to be in this school, as all the teachers were really nice and friendly. It was a pleasure to be with them and I really felt like I was part of the Soham Village College MFL department =)
And here we are... This week was my last week at City of Ely Community College! I still can't believe I'm almost done. Time has flown, it's incredible. I don't think I've fully realised yet.
On Wednesday, we all went to Peacocks to have some tea and cake. I had Chocolate Imperial tea (a chocolate and toffee flavoured black tea) and a chocolate scone with clotted cream and blackcurrant jam. It was luuuuscious! Tatjana had a fruit cake with some Spring tea, one of the teachers had an ordinary fruit scone and another one had some tea cake. I think we all enjoyed our tea - I, at least, did! We had a lovely time and Tatjana and I got some presents! We got: a little book about East Anglia, a Cromwell bookmark (I got the green one, yay!), a nice bracelet and a lovely farewell card, full of compliments and lovely notes =D I was genuinely touched as I really wasn't expecting anything. It was a nice surprise!!
The Head of Department also wrote Tatjana and I a killer reference letter, saying how brilliant we had been and how outstanding our command of English is mwa ha ha XD
Lesson-wise, I didn't do anything special. I don't think my pupils know that they won't be seeing me around any more really haha. Except for my Year 12s and 13s. The latter were a bit upset when I told them it was my last lesson today, because they didn't know. I thought I'd told them though, but apparently not... Oh well. I gave them some proper Swiss chocolate and I think they were surprised and happy about it! They said thank you and that I had been useful to them. I hope it's true! I wished them all the best for their last exams.
And then it was time to say goodbye to the teachers. We hugged and farewelled and they all told me good luck for my future, which is nice! All the teachers are really nice at Ely; we had good laughs together! I'm definitively gonna miss one of the teacher's "accent du Midi". Also, I'm gonna miss having lunch there, as all the teachers were always SO funny!
Yeah right ok, I thought I'd write the whole article in Shakespeare English, but that's not gonna work is it... All this to say that yesterday, Tatjana and myself went to London to see Hamlet at the Globe Theatre!
But before the play, we had lunch at OSatsuma, a Japanese restaurant in Soho. I had been there before, with my two friends, in February. The food is SO nice and not too expensive!
Then it was time to go to the Globe. We didn't have to queue, nothing, and we found a good spot, in the shade!
The play started at two o'clock and lasted for about 2h30, with a short break. I really enjoyed it, even though I didn't understand quite everything. Good thing I knew the story beforehand really, otherwise, I'd have been completely lost! It was really funny at times and very entertaining. Standing for almost three hours was not that comfortable, but I really wanted to have a standing spot. First of all, it was really, really cheap, and second of all, I think it's much more fun! And it was! Especially since the weather and temperature were PERFECT!!!
To finish with, here is a picture of the actor who played Hamlet:
We went to Liverpool this weekend with Tatjana! We stayed at my host mum's niece's. We had to sleep on the tiny couches, which was highly uncomfortable, but hey, it was free and we couldn't really complain!
So we arrived on Thursday evening and on Friday, we visited the lovely city of Liverpool. We went to the Beatles Story Museum, which is, as you might have guessed, about the Fab 4, better known as The Beatles! I had been before but I was happy to see it again. It's a great museum and even though I'm not a huge fan of The Beatles, I really enjoyed it!
The museum is in Albert Dock, a really nice place in Liverpool, with many trendy cafés and restaurants. Here are some pictures!
Then we had a look around the waterfront and I saw the building where we had rented a flat almost two years ago with my family!
That above is the building where "our" flat is!
Then we went to the Cavern Quarter where the Cavern is. For those who don't know, the Cavern is one of the most famous clubs in the world and The Beatles played many gigs there!
After that, we had a look around China Town. It's not a proper China Town though. The gate is all right but the rest, not so good. We found a nice Chinese restaurant there, which was mentioned in Tatjana's guide book, and we thought it'd be nice to eat there on Saturday! So we booked a table for two! The restaurant is called Yuet Ben and there were loads of different praises displayed on the window!
Here are some pictures of the gate:
Finally, we took the bus back to my friend's. It took a while, as we couldn't find the damn bus stop haha.
On Saturday morning, we went to Chester with one of my friend's flatmate, a French guy, who wanted to visit the little town. We thought we'd be lucky with the weather, as it was quite sunny in Liverpool, but when we arrived in Chester, it was pouring with rain! Not so good. I didn't take any pictures because I honestly couldn't be bothered to play with my bag, umbrella AND camera. So I'll just put some of the pictures I took almost two years ago, when I was in Chester with my parents! Chester is a really cute little town. Charming!
After about two hours, we left, because we weren't' so happy with that rain. But I was glad we went; Chester really is cute! =)
So Tatjana and I went back to Liverpool to continue our Beatles visit. Our ticket for the Beatles Story was valid for two days and included the John Lennon exhibition, so we decided to go there. It was good! We also went to the Fab4D thing, a short 3D film, with moving chairs and cool effects. It was quite fun.
Then, we decided to visit Liverpool's cathedrals. Yes, Liverpool has two cathedrals: the Liverpool Cathedral, which looks, in my opinion, quite ugly. But then, we didn't have the chance to visit the inside, as it was already closed when we got there. And the Metropolitan Cathedral, which looks like a spaceship and is really quite impressive! We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside, as a service was going on, but here are some of the outside!
And then, we made our way to the Chinese restaurant and here is what we found on our way:
This "thing" is a site created by John King and dedicated to the history of the area and its people. I find it quite cool!
Two of my friend's flatmates joined us for dinner. We had a lovely time at Yuet Ben. The food was delicious; I took the Sweet and Sour "Cherry" Chicken, which was recommended in one of the reviews, and I didn't regret my choice! It was really tasty! The atmosphere was good and the waiters were really friendly and helpful!
After our meal, we decided to go to The Cavern for a while. And so we did! And it rocked! Quite literally in fact! A rock band called "The Amazing Kappa" was playing some Led Zeppelin when we arrived. I like Led Zeppelin. It got me in a rock n' roll mood straight away! Yeah baby!!
And here is a short video I took:
And here are a couple of pictures of the Cavern Quarter by night:
Finally on Sunday morning, we visited the Walker Art Gallery. It was a good idea as the weather was really not good then. The gallery was good, I enjoyed it! There was a really cool cow picture there. I couldn't find the postcard though grml. But I found the picture on Google Images, yay! It's called "Cow Mutations" and was created by Tim Head:
When we came out of the gallery, the sun was shining! We didn't have anything left to do though! So we just wandered around, strolling and doing a bit of window shopping! Then it was time to go to the station and after a long journey, we were eventually home, and boy was I happy to crawl in my bed!
We had a lovely time in Liverpool and I'm really happy I had the opportunity to go there again. I really like this city, which has plenty to offer!! =D
PS: In case you were wondering about the strange yellow animal at the beginning of my post, here is what Wikipedia tells us:
Superlambanana is a bright yellow sculpture located in Liverpool, England. Weighing almost eight tons and standing at 17 feet tall, it is intended to be a cross between a banana and a lamb and was created by Manhattan-based Japanese artist Taro Chiezo. It currently stands in Tithebarn Street, outside the Liverpool John Moores University Avril Robarts Library/Learning Resource Centre, having previously been located on Wapping near the Albert Dock.
The sculpture was created for the ArtTransPennine Exhibition in 1998, part of an initiative to create a 'corridor of art' through the North of England. Liverpool's contribution, designed by Japanese artist Taro Chiezo, was the Superlambanana which was unveiled to the city at the reopening of Liverpool's branch of the famous Tate Gallery. An ironic comment on the dangers of genetic engineering, it was developed with the city specifically in mind as both the banana and lamb were once a common cargo in Liverpool's bustling docks. The thinking behind Chiezo's Superlambanana was the creation of something that 'spoke of the future of 90's Liverpool'.
