Last Week in Soham

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 =)

Goodbye, Soham Village College!

Me in the Paper!

Hi!

A quick article to tell you that I was in the paper today! In the February edition of the Soham Bulletin to be precise. Why? Because last month, a lady came to take some pictures of our Zumba class to write an article about it. Here is the article:

And here is the picture!


I'm the one in light green by the way ;)

My Friends Visit Me!

Good evening people!

Last Friday, two of my friends came here in England. I met them on Saturday though, in Cambridge. We spent a really nice couple of days! It was their first time ever in England, so I think they were very excited! =D I was too of course. It's nice to share things and places you like with your friends! So here is an article about a crazy visit!!

On Saturday morning, I took the bus to Cambridge and oh miracle! it was on time. I even had to wait for my friends, who themselves were late. Well at least that gave me time to have a quick wee mwa ha ha. We went all crazy and hysterical for a while and then started what was planned: visiting the lovely town of Cambridge!

We had a look at a couple of Colleges and churches. We went inside the St. John's College, which is my personal favourite and visited the King's College Chapel which is rather impressive. We even went punting! That's always fun. The weather was not so good though, and the guide was er... peculiar. He lisped and had a strange accent, which made him really hard to understand.

For lunch, we had a Cornish pasty. Yum. I love those. Gwendoline and I had a traditional pasty and Aline ordered a salmon pasty (yum as well). And at tea time, we went to Auntie's Tea Room to savour a luscious cream tea. I hadn't had one in a while (crocodile) and I really enjoyed it!

We also did a little shopping, as Cambridge has many nice shops! I believe my friends liked Cambridge! I at least enjoyed showing them around!


Gwendoline and me messing around in telephone boxes


Aline and Gwendoline, posing before the Bridge of Sighs


In front of the famous King's College Chapel


It was, as you can maybe see, *quite* windy this weekend!!


Delicious Cornish pasty!


Mmmmh cream tea =P

On Saturday night, we went to this night club, called De Niro's. It's in Newmarket and it's the biggest night club in Norfolk. Well, it was not bad but I have to say I was a bit disappointed... First of all, it was big all right, but I expected much, much bigger. The website is misleading.

When we got there, it was about 22:00-22:30 and it was almost empty. People had only started arriving. We had a drink and enjoyed the show: girls dressed (or not) like prostitutes. Killer heels, super short dresses and shorts and plunging necklines. Some of them were quite disgusting. Some of them were ridiculous, as they could barely walk. We had a good laugh! And we also felt like nuns, with our jeans and trainers! We must have been the only girls wearing trousers and flat shoes....

We danced for a while, then had another drink. The same songs were played over and over so it was a bit boring. At around 1-1:30am, they changed the DJ and the music got so loud that we sheltered in the toilets for a while and then decided it was time to leave! It was horrible. I had ringing in my ears and that was not pleasant!

But we still had a good time. We were together, so that was what mattered!!



On Sunday, we brunched at Chatterbox, a nice and new café in Soham. We had a full English Breakfast, consisting of: two slices of bacon, a sausage (which none of us liked, yuk), one scrambled egg, beans with tomato sauce, two slices of fresh tomato, some mushrooms, some crunchy hash browns and toasts. I got orange juice with mine but Gwendoline and Aline had some English breakfast tea with theirs. It was really nice. I enjoyed every bite of it. Apart from the sausage which was really.... weird.


After that filling breakfast, we took a cab to Ely! Yeah, no buses on Sundays! How inconvenient, to say the least... We first walked along the river. The weather was ok! Then we went to town and had a quick look around, before going inside the cathedral. It's free on Sunday. Aline took some pictures too, which is good, because I didn't have any!!






In the evening, we went to the Indian restaurant in Soham. It's a buffet on Sundays and you can eat how much you want for only £6.95. I really liked it and ate faaaar too much. The nan bread was not so nice though and the food was not hot enough. But totally worth the price in my opinion!! Yummm =P


On Monday, Aline and Gwendoline went to Norwich. I couldn't go with them cause I had to go to school! So I won't talk about Monday. I think they enjoyed Norwich and they bought some mustard there!

Tuesday was a crazy day. We headed off to London. We took the train at about 9am and arrived in Piccadilly Circus at about 11am. That's where our bus tour started. We had booked tickets for London's Original Bus Tour two days before, as we thought it would be the best way to make the most of our only day in London.

And it was indeed! We saw almost everything: Trafalgar Square, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament (which my friends loved hehehe how could they not have?), Westminster Abbey, London Eye, Tate Gallery, Shakespeare's Globe, St. Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge and Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Downing Street, Covent Garden, Harrods, Soho... And on Wednesday, before going to the airport, my friends visited the British Museum, the Natural History museum and they walked around Camden Town. So in only two days, they pretty much did what normal and sane people do in one WEEK. The weather was the icing on the cake. Glorious, glorious weather. The sky was blue and it was not too cold. Besides, seeing Big Ben glittering in the sun is some sight! <3 I think they loved London. I was hoping they would. London is dear to my heart and I was eager to share my love for the city with my friends =D





Before dinner, we had a pint in a pub in Covent Garden. Gwendoline and Aline had half a pint of beer and I had half a pint of cider, as I utterly hate beer. I wish I didn't, but the fact is, I do.


And for dinner, my friends invited me to a Japanese restaurant in Soho, called Satsuma. We wanted sushi. And we had sushi and other things as well. It was truly delicious! I had two maki, two California rolls and two other kinds of sushi (can't remember their name), fried veg and prawns, breaded sweet potatoes (that was lovely), tasty noodles, some salad and a nice and salted soup. I hope to eat there again. I really enjoyed it, and my friends did too!


We were shattered when we came back. We went to bed at around midnight. It was a wonderful yet exhausting day!! But totally worth it!

And that was the last day! My friends left on Wednesday morning. I had a lovely time with them, and did my best in order to make their stay a pleasant one. I hope I succeeded!

=D

Soham & Ely - The Towns

I've been in England for a bit more than one week now. So I wanted to tell you a bit more about the place I live in, and work in.


Soham

Soham is a really small, but cute town. There are two supermarkets - and I still need to check one out -, a couple of pubs, a post office, two primary schools and a college (obviously, the one I'm working at). There is also a really nice church surrounded by really nice graves. I'm half serious here haha. It's a quiet place, but there is everything one needs. Except maybe for cinemas, nightclubs and dancing lessons. But I can find those elsewhere. The only problem is that the bus network is rubbish. I've seen worse though. At least, there are some buses...

Here are a couple of pictures of Soham:



The church:



The Cooperative supermarket:


The Red Lion pub:



Ely

Ely is considered a city, because there is a cathedral there. A beautiful, massive one! I haven't had the time to really explore the city, but I like it. And this cathedral is amazing. You can see it from the Soham-to-Ely road and it's really nice! There is a river running through the city, and I've heard that it looks nice around there. I should go soon! I'm happy to say that there is a Starbuck's Coffee in Ely =D And some nice shops too, though that could become kind of dangerous for my wallet...

Here are some pictures of the cathedral:






So here you are! I hope you enjoyed the pictures! =)

Welcome to England!

Hi guys!

Here I am! After a long and painful journey, I'm finally settled in my new home. Carrying far too heavy suitcases is not relaxing, I can tell you. But my mum came with me to help me out, so we managed it!

We spent a night in Cambridge, because my mum wanted to visit the place. The weather was amazing on Saturday, so we could visit everything, and we even went punting, which is always fun! It was good to be in Cambridge again, and my mum really liked it! =)

Then we took the bus to go to Soham. And after about one hour, we were there. Kathy, my host mum, picked us up in front of the "Red Lion", a nice red and thatched pub. She seemed really happy to meet us, and we were happy to meet her too!

She is incredibly friendly! She told my mum she could come any time she wanted and she told me I could have friends staying too, which is great! On Friday, we're going to a keeping fit class together and she wants me to meet some of her family. And I already know we're going to spend some Sundays watching TV together.

Then we arrived at Kathy's home, and a good surprise was waiting for me! Henry the cat! She hadn't told me she had a cat. I'm really happy to have a cat. I won't miss mine too much that way =)

Kathy's home is quite small, but really pretty and cute. My room is nice, I like it. I have a double bed yay. I'll have to buy some posters and stuff to decorate the walls, because it's a bit empty now. I've already bought an orchid, because I absolutely love those flowers!

Yesterday evening, I met Kathy's daughter, Scarlett, who is 8 years old. She's really cute, and I think we're going to get along pretty well! =) Today, she's going to show me her doll house.

So for now, everything is going pretty well! But the most important has not yet come: school and classes. I'm going to Soham Village College with Kathy tomorrow, and I have a meeting with Emma and Ben (my mentors) on Thursday. I'm going to meet Tatjana, the German assistant, then too. I hope I can go to City of Ely Community College before starting my classes as well.

Here are a couple of pictures from my English home! More to come I guess ;)

My room:



Staircase leading to my room:


Living room:


Dining room:


Kitchen:


Bathroom:


Rear garden:


Henry the cat:

Hellow Cambridgeshire!

So this is it guys!

My mentor teacher sent me an email on Wednesday to offer me a position at Soham Village College and City of Ely Community College, Cambridgeshire, England! Ok, what you can see here is the Cambridge University escutcheon, but hey, Ely is only 15 minutes away from Cambridge by train so yeah, it's almost Cambridge =D Which is great, really. I love Cambridge and knowing that I'll be able to spend everyday there if I want to makes me feel really truly and deeply happy =)

But I won't actually teach in Cambridge. I will be in a school in Ely and in another in Soham, which is just next to Ely. You have seen some pictures of Ely already. It is said to be a really beautiful city (it is considered a city, even though it only has about 15'000 inhabitants) and its cathedral is one of the most beautiful in England. So yeah. I'm pretty much looking forward to discovering this small city (Wikipedia told me it's the third smallest city in England mwa ha ha). What about Soham... I have to admit that I got very excited about Ely and I didn't really look for much information about Soham, but I know it's a small town of about 9000 inhabitants.

Here is a map of the county of Cambridgeshire, so you can situate where I'm gonna be spending next year!

Ok, now, what about my schools? I will be working in two colleges. My main school is Soham Village College, which looks a bit like Hogwarts; it is organised in Houses and pupils wear uniforms and ties (well that is the case in many English schools actually, but anyway). As I have understood, it is a language school for 11 to 16 year old pupils. It looks lovely! And I really love the fact that there are Houses haha!

And my other school is City of Ely Community College, which doesn't look like Hogwarts haha. It looks more modern and less picturesque and pupils' uniforms are less... Harry Potterish. They have theatre classes, art classes, sport classes, which is great, because as a language assistant, I am allowed to follow any course I want in my school/s! =D I think the pupils will be about the same age as at Soham Village, though I am not sure!

I guess I won't be allowed to wear jeans to teach. Hem. I don't know yet but I'm like 98% sure. My mentor teacher said she would send me a "formal offer letter" with more information; I should get it soon. She looks nice, though it's a bit hard to tell only from two emails ^^.

I have started looking for an accommodation in Ely. Maybe my main school will help me, maybe not. I WANT to be with English people, because I want to learn how to live like the English and because I want to improve my English!

To finish this oh so interesting article, here are some more pictures of Ely!