Manoli's diary

Sunday, 20th July
We arrived at the University of Sussex. I met two people at the airport and the rest, later, at the university. Questions such as: What’s your name?, Where do you work? are repeated. In the residence, everything is new and clean. GREAT!!! I met my new flatmates for two weeks. One of them is coming with her teddy “Romeo”

Monday, 21st July
All together tried to find the meeting point. It was easier than it looked. Welcome talks, advices, recommendations, explanations… I thought Brighton was saver. In the afternoon, our first visit to Brighton. We took the first bus that reached and we went to Marine. A wonderful promenade that you cannot lose. Seeing the sea is like being at home.
Later in the residence, when we were already sleeping, we could hear some noises in the corridor, we are not alone.

Tuesday, 22nd July
Bilingualism: different theories, different experiences. None of them has anything to do. In the evening, we met at King and Queen to have a drink, it was a karaoke session. On the way back, we were talking about thrillers, to be precise, about Tuno Negro. (A serial Killer decides to make justice on her own. All bad students must die all those who do not study, all those who tease, and all those who waste their time are murdered).
When we came back, we met our new flatmates, two boys and a girl from Qatar, they were discussing about how to cook a chicken.
Later, when everybody was sleeping, I went to the kitchen leaving my door open. However, when I went back… Surprise!!! The door had been locked. How could it be? NO, I was in pyjamas and slippers… my keys in my bedroom and a serial killer might go around looking for his new victim. Therefore, do not forget to pick up your key every time you leave your room. This kind of things happens quite often.

Wednesday, 23rd July
Tour in Brighton. After this tour and Alexandre’s talk, we know where we should go. Royal Pavilion really seems curious and appealing; we will find it out when we go on Saturday.
In the flat where we live, there are six people. On occasions, it is difficult to share flats. People are noisier, (Spaniards are believed to speak loud, but now I can tell you that it is not true), these people do not talk, they shout) and they have different manners, in my opinion, bad manners. Therefore, you need to be patient, take things easy and try to be tolerant, although it bothers you.

Thursday, 24th July
We spent all the afternoon doing one of my favourite things, overall when I am abroad, shopping. Carmen bought a new teddy bear at “Build up a teddy bear”. This time, it is a female teddy, Juliet: Romeo’s sister. In her school, each grade has a teddy bear, and then they needed a new one for those who start grade 1 in September. As the teddy bears are bought in UK, children can only use English to talk to them. The teddy is part of the group, it can go to spend the weekend with the pupils and on Monday they explain to the rest of the class what they did during the weekend in English, they took photos and so on. That is why Romeo comes with Carmen, because he is spending the summer with her, and when they come back, they will have a lot of things to tell.
I do not know if you know this shop, if you do not, it is worth visiting, there is a dressing room for teddy bears, you build up your own teddy, you prepare its birth certificate, its passport… anything you can imagine. Of course, you can find all sorts of accessories, clothes… whatever you want to.
It is AMAZING.

Friday, 25th July
WOW, the lessons today were excellent. They were about smart boards or interactive boards. We do not have one in my school, but, in May, the Consejeria told us that they would provide us with two the following year, so we may be open-mouthed and take advantage of all this we could see this morning when we come back in September. As far as I am concerned, I think this kind of boards are useful when learning foreign languages.
In the afternoon, we went to Rottingdean. It was great, but Fernando’s fall. First, we went for a walk around the village. The houses are nicer than in Brighton, and there is a lot of traffic in the roads
Then we went up to the windmill, there are no words to describe it. The landscape from there is incredible, but be careful, because there is a golf camp and a tee can hurt you. In the afternoon, we went to Rottingdean. It was great, but Fernando’s fall. First, we went for a walk around the village. The houses are nicer than in Brighton, and there is a lot of traffic in the roads.
Then we went up to the windmill, there are no words to describe it. The landscape from there is incredible, but be careful, because there is a golf course and a tee can hurt you. Later we went down to the beach and took a lot of pictures next to the white cliffs.

Saturday, 26th July
We entered the Royal Pavilion. It is amazing. When you are in, you wondered about the person who ordered to build it up: his life, his likes and dislikes, his lifestyle… how this eccentric monument can show us part of his character.
We had a good day visiting Brighton and Hove.

Sunday, 27th July
Tour to Canterbury and Rye. The bus did not arrive in time; British punctuality may be just a topic. It took us two hours to get to Canterbury by bus, a city with a great amount of monuments to see, such as: The Cathedral, St Augustine’s Abbey, several churches, the Canterbury Tales Museum, The Roman Museum, the Wall…. Our guide helped us to organize a historic boat tour and we met him again 90 minutes later. This means that we only had less than an hour to see the cathedral and wait in the queue because we were waiting about 20 minutes. We took the bus again to go to Rye, a small fishing village where there are a church and a tower with cultural interest. There, the guide booked a cream tea for all the students. In my opinion, it is really disappointed that the guide did not organize a group entrance in the Canterbury cathedral that it is quicker and cheaper, but, on the contrary, he booked a cream tea that you can have anywhere. I think that Canterbury is interesting enough to spend the whole day there, and that we spent too much time in a bus with no air conditioning in a really hot day. When we came back, I felt really disappointed.

Monday, 28th July
After a wonderful morning creating our own blog, come to reality and start writing a 700-word essay for tomorrow. Therefore, today we do not have enough time to do anything else.