Public transport, cash points in shops and food

Hello everybody!

I've been here for almost a week and finally I know which bus stops are the right ones. :-) It was difficult to remember the places because every house looks the same way. In Bournemouth and in the surrounding area are two buses common. The blue and the yellow ones.
To be honest, I don't understand why there are two different buses because they stop on the same bus stops and go to the same places. If you ask me, it is a bit strange...
Anyway, there are several things which are different to Switzerland.

First: If you are waiting and the bus is arriving you have to show the bus driver that you want to take his bus. You have to lift your arm and point to the road. Otherwise he won't stop.

Second: The people here always stand in a line to get in the bus. I think this is good because it is faster. In the bus you show your ticket or buy one. There is no possibility to get in the bus without a ticket.

After all the public transport near Bournemouth and Poole is good. I have a lot of buses and don't have to wait longer than 20 minutes. It's comfortable.

As you have probably read in the headline the cash points in the bigger shops are well-organized. There is only one line to wait and you see on a screen to which number you have to go for paying.
You even get a ticket to go into a fitting room to try on your clothes! I was astonished.

My last topic for today is food. First, I have to say that my host mum is a good cook! We always have enought to eat and even more. We can choose between different sorts of cereal for breakfast and there is even a dessert after dinner! I am happy.
But in general the British food isn't so good. I prefer to go to an Italian or Spanish restaurant. Yesterday, we had Pizza in an Italian restaurant and it was delicious. The food at school is eatable but not better.

I hope I could tell you something new about the UK.
Have a nice day!

New host family

Hello everybody!

On Tuesday my flatmate and I had to move to our new host family. They live in Canford Heath (belongs to the city Poole near Bournemouth). Unfortunately, the way to the school is longer than before. We have almost an hour. But I am happy anyway because the new family is lovely. It is an older couple and they are very friendly to us. Our room is bigger than the last one and we have more space for our stuff.

I gave them some Swiss chocolate (Toblerone and an Ovomaltine spread) because I wanted to say thank you to them. First, I thought they don’t like chocolate so I told them they could give it to their grandchildren. But they almost shouted NO and said they will keep it for themselves. I suppose they love chocolate… ;-)

After the dinner Cécile and I went into a forest near our home. We found out that it was a Nature Reserve and it was large and beautiful. We spend some time there and walked along all this paths. Afterwards, we had problems to find the way back… We had to try out every little path on one road because we were not sure which one was the right one. Finally, the 5^th or 6^th one was the correct path and we found our way back home. We were relieved! 

I think this beautiful houses with the bricks have at least one disadvantage: Every road and every house looks like the others. Difficult to find out the way back home…

I discovered a difference between Switzerland and the UK:

In the UK the people wear their shoes everywhere in their house. It doesn’t matter if this is in the living room, bedroom or even the bathroom! I was really astonished.

In the morning I was at the beach. A taxi driver told me that this beach isn't natural. They took sand from South Arabia and made the beach by themselves. However, I like the beach and I like the sea. The water is cold and the weather is too cold so we didn't went to swimming. We were just sitting in the sand, chatted and made some pictures. 

So, this is enough for today. Thank you for reading this and I wish you a pleasant day. By the way my first real school day was good. Not kind of very special but interesting. But to be honest, I prefer to write about my spare time than school. I think you understand that.

Yours, Junia

 

The first two days in Bournemouth

Hello everybody!

I really enjoyed my first two days in Bournemouth. They were exciting and I’ve seen a lot of new things! But let me start at the beginning.

Fortunately, I could travel to England with two classmates from Switzerland. I was very happy because of that. It was my first flight. But I can say, everything went well. I enjoyed the time when we were over the clouds. It looked so amazing!

 

At the airport (London Gatwick) a woman of EF was waiting for us. She was very friendly and helped us to find our driver to Bournemouth. The journey to Bournemouth by car was very long.

I arrived at the house of my host family at approximately 8:30 p.m. But to my astonishment it wasn’t the family which I expected. The reason for that is that our first host family decided not to take EF students at all. So the EF team had to search a new family for us.

They showed me everything in the house and presented me to the family members. There is another girl with me. She is called Cécile and she is from Switzerland, too! But this doesn’t mean that we are going to talk only in Swiss German together. She is from the French speaking part of Switzerland.

It was funny to talk with the family in the evening and I was astonished that I understood almost everything.

On Monday morning we were brought to the school and our first day at EF started. There were a lot of other new students. The EF team showed us the school and gave us first information.

A police men came and told us some things about the local rules and the security. It is pretty funny: If you ask a police men to take a photo with you he must say yes! As far as I understood they are not allowed to say no.

Afterwards, we went together in the Town centre and had time to eat lunch and enjoy the city. We went to a little garden which was very beautiful.

 

Back again at the school, Cécile and I were informed that we have to move to another host family on Tuesday. This means that I have to pack all my things again in my case… I hope that we can stay with this family for the whole stay. Maybe they can cook a bit better than our first family?

There is another funny story: When we arrived at home on Monday evening. The door was locked and nobody was there… So we had to wait outside the house. Luckily, it wasn’t raining. While we were waiting there a boy came and asked us if we can help him to find an address. We couldn’t help him but we found out that he was an EF student too and he had arrived the first time with the bus from town. But I think he found the way back home. His host family had given him a big map and had showed him where their house was. He had a key for the door… If we only could have changed with him. ;-)

Despite all this complicated changes I can say that I am really enjoying my time here! It is interesting to talk with people from all different countries. I like the English houses with the red bricks and I am looking forward to go to the beach.

Last but not least:

Wie ihr bestimmt bemerkt habt, habe ich mich entschieden, diesen Post in Englisch zu schreiben. Sorry für all diejenigen, welche nicht so gut im Englisch sind. Ich hoffe ihr versteht trotzdem den grössten Teil. Ansonsten kann ich euch einen “sehr hilfreichen” Übersetzter empfehlen… google translator. ;-)

I wish you all the best,

Junia