33 days!

Hiya!!

Christmas is creeping up on us! The christmas markets have started in Bristol and Bath last week. I really want to go to both of them, I live in the middle:)

I haven't been to the one in Bath yet, but I'm going with the Hanham girls soon. People told me each booth has got a different country as its theme - which sounds interesting:). The one in Bristol is labeled as a 'German Christmas Market'. It reminds me a lot of the Chrischtchindlimert in Zürich:). They're selling Marmite dog cookies, which I NEED to buy!

the German market in Bristol

;)

My school is doing a Christmas play. It's going to be a comedy about Christ's birth, which sounds interesting:P. I'm probably going to miss it though, I'm hopefully going to the Harry Potter studio tour onn the 14th of December. All the weekends are sold out already, hence we have to skip school:P.

I'm spending Christmas here, which is going to be quite different than it would be at home. My host mum told me a bit about it. She was also rather shocked, when I told her about the 6th of December, Samichlaustag, and that you don't just not receive any presents if you've been naughty, but an old man is going to take you with him in his sack :P. 

I went to visit my former host mum yesterday and she invited me to spend the holidays with them as well. So, I might go over there some time. I'm going to a holiday with some girls from Hanham before Christmas in town, which will be nice.

There are so many adverts for the London Winter Wonderland everywhere, but it does look magical, so we might actually go:). There's so much going on for Christmas all around, it's hard to keep up..

Mcfly finally announced to release some tour dates soon - on the the 8th of December. I'm going with one of my friends from SBL and her mates.. They're getting me a ticket - which is lovely. We don't know when exactly.. but it's probably going to be in spring time.

A friend of mine from Switzerland told me Bruno Mars is going to be in London at the O2 arena. I checked with two girls from school, and he's attending the Capital FM Jingle Bell Ball. We might go:D. There are going to be quite a lot of other artists though. One Direction included, so there's going to be a ton of excited fangirls.. which would be fun I guess. I wouldn't mind seeing them. They are British after all;).

A few days ago, we didn't have a teacher for our French lesson, so we watched comedy videos on youtube:) I love British comedians.. we watched lots of Michael Mcintyre videos. And this:

I had to change my country setting on iTunes to UK, so I could order Mcfly's new single, and the British iTunes store is unbelievably brilliant! It's so much better!! I can even buy TV programmes now, which are SO GOOD! I fell in love with 'Celebrity Juice', which you might not like as much.. it's a bit explicit:P Keith Lemon is a genius. I'm not going to put it on my blog, but check it out, if you'd like:) except for my parents.. don't!!;) mmpf
Oh, and Ed Sheeran's CD has three more songs in the British version of the iTunes store, so I had to buy it again:P

A girl who I've met at SBL, a partner school of Hanham, has been lending me loads of dvds of British classic and 'chick flicks', which are all great. She's soon helping me to catch up on 'The Inbetweeners'.
I started tennis lessons now. With the same girl, on Saturday mornings. I'm absolute rubbish, but I love it anyway:) We were told it was going to start at 9.30, so we all got up early, but when we got there, they told us the session for our age group starts at 11.30, but we stayed and played longer:). I really needed some extra practice.. My trainer said I have potential - he might just be nice:) - because I apparently hit the ball in the middle of my bat mostly, which is a 'good sign', even if it doesn't go far from there - or actually too far. I already hurt my hip and the kickboxing on Monday didn't help its recovery either. I'm on pain killers now:P. I do want to go again this Saturday though.
The friend I went with just moved to Bristol from Salisbury. Her accent is a lot more posh than Bristolian - I love it. She used to go to an all-girls school. We soon want to go to a rugby game and I'd love to go to a horse race with her. That's what they used to do in Salisbury all the time apparently - with strange hats and everything:D.

We had our target grade talks last week (what we want to achieve in the exams in January/June and how to get there..). All the exchange students got an E as their estimated target, which is bloody rubbish! My estimated grade is an E and my target is a D, but I actually have a B.. 

I also noticed that they don't have grades from A to F, only from A to E, and then there's U. I asked a friend and she said there's grades A to E and if someone's even worse, there's U for 'ungraded'. So the results aren't worth receiving a grade, which is... strange:P.
We're also working on our first grades now. I had to write a 750-word essay in literature in an 'uneducated Dublin accent'. It was quite easy, my bad English is quite good:). The other essay is stressing me out: 1100 words in a VERY educated English..
I finally ordered my NUS extra card . If you are still a student you can get one and get discounts all over the place. I got the ISIC included, which gets you discounts all over the world - in over 120 countries Switzerland included. The NUS extra card cost me 12 quid and will be delivered to my school next week. I payed 2.99 extra for the worldwide part and then 1 pound for Children in Need. So I spent 16 pounds all in all. There's also one for people who are doing an apprenticeship:).

The students at Hanham got colour co-ordinated last week. We had to do several tests about our character - I'm green. There's four different colours: orange - can't remember, sorry / blue - for the sky/ green - for nature / gold - for metal. The colours are to tell us the most appropriate learning method and our teachers are going to receive them and have to customise their teaching methods... my colour also tells me I'm going to be a scientist. I don't know how it works, but apparently that's what my future holds;). We also had our pictures taken - professionally! We never did that back in Switzerland. There were actual photographers and those weird white walls that hold the light and stuff..I think they went overboard a bit though.. I could use mine for my funeral one day:

The weather has been absolute crap. Last week was VERY rainy and on Thursday it was so windy! My umbrella broke:( I do need Wellies - now. Friday was sunny and beautiful.. But you never know what it's going to be like in the morning.
Because of all the rain, big parts of the county were flooded - Warmley, Willsbridge and Hanham were partly as well.

I still don't think my English has improved at all, except I learned some psychology words for my essays. My friend - she's british:) - told me she thinks I got more fluent though - I don't have to think about what I'm going to say as hard anymore. Hope that's true:).

Have a nice weekend

xxx


P.S.: Forgot to write down - we also had our first Envision meeting last Friday, and from now on we're going to meet up once a week. Seems quite good so far:)

... but a so me understan' de misery o' de Englishman. LONDON

Heya. Found this on the tube:) fits perfectly:

Okay, so: I've been here for two months now, and to celebrate we went to London on the 1st of November. I initially wanted to go with a German exchange student. I told her about the Harry Potter thing and she wanted to go with me, but then she didn't have the money. Then she bought a coach ticket for Wednesday and told me to buy one as well, but they were sold out too quickly. In the end I went with three other exchange students on Thursday. One was from Belgium, one from Denmark and the other one from Switzerland as well. We bought tickets to go by coach at quarter to seven in the morning from the Bristol coach station. They all wanted to go by coach, because it's much cheaper (It cost about 20 quid and the train would be 40/41, but it only takes about 45 minutes to London Paddington Station, plus the train station is much closer to my house.)
Because there was no chance for me to get into the centre this early (neither by bus nor by train and no one in my host family drives), I had to get a taxi at 5.45 a.m.. It was fun, although I had to get up at five o'clock. I never had a taxi all to myself:). I think in the end I payed almost as much as a ticket for the train would have cost:P. I met up with my Belgian friend in front of Primark at quarter past six and we went to the coach station together (he didn't know where to go).

I was bored while waiting for him, 

so here are some pictures of the city at 6 in the morning;)

We met the other two at the station and boarded the coach. They said the journey would take three hours until we'd arrive at the Victoria Station in London, but it only took about two and a half. We arrived at quarter past nine and and straightly walked to the Big Ben.

The sky changed every two seconds!!

                                         

We crossed the bridge and walked past the London Eye and to the Millenium Bridge.

the Millenium bridge and the Swiss guy in front of it:P

crossing the Millenium bridge:

Danish guy on the left, Belgian guy on the right

don't know these people..

The weather was quite good, but it really did change all the time. It was gray one moment and the next it was beautiful. Always windy and quite chilly though. 

We bought some sandwiches and went down the underground to buy a day pass for the tube for seven quid. Then walked back to the London Eye. We bought ticket the day before on the internet and got ten percent off. I had to pay about 18 pounds. The bloke from Switzerland didn't join us; he hadn't bought a ticket.

then it started drizzling while we were in the queue to go on..

 some parts still were in the sun though

Oh, and I bought the red thing on my jacket in the tube. They're called poppies (like the flower). They're selling them at most train and underground stations around the country to try and raise money for the Armed Forces and their families.

Afterwards the London Eye we took the tube to King's Cross station to find platform 9 and 3/4 :P.

 We ran around the station trying to find the right platform. Constantin, the Belgian student, said, they did a little attraction for Harry Potter fans, so we were trying to find that. We only saw signs for platform 1 to 7 and 11 to 14, so we had to ask someone to help us find 9 and 3/4 :P.
There are two parts to the whole train station, so we had to get out of the station, cross a road and get into the station again.. which is strange. We snuck onto platform 9 (we used our tube tickets, but it still worked:P), but it wasn't there either. We went back and tried to get off the platform, but the machine wouldn't let us out without the correct ticket, so we had to explain our situation to a guard and he showed us the right way:) -->

platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross!!!!

There was half a trolley attached to the wall, which you could take a picture with, which I did:D. I'm going to upload it later, it's on my friend's camera still.

Then we took the tube to Leicester Square, which looked lovely. I'm definitely going back some time, because there was a sign about 'Twelve Days Of Christmas' which sounds brilliant!

I'm quite grateful my Belgian friend comes from Brussels, because he knew the underground quite well. Apparently they've got one in Brussels as well, didn't know much about Belgium nor Denmark before :/. The student from Denmark was quite good with maps, which was great, because I wouldn't have any idea how to get around otherwise. I'm not a big fan of the tube, there are strange things down there, which I don't need to see, but it was quite useful that day and we definitely got our money's worth.

At Leicester Square, we went into the M&M store, which was amazing. I've never been in one, but I'm certainly going again:D. 

Then we went to Bella Italia and ate pizza. I miss my sushi:( but that might be rather expensive in town..

Afterwards, we met up with our other friend again and we all walked to Piccadilly Circus. It was lovely as it was dark already.

We went back to the Victoria Station at eight o'clock and drove back. We arrived at five past eleven and I got home at midnight, because the bus liaisons to my new host family are rubbish, but it wasn't too bad. There are so many foxes around our house though! 

Okay, I think that's all, hopefully it wasn't a picture overload.

Have a lovely Sunday tomorrow

xx

two months! (and two days)

Hey people:) Two months already since Thursday the first of November.. it's gone by really fast! I've met some exchange students who are leaving again soon, which I'm quite upset about. The ones only staying for half the year are also leaving so soon, time's passing too quickly!!

I finally received my camera charger and charged it, 

so here are some pictures of my bloody BEAUTIFUL neighbourhood:

that's the chocolate factory I was telling you about.. the Polish took over

Okay, my holiday:
The first few days I've just been trying to get my coursework all done.. but I didn't, so I'm doing my French right now:P.
On Sunday, the clocks went back one hour to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). So whoever told me England hasn't got summer time was wrong.
On Monday I went into town with some of the Hanham girls, which was a lot of fun. We went shopping at Cabot Circus and then they took me downtown and I saw the river, Avon, for the first time. I should really do a river cruise some time, looks lovely.

Oh, and they also took me to Greggs, which is a British bakery with dozens of English pasties:) quite liked it. In the evening I went to training. We practiced chocking each other and when my trainer asked me if I still didn't feel anything, I yelped 'Doch!' so I guess when my life depends on it, I'm still very much Swiss German:P. 

On Wednesday, I had planned to go to a Halloween party with my host mum and brother, but it got cancelled due to rain. On Thursday, it was my two month anniversary with England, so I went to London with three other exchange students:) I'm going to do a seperate blog post on it though.

I got home really late so slept through Friday mostly, but in the evening I went to the Cleeve fireworks. Bonfire night is on Monday the 5th of November, but we're starting school again next week, so we went on Friday. Three girls from school and I went to an old rugby club and out the back, there was a small carnival.. it actually wasn't small at all, in my opinion. It reminded me of the Wettinger Fäscht :P. It was freezing, I wore three layers of socks..

There was a booth at which you could win a goldfish.. my friend went home with four. 

(was trying to be sneaky..)

In the night, the fireworks were displayed over the rugby field. It was really lovely, although it was very muddy all over. I really need to get me some wellies!

I reckon you've all seen fireworks before, but I like those photos and they might get you in the right mood:)

I tried mint sauce this week as well. Wasn't too bad, just very strong and.. minty. I also had baked beans. I'm not a fan though. There's just something about the consistency which makes me sick. My host brother put ketchup on his mashed potatoes, which I thought that was a Dutch thing to do, but he told me he puts it on most things he eats.. but both my host mum and brother call it tomato sauce and not ketchup (here they say tomAto and not tom-ei-to, if you know what I mean..). My mum also asked me if I'd like to have spaghetti with my chips, which is a really strange combination for me:P. I still have to get used to the food, but I like it mostly. I do miss sushi from home though, weird thing to miss as a Swiss person I s'pose, but that's what my family is like :). I might go into London to eat some soon, but I haven't found anyone that likes it. Most people I know from school haven't even tried it yet, and are scared to try it. 

I had a talk with my host mum, because my host brother told her that I toast my toast for my sandwiches, which is strange, apparently. They don't have real bread in stores anywhere and I don't like the consistancy of the bread here. They just use toast for everything. When they use it as toast, for breakfast for example, they do toast it, but if they use it instead of bread, they don't, and then they don't call it toast, but bread. We debated about different consistencies for about an hour.

OK, food talk is over: I haven't been able to go to the Harry Potter studio tour, because it sold out very fast, but I'm definitely going before new year, but we did go to platform 9 3/4 on Thursday:D I'll write about it in the next post. 

Tomorrow, I might go on a trip with the steam train with a friend, but we may be going on a different weekend, because I haven't done all of my coursework yet and she's got some things to finish for uni..

but here's a quick picture of the train of the Avon Valley Railway:

I saw it snowed already in Wettingen.. really miss the snow:( we do get lots of hail though..

Have a lovely weekend and I'm going to write to you soon

xxx

oh, almost forgot: Mcfly's new single ;)