Skiving French

hello. As a little disclaimer to begin with (as my parents are probably reading this): I didn't purposely not go to school, I was waiting for my bus at the bus stop in the morning like a good girl but my bus was 18 minutes late, which made me miss my school bus to the other centre. We're in Mangotsfield school every single week but no one actually knows where it is, as we get dropped off by the bus every time. I didn't know what to do about that so I went into town instead. French is quite easy here anyway;).

I got to town at about 9 o'clock and the shops hadn't opened yet, so I went to Castle Park.

Then I crossed some bridge I had never crossed before and found this:

 Temple Gardens

St. Mary Redcliffe

Then I walked to the Temple Meads Railway Station, which really is beautiful. I don't know what it is about train stations here, but they're all nice. I'm getting a bit obsessed:P. I went to London by train the other day, so I'll do another post for that. Here's a preview though;) :

Then I found Queen Square, which is very close to the Hippodrome. I've never noticed it before though.

That's what it looks like, apparently.

Yeah.. and then I went home. Sometimes I think it's nice to walk around by yourself. Most of my English friends don't really know Bristol themselves as they only go into town to go shopping at Cabot Circus. And sometimes it's a bit awkward when I take pictures all the time.. :P.

Have a good week!

Oh, and I found these as well. Lovely!

Finally: Clifton Suspension Bridge, Bristol

Hello. I went to the Suspension Bridge with another exchange student girl, from Germany, at last. But first of all, a pigeon shat on my head! Why would they put bus time tables on the posts of street lamps?! Great start of the day..

First we went to Wetherspoon's (hundreds of Wetherspoon's pubs all over the UK) in Kingswood and had traditional English breakfast:

toast, hash browns, some sort of ham thingies, a sausage, egg, baked beans and a slice of tomato

I rather enjoyed the tomato.

People were already ordering their second pint or lager at ten a.m. on a Saturday morning, which was  ... bizarre. But then alcohol in general is handled very differently around here compared to what I'm used to anyway.

After that, we took the bus into town and I introduced her to Shakeaway and then we went up to Clifton to the infamous bridge.

 The weather was rubbish but it makes the plants look great:)

There was this really small tower right next to the bridge, where tourists can pay to go up but we didn't really see the point. It looks nice though.

It was windy as hell and also started snowing while we were on the bridge. 

 On the other side of the bridge (not the city part)

It was a bit grey, I think I'll visit it again now that it's more lovely.

The bridge was opened in 1864 and links Clifton to North Somerset. It was designed by 

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who, according to my friend Ellen's dad and wikipedia, also built the Great Western Railway, and with that also the Bristol Temple Meads Station, which is beautiful!! (Post on that is still to come).

I'm chuffed I finally made it there. Have a nice week xxx

The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Shakespeare) and the Suspension Bridge at night

Ello!

So, as you may or may not know, I am doing English literature as one of my A-levels, although I'm not doing my A-levels. Last week, my class went to see a Shakespeare play at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol and I went as well. We went to see Two Gentlemen of Verona, which doesn't have anything to do with our theme this year - struggle for identity - but we went anyway. I've never seen a Shakespeare play nor have I even read one (at my school back home we start Shakespeare in two years as our English isn't good enough yet). The people in my class mostly read Romeo and Juliet as preparation for their GCSEs. 

I didn't find it to be too demanding to be honest. Once you get the gist of thy and thou and all of that stuff, it's fine. I know they're all pronouns of the second person but I think then there are rules about when to use what if the person is the subject and when he/she is an object but that wasn't important anyway. The sentence structures are a bit .. strange as well. All in all it sounded a lot more like German than the now-English though. 

I found some photos of the play!! I didn't take any, wasn't allowed.

Oh yeah, and there was a dog in it as well. He/She brought all the humour:)

Because it was in town and Shakespeare apparently always takes ages I got a lift from my friend's dad (she was there as well!). He was really lovely and he's been to Switzerland to ski, in Einsiedeln. It's always amazing to find someone around here who knows anything about Switzerland, except that Swiss hospitals assist you with committing suicide..

Well, anyway. After the play he picked us up and he knew I had never been to the Suspension Bridge before, so he dropped off my friend Ellen and me at the bridge and we got to walk across it at about half 11 at night. It was awesome!!:D

The photos are crap but it was fun.
Her dad also showed me the Temple Meads Train Station, which is beautiful!! I'm going to London this weekend and I'm finally taking the train there, so I'll take some pictures of it then. He also told us that Tarmac was invented and produced in Bristol - we drove past the old factories. First it was only stones graded and laid as roads and later tar was put on top.
Yeah, I learnt loads that evening, from Shakespeare to tar. It was lovely.

xxx

UPDATE - Cambridge ESOL Certificate of Advanced in English

HELLO AGAIN.
This is just going to be a short little update, again. I got my results for the advanced exam I did and I passed this one as well. I had a B with 79/100, which is a bit blooming annoying as I would have had an A with 80.. :/. It's fine though, I've got the proficiency now anyway. However, I had an 'exceptional' in reading, listening, writing and use of English but my speaking is once again rubbish. So I would have an A now if I wouldn't be so flipping shy.. but oh well, I'm fine with the result anyway.

See you xx

UPDATE - Cambridge ESOL Certificate of Proficiency in English

Hiya. I got an e-mail this week about my Cambridge exam (the Prociency one, I'll receive my results for the Advanced next week), and I did it!!!:)
My score isn't actuallly too great - I got 69/100, which is a pass with grade C. I'm not sure if it matters with what grade you pass but if it does, I'm going to do it again. It'd be a good excuse to come back next year and maybe do a preparation course this time... and I could go to Bath, to mix it up a bit.
I got a table on my Statement of Result and my Use of English, Listening and Reading parts are 'exceptional', however, I was absolute shite at Writing (I think that's the essay part) and the Speaking, which is rather worrying. I don't know what they flipping want from you!! But I probably should have done a course to understand that:P
All right, update finished.

Another really important thing... :


THEY'VE GOT ICE CREAM VANS IN THE UK!!!

See you later xxx

Cabot Tower, Bristol

Hello friends:)

I hope you all had a good easter, if you celebrated it. I didn't. It's strange, here they eat big chocolate eggs instead of chocolate bunnies.. doesn't look as cute.

Today's the penultimate time of my holiday. Got my ear pierced (do not tell the organisation), went to Cardiff and visited London twice (posts about that still to come). So yeah, I'm quite happy with my holiay:). I also went to see Cabot Tower with another exchange student girl from Italy. I had never heard of it before, but my friend's mum informed me about it when she drove us into town once. It's a tower but it is rather hidden and not high enough to see it from the centre - it isn't far from Park Street. 

The weather was lovely!:) We might go again for a picnic.

The stairs are horrible but it's worth it for the view

It was built in memory of John Cabot, who discovered Newfoundland in 1497 on the Matthew. There's a duplicate of that ship in the harbour here, which I really want to visit soon. Oh, and there's a 'Cabot Tower' in Newfoundland (for the same reason..), which I want to see as well :P.

Also this:) Froyo!!

The sunset in the evening was lovely as well!

Also: A girl from school and I finally went to YO! SUSHI. It is so good! And expensive, but there's a 20% student discount if you're part of their YO! Love Club, which I am now :P

Afterwards, I showed her how to use skype for when I'm gone. We've already used it a few times now, we live about 20 minutes apart mind. She plays Sims (3 of course) and turns her camera around so I can help her :)).

 Have a good weekend, I'll write about London and Cardiff soon. I just need to organise all the pictures.. and I still need to do all of my coursework for next week xxx