Catching up:)

Heej, I'm back!
So, I've been here for two and a half weeks now.
I recently tried mini pork pies with Branston pickle (veery British) and I actually really like it. Branston pickle is vegetarian relish...

tastes better than it looks like

And I also (finally!) tried Marmite! It's not bad, but you really just have to take VERY little. I put it on my sandwich one day but luckily my host mother saw me do it and stopped me. She told me you usually take two toast slices and put some butter on both of them and then, only on one of the slices, you put on some Marmite.. just for a bit of flavour. It's some kind of by-product when you brew beer. For me it tastes a bit like Bouillon...

School's OK as well. I dropped World Development on Monday, now I'm left with four subjects: Maths, French, English Literature, Psychology. Which is fine. Maths and French are still very, very easy here. My French teacher has a horrible accent though (not saying mine is better, but it is:P...). Psychology and English Literature are both quite complex. I don't think I'm struggling because of the language, they'd be equally as hard in German. But their both very interesting, so I'll have to manage. One of my problems was, that I didn't know, that they grade the homework here! So I'm going to be frustrated the next few days.. Oh well.

There's a lot of tutoring/mentoring going on at Hanham. You get put in a group and have a special teacher you can talk to if you've got any kind of problems. That's mentoring. You go in with a partner you can choose. I went with Scott from my Maths class ... I think it's a nice thing to do, but you can't really take it seriously... it's more like: You alright? Good. Here, sign that. 

I can't explain what tutoring is, because I haven't gone yet :P. Would of had it today during lunch but I thought because I already had mentoring on Monday, I wouldn't have to attend... But they're two completely different things.. apparently.

I have my cell phone all figured out now. I first bought a pay as you go SIM card.. but that would be way too expensive in the long run. Now I have a SIM only contract for 12 pounds a month (with VirginMobile) and I get unlimited web, unlimited texts and 150 mins of phoning. Because I'm only 16 I had to ask my host mum to use her bank account.. but it worked out fine. I think it was also a problem because you needed a bank account in the UK...
I also got my bus pass today, finally!! It was flippin' expensive, but it's worth it. I need it every day for school and I can go into town with it. It cost me 430 quid for a student pass.. which I can use for a whole year.

When I went into town (that's what everybody here calls it...Bristol) to get my bus pass, I stayed longer and walked around for a bit. I got to a place called Cabot Circus , which is fab!!! All the shops and quite different fashion over here is overwhelming though..

Last weekend I first went to St. George, which is right next to Hanham, to pick up a friend from school and then we went to Kingswood together. It's a really nice place to shop. There are so many different charity shops there, all with really nice clothing, shoes, jewelry and also furniture... and a lot more.

On Monday I had my first training. I'm not sure what it was... a mixture of kickboxing and sparring I suppose. I really enjoyed it!!

I hope everything is well at home (the weather here is killing me!) and I'll write you soon
Alex xx