Trip to Oxford!

This morning, everybody went to Hannah's class and we watched a film called Nanny McPhee. After lunch we went to Oxford and we visited some colleges. We saw the place where Harry Potter's film was set. We also saw the main monuments of the village. During the free time, we went to Broad street where there were lots of souvenirs shops. Nearly everybody bought an Oxford jumper! We came back to BCU at 8 o'clock. There, a monitor took a picture of everybody who had bought an Oxford jumper! Then, we had a BBQ and we could eat hot dogs and chicken with vegetables. It was great!

Curiosities
The favourite colour for the jumper of the girls has been the purple!

Natalia, Ana, Laura, Elisenda, Irene, Maria

The campus, Apu at the Union and a woman who lived among car factories

Today in class we did a quiz about the University where we were staying, the BCU, and it was curious because we had to know how many stairs were at the Galton Building, the different names of the buildings as the Attwood building and the Kenrick library (listed alphabetically)... But we liked a lot the man at the Union Station, commonly called "Apu of the Kwik-E-Mart", who was very nice when we asked for the price of the bread.

Then, we had lunch and we went to the skating in Coventry. Yesterday, our leader told us about the history of this town, and today we have seen that some things are still important in this town. For example, we saw that there were car factories all along the road, and that it seemed to be a renewed town (let's remember that Coventry was bombarded at WWI and totally destroyed). There, we skated a lot and we enjoyed a lot because it was the last day of skating.

Curiosities

We think that Apu is a nice man because he is kind with us in our questions and we found funny that he seems to be like the one in "the Simpsons".

Alex, Oscar, Pedro, Xavier, Gabriel

Blogger's note:
On the former write, it seemed quite confusing the fact that there was a "Barcelona's team". It is referred to 's class since they wanted to have a football team name and the majority was from that team.

Besides, we wanted also to point out that in sport we had eight different teams, only mentioned some of them in the blog since perhaps the writers do not come from every team. Each one has the name of an animal: Kangaroos, Lions, Gorillas, Rhinos, Hippos, Eagles, Sharks and Dragons.

A wetty day!

This morning we have had an English breakfast, although not everybody liked it. Then, in class, we talked about Alton Towers, and we made an amazing poster to remember it. We stuck a map and we wrote our opinion about the rides, even if we didn't like them.

After lunch, we did English activities outside as it was sunny we played football and baseball. Then, we went to the Sports Centre at University of Birmingham, where some of us played sports and the others swam for an hour.

Later, back at BCU, we have had dinner and we have gone to the TV room because it is raining .

Curiosities

Our teacher, Shaz, was ill so we had to go and do class with "Barcelona's team".

Brenda, Victoria, Celia, Montse, Meritxell

Alton Towers (or Aston?)

As a surprise, our visit in Wednesday has changed at the last minute, because we have gone to Alton Towers!!!!

We have woken up, and as we were the older guys from the group, we have helped carrying the packet breakfasts and lunch. Then we have made the trip and arrived at Alton Towers, which is a theme park with full of thrilling rides. We went to everything: Oblivion, Air, Nemesis, Rita and Spinball Whizzer. This excursion lasted all day because there were lots of queues and we spend at least 45 minutes waiting in each ride...

Then, at six o'clock, we have returned to the BCU and had some cold dinner. Now we are heading to the TV room.

Curiosities

Today it was another birthday, Joan Ferrer's, and he had a big surprise because he had never celebrated it in Alton Towers.

We also wanted to point out that in Alton Towers (not Aston as someone said) you could buy a Bottle Refill where you could put any drink and refill it as many time as you wanted.

Gerard, Jaume, Guillem

One-stop Quiz

Today the class was so strange!

We went to the One-Stop, a shopping centre. There, we completed a quiz with questions about the shops of the shopping centre. It was so funny!

Once we have finished the quiz, we have had some free time until quarter past twelve. Then we arrived at BCU and we had lunch. After, we went to Birmingham Centre by train.

We have visited some of the most important buildings in the city and we have had some free time to go around the Bullring.

Later on, we have returned to the BCU and as every day, we have had dinner and played sports under the rain. Now we are going to continue the film from yesterday.

Curiosities

The weather in Birmingham is crazy! During the morning it has been very sunny, while in the afternoon it has rained really heavily.

Amelia, Paula, Irene, Aurora

Birthday at BCU!

Today it has been a normal day but still, it had some point of special: it was Josep Maria's birthday. In the morning, we had classes, where we saw "the Day after Tomorrow", a film where climatic change affects in floods and cold hurricanes.

At one o'clock we had lunch and after we get the coach and went to the sports centre at University of Birmingham, where we could play badminton, ping-pong, and made some plunges on the swimming-pool. After getting wet we returned to BCU and had some dinner.Then, in sports, we played the different matches, and Dragons beat Sharks 26-0 in baseball. Now we are going to the TV room to start a new film called "Eagle Eye".

Curiosities

At breakfast, everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to Josep Maria and they gave him a special present. He was very happy.

Aleix, Josep Maria

Gimkana at the park

Today we haven't done classes!

In the morning, we have gone to the Catholic Church of Solihull to go to mass. We have been divided into two groups. The first group has had study time while the other was in the shopping center of Solihull, although the shops were closed!

The mass was good! However, it was a little bit difficult to understand it all.

In the afternoon, we have done a Gimkana in a big field. There were eight different, but one specially caught our attention: There was a game with flour where at the end we were all full of it!

Curiosities

We have got up at the same time as every day although it was Sunday!!!

Iara, Ruth, Maria, Azucena

Stratford-upon-Shakespeare

Today we have woken up at a quarter to eight like the other days, then we had breakfast and we did classes in the morning.

At the evening, at a quarte past two we caught a bus and we headed to Stratford-upon-Avon. This town is known as the place where William Shakespeare was born. When we arrived at Stratford we have split in groups and we have visited different places like Shakespeare house or the Stratford Town Hall. After that we had some free time to make a tour alone and go to some shops to buy souvenirs. Then we caught again the bus and we returned to BCU.

Curiosities

When we arrived for dinner, around eight, we didn't have cold dinner as on Wednesday,we had a barbecue!! We had food from what we cook in barbecues, but as it was raining (no luck today with the sun) dinner was served inside.

We also saw a wedding in Stratford at the Holy Trinity Church.

Guillermo, Alvaro

Lady Godiva at skating

Today we have done something amazing: we have gone to the skating! We've gone to the skating rink of Coventry, and there we have been skating for two hours. At first it was a little bit difficult, but then we have learned how to do it.

When we fell down it was quite painful, but quickly we stood up and kept on trying. Some of us skated really fast. It's been very funny.

The rest of the day has been as always, more or less. In sports Gorillas and Rhinos haven't won any match, while Kangaroos and Eagles have always won.

Curiosities:

Today it hasn't rained!

Carmen, Paula, Irene, Sara

Bowling: Strike! Spare! No more?

As all the days, we did classes in the morning, where we watched a film "Shark Tale", and we had some English activities, very interesting!

However, unexpectedly, we went to Bowling this afternoon at Acocks Green Bowling, in Birmingham. We had a great time although it was some kind of difficult because if you didn't have the bannisters, all the balls were heading to the corridors on each side of the lane. We couldn't score so much points, but it's a place where we can spend good time together and know each other better than at the beginning.

Now that we have a little time for study, we are eager to play sports because it is something surprising to know the areas were we plays: each day we change!

Curiosities

As the leaders have always some experience in bowling, it is always very difficult to catch them up with the scores, specially two of them. However, in this year, there has been a girl (Irene) who has beaten them with a score of 144 points!! (against 128p. and 134p.)

New Highscore to be proud of!!!

Fabio, Bernat

Attack of the Bathing seagulls!

Today we have gone to Bath. As a surprise, our leader woke us up 30 minutes earlier! And we didn't have breakfast at BCU but at a service station as a packed breakfast.

After two hours of trip, we finally arrived to Bath.
During the morning we have visited the Roman Bath; there were lots of people, but we enjoyed a lot. We couldn't take a bath because the water was dirty!

Then we have gone to have lunch in a big park. In the afternoon we have visited Bath Abbey which was really big, and finally, we have had free time to know bath on our own.

The weather has been quite sunny.

Curiosities
While we were having lunch a lot of seagulls have "attacked" looking for food. It was scary and funny! But better not to be there!
(Like "the Birds" in Hitchcock's movie, blogger's note)

Maria M., Luisa, Laura P., Nieves

Visit to B'ham

We have started the second day eating the traditional English breakfast: eggs, bacon, sausages and toastes. Then, we have done some lessons and at the break we played some games. Then we continued our lessons and at 1:00p.m. we had lunch.

Afterwards, we have gone to the centre of B'ham by train. It has been very exciting although it was raining most of the time!

As we were divided in three different groups, we only know that in our groups we went to visit the Town Hall, Victoria Square, the Library and the Symphony Hall. We also passed along a builiding that was a tribute for the dead soldiers during WWII.

Finally, we got some free time in the shopping centre called the Bullring.

We know that after dinner we are going to start the Sports Competition. Let's see how it will look!

Curiosities

When we were at the Symphony Hall we saw a lot of children wearing uniforms. We were told that they came from all the schools in Birmingham and they were supposed to do a concert of instruments and choir this evening.

Oscar, Ignasi, Roger

A crazy first day

Yesterday we arrived to Birmingham at about 3p.m. We are staying in a university called Birmingham City University. It's very big and we have individual rooms.

When we arrived, we had dinner and then the leaders introduced theirselves and explained to us some rules about the course.

Today we woke up at 7:40a.m. and after having breakfast we did a test and after we had classes by levels.

Then we have had lunch and we have done some English activities.

Now we have just arrived from the Sports Centre where we have played ping-pong and badminton.

In a few minutes we will go to have dinner, and it's just 6:30 p.m.!

It's been a rainy day and we hope it's going to be sunnier tomorrow!

What have we learned?

We know now how to introduce ourselves to other people.

Curiosities

Our teacher has brought a student from our age that knows both languages (Spanish and English) and he helped us in our translations.

Patricia, Leticia, Clara, Monica

LANDED

All the flights have landed normally and the students are now travelling by coach to Birmingham City University.
Welcome to England!

Welcome to our blog!

Aquí intentaremos informar del día a día del Cursillo de Idiomas que tendrá lugar el próximo mes de julio en la Birmingham City University, organizado por Idiomas Padre Manyanet.

Los artículos seran redactados por los propios alumnos. También intentaremos ir publicando fotografías de las diferentes actividades que realicemos.

En el menú de la derecha hemos añadido enlaces a los diferentes blogs de la organización, un álbum de fotos provisional que iremos actualizando periódicamente con las fotos de nuestras actividades, enlaces a webs de las diferentes visitas que tenemos programadas y un calendario en donde poder consultar la actividad diaria.

Esperamos, que como en anteriores ocasiones, sea un espacio de gran utilidad para todos.

¡Hasta pronto!

HASTA SIEMPRE

La Direccion y todos los responsables y colaboradores agradecen la confianza que habeis tenido en Idiomas Padre Manyanet, deseando que acabeis de pasar un feliz verano con toda la familia.
Que San Jose Manyanet bendiga cada uno de vuestros hogares.
Hasta siempre.

P. Antonio Sorribes, S.F.

Thank you

Today is the last day of our stay at Biminghamn City University. In the morning we had our goodbye English breakfast, later there has been class where we welcomed the teachers for their good job. After lunch we've gone to the cinema. Back to the BCU, after dinner we've played tables games before going to pack our suitcases and finally going to sleep as tomorrow we are leaving early.

We really enjoyed this month in Birmingham, we would like to thank all the students for their attitude and effort done on this course. They have showed us that they have really improved their English and have learned many of the local traditions.

At this point, may this blog be to remember all the numerous activities we've done, going to the swimming pool, to the ice skating, to the bowling and to the cinema. We can't forget too the interesting visits to Coventry and their cathedrals. Not to forget York and the impressive Minster and Oxford with the magic of Harry Potter. What about London where we walked along their streets visiting the British Museum, Covent Garden market, Trafalgar Square with the pigeons, the Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament and more. We also visited Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace where we learned about his life and work. Apart from that we went to Alton Towers and Drayton Manor Park, two different but amusing theme parks to end up our stay.

Once again thanks to the students, the teachers, the leaders and the staff.

See you all next year!!!!!!!

By The Leaders.

Crazy English weather

Today we woke up at 7:45am and we went to have breakfast. It was a sunny and hot morning, we reached the 27 degrees Celsius. We had class and we did a test, later we saw Harry Potter one group and Narnia Chronicle's the other. Then we made a book with the places we visited in England. We have prepared a song for our teachers Charlie and Nathan and we have sang them today at the end of the class.

We lunch and in the afternoon we played a quiz and went to the swimming pool, our last day in the swimming pool! We came back and the clouds started to appear, but the hot continued.

We had dinner and we went to the sports field, to play football. The clouds were getting darker and darker and it started to rain cats and dogs!!! We tried to keep playing because it was an interesting match but we finally decided to go back and have a shower. Now we are finishing the film. The forecast for tomorrow is rain again, now there are thunders and lightnings!

By Elena & Natalia.

Drayton Manor Park

Today we woke up later than the other days, at 8:30am. We feel sad and a little bit alone because our friends of three weeks have left and fly back home. But we also are very happy because we spent all the day in "Drayton Manor Theme Park". Drayton Manor is a theme park, smaller than "Alton Towers" but very funny.

We have spent all day in the rides like "Apocalypse", "Force", "Shockwave", "Maelstrom" and more. At half past two we have met all of us in the meeting point to have lunch. We ate in the Zoo area neat the goats. After that we had plenty of time to finish our visit around the park and to ride as much as was possible.

At 6:00pm we came back to the BCU where we had dinner and now we are going to watch a film. We'll go to the bed early because we are very tired.

By Clara & Ana.