London - Légrády Anna

Today we went to London for the second time. We started our tour with the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge, we walked on the embankment of the River Thames. The weather was surprisingly sunny and dry. The next stop was a local marketplace where we could gain insight of everyday life.

It was amazing and the market atmosphere was friendly, chatty and cosy. I ate a cheese toast sandwich there. After that we visited Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre which was magnificent and our guide spoke about a lot of interesting facts about Shakespeare and his plays. Then we had some free time in Covent Garden and we ate in Shake Shack which is a kind of fast food restaurant. On the street there were a lot of street performers which was interesting for us.

In conclusion, it was a wonderful day that we could spend in London.

Dover by Dávid Tóth

Today the trip took place in Dover.  In the Morning we went to the train station, and when we got off the train we looked up to the castle on the hill, and it was so amazing. We stopped in the park for a break, before we started the “Big ascent”. I made a race with Gábor Gere (our teacher) on the stairs to see who will be at the top first? Of course I intentionally lost. After we went up to the castle and saw a lower parts as well. There are a lot of ferries that are going to France. It was a beautiful view. After when we explored the Castle what was very important in the WW2. There were a lot of hidden corridors. At the end of this trip we went back to the train station.

London by Csenge Toldi

Today was our 3rd Saturday we spent in London. From Broadstairs the bus took us to Greenwich where we visited the Royal Observatory. It is famous for its maritime history and the "Greenwich prime meridian" passes through the centre of the observatory, the 0° longitude, which has traditionally been the basis for calculating the time zones. We had 2 hours free time there from 10am to 12am to go around and see the exhibitions. Then at 12:30 we went to London by boat, the view was beautiful, but those sitting outside became really wet, exceptionally, not because of the rain. Those who went to the Tower of London or Tower Bridge Museum, landed sooner, the others walked together towards Trafalgar Square. From there we split up, one group went to the National Gallery and we went to Oxford Street, to do a bit of shopping. We had 2 hours’ free time there too. The weather was not very favourable for us today, we became wet several times. But all in all, it was good, although we spent quite a lot of money. At 16:30 we had a meeting at our usual place, Covent Garden and went back to the bus together. We got off at about 7pm and of course everyone went straight home to the host family.

M&S by Klaudia Kulcsár

I work at a store named Marks and Spencer. It is located in the Westwood Cross shopping centre. In this store there is not just a clothing section, but a food and café section too. 

I work with Anna, Ádám and Dominik. However, I work with Anna as a pair, and Dominik works with Ádám alternately at the food section and the café section. 

The week before we started the work we went to the store and we met with our manager and we had a look where we are going to work. I was surprised that there are more than one sections desides the clothing section, but I pretty like it because work can be diversified. The other thing that was surprising for me was that the colleagues and the customers are very polite and nice to me and they are always smiling. 

We are in different sections of the store every day alternately between the food and the café section. I think it’s pretty good because it can be diverse and it’s not that monotonous at all. When we are in the food section we are refilling the shelves and tidying them. Fortunately, me and Anna can enjoy this kind of job. At the café section we are cleaning the tables and we have to serve the food for the customers, so we are waitresses. It can be very tiring, albeit the time is going fast when we are at that section.

My Workplace by Anett Hunfalvi

My job is at Tesco.

In the beginning I had fears, I couldn't imagine enjoying what I had to do every day for weeks.

But everything was a positive experience.

Bev, our boss is always nice and smiling. This is very important because you don't have to think "work again, I don't feel like it" in the morning.

Tesco at Westwood Cross is a workplace and can be reached by bus.

It has a huge dining room for the workers, and people usually spend their break time here.

I meet new people almost every day, and that's what I liked best. Luckily everyone was friendly, if I didn't understand something they explained it in different ways. I was able to meet and learn from people with positive thinking.

My favourite part was the toy section. I love kids, I could see them every day, I had a fun day.

All in all, working there was a positive surprise, but I can say I'm lucky to have been among such people.

Sunday trip by Ádám Pilczinger

Today we visited The Castle of Walmer and Deal. We were at the train station at 8:30 AM and the journey lasted about 30 minutes. We got off the train and walked to Walmer Castle, which was the summer house of Queen Elizabeth I among many others. Then we explored the other parts of the castle and left for Deal. We found a café while we were walking and stopped there for a rest. After that, we visited the place finally and explored the lower parts of the castle as well. Then we were roaming on the beach and it started raining, but it didn't last for a long time, fortunately. We took the train back to Broadstairs.

Cinema – by Dominik Hagya

This was our first time in a cinema since our arrival. We watched Ad Astra in the Granville theater. This building is an old building with neon lights inside so it really has a retro vibe. Ad Astra the film was a utopian, futuristic film. The film is about fixing a problem which had happened without knowing it. Our main character's father was in a mission which went South and went missing. Our main character gets the mission to fix the problem maybe find his dad along the way. The problem in the beginning was the sudden power shocks which took from the universe's stability and by a counter power shock could neutralize the instability. Unfortunately, our hero found his dad but couldn’t come back to Earth with him.

Drumin' workshop by Attila Baracsi

Tonight the Kent School of English organized an exotic Drumin’ workshop which contained trying to play on a traditional African musical instrument called djembe. We were together with an Austrian group. The man who explained what actually a djembe is, where it came from and helped how to make a sound with this kind of instrument was very funny and tried to make us comfortable in this situation. He knew a bit German so he welcomed the Austrian group in their own language. But he hasn’ t learnt any Hungarian yet. Nevertheless he asked us to help him, so we told him some words in our language like ‘thank you, welcome’. But he had difficulties with the pronunciation. After that we started to play, he showed some rhythms and we had to do the same. When we became ‘professional’ djembe players he asked some people to show a rhythm and everyone had to do the same. I was the last one who had to perform something but I’m not as good so I showed a very easy one.

Barn dance by Anna Vadász

The dance took place at Broadstairs Pavilion. It started at 20.00 and ended at 21.45. There were probably100 kids in total, who came from all around the world. Students from Germany, France, Spain, Italy and of course Hungary. We danced to traditional country music with a live band and a professional caller who „sang” the instructions to us. We always danced in groups and one group had 4,6 or 8 couples. The movements were basic and simple like right hand spin, left hand spin, two hand swings and dosie-doe. Dosie-doe is when you cross your arms in front of you and go around your partner with your back to them. The KSE staff taught us their own dance. After that there was „The Best Dance of the Night”. It was two teams against each other and it was also in pairs. You had to stand in two big lines in one team and run as fast as you can. Run down twice in the middle than each side of the two lines and each of you had to be at one-one side but you had to hold your pairs hand the whole time. It was fun, everybody had a great time.

The jewel in the crown – Karaoke party in Broadstairs – by Levente Kovács

The karaoke party, we engaged in last Friday was more than enjoyable. The participants surely gave their best. The event took place in the local Baptist Church. Although I didn’t have expectations that the reckless entertainers could have lived up to, most of the acts were simultaneously brilliant and burlesque, moreover many of them had their own skeleton in the cupboard, since you couldn’t make early verdicts about the skills of the given participant. A girl, for one, felt seemingly really anxious on stage, albeit quite exhilarated as well. Not only did she seem zealous about being in the limelight, but her voice was also staggering, in fact, her performance was also so marvellous that I actually got goose bumps. However, a party would not be a party without the Hungarian. Singing classics like the Bohemian Rhapsody or songs from Shawn Mendes, moreover our teachers also showed us what they were really capable of, singing Imagine from John Lennon, which was welcomed with a pageant of mobile torches by the audience. It undoubtedly set the tone. Suffice it to say that the karaoke party was a really good pursuit and I really enjoyed it, making no bones about it.

Oxford by Zsanett Moravetz

We went to Oxford on the day we arrived in England. We went to the High Street of Oxford. Then we went to Christ Church Meadow and walked around the park. To go out of the park, you need to go through a really interesting gate, which only one person can use at a time. After that we wanted to go to a botanical garden, but we didn't have time for that. But we did have time for ourselves. The teachers let us go to eat something or just go shopping. Me and my classmates who came as well, went to Marks&Spencer's café shop and ate really delicious biscuits. Half an hour later we met in front of a Waterstones and continued our trip. The next and final destination was the Ashmolean Museum which is the University of Oxford’s museum of art and archaeology. We spent an hour there, then got on our bus. We arrived in Broadstairs at around 7pm and had a really delicious dinner with our host families.

Bletchley Park by Vilmos Forgó

   On our first day in England we travelled to Bletchley Park. It happened in this place that genius mathematicians worked in secret to decipher the codes of the German forces. The most famous code-breaker was Alan Turing who built the first computer to break the so-called Enigma code. We saw where these people lived and worked during WWII and we've learned a lot about their significance in history.