Bye-bye!

We are proud of having done a good presentation yesterday afternoon. Although, we sometimes had an exhausting time (also because of being shaky) we can now look back on a quite successful work.

To celebrate the end of our course we were invited for a drink to Hythe. Together with Carolyn, Kevin and Collin we went there by ferry and walked along the famous pier. We spent a really nice evening in a typical English pub.

During our time in Southampton we gained a lot of new impressions. Besides the improvement of our language skills, we get an insight into a wide range of organisations dealing with healthcare, social and nonprofit issues in the UK.

Before we finally saying good-bye we’d really like to thank the whole team of the language centre for their great work (lessons as well as the different visits). Their kindness and commitness to help us at any time was impressing.

A special thanks to Carolyn for the great organisation of our course.
Carolyn, we wish you and your family all the best. Good-bye and take care! Maybe we’ll see each other again in Innsbruck! ,-)

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final countdown

After nearly two weeks of sunshine the typical English weather welcomed us this morning. Although, equipped with umbrellas we arrived at Solent University wet all over.

Today we had a quite helpful ‘Speaking and Communication’- lesson with Rebecca. She refreshed our knowledge concerning presentation techniques. We really enjoyed her way of teaching (she has a really good sense of humour and immediately attached our attention).

Afterwards, Carolyn introduced the different cultural stereotypes to us. She started with a funny comic according to which Austrian seem to be quite impatient. We were quite surprised! ,-)
To get a feeling how cultural stereotypes could lead to a variety of misunderstandings we did a role play. It was really funny, however, we realised how easy embarrassing situations can occur.

Today’s self-directed work session we used to proof-read our written assignment. We started to work on our project at 3 pm… and have just finished a few minutes ago…now it’s after midnight! Studying really seems to be easy-going! ,-)))

So good night and see you tomorrow!

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busy birthday

In morning we started an interesting discussion about how to allocate housing facilities to social disadvantaged people. In this context Carolyn introduced us in specific regulations in Britain. We were quite surprised that unemployed people receive a quite high amount of benefits and that they don’t have to pay a rent for housing.

Afterwards, Peter answered all our questions concerning academic writing. Besides, two business lessons with Kevin in the afternoon we used the time for self-directed working.

Just a few minutes ago we managed to finish our writing task… but the fine-tuning has to wait until tomorrow as Verena’s birthday has to be celebrated!!!!!!!!!!

Happy birthday, Verena!!!

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sorry for yesterday's missing post

Yesterday was a really stressful day. In the morning we had a nice presentation by Julia Barton, Head of Learning and Development (Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust). The speech was very well structured and we managed to get a lot of new information although we have had presentations about the NHS before. Ms Barton also made a great effort to answer all our questions especially for those who have to do their projects on this topic.
Afterwards we directly went on to our next visit at the Warren Center accompanied by Mike. There we had a tight timetable including about five presentations of several social services from the Southampton City Council. An interesting role play as well as the coffe break loosend the afternoon to a great extend.

When we got home we were very busy to put all the gained information into our written work. We studied until 12 pm that's why we apologize for yesterday's missing post.

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exploring The National Trust

We started quite early to catch our bus to Salisbury from where we went further on to visit the Philipps House. The stately home and its surrounding were overwhelming!

First of all, we got an overview of the history of the house, then we had the possibility to see the impressing rooms. After a really nice coffee break in the beautiful garden we listened to the local manager of The National Trust. Beside, facts and figures of the organisation we got a deeper insight into the buildings and landscapes which they care for.

In the afternoon we had the chance to explore the city or to visit Stonehenge. Thanks to our time management we were able to see both, Stonehenge and the famous St. Mary´s Cathedral in Salisbury.

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busy, busy, busy

After our day off yesterday we started to work on our project early in the morning. All in all it’s impossible to tell more interesting news because we nearly spend the whole day in writing our final work paper. We only interrupted to get our lunch and to go for a walk.
That’s why we are really looking forward to the Salisbury trip tomorrow.

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our day off…

Today we took the chance to get to know more about the cultural aspects and the countryside of England.

Early in the morning we went to the Isle of Wight by the high- speed ferry. On the island we immediately bought a “hop on – hop off”- ticket which was valid for all buses all day long. We started our tour with the highlight of the Isle of Wight… the needles. We really enjoyed the picturesque view and had our lunch in that beautiful surrounding. Afterward, we crossed the whole island to visit the east part where we took a closer look on Sandown, Shanklin and Ventnor. In particular we were very impressed of Shanklin Chine, a magic and mystic forest.

All in all we really enjoyed our day off. Although, it was a quite exhausting day we were glad to get these wonderful impressions.

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