Summer School Southampton

Bye-bye!

noreply@blogger.com (Maria) — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 20:54:00 +0000

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! ,-)

final countdown

noreply@blogger.com (Maria) — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 22:54:00 +0000

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!

busy birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne) — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 18:43:00 +0000

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!!!

sorry for yesterday's missing post

noreply@blogger.com (Verena) — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 13:11:00 +0000

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.

exploring The National Trust

noreply@blogger.com (Maria) — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 20:22:00 +0000

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.

busy, busy, busy

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne) — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 17:28:00 +0000

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.

our day off…

noreply@blogger.com (Verena) — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 21:01:00 +0000

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.

unbelievable…the first week is over!

noreply@blogger.com (Maria) — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 15:32:00 +0000

The last day before the weekend started with...lessons in the morning. Carolyn gave us the task to work out a cause- related marketing campaign for a nonprofit- organisation in small groups. We as nonprofit- “specialists” turned out to be quite creative and Carolyn couldn’t wait to see our concepts.

The afternoon was of particular interest for our group. We visited Sure Start which is one of the main child care organisations in the UK. At the arrival we were very surprised of the bright and friendly facilities. On the walls you can see a lot of colourful images and photographs, all furniture are suitable for children,… to create a warm and friendly environment. We also took a lot of photographs, however, we forgot to bring the proper equipment to upload it onto the computer. Although, you will receive them next Sunday at the latest.

Scott, a friendly community development worker, introduced us to Sure Start. Besides some basic information we got a deeper insight into the “daddy cool”- programme as he is personally involved. Moreover, he showed us the Children Care Centre and the beautiful garden.

All together we got new impressions; however, we expected to get a better feeling for the structure of the entire Child Care Service in Great Britain.

today... in a nutshell

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne) — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 19:29:00 +0000

Today there was another interesting presentation concerning “social care” by Andy Biddle, a manager of the Southampton City Council. In the morning we participated in the lesson of Peter where we continued with the topic “register use”. Afterwards we trained the citing references with Kevin which might be quite useful for our writing task.

In the afternoon we used the self- directed work- session for further research concerning our project. And now we’re looking forward to tomorrow’s visit at Sure Start.

impressions of the 3rd day

noreply@blogger.com (Verena) — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 19:39:00 +0000

Our day started quite early at 8:30 am. After a short travel we arrived at “Western Community Hospital” where we were welcomed by Sheila Brooke and Dr David Paynton.

The first point on our time schedule was a presentation by Dr Paynton who introduced us into the complex structure of the National Health System (NHS). He attempted to inform us in a very clear and comprehensive way, and it was very important for him that we got all the information needed to understand the health system in the UK basically.

After a coffee break (complements for the fantastic cookies!!) we listened to the explanations of Sheila Brooke concerning the Walk in Centres. It really attracted our attention because this way of health treatment was absolutely new for us. We hardly couldn’t believe that this service works without difficulties.

Then in the second part we got further information about the “Community Hospital” by Fiona Baldwin and Judith May. Afterwards they showed us the hospital where we got a deeper insight into the different facilities and wards.

The visit at “Western Community Hospital” was a real highlight of this day. Besides general information we gained completely new impressions… For instance, before we got the permission to enter the conference room we all had to sign a list (in case of fire emergency). Moreover, we were very surprised to see a carpet in the hospital (in Austria: unbelievable because of hygienic regulations!).

All together, it was another exiting day in Southampton which ended with a typical English tradition… eating fish & chips.

arrival in southampton...

noreply@blogger.com (Maria) — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 20:31:00 +0000

After a long and exhausting travel all of us finally arrived at Kimber Halls of Residence in Southampton by Sunday evening.

For those of us who arrived before 5 pm, there was more or less enough time to do the shopping for the breakfast. Thanks to the surprisingly great weather we decided to explore the surroundings (harbour, City Walls,...).

On Monday morning we had a warm welcome by our course manager Carolyn Westbrook. After a small introduction test we had the possibility to form project teams depending on different subjects. Furthermore, we had a guided tour through the university… and then our courses started in three different groups.

In the afternoon and the next day we concentrated on collecting, exchanging and elaborating all information about the NHS we will need for our visits. Today we had additionally two interesting presentations about housing in Britain.

Hello everybody

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne) — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 19:49:00 +0000

Welcome to our weblog. First of all we would like to introduce ourselves …

We are students of the MCI (for further information have a look on our link) and we are spending the next two weeks in Southampton to pass our English course for the winter semester.

The aim of our course is to improve our English and to undertake certain projects. The members of our team are Maria, Verena and Yvonne and we will work on the topic “Social care: Children’s care”.
Through our weblog we will inform you about the progress of our project … But we will also write about our courses and other activities.

So welcome on our weblog! It would be great to see you again and feel free to post your comments.

Best wishes and greetings from Southampton