From the 27th of August to the 10th of September · In London (England) . I atended to a two-weeks course in St. Giles Central London School in Southampton Rd. and I booked accomodation in John Dodgson's House. I had classes from 9:00 a.m. to 13:00 p.m.

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The Report

Thanks to the grant I won in the EOIP and the Tive Program of the Government of Navarra, I applied for a two weeks training (I didn't have more days available) in London. Mi idea was to take the opportunity to improve my English and have a closer knowledge of the culture and habbits of the english Island, a country that, besides, Ihadn't visited yet. Therefore, I chose London, the capital, since it is a city with plenty of cultural activities and where foreigners are always welcome. Among its many schools, I selected St. Giles Central London, located in Bloomsbury district.
Once I had chosen the school, I decided to take a a training of 20 hours per week in the morning. This timetable allowed me to enjoy in the afternoon the life, culture and customs of the city.
The general conclusion of the training I took in St. Giles is really good. The timetable was divided in three hours devoted mostly to grammar and vocabulary, and one more hour per day intended to enhance our oral ability.The School gave us all needed material from the very beginning, as well as our main reference, the book New Cutting Edge. To be accepted, we had to pass a admission test and a personal interview, where our knowledge was evaluated. I was in the Upper Intermediate Grade and if I had continued with the training, I would have been promoted to the Advance Course.

The classes

At the same time the classes were taking place, the teachers tried that the pupils knew each other and carne closer to the cultural differences of each country. My class was a mixture of different nationalities and this was a joining point, although it can seem a paradox, because it gave us the chance to start a conversation easily and practice the language. So I met classmates from Italy, Turkey, Portugal, Brazil, Russia, Switzerland or Sweden. It was very common that any of us presented something typical from his or her country or society, and the rest of us told how life is in our birthplaces.
The classes also were very dynamic and pleasant, in which we could learn new structures by means of games or vocabulary with a Bob Dylan´s song. It amazed me the professionality and determination of the teachers. During the classes one of the keys was that the number of pupils would never be higher than eight or ten, so that we spoke very frequently.
A very interesting feature of St. Giles was its social program, in which pupils were allowed to meet other mates and kept on practising English in different situations of our daily life, for example, in a party in The Swan pub or in the Phantom of the Opera at the theater. ln summary, my experience in the course I have booked was very positive and I am very satisfied with the organization of the School

In my opinion...

The two weeks I stayed in London have become an unforgetable experience, not only for my learning, but also for the city and people I met there. My stay in London was really perfect. It is an amazing city, where 1 felt soon like at home and I quickly found places to have breakfast or lunch and have a drink with my friends. One of the advantages of going to London with a high English level was that it made me easier to become another londoner. Therefore, it wasn´t so difficult to develop at the beginning, in spite of being in a city very different to Pamplona in terms of size, means of transportation... However, I also had sorne understanding problems, although, in general, I didn´t have big problems to manage myself. Besides, the most interesting thing is that I could learn new vocabulary, iándispensible for daily life in an English spoken country.
On the other hand, one of the main aspects I had to get used at first was that I1 had to speak in English even after finishing my classes if Iwanted to go to the canteen. It was funny, because at the beginning I used to speak Spanish uncounsciously like I usually do in the breaks. At first I had to do a big effort to try to think and communicate permanently in English. However, you got accustomed soon and when you got up in the morning you were already thinking in English.
My stay in London was not limited to the course, so one of my goals was to try to know in-depth a city in which I had never been before and it Iooked very attractive to me, due to its huge cultural offer. To start with, the first day was a bank holiday, so I went to the Notting Hill Carnival. After that, daily when I left the classes I intended to visit districts, museums, squares...
After the classes I visited the Imperial War Museum, Nacional Gallery and Nacional Portrait Gallery, British Museum, Natural History Museum, Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, the Tate Modern Museum, Westminster... The museum which impressed me most was the Cabinet War Rooms, because I loved History and it was amazing to see how could England beat Germany in the II World War. Also, I tried to be very close to the lively London, so I visited Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, the markets of Camden and Portobello.. and I couldn´t left London without visiting Abbey road, one of the most famous pedestrian crossings in the world, moreover the topic of my project was the english music from the sixties to the nineties and it.