Do you like animals? I for one love animals and would love to do some charity work for a cats/dogs shelter home.
At my house we have had many pets such as tortoise, 2 terrapins, ducks, birds, rabbits, cats and fish. My favourite pet is a Cat, our cat at home is called Buttons and is lovely she is around 10 years old and loves sitting on the heater in the winter months, she also likes bringing present’s home such as mice…!!! But one day I would love to get a huskie dog! I think they are brilliant in the snow and are very interesting dogs or should I say wolfs…!

What is your favourite pet? Or what do you have? It would be great to know what people all around the world have as their pets.

Tanya 

If you would like ideas on how to improve your English outside the classroom in a fun and interactive way, you should try http://www.lyricstraining.com/! You can choose from three levels of difficulty and there are many different songs with their music videos. All you do is listen and fill in the blanks, and the song moves at your speed. You can track your scores and even practise other languages if you want to.

 Give it a try and let us know what you think!

My family were down from Scotland at the weekend, and we had a great time.  We saw almost all of the main sights of London in two days!!!   It was a crisp autumnal weekend and perfect for walking, so instead of squeezing in to the sardine tin that the tube can be on a Saturday we decided to walk.  London is great for walking – it’s flat, there are lots of broad pathways and there is lots to see.  We walked from St Paul’s (and saw the Occupy London protest) then across the Millenium Bridge to the Tate Modern.  From there we headed west along Victoria Embankment to Southhampton House to see the Christmas ice rink.  Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament were next, followed by a pint of English ale at the Red Lion on Whitehall.  We paid our respects to Britain’s war dead at the Cenotaph, walked past David Cameron’s House, then waved to the Queen at Buckingham Palace. 

Trafalgar Square was next, then classical music at St Martin-in-the-fields.  Piccadilly Circus and the shopping crowds rounded off a long but fun day! 

We had nice rosy cheeks by the end of the day and we were famished after all that walking, so we finished teh day with Lebanese food on Edgware road.  An excellent day!

Kevin

Since I moved to London, I have always chosen not to live near a tube station. Trains are always packed during rush hour, and I don’t like the “sardine” effect first thing in the morning or after work!

Therefore, my choice of a new place to live usually depends on how conveniently located bus stops are in relation to the flat – yes, I know, I am mental!

A few days ago I discovered a very useful feature of the TfL website that you absolutely must try if you commute by bus. 

If you go to www.tfl.gov.uk , click on “Heading out? Find out when your bus will arrive”, type your postcode and select your bus stop, you can see live bus departures. This means that you can know in how many minutes your bus is due at your bus stop. For me, this is quite convenient, as I live opposite a bus stop! 

From now on, dear students, no more excuses for being late for your class

Gabby

Today is Friday, finally!!!!And I am looking forward to go and have a drink at our local pub.

Chatting with friends and colleguaes drinking a pint of beer or a “big” glass of wine (if you are from Italy) is the best way to start the week end.

Cheers everyone!!!!

Geoff (EC London’s Social Programme Coordinator) will be leaving us for 6 months to embark on a journey around Brazil. Not only is he running away from the UK for the winter months, but he is also doing it for a good cause!!!

Good Luck Geoff and see you ..soon enough!!

P.S Alec will be taking over from Geoff during the time he is away, so ………

                               Welcome Alec & Farewell Geoff

£214.27! The magic number…

That’s how much money was raised for Children in Need by EC London students and staff last Friday.

So how did we do it? How did we get people to part with their hard-earned cash?

Well, we asked the staff to come to school in jeans and a hat. And then charged them for it – £2 per person. And if they weren’t wearing a hat, then they had to pay £3. It was a pretty good effort all round, with all manner of hats (and jeans) being paraded around EC London.

As for the students, it didn’t seem fair to charge them for wearing the sort of clothes they wear every day. So we put some chocolates in a jar (well, actually it was an empty CD container), and charged students £1 to guess how many.

One student managed to get the number spot on: 84. And guess what?

2 x 1 + 4 x 2 x 7 = 84.

Coincidence…???

Well, yes. Probably.

I am going to USA next Easter!!!I still cannot believe it!!!

My friends know that I love travelling and during a daily trip to Bath a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to join her  and her friends for a trip to USA. We organised a trip to Boston, NY and Washington two weeks ago and we bought the flight tickets last week end…I am so excited!!!I have never thought I could go to USA and now the dream comes true!!

Now we need to find the accommodation but it isn’t so easy without knowing the Cities. Travel Blogs and accommodation web sites are very useful but I am not able to decide the place where we will spend our nights.

Has anyone gone to these Cities?? Does anyone have any suggestion for me??

In the past week, we have held two acdemic focus groups to really get to grips with how our students view the teaching and learning at EC London and which areas required greater attention.

Thank you to all our students who contributed; rest assured we will be working on areas such as tutorials, homework and team teaching and will continue to work hard to keep lessons motivating, varied and enjoyable!

If you have any comments on your course, please let us know so we can continue to learn and develop our teaching methods!

Thank you!

Today myself and Kevin found ourselves talking about what jobs we used to have when we were students, we both realised we used to work for the same food chain store ‘Co-op’ and we were both there for 3 years and worked on the tills.
Before working in the co-op I worked in a fruit and vegetable shop on a Saturday which was really horrible as it was winter and extremely cold and we had no heaters – I think that has to be the worst job I ever had!!!
What is the most interesting job you have ever had? It would be good to hear everyone’s story

Tanya