Today in coffee and conversation we had 4 students from Italy and 1 from Japan. We began by introducing ourselves, telling each other where we were from, our jobs at home and how long we are staying at EC London. Asami from Japan is planning to stay in London for 1 year, studying and hoping to work. In Japan she worked for a publishing company. Emanuele from Italy is studying law and is spending just 2 weeks here. Gaetano had come to London to stay with an English friend he met in Rio de Janeiro and works as a mechanical engineer. Marcelo studied cinema in Italy and has been working in film production. He has visited London before and came back to practice and improve his English. He is the first student I have met who likes the English weather! Roberto has spent the last 10 years working in a legal office and is staying in London for 2 weeks also.
We decided to talk in pairs about either a recent film we had seen or one of our favourite films. Most of us liked gangster and action films and Asami told us about a Japanese animated film, (not using actors, but either drawn pictures, models or computer images), called Ponyo. These type of films are very popular in Japan and are often about imaginary worlds where strange and unusual things happen.
Gateano said that he liked films just for entertainment and that they didn’t have to be very memorable afterwards. Roberto enjoyed Ocean’s 11 because it was full of action and was fast-paced, meaning that the events in the film happen quickly.
We also talked a lot about what our plans for the coming weekend are. Marcelo and Emanuele were due to fly home to Italy at the weekend and were both looking forward to meeting up with friends and family. As usual, there were quite a few complaints about the English food. Any students that have found nice places to eat, should let staff here know so that we can improve London’s reputation in this area! Surely, not all the restaurants in London can be terrible?
Roberto was planning to visit lots of London’s sights, including Buckingham Palace, Green Park, Big Ben and Trafalgar Square.
Asami was being very kind and helping her friend move into a new flat and Gaetano was going to a friend’s barbecue and was hoping to provide lots of delicious Italian coffee.
As for me I am going to the Roundhouse in Camden to see an art exhibition where the whole building has been turned into a musical instrument that visitors can play. The exhibition is on until 31st August and tickets are £5 or £2.50 for full-time students. You can get more information about this on the Roundhouse website. The link is below:
http://www.roundhouse.org.uk/whats-on/productions/playing-the-building–3268