Afternoon Tea Graduation!

Today we had afternoon tea and graduation at a famous tea shop in Winchester. Debbie presented the student with their certificates and several gifts.  In the morning the girls had their final class with Peter and evaluated the program. They thought the program was very good. We had to say good-bye to Karen Robbertze who took such good care of us and arranged our trips and helped us in so many ways. Maybe you have been wondering where I have been living. My room is student housing and is quite nice. Big sunny window and lovely community Kitchen. Tomorrow the girls will go to Southampton to buy ingredients to make their host families a final Japanese meal.

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Today we visited Oxford, the home of Christ Church and Oxford University. This is a combination of church and university. Two of the Harry Potter movies had scenes here. We visited the dinning room used for one of these scenes. All the buildings were old and beautiful and we enjoyed learning about their history. Tomorrow is the final day of classes and a tea party for graduation. The round building is called the camera building and is where the camera got the name. Debbie saw us off at the station this morning.

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Today we visited Winchester college which is a boys’ fee-charging private school for boys 12 to 17 years of age. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and has the longest unbroken history of any school in England. It is the oldest English public school. When we entered this school we could really feel English History. The school started out with just 70 students but now has 700. The buildings and grounds were really beautiful. The last picture is just a pretty house with flower in Winchester.  Tomorrow we are off to Oxford!

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Today we went to London again. Peter acted as our guide but he had each of the girls take turns finding the places on the map and leading us. Here Akiko asks a policeman for directions. We took a wonderful boat tour on the Thames river. We saw the clock in the parliament tower and heard the ringing of Big Ben, the bell at noon. We were so impressed by the sites of Westminster Abby and Windsor Castle. In the evening we met Eve and her boyfriend Luke for dinner at a Pub in Winchester. It was another great day! Tomorrow back to studying!

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We spent three wonderful days in Paris and took hundreds of pictures! Can you imagine a Macdonalds hamburger on French bread? The girls loved it! We saw so many things but all agreed that the Louvre museum, Versailles Palace and the Eiffel Tower were the most exciting. We found the French sometimes friendly and then again not so friendly and they spoke only French! Here are a lot of pictures. We have a lot more to show you when we get back. Tomorrow we are off to London again. This time to see the sites.

Today was the final classes for Kinki University and Nagoya University, so we had to say good-bye to our new friends. Here is Natusmi with Akira from Nagaoya University, the only boy in the group! I visited Sawa’s class also Natusmi and Akiko’s class. Everyone was very sad to say good-bye. I’m sorry for all the pictures but it is so beautiful here. Today was a gorgeous day and I went for a walk down town through the grave yard and saw some beautiful scenery. Tomorrow morning we leave for Paris so no more blogs until Monday when we get back. Tuesday we will be going to London again with Peter to visit some museums etc.

Hi! This is Akiko Futagami. I spend every day happily here. The other day my host mother said to me, “Please don’t plan anything on Friday night because we will eat with my friend’s family”. She told me that her friend is Italian and he has two children and his wife was Japanese. I was very surprised and remembered remembered the blog last Sunday about our trip to London. We met Uichi a seventeen year old high school boy whose father is Italian and whose mother was Japanese. When I told my host mom about it she was surprised too. So yes Yuichi is the same boy, so we will meet him again on Friday. It is a very interesting and funny story don’t you think? It will make tomorrow’s super together even more special. Here are some pictures of us in our home-stay with our home-stay mom, Mrs. Robertson

The wonderful thing about Winchester is that it is so close to so many famous historical places. Today we saw three. First was another world heritage site, Stonehenge. The ancient stone circle of Stonehenge is about five thousand years old (built in 3,000 B.C.). During the mid-summer sunrise there is a big festival here when the sun hits these stones at just the right angle. As you can see it was raining when we visited, but this just made it more interesting and mysterious.  Our second stop was Salisbury Cathedral, Britain’s finest 13th century cathedral with the highest spire in Europe. It is also the home of the Magna Carta. It is an agreement signed in 1215 by King John. This was the first time the freedoms of the people were agreed to by a king. We saw the original copy here, although we couldn’t read it because it was written in Latin. The day was very cold and rainy and although it is really hot in Japan, we could use some sunny weather here. This swan seemed to enjoy the rain though!  I have asked the girls to write a report on their home-stays and will post that when I get it. Stay cool!

I’ve asked the students to comment about their experiences and here is what they have to say. Also included is a picture of Mr. Woolbright giving a guest lecture on “Public Speaking” to a group of international students. Sawa sent this picture of us at the beach in Bournemouth. Finally this is my favorite building in Winchester. We walk by it every time we go into town.  The weather is still very beautiful and cool 18-20 degrees.

August 23 by  Shiga Saeko

I went shopping with Chisato to Winchester.We bought souvenirs for our friends and drank shakes and hot chocolate. They were so sweet, but delicious. In the evening, Akiko, Chisato and I walked to Sawa and Nastumi`s house. We met their host-family. The house was very cute. Now, I am studying very hard. I talked to classmates a lot. I`m sorry, I couldn`t attach pictures to this blog. These computers don`t read my micro SD card.

My impression of London by  Koga Chisato

I had a good time to have afternoon tea. That was a very interesting experience for me.

Eve one of the Winchester students who studied at Seinan-jo this year met us at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday morning at Winchester University. On the train we met Uichi a seventeen year old high school boy whose father is Italian and who’s mother is Japanese. We had a good time talking with him and teaching him some Japanese. When we arrived at London Waterloo station we were lost and lucky to have Eve with us to show us the way to the underground or subway. We arrived at Piccadilly Circus and made our way to Fortnum and Mason the oldest and most famous tea store in England.  We were so very happy to get the very last reservation for afternoon tea as they were fully booked! Our waiter told us that the Queen does her shopping here and that Prince Charles can sometimes be seen  having tea! We had a very beautiful and delicious meal while listening to live classical music. Our waiter was an Egyptian by the name of Ehab. We had the Darjeeling tea that Ms. Nishioka recommended to us. Finally we finished our shopping at Harrods the most famous Department store in England. We had a really good time and it was fun to see and talk to Eve again. But tomorrow it is back to classes. Then next week-end we are off to Paris!

Here we are standing in front of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton. Brighton is a beautiful beach side resort that was made famous when King George built a beautiful second home there. The Pavilion itself is a dazzling structure and is decorated in the Chinese style. We spent the day studying the history of the building and then shopping in town and exploring the beach. Again the weather was cool but sometimes rainy. Another typical English day. Peter, one of the Winchester teachers, is pictured with us. Sawa is in his class.

When our British students were at Seinan-Jo, we asked them to teach us how to make a traditional British dish. They decided to teach us to make, “Beans on Toast”. A little research show that “Beans in Toast” is often mentioned in British mystery stories and is always used as a quick easy meal by the British.  Anyway today I was alone in my dormitory room for lunch and decided to make “Beans on Toast” for lunch. It’s easy. First you open a can of “British Heinz Beans” put them in a pan and heat them for three minutes. Next you toast and butter two pieces of bread. Finally you spread the hot beans on the toast and add some cheese on the top. It’s simple and delicious.  As you can see below anyone can make it. This was my lunch today.

Saeko and Chisato are really enjoying their lessons with Mandy, who is a great teacher and has been teaching at Winchester for several years. In the afternoon the girls enjoyed sports with the other international students.

Good morning everyone!

What a wonderful day we had today. The bus picked us up at 8:30 a.m. and took us to Bournemouth where we had a wonderful time on the beach and then visited a museum and art gallery in an old victorian house. In the afternoon we got on the bus and had a scenic trip through the English countryside to Lulworth where we visited the Dorset and East Devon World Heritage site. There we hiked for an hour to the Cove and Durdle Door pictured below.  It is special for its rocks, fossils and landforms, which date from 65-150 million years ago. We had real English weather; sometimes cloudy, sometimes sunny with lots of wind. On the way home we saw a double rainbow! It is so beautiful and historic here. We are having a great time.

The famous limestone arch of Durdle Door