My adventures in Brighton

Hi, my name is Hieu. I'm 23-years- old. I am study English at the HAN. I'll be in the UK: 28-01-17 until end of May/beginning June. (Under construction)

[brighton-adventuress]

Last blogpost!

Hello everyone, this is going to be my last blogpost since the deadline will be on June 1,

In this blog post, I am going to tell you about the week of May 22-28.

On Monday and Tuesday, I was busy working on my assignment for kv502. Since I still was not satisfied with my video recordings. Luckily I was able to finish it on Tuesday so I was able to meet the deadline on Wednesday at 4:30pm. On Wednesday, Shadi, Sumeyye and I  had a meeting with our tutor to check up on us and to talk about our last assignment which is due on May 31. 

This week, the weather has also been really nice so I went to the beach with some friends on Wednesday and even had fish and chips there. On Friday, it was also a really nice day to go to the beach which I did with some of my other friends. And in the evening I made plans with Sumeyye to the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie which was quite entertaining. There were a lot of funny moments so you could say I laughed a lot! On the weekend I have been working on my portfolio for the HAN and the University of Brighton. One is due this upcoming Wednesday and the other is due on Thursday.

Since all of my modules and placement have finished, I would like to give a summary about what I have learnt here. After the Easter break, I started a new module called kv502 ‘’Key Strategies in Learning and Teaching Languages: Enjoyment, Engagement and Enrichment’’ which is a class where foreign languages such as French, Spanish and Italian were taught through subjects like cooking and science. This module was for primary teachers which meant that my Dutch classmates and I had to think of different ways how we could implement the theory in teaching at a secondary school. I think if I were to implement activities like that you would have to collaborate with teachers from different subjects but also this has to be discussed with the headmaster so it would match the curriculum.

Placement: What I have learnt from placement at a primary school is to become a bit more strict. Since the pupils were more easily distracted, especially with a small group. After 10 minutes, they would find other ways to entertain themselves as there were dolls in each room.  I had to remove the objects and correct the students. Also I know for certain now that I would never want teach at a primary school.

For Kv605 and kv407, I have learnt more about doing research and writing large essays, and learning how to look from different perspectives. I had never read theories about sociologists in relation to education until I came here. Even though I have done these courses, I think I should have done a lot better on my assignments. Even with feedback, It was still a struggle to write a lot of words as there were word counts.

Well, this is my last blogpost. I hope you all enjoyed reading my blog. I will return to the Netherlands on June 6 so I will see you in a week! I hope everyone is alright back in the Netherlands.

[brighton-adventuress]

Week of May 15-21

This week was the last week to round off placement and also the last week for the module kv502. On Tuesday, my Dutch classmates and I gave a lesson in Dutch for kv502, which is also as part of an assignment from the HAN. Each of us had 10min, I did my Dutch lesson on family members.

My last day at placement took place on Wednesday, I had prepared a lesson with the picture book  Hansel and Gretel where the focus lies more on the picture than the actual reading text, however, I only had one student as all of the other students had other obligations to the classroom. On one hand, it was quite nice because I was able to focus on one student and he was not distracted by the others this time but on the other hand, I wasn’t able to properly round off the reading lesson with the other students. The next day I had a tutorial for kv502, which was quite helpful since I had not started on that assignment yet. After the tutorial, I headed to the library to borrow some books for the assignment.

On the weekend, I worked on my reflection on how I have learnt a foreign language. Moreover I recorded a video in which I speak English for 1-2minutes which is part of the assignment. Recording the video took over 200-300 times since it was the most awkward thing I have ever done. I think that at some point, I was losing my voice because of it.

I hope everyone is alright back in the Netherlands.See you soon!

[brighton-adventuress]

The week of May 8-14

On Monday I worked the whole day on my assignment for kv605. The next day, I had a seminar  for kv502. The tutor used a PowerPoint with instructions in French. During the seminar,  the whole class was divided into two groups. The first competition we had to build the tallest building by rolling up newspapers and taping it together. And the second competition was building the strongest bridge by using the same items. The rest of the day, I worked for the assignment of kv605 since I had the deadline on a Wednesday at  4:30pm. However, I caught a cold so  I had to call in sick the next day. Even when I was feeling under the weather, I still had to work on my assignment on Wednesday.

It was quite frustrating as there was a word count of 3500 words, however I managed to write as much as possible and was able to meet the deadline. When I handed in my assignment, I went straight to bed. On Thursday, I had another seminar which was given in Spanish, in which we watched videos, made a caterpillar and looked at picture books. When I came home, I went straight to bed once again. Sleeping really helped me to get better. As I was able to go to the dog walk the next day with some friends which took place on Campus. On Saturday, I went to the 360 with my friend Jessica. The 360 is a tourist attraction in which you go up into a tower and you can view the whole city from there. It was quite an experience as security checked your bag and scanned you with a metal detector like at the airport. After I came home, I went to the library to work on my assignment for kv407. 

On Sunday, I went to the Breakfast Club with some friends and we had breakfast there. In the afternoon, I headed to the library once again to work on the assignment.

Well that’s it for this week. Hope everything is alright back in the Netherlands.

[brighton-adventuress]

Week 1 of May

This post is from two weeks ago. Monday London!

On May 1th, I went to London with a few friends by train. We went into a few shops and some of us bought some new clothes. The next day, Sophie and I went to placement and we arrived at 9am. We observed teachers from three different classes. What was remarkable was seeing teacher assistants except during PE. The first class the pupils were practising for the SAT’s. In the second class we observed the students worked by themselves on posters. On each table there was an iPad. The last class we observed, was a PE lesson.

At 2:15pm I read with the children and this time I combined the two groups so in total I had 6 pupils in the library. With a large group I was difficult for me to get everyone attention because they all got distracted by another. To make things worse when a teacher came in and told us the library was reserved so we all had to pack our books and find a new room to read in. The children got even more distracted as there were items the children wanted to play with. I definitely learnt something that day, which is too stay calm. My learning objective of the day was give the children a warning and after the second warning I will send them back to class.

On Wednesday, I had a tutorial for kv605. During the tutorial I asked  questions if there were more websites that I could use and about the assignment itself since I had problems writing it.

On Thursday. I had a seminar about  primary MFL, the seminar was taught in French. It did not feel like a seminar as we were moving around a lot like a regular PE-lesson except in this case we had to repeat the French words along with the movement.  It varied as we jumped up and down, touched hoops, used hoops and even played with and under a parachute. In the afternoon, we were able to use the kitchen on campus to make fancy sandwiches. One of the chef’s spoke Italian and translated everything in Italian to us.

On Saturday, I went to Angelique’s goodbye party with a few friends. It was weird only seeing her two days that week, but I will cherish the times we got to hang out the past couple of months. I definitely had a good time at the party.

The rest of the weekend I studied.

Hope everyone is doing alright back in the Netherlands.

[brighton-adventuress]

Back at the University, week 1

I apologize for the delay, the first two weeks back at the University have been very busy. Below is a post from the first week. Next week, I will try to post two posts.

Tuesday was my first day back at the University, a new module kv503 started that day. This module can be compared to TEFL back home as we discussed teaching approaches and methods. Before the class started, we all introduced ourselves to another.  All of our other classmates are British and they all want to become primary school teacher while us, Dutch students are studying to become secondary school teachers. After we all became acquainted, the tutor gave us an activity to categorise words in the English language. We had to figure out the origins of the words by categorising them. The words varied from Dutch, Arabic, Spanish, Latin, Japanese language etc.  After the activity, an Irish lecturer came in to talk about teaching methods such as CLIL and CLT. I was already familiar with CLT, but not with CLIL. Furthermore the key stage periods were discussed, these terms are used in the UK. We discussed key stage 1 and 2; key stage 1 is from the age 5 until 7 and key stage 2 is from the age 7 until 11. The day ended with watching a video of a French teacher, we observed her teaching as she did not use any of the textbooks in her lessons.

Sophie and I had to leave earlier to go to Placement at Hangleton primary school. However, when we arrived we found out from our contact person  that the students we were supposed to tutor, changed their schedule for the Tuesdays. They had swimming lessons in the afternoon. Instead of tutoring, we talked to our contact person, Ms Ward about changing the schedules by coming in earlier or go in on a different day. We’ve also asked her if we could take a look in the classrooms and observe the children as well as doing a presentation about the Netherlands for our assignment from the HAN.

The next day, my friend Angelique asked me if I wanted to go to Devil’s Dyke. Apparently, you can see the whole city up in Devil’s Dyke. First, we had lunch and then we went to the bus stop. Unfortunately, the buses to Devil’s Dyke are only riding on weekends so instead we visited the Royal Pavillion. As we went inside, there was a sign that we weren’t allowed to take pictures which is unfortunate. It was quite interesting to read all of the facts and looking at the interior design. I was surprised to see a lot of Asian paintings, portrets and the structure of the building. This all became clear after watching an introduction video of the Royal Pavillion. On the outside the Royal Pavillion looks like a building from India and on the inside it looks Asian. George IV, the prince of Wales has never been to China or India so it was built from his perspective.

The next day, I had a seminar for the new module kv503 that I had on Tuesday. A Spanish primary teacher came in and told us about his teaching methods by singing songs and telling stories with picture books in Spanish. Even though the module is for primary teachers, I have learnt something new such as the KWL chart and how you can utilize music and stories to learn something without even knowing with lots of repetition.  In the afternoon, I went with my friends Angelique and Ani to the Fun Fair. It was quite small and all of the rides were more for little children so we decided to go to a café and had a cup of coffee.

On Friday, I went to a 10-minute tutorial for kv407. During the tutorial, I asked the tutor some questions because I have been struggling on writing the assignment.  The tutor gave me some useful feedback on the structure of the essay and recommended me to borrow a book from the library. It became a bit clearer after the tutorial, so hopefully I won’t struggle as much when I’ll be writing the essay. I needed to relax a bit so in the evening, I cooked dinner with my friend Ani and a had girl’s night.

On the weekend, I worked on my assignments for kv605 and kv407, as well as the leaflet for the onderwijskoffer.

I hope everyone is alright back in the Netherlands.

[brighton-adventuress]

Last week of the Easter Break

The Easter break is officially over. The three weeks have flown by really fast.

The first three days were filled with fun activities. On Monday, I went to see the new movie ‘’the Boss Baby’’ with my friend Angelique. It was quite entertaining as the creators had added some adult humour that only adults are able to understand. The next day, I went on a day trip with Angelique to Worthing. We went into the shops and at the end of the day, I picked up my brother’s hoodie. He had lost it on the National Express bus when he came to visit me two weeks ago.  On Wednesday, I hung out with my friend from Canterbury. We went out for lunch and went shopping in the city centre.  On Saturday, I made plans with Angelique in the evening; we went grocery shopping first and made sweet potatoes at my place. The majority turned out great, some of them got a bit burned.

The remaining days of the week, I tried to work on my assignments. It is all about finding the right data and stay focused. So far I have only written the introduction for one assignment and for the other I have tried writing a substract. And prepared myself for placement that I have on Tuesday. Hopefully I will get more work done this week.

All of my British flatmates came home this weekend. It was nice having some peace and quiet as well as having a clean kitchen for the past three weeks,

Well that was my week. I hope everyone is alright back in the Netherlands

[brighton-adventuress]

Two weeks down (of the Easter Break), one to go!

As promised, I would post about the second week of the Easter break.

Monday,

On Monday, I went to Burgers and Cocktails to celebrate Sophie’s Birthday. She invited a bunch of people whom she’d met here as well as her flatmates.  We all ordered something to drink and a few of us also ordered a burger or some fries. There was a sign which said that you get get the game ‘cards against humanity’ at the bar if you sell your soul which we were eager to get. Not all of us were familiar with that game, me however was. When we were playing that game, we found out that some of us have a pretty dark soul. When it approached the time of closing, I headed home with few of the girls.

The following day, I stayed in and made an attempt to get some work done. On Wednesday, I attended a walk at the South Downs National Park which is near the Seven Sisters. In total, 7 people showed up. It was lovely nonetheless, as the weather didn’t let us down. There was a bit of wind with some sunny moments. The day ended with some coffee or tea with cake at the café. Unfortunately, the service at the café was disappointing as some of the orders were missing.

On Thursday, I went to a Vietnamese restaurant Pho near the seafront with Angelique.  Angelique was the first one at the restaurant. Everything seemed fine until I headed a bit further into the wrong direction. You could say that I do not have a good sense of direction. Luckily, Angelique was able to meet me halfway and together we headed to Pho. All of the waiters and waitresses were once again Caucasian, the people in the kitchen were Vietnamese, well at least that’s what I hope they are since I have not seen a lot of Vietnamese people.  Everything was freshly prepared on the day itself so it took a little while for the food to arrive at our table. Once it was on our table, we could finally enjoy the food. The restaurant received some great reviews which I agree with. Of course, no food compares with my mom’s cooking.  

On our way out, there were a bunch of people lined down at the park. Of course we had to check it out. A street orchestra was playing together and collecting money for some cause.

The remaining days, I had tried to get some work done. Even on Good Friday and Easter, finding good data for my assignments appeared to be extremely difficult. Well, I still have one week left before I have to go back to the university. Hopefully I will get them done before then.

Well that was it for this week. Hope everyone is alright back in the Netherlands. 

[brighton-adventuress]

First week of the Easter break!

Sorry for the delay, the past two weeks have been very busy. Tomorrow I will post about this week.

On Monday (3-04-17), I went to a tutorial for kv605 which was in the office of my tutor. We discussed about my formative assessment. He gave me some feedback and showed me how to search data for my essay. In the afternoon, I picked up my brother and cousin. They would stay with me until Wednesday afternoon. On the first day they got here, they got very excited about going to pound land. The ASDA superstore also made them very excited since it was a massive supermarket. During the days that, they were here; I showed them around the city. I’ve gotten used to walking so much, however, they had to make an effort to keep up.  On Tuesday, I took them to a Japanese restaurant with a friend of mine. In the evening, we had fish and chips at the pier. We ended the day by going to the arcade and when we got home, we packed the suitcases. On Wednesday, I took them to Sealife where we got to see some amazing  creatures in the water and we bought some food for on the way. This time I got to say goodbye to my family, which is lovely. When I got home, I vacuumed my room and rested up. The next day, I did my laundry and did some research on my assignment for kv605 about women in Vietnam. This was quite difficult as the WiFi did not cooperate. In the evening, I made diner plans with Angelique. We had some Vietnamese food at my place, spring rolls from my mom and we wrapped veggies and fish in rice paper. Then we left to go to Jojo’s which is a place where they sell desserts such as crepes, waffles and ice-cream.

On Friday, I went to a birthday party. First, we headed to the beach and had some fries. Followed by some evening grocery shopping at Sainsbury’s for the barbeque. When the boys were grilling the food, the rest of us watched Shrek, it didn’t stop at the first one as we continued watching the second one and finally the third one. After we had something to eat, there was room left for a piece of cheesecake.  It was a great evening and when most people got tired, it was time to end the day by heading home.

During the weekend, I’ve done some research for my assignments.

I hope everyone is alright back in the Netherlands. See you tomorrow.

[brighton-adventuress]

Easter is approaching!

It is the week before the Easter break! So why not end the week by writing it for my blog.

Tuesday, March 28th

The seminar for the module kv407 was really valuable. The classmates that showed up got to walk around the classroom and look at the posters and challenge each other giving feedback or ask questions about the posters. By doing that sparked some ideas for the essay that we have to work on and hand in in May. Everyone else was doing their assignment on the UK. While Sophie and I were more focused on the Netherlands. My tutor also gave me some more ideas by looking at my poster.

Wednesday, March 29th On this day we all had a day off. So in the afternoon, Sumeyye, Shadi and I went to a dog walking event at Falmer campus. When we arrived on campus, we saw the dogs with their owners. There were a lot more students that attended the event, which I don’t think any of us expected since the weather wasn’t that great. The dogs were all very well behaved and very cute. I had never walked a dog until that day. The dog I walked with was more controlling me than I was controlling him.

Thursday, March 30th For kv605, I had my last lecture. At the end of the lecture, we could sign up for a tutorial to talk about the formative assessment. He told us that we would also be available next week. The dates on the sheet were in May. I signed up for a date in May but also gave him a suggestion to do a tutorial next Monday. 

Friday, March 31th

This Friday, I had my last lecture for kv407 where focused more on the content of the assignment. The tutor also showed us how to set up a weebly account. There was also time for some questions and at the end of the lecture we could sign up for a tutorial just like for kv605.

In the evening, I started celebrating the Easter holiday by having dinner with two friends. They had not met each other before that evening. We went to a French restaurant called Cote de Brasserie near the Brighton Dome and the Royal Pavillion. They offer a two-course meal for 10.99 pounds before 7pm during the week. The food was delicious and the service was quick. After we had dinner, we headed into the city centre and dropped by at Starbucks for a hot beverage.

Sunday, April 2nd

On Sunday, I made plans with my friend Angelique to go to the Spring Market at the level. It wasn’t large as we had expected however it was charming. Most of the people were selling food and drinks. One stall was selling Vietnamese tea and coffee. Funny thing is that it was sold by Caucasian people!

I haven’t seen many Vietnamese people since I got here. We had ordered some ice coffee there and had to wait 15min until they served it to us. 

After that we headed into town and walked for a bit in the lanes. It was really sunny outside so after a few hours, we headed to the seafront for some fish and chips. We even took some pictures at the beach. 

Then Angelique headed home and then I met up with some friends at the Geese. We went to the Hove beach by bus. There are cute huts there so we took some pictures there as well. 

Then it was time for me to go home.

My next post will be about the first week of the Easter Break! I hope everyone is alright back in the Netherlands. See you soon!

[brighton-adventuress]

School and movie nights!

Two posts before this one, I wrote about my personal and professional development in which I briefly talked about Monday and Wednesday. I will go into greater detail in this post.

Monday, March 20 During the weekend, I had looked up some information about Maria Montessori so I could show my notes to my classmates.

Monday is supposed to be my day off, however I made plans with my classmates from kv605 to work on the balloon debate assignment. I left at around 9 am to head to the gym. At around 9:40, I arrived on campus and stayed at the gym until 11:10am. At 11:30am I met up with two classmates. The group consisted of 7 people, however some people decided not to show up. In the library, we made a PowerPoint about Maria Montessori, about her legacy. End the end of the day, I learned some more things about her legacy and since I already knew the Montessori method from onderwijskunde, it was good to refresh my memory.

On Tuesday and Thursday, I went to movie nights. On Tuesday, it was at Phoenix Halls, in the common room. On Thursday, it was at one of the buildings of the University campuses. It both included free pizza and other snacks. Both movies were very different in comparison, as one is a comedy and the other film is based on a true story. 

Wednesday, March 22

On Wednesday we had a lecture followed by a debate. Luckily we had a break before the debate since more people from the group had showed up for the lecture. During the break, we divided the slides and prepared for the debate. It turned out to be a fun debate with fun raps in between. Our group was voted out quickly in the first round.

On the weekend I worked on my formative poster for Tuesday, March 28th. 

My next post will be about the week before the Easter break! Hope everyone is alright back in the Netherlands. See you soon!

[brighton-adventuress]

St Patrick’s day & movie night

I haven’t posted about my activities in the past three weeks so I will post them this week. Here is one from the weekend 17th-18th.

I went out with two friends on Friday evening. We bought a ticket which offered entrance to several venues in the city centre of Brighton.  It was the first time, I went out on St. Patrick’s day. I will never get used to seeing people dressed up in costumes. On the streets, you could see a lot of the people wearing green or dressed up in a costume. There were long queues at Irish pubs. We headed into a few bars and pubs. We even ordered drinks related to St. Patrick’s day. We made the mistake of ordering three, as it appeared to large fishbowls filled with green liquid, Irish flags and lemon. 

It was definitely a fun night!

The next day, I headed with my friends (the majority is Dutch and plus our Canadian friend Jessica) to Sprinkles where we had the option to choose between ice-cream, a sorbet or even crepes. 

After we’ve finished our dessert, we headed to see the highly anticipated live-action Disney film ‘Beauty and the Beast’.

Before the film started, we had to endure 30 minutes of commercials, even car commercials which was very odd. In the end, it was definitely worth it since the movie was really cute, with lots of great songs. If you love Disney movies and don’t mind musical songs then I would recommend watching ‘Beauty and the Beast’. The people in the auditorium even clapped at the end!

My next post will be about the week of March 20th-26th and March 28th. Hope everyone is alright back in the Netherlands. See you soon!

[brighton-adventuress]

Personal and professional development

 It has been a while since I have posted any blog posts but this post will be about what I have learnt personally and professionally in the past two months.

Personal development: In the first month, end of January-February, it was exciting and scary at the same time. Living by yourself, I have learnt to become more independent. In the first month, I would call my parents and brother every day just because I missed them and asked them for advice and tips on the little things. In the second month, I told my parents that I would call them less, which means twice or three times a week. I had to distance myself from them a bit otherwise  I would not be able to start living my life and like doing fun activities or work on my assignments.

In the past two months, I have discovered something about myself as well, like I can be quite loud without me noticing. What I already know about myself is that I am a light sleeper so when I hear sound no matter how small it may be, I easily wake up. So far I have not called out other people about the noise which requires a lot of self-control.

During the field trips, I have learnt a lot about the history of the locations as well as getting to know new people.

Professional development:

During the lectures and seminars of kv407, I have learnt more about sociology and how to link that to education. Not only do we listen to the lecturer but there are also group discussions during the lecture. During the sessions, everyone were asked some questions which we would discuss in groups. Most of time you had to come up with real-life examples that you had encountered in the past related to education or society. This way it helps you comprehend you had read. For kv605, which is comparing international education, could be said the same, although this catches my interest more in comparison to kv407. The variety of theorists help me gain more insight to look more into society itself.

On March 20th, I prepared a debate with a few classmates about Maria Montessori by making a PowerPoint. The debate took place two days later. March Maria Montessori is in comparison to the other theorists Stuart Hall, Margaret Mead, Edward Said and Paulo Freire the odd one out as my group was voted out in the first round. It was really fun participating in the debate as people even rapped about the theorist they represented. There were two variations of Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Montessori was someone I was already familiar with, I hadn’t heard of Mead, Said, Hall and Freire before I started the course so it was refreshing.

For the past two weeks, I’ve handed my formative assessment for both modules.  As for this week, the lectures I’ve been in writing articles and essays which are discussed in great detail. These were quite helpful since I hadn’t been used to writing long articles or essays.

For the article, you also have to write an abstract and a personal rationale which is something I have never written before. We all received some examples to look at. I have learnt that in the personal rationale, you have to give the reason why you chose a certain subject.

Placement update

I have been to placement at Hangleton primary school for four weeks now. I work with two groups of three for 30 minutes each Tuesday. The primary focus is on comprehensive reading. Two days prior, I prepare myself by creating a lesson plan.

Each week, I try to read 2-3 chapters with the pupils and let them read 3 at home. Sometimes it does not go as planned. Never had I worked with the age group of 8 - 9-year-olds. Personally I would never see myself working with this age group ever again. They are all really cute and eager to read, however, they can get easily distracted especially the last 5-10minutes. Sometimes I have to find a different room since the library is often occupied.

Last week, I had a difficult pupil in my first group, when he was reading out loud, he deliberately changed words or didn’t read it out loud properly. I kept correcting him about it and asked him why he did that.

This week,  I heard from the contact person that I could no longer continue with the book ‘Skellig’, which I was reading with the pupils, because it contains bad words and the parents had complained about it which meant, I had to improvise. I have also encountered another problem, the same pupil from the first group refused to participate. I called him out on it, I even yelled at him. He was really shocked, I don’t think he had expected me to yell at him. After I had yelled at him, I asked him what was wrong or what was bothering him. He wouldn’t give me a straight up answer but then he told me that he could already read really well and he did not know why he was in the reading group. The other pupils called him out for being rude. In conclusion, this week  I worked around the situation and that it is good to strict when you need to be.

My next blog posts will be about the past weeks.

Thanks for reading, see you soon!

[brighton-adventuress]

Week update March 7 - 12th

First of all I apologize for the delayed update, this post was about last week.

Tuesday March 7th

On Tuesday I made plans with one of my dear friends Angelique (who is also from the HAN). First we met up at the Aldi to buy some groceries and then we headed to my place to cook dinner together.  Hopefully the kitchen would not be too crowded for us to cook in. As soon as I entered the flat, I was surprised to hear that the other girls had made plans to go to a dating event. They were sweet to invite us to come with. However, I had made other plans with Angelique.  For dinner, we made satay sauce, stirred fried eggs, rice and cooked or I should say stir-fry it in the pan. Never had I had that kind of satay sauce before until that day. Thank you Angelique for introducing it to me!

Wednesday Prysm March 8th

On Wednesday, my classmates and I were invited to a night out in a nightclub called Prysm. In advance we paid for our tickets online ,which was 3 pounds cheaper than buying it at the entrance.  The English girls from the module were really loud especially after a few drinks. The club is really massive, with a lot of venues.  In the queue, we were told to stick together because you could easily lose other people. The night started out with a large group, as the night progressed it got smaller and smaller by the hour.  

Thursday pancakes March 9th

On Thursday, My flatmates and I made pancakes and we invited one of classmates from the module kv407. We made a lot more pancakes in comparison to pancake day, so we all got at least two or three pancakes for dinner. We shared a lot of laughs and had a nice conversation. That could not be said about the music as Shadi picked out a Justin Bieber song ‘Baby’. I know she picked that song as a joke yet I still blame her and our classmate since it got stuck in my head the next day.

Sunday breakfast, March 12th

On Sunday, I went out for Breakfast at Wetherspoon in the city centre with Sumeyye and Shadi. As breakfast, I ordered traditional English Breakfast without the beans.

Well that was the week, I will post about this week in a few days! See you soon!

[brighton-adventuress]

A new month called March!

Rye and Bodiam (March 4th)

On March 4th I went on a field trip to the Bodiam castle and walked on the streets of Rye.

My cooking skills:

In one of my first posts, I briefly described how the cooking went. From my visit with my father, I received an electric cooking pan so cooking rice has become much more efficient.  Mom and dad if you are reading this, thank you so much for bringing it to England. I love you! When I am cooking by myself, which is usually the case, it comes down cooking vegetables or soup. It is never fun living on a student budget. I will definitely start to appreciate more of my mom’s cooking when I get home in June.  

Sunday Roast (March 5th)

Shadi, Sumeyye and I were invited to go eat Sunday Roast by a few friends. Funny thing was that we only had to walk 2 minutes from our accommodation.  Since it was a pub, you had to order at the bar. I do not think anyone of us expected to wait an hour until we could finally eat. We were in good company so I did not mind waiting. When our meals finally arrived, they were all full plates which I had not expected. It filled you up right away after just eating a few bites.

Well that was my week! See you next time!

[brighton-adventuress]

Bath and Stonehenge (February 25th & 26th)

On February 25th I went on a field trip to Bath, and the 26th to Stonehenge.

Unlike all of the other field trips I went to, it included staying the night at a hotel.  Starting the day bright and early at around 6 am to get ready, make breakfast and check everything to go to Falmer campus around 7:25 am. The bus ride would take about 30min, just on time to take the coach. On the coach, we all received the programme for the weekend. Since the duration of the trip was going to be 4-4.5 hours getting some sleep was definitely on my mind.  The first activity,  as a group we went into the Roman Baths.  However, as soon as, we went in the large group got separated in smaller groups. It was a self-guided tour where we all got a machine and if you wanted to know about a certain topic you had to press the numbers. There were signs everywhere with numbers. Below are some pictures of the tour.

After about an hour, I hung out with two other girls since we had free time until 5pm. We had lunch and headed to the Jane Austen centre. The tour started in a room where the visitors received information about Jane Austen’s life and her family.  This was followed by a small tour of showings of several paintings and sketches, although some of them might not have been Jane Austen herself.

Then we had free time to explore and look around the exhibition, a few things that stood out were the opportunity to smell perfume from that time and taking a free baking recipe. Who knows, I might try baking it while I am here. For me, the highlight of the entire exhibition  was dressing up in dresses and taking pictures.

After the visiting the Jane Austen centre, I explored the city for the bit with my group. Like taking pictures of the bridge. Unfortunately, it started to pour for an hour so we had to stay inside in one of the shops.

When 5 pm was approaching, we headed back to the spot where we would all meet up. The drive to the hotel took about an hour. It is called the Holiday Inn, near the city Bristol. I did not know where it was until someone told me that we were near the country Wales. After checking in at the hotel and choosing the menu for supper, everyone had an hour to relax in their rooms. The rooms were divided in duo’s. 

I shared my room with Sumeyye. Just from laying on the bed, I could already tell that I would sleep well that night. The menu consisted of a starter, main course and dessert. It was all well-prepared and tasty. After dinner, we invited a couple of girls to hang out in our rooms.

The next day, we all had breakfast at around 8. I even took extra so I could bring it with me during the trip. Everyone had to check out 9am and headed to Salisbury. Once again, we visited a church and the oldest document called the magna carta. Unfortunately, it was not allowed to take a picture of it. In general, it was fair to say that this church was massive compared to all the other churches I have ever visited.  Below are some pictures.

The next activity was visiting Stonehenge. The coach arrived around 1pm at Stonehenge.  At the visiting centre, you could take the bus to the Stones or walk 15-20 minutes. What I did, was the latter. It was actually alright to walk so I did not mind walking at all. I guess living in Brighton is rubbing off on me. When my group finally arrived at the Stones, we took lots of pictures as the many tourists that were there as well. You could not touch the stones or come near it but walk around it.

At around 2.30pm we headed back to the coach to go back to Falmer campus. 

Thanks for reading!

[brighton-adventuress]

Delayed update

I apologize for the delay. As promised, I would blog about my field trip to East Sussex and my dad’s visit to Brighton. What I forgot to mention was the orientation of the International Students so I will briefly write about that.

International/EU Student orientation (February 8, 2017)

On this day, there was an event that started with a PowerPoint information about registering at a GP, joining sororities, becoming a volunteer and the organisation itself etc. It was followed by a treasure hunt around the city.  New shops were discovered while getting to know other students. After reaching most of the spots, it was finally time for some afternoon tea/coffee, involving scones with jam and clotted tea.

East Sussex (February 11, 2017)

On this day alongside many students and the organisers, we went to East Sussex. The bus left at 9 am sharp.

On this trip we visited Beachy Head which are at the cliffs. It is the highest chalk sea cliff in Britain. A camera crew would meet us there for a promotional video. Having cameras following your every move felt unnatural, never will I understand celebrities who agree to do reality shows.

This was followed by the Seven Sisters chalk cliffs.  We were told be careful as you are taking pictures on location. Taking photos was especially hard since it was chilly and snowy outside. Appearing cheerful was extremely difficult since the only thing that I could think of was staying warm and having hot chocolate milk. Next stop was Alfriston which is a small, yet, charming village. St. Andrews church (‘Cathedral of the South Downs’) is situated there and as usual we had to take a look. Finally we had some leisure time to explore the shops. For a little while, I just walked into shops and looked around. Since my main priority was searching for a nice café to drink something warm.

Around 12:30pm we all left to go to Six Bells in Chiddingly for lunch. It is a nice pub where all the customers had to order at the bar and sit at a table, the locals did not mind us being the only outsiders. Even dogs were also allowed in the pub. I ordered a Paul’s special, which looked like a pizza bread. It was really rich and tasty, after eating one I was already sated. When everyone finished eating their plates, we headed to the other section of the pub. Just acting normal for the cameras for a couple of minutes. Afterwards we headed to Battle Abbey, everyone split into small group and explored the site. Once upon a time, the Battle of the Hastings took place on that same location.  

My dad is in town (February 14-21, 2017)

My father arrived on February 14, 2017 at Gatwick Airport.  He took the coach from there, however, he encountered some problems along the way as no one was able to help him get the right bus to Brighton. Before he stepped into the bus, he had called me and handed it over to the bus driver. We had to be certain that everything would go as planned. I picked him up an hour later and helped him carry the luggage to my room. When I wasn’t studying or going to the University, most time was either spent on cooking or walking around the city with my dad, buying essentials as well as gifts for back home. 

Had to make every moment count, you could call it father-daughter bonding as it were. Never could I imagine speaking more Vietnamese than English. It was adorable seeing my dad making effort to speak English to my Dutch as well as my English flatmates. Meals had not tasted as good since I left home so I was exhilarated have a tasty meal. My father took notice on the fact that I had not complained at all about the long walks and made a funny remark that I walk like his younger sister. Not only do I look like her but I have similar mannerism as my aunt. Grocery shopping became a lot easier with an extra pair of hands. Suddenly I did not feel as lonely as I used to, well especially when it comes to the deafening silence in my room. In the communal area, there are always people to talk to, most of them seem to pop in and out more or less. On the weekend, we had a lot more time on our hands so I took my dad to see Brighton Marina on a 30-minute bus ride. 

As soon as we arrived,  we headed towards to the flea market, or what was left of it since we arrived a bit later than originally planned. Vessels were on site, as well as many dining places. Brighton Marina can be compared to Scheveningen, well, at least that is what my father says. According to him, the U.K. and Australia are very similar.

Saying goodbye to my dad felt odd because usually when I go abroad, it is either on a school trip or during a holiday. This time we would not travel back together, so when I came home from school for a brief moment I felt homesick again like the first time arrived.  Fortunately, that empty feeling faded quickly. See you soon dad!

Thanks for reading! My next post will be about the field trip to Bath and Stonehenge

[brighton-adventuress]

This blog post will be slightly different in comparison to all of my other blog posts since there is so much that I want to share and write about.

London Trip (February 2, 2017)

In my previous post, I wrote briefly about one of the field trips to London. This was my first time in London so I was very exciting to explore and see lot of sightseeing. The trip to London, however, did not go smoothly as planned since a person jumped in front of the train causing an hour delay.  During the trip, I took lots of pictures of famous monuments and buildings. Buckingham Palace was the first building, what was unexpected… was seeing the royal guard on their horses. 

As we walked past the mounted horse guards, it was astonishing to witness the guards sitting and standing still like a mime. 

This could not be said to the horses, as they were jumping up and down. Simultaneously, hearing and seeing about the history of the buildings and monuments in person was quite fascinating. What really caught my eye was the commemoration of the women of World War II. What history books talk about are usually the men during the war, rarely about the women. Women in general deserve more recognition in the world, therefore it was satisfying to be at near one of the statues. To name a few more which I saw during the tour was the Abbey, the London Eye and The Big Ben.

Taking the Tube was a first-time experience, as we were told was to get in and out as soon as possible. Walking through the station,  what was quite remarkable, was no one taking the stairs which was built in the middle. The architect had not really thought it through if you would ask me. On this day, we were informed that a camera crew would follow us around for a promotional video on our next trip. Sounds exciting to be a part of it!

Studying abroad

The first modules at the University of Brighton started in the week of February 6th – February 10th. For first two weeks, I have been taking ‘Education and Society’ and the second one is called ‘A comparative and Cultural approach to International education’. All of the seminars/lectures are two hours long, interesting, yet draining near the end. Most students here seem to be accustomed to the long duration. What was shocking to me, was that there were not many students who brought a laptop or some other technical devices to take their notes on.  The majority is very old-school by bringing their notebooks. In first two weeks, I have only brought either my laptop or my iPad. Usually it is the latter since it is more efficient to travel with.  Aside from attending classes, I have been meeting a lot of people all over the world. What has surprised me the most is meeting Dutch people from different cities,  not only tourists but students as well. When locals know that you are from the Netherlands, Amsterdam becomes quite a popular topic, not to mention the coffee shops. Only a few know about the other cities. To clarify, the Netherlands is more than just the city Amsterdam!

Well that is it for this week. On my next post I will write about my trip to East Sussex, a week with my dad and the Stonehenge trip. Thank you for reading and stay tuned!