Focus on Scotland - 1

CULROSS

One afternoon we went by bus to a place near Dunfermline called CULROSS, there we visited a palace with a garden, but have a look yourselves! It was a tiny "palace" - not very posh :)
The palace itself closed at 5pm - shortly after we had arrived there, so we did not go inside. But we could walk around the terraced garden which had beautiful wild flowers and looked very romantic.

But Culross was a very nice traditional place near the Firth of Forth ("end" of the River Forth going to the North Sea).

The Glen Pavilion as party location

The pavilion where our lessons took place is usually used as a location for meetings, functions of all kinds - such as wedding receptions and ceremonies.

At the weekend after our first week the pavilion was decorated for a special occasion.
I am going to show you some photos of the preparations and I am sure you will find out which type of function is being prepared:

PS: Although it looks quite strange - to have all decoration in black - I was told it was a wish of the bride and groom!

Late news from my Scottish diary

From 4th to 16th August this year I stayed for another teachers' course in the UK - it was for the fourth time since 2007.

Today  I am going to write about the lessons we had during these two weeks. The title of my course included the phrase: "... focus on Scotland".

In the first week we had a teacher who showed us lots of class room activities with music to bring more "listening fun" to our pupils and students.
In the second week we had lessons on Scottish literature, and on Scottish politics (pro and contra Scottish independence).

The participants of the course were about 30 teachers from all over Europe. They came from Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Spain, Poland, Portugal, and of course Germany.
We were divided into two groups. Our lessons took place in a pavilion within a wonderful park. But the location itself looked more stylish than is was suitable for the course. There was no computer access and the rooms were a bit too large for a class room, so the acustics were not the best. But we had really enthusiastic teachers who made up for this, AND we really learned lots of interesting language activities.

Have a look at some class room impressions:

Glen Pavilion

coffee break & fresh air

Our teacher in the first week was very inspiring and funny, he understood very well to motivate us.
Here is a link to his website. If you like and have the time you could find out something about quite interesting and unusual recipes he has tried himself and described in his blog.

http://www.jeremytaylor.eu

Jeremy Taylor is not only a teacher trainer, he also writes books and blogs and recipes and, and, and, ...

Hello from Dunfermline in Scotland

Dunfermline / Scotland, August 2013

It has taken a long time before I could actually start continuing this blog, but Internet access in Scotland seems to be rather difficult.
At my host family I don't have WIFI, therefore I have applied for membership in the public library for these two weeks. But of course I'm not here for writing a blog, but because I should go to college and "brush up" my English.
I don't have time to be here every day.
I wanted to give you an impression on the town, but unfortunately, there seems to be something wrong with the page, so it might not work.

Erfurt / Thuringia, October 2013

...It is already October now - autumn holidays - which gives me some time to continue. As you can see, it did NOT work to post anything in Scotland!

Here are some impressions of DUNFERMLINE,
the historical capital of Scotland: 

High Street of the town that has about 39,000 inhabitants

Pittencrieff Park, donated by Andrew Carnegie one of the most famous people born there

Our walking tour guide - told us he was standing on William Wallace's "secret" grave!

Andrew Carnegie's memorial - have you heard of Carnegie Hall in New York City?

 It was named after the same man.

LONDON'S MARKETS

This city is so interesting when you have enough time to explore it. As a "normal tourist" you only see the tip of the iceberg!
Since we were there for TWO weeks we had a bit more time and so some of us went to the various markets you can find all over the city.
Just "around the corner" of our college we had two markets with quite a tradition:

PETTICOAT LANE
 http://www.londontown.com/LondonInformation/Attraction/Petticoat_Lane_Designer_Fashion_Market/82c9/

SPITALFIELDS Market     http://www.spitalfields.co.uk/markets.php

Both markets were only a few minutes walk away from the college.
The links show you much better pictures that I could take because sometimes you feel a bit stupid when you take too many pictures :)

One afternoon after the lessons I went by tube (on the Northern Line) to CAMDEN where I found a highly interesting market in an even more interesting part of London.
Here I took my own photos!
Have a look!

On Saturday morning I found my way to the other side of the city to one more market:

PORTOBELLO ROAD Street Market in Notting Hill. Unfortunately, Hugh Grant was not there :)
Of course, you have to be really strong not to buy too much, money is easily spent at these markets ...

That's all for the moment. I visited ONE more market, I'm going to tell you about it next time. I can tell you it will be highly interesting for all "FOODIES"

Keep on reading!