Partner des MobiLingua Programms
Welcome to our blog
Vanessa Dubach
Hi everyone. My name is Vanessa Dubach and
I am 17 years old. I am from Switzerland and I
live with my mum and younger sister about 45
train minutes from Lucerne. As you maybe
already know from last year's class, KB13, we
do a vocational business school at FREI'S
School Lucerne. A part of our apprenticeship is
a stay in England, where we will go to school
and do an internship in a company.
On Sunday August 23, in the morning, we had
to say goodbye to our family and friends. It was
a sad moment but the following months will be
so exciting. We had a pleasant flight with a little
delay from Zurich to London. The hired taxi
driver from St Giles School Highgate took us to
our home stays. Firstly I met my two younger
host brothers. They were very courteous and
helped me with my heavy luggage. In the late
afternoon we had a short meeting with our class
in Highgate, so everybody knew where the
school is.
On Monday we had our first school day at St
Giles. We had to do a level test so they could
organise the morning classes. We just had to fill
in gaps, write a short text and have a short talk
with a teacher. In the morning we will be in
appropriate international classes and in the
afternoon we have preparation class for the
BEC Higher which we will take in October.
I am sure we will have a great time. Twice a
week somebody from my class will tell you the
latest news from our stay. I hope you will enjoy
it.
In the evening I finally met my host mother. She
is lovely and we talked about two hours about
family, television programs, my stay, etc. I live
in a typical cute English house, which means it
is on an endless road where one house stands
after another on both sides. It takes me about
30 minutes by bus to the school and that is a
really short way for London.
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Getting started
Sabrina Felder
Hey there. My name is Sabrina Felder, I am 16
years old and normally I live in Oberkirch (next
to Sursee). But as you know from Vanessa, right
know I’m living in London, actually in Burnt Oak.
I am the one with the longest distance to school,
one way takes me about 40 minutes by tube.
But I don’t want to complain because my host
family is so lovely and cool. It’s worth the
journey. The family has got a daughter (18
years old) and another exchange student from
Venezuela (18 years as well), talking to them is
very good because I cannot just say the word in
German if I can’t find it in English, that makes
me learn new things and improve my speaking.
On Tuesday we got new classes, everybody got
selected through their performance in the test.
In my class there are six Swiss people
(including Joshua, Kevin, Alisa and me), there
is a French guy and a Japanese girl as well. The
morning lessons we mostly spent with speaking
tasks, which is quite good because speaking
English with foreign students is much easier
than speaking with your Swiss schoolmates, it
is just strange but with the time we are starting
to feel comfortable about this.
If I were to compare the morning and the
afternoon classes I would say that the morning
lessons are a bit more challenging. However
that is okay because you can really learn new
words and things you might have never learned
without this class.
If you come home in the evening you just want
to sleep because the days are very long and you
are getting very exhausted.
I also want to tell you about the food. It is really
good! Many people say that the British food is
strange and not that delicious but it definitely is.
Breakfast is not very extraordinary (expect for
the English breakfast tea). We eat lunch in the
school cafeteria and that is pretty good and so
much to eat for so little money! Dinner we eat
with our host family and what they cook is
special - that’s true - but it is delightful.
Soon you will hear more about our stay from
Alisa. Best wishes from London!
In the afternoon we have a special BEC Higher
(Business English) class. There we focus on
business subjects and talk about things we
have already learnt in economics in
Switzerland. We are also practicing how to
perfectly write a report.
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Definitely arrived
Alisa Gasser
Hi there! My name is Alisa Gasser and I’m
currently living with my lovely host family in
Crouch End near London. It only takes me a few
minutes to get to our school called St. Giles in
Highgate. I have to walk down a few streets to
the bus stop and take the bus up the hill to the
school so it’s not a long journey. Crouch End is
situated right next to Highgate and it’s a very
popular area to live in. It has many little cafés,
shops and restaurants in the centre that are
worth a visit.
It’s a bank holiday so we don’t have to go to
school on Monday, which means I can enjoy a
lazy day inside the house with my host family
since it doesn’t seem like the rain is going to
stop anytime soon.
See you around! You will soon hear more from
Lisa.
The house of my host family has a typical British
look and it’s rather small because as you may
know, space is very expensive here in London.
My room on the first floor is quite small but very
cute and cosy so I can’t and won’t complain
about anything. The whole house is being kept
in a clean condition and I’m very glad about that.
On Saturday, I decided to go to the city to see a
bit of London and to grab lunch somewhere nice
so I went with a classmate to take the tube at
Highgate and we got off in the financial district
of London. We saw many impressive buildings
on our way such as 30 St Mary Axe, called the
Gherkin, and the Shard. After having lunch, we
crossed the Millennium Bridge that brings you
from the giant St. Paul’s Cathedral to the Tate
Modern. When our feet started to hurt, we took
a tube home.
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Everything is on the wrong side mate!
Joshua hangarter
Hello guys, my name is Josh and currently I’m
an exchange student in the UK. I’m from
Switzerland but I’m living in Finchley, London
until 16th January 2016. I’m nineteen years old
and I enjoy writing about my adventure in this
beautiful, but at the same time really strange city
called London.
After a couple of days in the UK I have to admit
I am really confused. Everything is on the wrong
side. If I cross a street I always turn my head to
the wrong side first, the traffic in the street is
weird. You don’t stop at a red light; you just look
up from your smartphone and cross the street if
no car is coming. There are coins you never use
for example the penny and when buying
chewing gum it’s normal to use your credit card.
In the tube you are standing close to each other
but nobody is talking. The weather is always
kind of strange. It doesn’t rain (yet) as much as
I expected, but it’s always changing. It seems
like sunshine, rain, and fog come and go
whenever they want. With them the temperature
rises and falls like every minute. It can be bright
outside and in the next second dark and cloudy.
The weirdest “things” are the people living here.
Everyone I met was very kind and friendly, but
besides small talk you can’t talk to anyone for a
longer time. As a communicative person I think
that’s very sad.
On the other hand, at the language school St.
Giles everybody is open-minded and you can
get into a conversation easily. If you are going
out to pollute the air you will never be alone and
therefore without a communication partner.
Every student wants to know where you come
from, how old are you, how long you are staying
in the UK and what are you doing. I love the
social program of St. Giles because it’s an easy
way to meet new people from all over the world
and make new friends. I’ve already found my
little clique in which are people from Japan,
Switzerland,
Brazil,
Mexico,
Colombia,
Portugal, Spain, South Korea and Italy. It’s a
melting pot of cultures having fun together.
But besides the traffic, the currency, the
weather, and the public transport the houses
are the second weirdest things I’ve ever seen.
Most of them look really nice and old, but they
are small and crowded. Rooms in the size of a
typical small Swiss bathroom are bedrooms.
To open a door you have to turn the key to the
right side, there are wires hanging outside of the
building instead of being placed into the wall. On
every roof you see at least one satellite dish if
not even more. Buildings are falling apart and
no one cares. What confuses me too is that I
haven’t seen a single graffiti yet. I mean, come
on, there have to be some sprayers out there
practising their art on the streets and give the
city a colourful touch.
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First Weekend in London City
Lisa Häfliger
My name is Lisa, I’m 17 years old and I live in
Lucerne with my mother. Currently, I’m living in
London and I’m going to talk about my first
experiences so far. When we arrived, we were
driven to our host families in a typical British
taxi. I’m living in Muswell Hill, just a half an hour
walk or a short bus ride from our school, in a
beautiful flat with a lovely host mother, her
husband and three other students from Spain,
Italy & Japan. My first week went by very quickly
and I’m totally happy.
On Saturday, 29/08/2015, my friend Larissa and
I went on a shopping trip to Oxford Street. In the
early morning we met at Muswell Hill bus station
and walked to Highgate where we took the tube.
A half an hour later we left the tube at
Tottenham Court Road and went straight to
Primark because in the afternoon, it’s always so
crowded. We spent an hour walking through
this huge store and at the end we bought just
useless stuff instead of clothes. After we left
Primark we walked another half an hour, then
we realized that we were walking in the wrong
direction. We took the tube and left at Oxford
Circus. We discovered the tiniest shops and all
the famous stores like Bershka, Topshop and
H&M as well.
After we went to the second Primark at the end
of Oxford Street, where we finally bought some
nice clothes, we decided to go to the Victoria’s
Secret store. It was huge and the staff was so
friendly and helpful with measuring and giving
advice. It was a hot and sunny day, very
untypical for London and in the minute I said
these words, it started to rain. Seven shops and
lot of money less, we decided to go home with
three full bags of clothes, gifts for our families
and friends, and a lot of candy. 
On Sunday, 30/08/2015, we didn’t know what to
do so we went to Muswell Hill Broadway for a
nice and very cheap lunch and afterwards we
watched a movie called “Dear John”, of course
in English! 
Monday, 31/08/2015, was a Bank Holiday so
there was no school (Bank holidays are public
holidays in the United Kingdom, when banks
and many other businesses are closed, our
school as well).Larissa and I wanted to go to the
Notting Hill Carnival but it was raining in the
morning so we stayed at home and spent our
free day learning for the BEC Higher exam.
Soon you will hear from Joshua, I hope you’ll
enjoy it!
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New Weekend – New Experience
Larissa Heer
Hi everyone, My name is Larissa and I’m 17
years old. I live in a small village in the canton
of Lucerne. There I live with my parents and my
little sister. Now I’m living in London for the next
half year and I’m very happy to have this chance
to make this experience.
The whole last week Lisa and I tried to make a
subscription for the gym. But it’s so annoying
here, because we must have a British bank
account for it. But this British bank account we
can’t get, because we aren’t here in London for
more than a half year. So it’s really complicated
and so stressful. Because we had to go three
times to the gym to discuss with the manager
there, but actually it doesn’t work and they can’t
make an exception. But he gave us three free
entrance cards. But I saw on the Internet that
there is another gym here, in Muswell Hill.
Perhaps we should go there and try it out to see
if we can pay in cash.
The next two days I was sick and it was very
cold in my room. Because the heating wasn’t on
and so I had to sleep with two pullovers and a
scarf.
On Tuesday, Vanessa, Julienne, Nina,
Michelle, Sabrina, Alisa and I went to Wembley.
There we watched the football game between
England and Switzerland. The atmosphere in
the stadium was awesome and the stadium is
really beautiful and really big. It was such a
great experience for us, because most of us
hadn’t been in a stadium before. The Swiss
players played very well, but after the halftime
break they lost a little bit of concentration and
so England made two goals. At the end,
Switzerland lost and we went home after this
“disappointment”. But during the game, the
Swiss fans had a lot of power and cheered on
the Swiss players. It was a really nice evening.
On Saturday, Lisa and I went to Camden, where
we finally bought some warm clothes. It was
also a good opportunity to improve our English,
because there you have to speak with the
sellers to get an agreement of the price. I think
as a woman you can get better prices if you
have good arguments and look at them with
“puppy eyes”. Camden is quite a beautiful place
for shopping but also a little bit creepy. I would
never go there in the late evening. And
sometimes people ask you if you want to buy
illegal things, then you have to disagree politely
and go away. But all in all it was a good change
to the normal shopping trips.
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Premiere of Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials
Nina Lötscher
Hi everyone! My name is Nina and I’m 16 years
old. I’m lucky that I have the chance to live
almost six months in London, where I can
improve my English and also have my first work
experience. Like all the other writers of this blog
I’m happy to share my experiences with you!
The house of my host family is in North
Finchley, which is four tube stations away from
Highgate. I stay with my host mother, who has
a son the same age as me. They also have a
lovely Jack Russel and my host mother’s
boyfriend is around a lot as well.
My host mother works for cinemas and theatres,
so she can give me free tickets for events. Last
Monday, I went to the premiere of Maze Runner:
The Scorch Trials with Alisa. The premiere was
in the cinema Vue at Leicester Square.
Alisa and I came directly from our afternoon
class, so we couldn’t be there earlier and the
queue outside of the cinema was quite long.
Suddenly my host mother came and said we
could get in earlier if we followed her. We
passed the people, who were looking at us
jealously, and we went into the cinema. Some
minutes later, they told us we could go into the
hall where the movie was played. Everyone got
a bag full of popcorn, a bottle of water and the
book The Scorch Trials.
We had seats in the centre of the second row.
Suddenly, some girls screamed, and we
thought the celebrities were coming. Actually,
the girls realised that some famous YouTubers
like Caspar Lee and Joe Sugg were in the
audience and they ran over to them to get some
autographs and photos. When the girls calmed
down, we had to wait some more minutes until
the actors and the director of the movie came.
Not even five meters away from us sat Wes Ball,
Kaya Scodelario, Ki Hong Lee and Thomas
Brodie-Sangster.
The audience had the chance to ask some
questions about the shooting, the film itself and
personal questions.
When they were gone, the movie started. They
showed it without advertising at the beginning
and without a break.
Alisa and I had an awesome and unforgettable
night and we really enjoyed it!
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Hello everyone!
Michelle Ottiger
My name is Michelle Ottiger and I am 17 years
old. Together with my parents and my brother I
live in Switzerland, where I am doing a
vocational business school. I am currently living
near London, in Finchley. Here I live with my
host family.
As you may already know, I am here with my
class from Switzerland, KB 14. I am here to
improve my English and to get to know the
English culture and people.
This weekend, I went sightseeing with Nina, my
best friend. Together we explored nearly all the
sights in this big city. We explored places like
the London Eye, Big Ben, river Thames, Hyde
Park and Buckingham Palace. Although seeing
the London Eye was an exciting thing, my
favourite place in London so far is Hyde Park.
It is very easy to explore London by public
transport. Or at least by tube. No matter where
you are, you will always find your way back
home because the tube stations really are
everywhere. Once you found one of these
stations, you just have to follow the signs. They
will bring you to the tube you need. As for the
bus, it has become clear to me why you only
have to pay 1.50£ for it. The buses drive
irregularly and unreliably and it takes such a
long time to arrive at your destination by bus.
Here in London there are so many artists on the
street. Right next to Big Ben, we saw the best
street musician ever according to Nina. We
went around a corner and we heard music. A
few moments went by until I recognised he was
singing Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson.
We listened to him for approximately half an
hour. He played songs like Let Her Go and a
range of other love songs. He really had his own
style in making music. It is great to hear well
known music with a touch of his style in it. In the
end we both bought his CD and we went home
happy, singing his songs all the way back.
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Turning 18 in London!
Saskia Pfiffner
This weekend was very exciting for me because
it was my 18th birthday on Saturday. I have to
admit, first I wasn’t too happy about the fact that
I can’t celebrate my birthday with my friends and
family in Switzerland. But I have some really
good friends in my class which made it a lot
better. Also, celebrating your 18th birthday in
London is definitely a thing to remember.
Friday was an ordinary day and as always we
were all exhausted because the schooldays
here seem never ending. Even though we were
all tired, we decided to go out in the evening to
have a drink to celebrate into my birthday. At
12pm my friends surprised me with a cake and
champagne, which was so cute of them!
But as we had enough from Camden we wanted
to visit the Tower Bridge. So we did. Believe it
or not but this was just the second tourism
feature we have visited so far. Even though we
have been here for nearly a month now. The
rest of our spare time we spent in Oxford Street.
On Saturday evening I went out to have dinner
with some friends and celebrate the rest of my
birthday. Sunday was a more or less lazy day
because we were all tired from the day before.
On Monday will be another day of
school…nothing special to say about this I
guess.
I am looking forward to seeing more of London
and sharing my experiences with you!
Best wishes.
Saturday was a really busy day because we had
a lot to do. First my friend Celine and I helped
my other friend Carmen to change her hostfamily. After this we went to Camden Town.
Camden Town is not far from where I live and I
think it looks a bit like a Turkish market.
Everywhere are little shops or just stands with
everything you could ever imagine. You can get
all the fake things from every expensive brand I
know. So as London is an expensive city,
Camden is for sure worth a visit, not only
because of the wide range of shops but also
because you have so many opportunities to
have a good meal or snack and this for definitely
less money than in Central London.
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London Fashion Week
Vanessa Dubach
Hello everyone out there! So, here I am again.
The last time I wrote a blog post, I told you about
our arrival, meeting our host families, and our
first day at school. I can't even believe it has
already been one month ago. The time goes by
so fast!
Last Saturday was a really exciting day for me
like Saskia's. If you're interested in fashion you
might know that London Fashion Week was
going on last weekend. A friend of my host mum
worked at London Fashion Week Showroom,
which is like a fashion exhibition where different
designers show their new collection like bags,
jewellery or clothes. It's not open to the public
and you need passes to get in but my host
mum’s friend arranged them for Sabrina and me
for free. How cool is that! Anyhow, it took us
quite a long time to get in because we had
difficulties to convince the registration lady that
we're guests of a designer (awkward moment).
At the end, we made it. We walked around and
were hoping that we're going to see someone
famous. We probably saw some well-known
designers but unfortunately we didn't recognize
them.
Besides the exciting days, school keeps going.
I'm really looking forward to the end of
schooldays as it has become exhausting. The
days are really long because of the afternoon
classes. However, I think they prepare us really
well for the exam but it's still difficult to get from
the Upper-Intermediate to Advanced level in
just six weeks. To make studying more
interesting, I sometimes learn with friends in a
café, which isn't that easy as we could talk the
whole day about different things except school.
Finally, I want to suggest a new shopping
opportunity other than the famous Oxford Street
or Camden. A few weeks ago, I went with some
friends to the Westfield shopping centre. It's the
biggest shopping mall in Europe with about 300
shops and 70 different restaurants. It's just huge
and really beautiful, although it's located in the
poorest region of Great Britain. It's worth a visit,
due to the fact that it rains a lot and there are
the same stores as in Oxford Street.
See you soon and I hope you enjoy reading our
blog
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Partner des MobiLingua Programms
Bye bye St. Giles, hello work placement
Lisa Häfliger
Hi there! It’s me again. This time I’m going to
talk about the best stuff you can do while living
in London.
I strongly recommend going to Brighton, the
Church Pub on weekends, the Greenwich Park,
Highgate Wood and Hyde Park as well.
Another month has passed by like the wind and
I’m still quite happy how my life goes by here in
London. I’ve met some really nice people from
France, Brazil, Switzerland and Colombia.
Since then, we’ve spent almost every day with
each other after school in some nice parks like
Alexandra Palace or Highgate Wood Park in
which we tried to do gymnastics what turned out
really funny as you can see in the pictures. In a
few days some of my friends will leave, so we
try to spend as much time as we can together.
Two weeks ago, my dad came for a visit with his
colleague from work and we drove to Brighton
with the car. I brought two of my friends from
school Josh (CH) and Moritz (CH) and we spent
the day at the beach with perfect weather. On
Saturday, 26th September, some friends and I
went to the Greenwich Park, which I strongly
recommend. I like spending time with my friends
from St. Giles because we are a culturally mixed
group from all over the world.
Last Friday was our last day at St. Giles. I
moved to the Advanced level for the last two
weeks because I didn’t feel challenged enough
in Upper Intermediate. I got my certificate C1
Advanced and I’m really happy. Now I need the
Business English Certificate to complete my
happiness. On Saturday, Aubéry (FR), Paola
(CO), Silvan (CH) and I went on a short
shopping trip on Oxford Street. Paola left in the
early morning so Aubéry, Silvan and I decided
to go to Hyde Park and take a nap because we
were so tired. The Arsenal versus Manchester
United Match was on Sunday, so my friend and
I wanted to go to the Gunners Pub to watch it
because some of us are Arsenal fans, including
me, but I spent the day at home due to a
headache.
Monday, 5th October, was my first work day in
the company in which I’ll work for the next 4
months. It’s a really small company and the staff
consists only of 7 people. It’s called PSL
Recruitment Services and it’s located in Central
London. Filing documents is a mundane task
but next week I can finally answer the phone
and do some other cool stuff as soon as I’m
feeling well integrated in the company.
Soon you will hear from Joshua and I hope you’ll
enjoy it!
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Partner des MobiLingua Programms
Time’s running
Sabrina Felder
Hey there! It’s me again, so many things
happened since my last blog entry!
Unfortunately I can only give you a few
impressions.
After five weeks of hesitation, school and
shopping, we finally managed to go sightseeing
on Saturday (well, at least a little bit). We’ve
been living here for such a long time now and
we couldn’t bring ourselves to visit the city. That
was probably a mistake because as we arrived
in Westminster we were so overwhelmed we
could’ve stayed there the whole day!
However this wasn’t possible because we had
to go to the fashion show in the Saatchi Gallery
(which is one of the most impressive buildings
I’ve ever seen). As Vanessa already told you,
last week we were backstage but this week we
were live at the catwalk. What a great time we
had! We even recognized a model. After the
show we were browsing through the designers’
showrooms, which was kind of frustrating
because you can’t afford these clothes, but
luckily we weren’t there to buy things.
Later this evening we just took a bus to
Piccadilly Circus (the thing about taking the bus
is that we can ride it for free thanks to our Zip
Oyster card). When we arrived we were just
walking around and having a drink at Starbucks.
As we passed Leicester Square we saw some
chuggers and comedians. But we were
charmed by a group of dancers; we were
watching them for about 30 minutes.
On Sunday my host mother and I went to a park
with the dogs to go for a walk. In my opinion the
parks are one of the best things in London
because as a contrast to this big and noisy city
the parks are calm and very relaxing.
Last week Lukas, Julienne and I went to visit our
placement in Watford, after wandering through
this town in north London we finally found the
office with just a few minutes of delay. I am very
impressed by the company and the team. They
seem to be very kind and helpful. I can’t wait to
start the internship on Monday the week after
this.
And about the school: The time passed by so
fast I can’t believe this is the last week. It was
very educational and it prepared us well for the
BEC Higher exam in late October.
Unfortunately, today 45 new Swiss students
arrived, which is on one side cool because you
meet new people, on the other hand the
temptation to speak German is huge.
So, I’m running out of space! I hope you enjoy
our blog and the pictures. I hope you’re having
a lovely time.
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Partner des MobiLingua Programms
5 a.m., here I am
Joshua Hangartner
After 13.5 years of school I finally started
working. Currently I am working in the front
office of a hotel.
I won’t tell you the name of it but it is one of
thousands of a chain. On Monday I received a
little tour through the hotel by the maintenance
guy and started immediately at the front office.
It is much more work than I expected. It isn’t just
check-in and check-out and a bit of
accountancy, it is dealing with every guests’
wishes 24/7.
This week I have to be part of the morning shift.
It starts at 6.45 a.m. and lasts until 3.15 p.m.,
not a 9 to 5 job like most people in Britain have.
I have to get up at 5 a.m. to be there on time.
After a few days I have to see my work – life
balance is destroyed. I’m tired when I go to work
and I am even more tired when I come back. I
keep myself awake until dinnertime by watching
silly documentaries on YouTube or writing
songs. I wasn’t even at Church once this week,
pretty sad for a religious guy like me ;-)
Imagine yourself sitting around for more than
then years every day and out of nowhere you
have to stand 8.5 hours a day without any
breaks. Even when you go out to smoke you
can’t sit because there are no benches or
chairs. Imagine the pain you’ll feel in your feet
after that day. You don’t have a real lunch
break, you’re just eating a pizza in the kitchen
while no guests or potential guests are calling
you. That’s my life right now.
But I don’t want to complain. My work is hard
but I still like it. I’m fed up with school, fed up
with theory, I want to live and work in real life.
My team is nice and the woman who is currently
working with me and teaching me is so lovely. I
am not treated like a stupid trainee; I am more
something like her assistant. I am learning by
doing and it’s fabulous. Just sometimes when
no guests are coming, going, or calling and we
have done everything else we are bored. I hope
I don’t have to do the afternoon shift next week,
this would destroy the last piece of social life I
have left, but the night shift would be alright.
Then I would finally become a member of the
Night’s watch (Cheers to all GoT fans out there)
Last but not least I would like to give you my email address. It’s [email protected]. It
doesn’t matter if you know me or not, send me
a message if you want to know something about
the life in London, especially if you’re doing the
same apprenticeship as me. You can also write
me if you just want to chat a little bit, I appreciate
every message from the normal, the social, the
life-life.
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Partner des MobiLingua Programms
Many impressions
Alisa Gasser
Hi, it’s me again! I honestly can’t believe that it’s
already our 6th week here in London and that
we’re going to start our internships next week.
A lot has happened since my first blog post.
To name a few things: I went to a film premiere
with Nina, watched the England vs Switzerland
football game at Wembley Stadium and visited
Sheffield, a city in the north of England. I spent
a weekend there with my parents because they
were here in England at the time, so we decided
to go up to the north by train. It was quite
interesting to see another British city that is
much smaller than the capital city. It’s
completely different than London for a lot of
reasons. But now back to the city in which we’re
living at the moment:
On Sunday, I finally had the chance to go and
see Hampstead Heath, an enormous green
space from which you’re able to see the skyline
of the city. It’s incredible there! It feels like you’re
in the countryside while walking through the
woods or fields and not as if you’re very close to
a big city. My host mother, host sister and I went
there to walk the dog because it was a
surprisingly sunny day and you have to ’carpe
diem’ when the sun is out.
I really enjoy spending time with my host family
because they have a great sense of humour and
they never fail to make me laugh. I get on very
well with the two children and I’m glad about
that.
Last Saturday, two friends and I decided that we
dare to go to Oxford Street. Of course there
were a lot of people but I’d imagined it to be a
lot worse than it actually was. One of the most
beautiful things that I saw on this day was the
wide range of cupcakes that is displayed in the
Topshop flagship store. They all looked so
good!
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Hi everyone
Larissa Heer
Last week I started working as an intern in
London, how exiting!
I work in the Sales and Marketing department
for St. Giles International. St. Giles International
is a language training centre established in
1955 and they won the Queen’s Award this
year! I think you have realised that is the same
school that we went to study in Highgate. They
have schools in Eastbourne, Brighton, London
Central, London Highgate, New York, San
Francisco and Vancouver. The first few days I
read a lot of information about the company and
had some training sessions. At the end of the
week I had to do two “mystery phone calls”. One
to Vancouver and another to the Junior Centre
in Brighton. It was very interesting how different
they act.
This weekend Sabrina and I went to the M&M
world. The whole store smells like chocolate but
actually it looks quiet cool. After that we went to
the Buckingham Palace where we enjoyed the
sunny day. Then we agreed to go to Camden
and there we enjoyed the rest of the day. It was
very good weather on this weekend, but today it
changed a little bit. It slowly gets colder and
windy.
On Thursday, I will get a visit from my family and
we will celebrate my 18th birthday. Hopefully, it
will be good weather. If the weather is good we
will go to Brighton or Cambridge. If it is bad we
will visit Madame Tussauds. On Saturday, my
boyfriend will also visit me in London to
celebrate our first year together. I really look
forward to seeing those important people in my
life again.
They are all very friendly and the work there is
very interesting, because we negotiate with
different agents and students all over the world.
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Partner des MobiLingua Programms
Hi there!
Michelle Ottiger
I have been in London for eight weeks now. I
really like it here, although the weather is very,
very British… But, to be honest, I love the rain
and the ever changing weather. Six weeks of
these eight I attended an English class. And
now, finally, I am working!
I am doing an internship in the head office of a
charity shop chain. The staff there is really nice
and friendly, like all the people I have met here.
In the first week I was taught how to use the
different programs. Last week, which was my
second week working there, I was taught how to
phone customers.
Last week I went to Madame Tussauds. I had to
pay a lot for it. Before booking, I even
considered not going because of the high
prices. However, in the end I decided to go.
From the moment I was inside until stepping out
into London’s rainy weather I was in another
world. You can take pictures with all the stars
you normally just see in films. For example
George Clooney and Brangelina. Also some
politicians were there, Francois Hollande, David
Cameron, and, I cannot really understand why,
even Adolf Hitler. A far cuter creature than Hitler
was E.T.. This little guy was my personal
highlight in Madame Tussauds after The
Beatles and Freddie Mercury.
Trust me, I am not lying when I say that I was
more than just a little bit nervous! I had a very
good teacher and after showing me how to do
it, he let me do some calls. To conclude:
Everything went well and with every day I am
getting a little bit more used to it. And, last but
not least, the most important point. The
customers can understand me and I am able to
understand them.
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Busy times!
Saskia Pfiffner
Time passes soo quickly! As I am writing this we
have been here for exactly 60 days, but it feels
like we arrived just last week. Despite the fact
that it doesn’t feel like we have been here for
too long we are starting or we have already
started to build up a daily routine and do things
we did in Switzerland, like joining a gym. I mean
we already joined one not long after we arrived
here but in the end we didn’t really like it and it
took some time to find a suitable one, which we
successfully did now. I think now we are at a
point where we understand how everything
works (okay not completely everything) and
how the people here think or for example it also
got a lot easier to find the way through the city
because the stations aren’t just strange names
anymore and we can orientate ourselves pretty
well now. Okay I need to admit I just got lost a
few days ago, but just because I wanted to try
out a new way home… not the best idea!
As you might read in the previous blogs of my
classmates, we started our internship about
three weeks ago. I work at CTH – Confederation
of Tourism and Hospitality. I really like my work
placement; I can improve my English much
more than I could at school and I can start using
expressions and really get ‘into’ the language. I
also think this internship will really help me later
when I start my internship in Switzerland
because we can gain so many experiences, not
just for our education, but also for our life.
The team I work with is very nice and they are
typical for English people, how should I say…
their attitude is different. No one would work any
longer then we need to. For example the other
day I wanted to finish a post for the CTH
Website, it would take me like 2 minutes but
they wouldn’t let me finish it because it was
17.30 and we finish at that time. I believe in
Switzerland they would tell me to finish it for
sure.
However the company’s office is situated at
Oxford Street. I was really excited about it
before I started working. Actually now it is quiet
annoying, I mean don’t get me wrong, I love to
work there and wouldn’t change that, but it is so
crowded, you cannot imagine! If you want to go
in the tube in the morning it is getting worse the
closer you come to the centre. And once you
made it in the tube you have absolutely no
chance to move and getting off at your station is
a real challenge! Obviously it is just that bad
during peak times.
On Thursday Calvin, a previous intern, came to
visit us. He shared a lot of his experiences with
me because he stayed the same amount of time
just a year earlier. He said he would like to move
here again because he is totally in love with the
city. I can totally understand him, London has
something special. It is really different to any
other place I’ve visited so far but I think you can
only see it when you stayed here for some time.
Also today the first shop presented their
Christmas windows, which is kind of a big deal
here. Also some lights and other decorations
got put up the buildings. But they won’t light
them yet, for this there is a special ceremony or
whatever. Personally I think it is insane to start
thinking about Christmas at the end of
October…
So well yes, I am sorry I couldn’t tell you
anything exiting I did or visited but I just had to
work and also the BEC Higher Diploma is not
far away… but I hope I could give you a little
overview of my experiences and impressions
here.
You will hear next from me in November. In the
meantime, best wishes from London!
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Partner des MobiLingua Programms
The exam is getting closer
Vanessa Dubach
To juggle work, English studies and leisure time
isn't as easy as I thought but I’m trying my best.
In a couple of days we're going to take our
exam. I'm really nervous and worried about it as
it's really difficult for me. In the last three weeks
I've been studying and trying hard to get this
business vocabulary in my brain. (To the
students
who
are
doing
the
same
apprenticeship, remember this bizarre Business
English vocabulary in your first year is going to
get unbelievable important and useful for you.)
Unfortunately, our exam centre is far away from
where we live. I've never been in this area
before and therefore Sabrina and I went on a
trip there. It took us 1 1/2 hour by tube. When
we arrived there, we were looking for this centre
about 30 minutes and we're still not sure if we've
found the right one. You can't believe how glad
I will be when this exam is over.
Afterwards, we went to Brick Lane, which is an
insider street in East London. One of the most
famous bakeries of London, called "Beigel
Bake", is located there. Those bagels are
absolutely delicious and furthermore really,
really cheap. It's open 24 hours and because of
that very popular with police officers, taxi drivers
or ambulance staff.
The last three weeks I've been working in the
front office of St Giles College Highgate, the
school we were studying at. I really enjoy
working there because the staff is so nice and
make me feel like I've been working there for
ages. One of my colleagues made me a whole
documentary with print screens and arrows for
only one task I had to do and I get asked
approximately five times a day "How is it
going?" Usually I work from 9.00am to 5.30pm,
which I thought will be exhausting but it isn't.
The time goes by really quick every day. My
duties are based on student service and at the
moment I'm working out my own project for our
juniors (students, which are under 16 years old),
how exciting!
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Partner des MobiLingua Programms
Finally we made it
Sabrina Felder
Hey there! So after 6 weeks of school and 4
weeks of working, the BEC Higher exam is
finally over!
Today we had the BEC Higher exam – and
believe me it was quite challenging, the worst
thing for me was that I was struggling with the
time, because I wanted to do it as perfect as
possible, I always checked my answers twice
which was somehow a mistake therefore I
almost ran out of time. But luckily I could finish
all of the tasks. The speaking part was in my
opinion the best part as we have practiced this
most in school and I have to speak a lot in the
office. But frankly speaking, I am so glad the
exam is over now. Unfortunately we have to wait
until December to get our results.
And as you may have already read above, we
have been in our internships for four weeks now
and I really enjoy working in this company. The
people are very lovely and extremely helpful.
My main task is to answer the customer phone
calls as I am working in the customer service
department. While picking up phone calls my
speaking as well as my listening is improving.
You may have asked yourselves how I am
supposed to help these customers if I don’t have
a clue about the company. That was my first
thought as well but on the day we started we
had to do a training and we even had to take
five different tests.
My first phone call was the worst one because I
didn’t know what was expected of me so I was
very nervous. We were supposed to make a
‘mock call’ first (basically this is like a test call
where someone from the outsourcing centre in
India gave us a call) but I accidently answered
a real phone call so I was so stressed – anyway
in the end everything went well.
And now I’m getting better with every call I
answer. Somedays there can be 10 calls within
the whole day and there are other days (like
yesterday) where we had to answer 85 phone
calls. I prefer those days because if there is
nothing else to do we have to do data migration
which is really boring – there are 4000 clients’
data to transfer and it is so tiring.
So, enjoy your time and you will hear from me
again soon.
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Partner des MobiLingua Programms
Autumn’s here
Alisa Gasser
Hiya, it’s me again. Autumn has arrived in
London! While it’s getting colder and colder, the
colours of the leaves have turned into different
shades of red, orange and yellow which you can
see when looking down at your feet.
Time goes by incredibly fast here and I assume
it’s because the pace of life is just different than
in Switzerland and everything rushes more than
at home.
Like all my classmates, I started my internship
at the beginning of October. I work in a
language school in central London, right next to
the famous British Museum. I really enjoy
working there since my colleagues are very
friendly and I like the tasks that I have to do. I
often process bookings as well as e-mails and
enter information about students into the data
base. The one thing I like most about working
there is that it’s located in the middle of the city.
That means I really get to experience the hectic
and vibrant day-to-day life in London and that’s
great for me.
To get to work, I take the bus that goes directly
from where I live to approximately where I work.
Although there would be the option to go by tube
and arriving about 20 minutes earlier than when
you go by bus, I decided that I’d rather spend
the 20 minutes sitting comfortably on the bus
than being stuck standing in-between strangers
on the tube because that’s the worst. There are
so many people (due to rush hour) and it’s way
too hot down there. No, thank you.
Last Thursday was an important day for us
because we took the BEC Higher exam. I have
no idea how it went but I think it wasn’t too bad.
Let’s hope that the ones who made an effort
actually pass.That’s all from me for now. See
you!
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Partner des MobiLingua Programms
Today’s moments are tomorrow’s memories
Lisa Häfliger
We don’t remember days, we remember
moments! And no matter what happens, some
memories can never be replaced
I was filled with joy when my brother and my
mother finally came to visit me. After showing
them my favourite places like the Camden
Market, the Church Pub or the Westfield
Shopping Centre, we visited Big Ben, the
London Eye and finally the Emirates Stadium
because it’s really close to my workplace. That
was definitely a weekend to remember!
Last weekend, I had to say goodbye to a really
good friend I made at St. Giles. We spent every
day at school and on the weekends together in
parks, in the Church Pub or our secret spot on
a bridge. I’m going to miss him and our
spontaneous sightseeing tours by night to
Central London. On his last Friday night, we
went to the Church Pub to celebrate. I insisted
on going to the airport with him in the morning
to say goodbye. I’m looking forward to seeing
him on New Year’s Eve.
The leaves on the trees change colours,
mornings starting with fog and rain are not
uncommon. Autumn! This weather screams for
a warm jacket. Larissa and I went shopping in a
wealthy area (by accident) and we couldn’t stop
ourselves from peeking into a Calvin Klein
store. We ended up leaving the store with a full
bag…
Pangs of hunger led us to an Italian restaurant
where we ate dinner. Back in Muswell Hill, the
desserts in the Church Pub screamed for us.
We weren’t able to withstand and the only way
to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it… Take
a look at the pictures and tell me if you could
have resisted.
My dad is coming over this weekend and I’m
going to tell you all about it in my next blog. I
can’t believe that it’s only six more weeks until
we are heading back to Switzerland for the
Christmas holidays.
I hope you’re having a lovely time and enjoy our
blog.
Best wishes from London!
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Keep calm and let them have fun
Joshua Hangartner
Hello, it’s me again. As most of you know I
started working in a hotel. It is located next to
the BBC Elstree Studios.
I am working at the front office from around 7.30
a.m. until 3.15 p.m. Even though I don’t like
getting up early in the morning, looking at the
empty tube station in the morning always pays
off. The work contains picking up the phone,
doing check-ins and check-outs, taking preauthorisations from credit cards and so on.
Especially in the last task I am a real pro now. I
can put credit card numbers into the PDQ
without even looking. And for sure, most of the
time I am dealing with guests at the reception.
After more than a month I have learnt to
distinguish between several types of guests at
my hotel. First of all we’ve got the regular
guests. Lovely people which you don’t have to
explain anything to. They have their favourite
rooms and during the check-in and check-out
they are open to some small talk. When I asked
them to guess from which country I am the most
common answer I got was Australia. Seriously?
Something has to be very weird with my
accent….
The second types of guests are people who are
coming to visit a show at Elstree Studios. They
are friendly but they have just one question.
“When are people starting queuing in the
morning to get their tickets validated?” The
answer is, it depends on the show but some are
standing there at 4 a.m. You should see their
faces after they got this information; they are
hilarious.
The third types of guests are business
travellers. Most of the time they are not very
kind. They are on their mobile phones during the
whole check-in, and as soon as they are in their
room they will call you to ask a question about
something that you explained 2 minutes ago. If
I tell them that I have to ask something in the
back office because I am ‘just’ the trainee, they
are often very rude and tell my manager why
they have to deal with a trainee and if he
couldn’t afford proper staff members. My lovely
manager is very kind to these guests but is
defending me at the same time. Sometimes he
even said that if they don’t like the way he is
leading his business, he is not going to force
them to stay here, and that they should look for
another hotel.
Last but not least we have the typical Day-UseGuest…but it is all about knowing but not saying
anything. Keep calm and let them have fun.
PS: Halloween was alright even though my
make-up looked pretty messed up.
who’s paying for a room from 9 to 5. There you
can distinguish two types. The young couple
who is very shy but grateful and the cheating
husband or wife who are removing their
wedding ring at the reception and asking for a
safe to put it in. I don’t have to tell you what both
of them are going to do in a room, it is obvious.
But I am not allowed to say this to my guests.
Once I said to a young, very friendly couple my
age ‘Have fun guys’. My supervisor instantly
apologised for my rudeness even when they
were laughing and the guy put his thumb up. It
is all about knowing but not saying anything.
Keep calm and let them have fun.
PS: Halloween was alright even though my
make-up looked pretty f… up.
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Hello there! 
Larissa Heer
As you may have already read in my last text, I
had my 18th birthday here in London. It was a
pretty cool day, even if I had to work. My
colleagues surprised me in the afternoon with a
cake and a little present. So nice!
After work I met my family. It was such a good
feeling to see them again after 2 months without
them. We went to Pizza Express where we
enjoyed a nice dinner and after that, we went to
my host family to have cake and tea together.
There was also a little surprise for me.
Lisa brought a cake while I was out with my
family. Actually, Lisa wanted to surprise me with
that cake but she hadn’t known that I wasn’t at
home. But it was a cute idea and I really
appreciated that. And I also got a lot of
messages from my friends who are in
Switzerland, which made me miss them.
Julienne and Vanessa also baked a cake for
me, so cute! It was a great day and it was cool
that so many people thought of me on this day!
And at the end I had “4 cakes”, I never had that
many cakes on a birthday.
Because I realised that our stay here in London
has already reached halftime and I haven’t seen
that many places, I decided to make a list with
places I want to visit before going home. So I
asked my cousin who lived in London for a time
if she could write me a list with some places of
London which I have to visit. I also asked my
colleagues at work and searched on the
Internet.
Next weekend Lisa and I will go to Sea Life. I
look forward to it even though I’m afraid of
sharks. I think Lisa will be entertained on this
day, seeing me running away when I see them.

In 5 weeks we will fly back to Switzerland to
celebrate Christmas with our families. And I
really look forward to it, because I miss them so
much. But before that, I will get another visit
from my boyfriend.
I wish you all a nice day! 
On Saturday, I went with my family to Madame
Tussauds and in the evening I fetched my
boyfriend from the airport. We had a nice
Sunday together and I was really sad when they
left again.
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Absence makes the heart grow fonder
Nina Lötscher
Most of the time you can read in our blog about
what we are doing here in London, what our
work is like or updates regarding visits of family
or friends. Nothing against that. Even on the
contrary, I think these articles are wonderful to
read. But I think it’s also interesting to know a
little bit more about missing family, friends or
home sickness in general.
Because even when you're in such a gorgeous
city like London and you found amazing friends,
still not all that glitter is gold here.
There are some bad days where you miss your
loved ones so much that even all the nice things
of the city can’t clear up your mood.
I think I'm quite lucky that I usually don't suffer
from home sickness. But I still have some of
these bad days where I wish I would be with my
family. My relationship to my family was strong
when I was in Switzerland but I think the bond
actually grew a lot. On the other hand, I sadly
lost contact with a lot of friends back in my home
country or the conversations get very short and
irregular. That really bothers me because
obviously I love my friends and they mean
everything to me.
But since we understand each other very well I
think it will be easy to achieve the same
relationship with them again when I am back.
But I’m sure that contacts with not so close
friends will change since I’ve changed.
However, I believe it’s your choice how you feel
about that. Either you accept the situation like it
is and try to make the best out of it or you
complain and only see the negative things. I
believe when you keep that in mind you can
master everything. Even being away for such a
long time.
I'm looking forward to going home at Christmas
but I must say honestly, I'm also looking forward
to return to this beautiful city, with which I fell in
love. And I am sure that I will come back after
my stay here to refresh my memories of this
amazing time of my life.
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Winter is coming!
Michelle Ottiger
I have been in London for over two months now
and finally, winter is coming. It is said that it
should be snowing here next week. If so, I am
looking forward to it. Everywhere in London,
Christmas trees are in the process of getting
decorated and all the shops and ancient houses
in central London are already full of lights.
Last week I was part of a bunch of lucky people
forced to wait over 45 minutes in the tube on the
way to work. On that day I got up earlier than
usual, I wanted to have enough time to make
myself a tea before work started. After my 10
minute walk to the station, I arrived at the tube
station and everything seemed normal. As
usual I pressed the Oyster Card on the reader.
I passed the bridge and waited for the tube,
ready to face a new day of my internship.
The train arrived, I got my favourite seat and
everyone was ready for departure. After about
fifteen minutes of standing and boredom, the
speakers announced that there was a very sick
gentleman in the train. After fifteen more
minutes the ambulance arrived. And after
another fifteen minutes of waiting, the man was
on the way to hospital and the tube finally on its
way to Camden Town.
Here in the UK I found an addiction, a far more
legal and cheaper one than drug abuse: Game
of Thrones. This is where I took my title from. I
am not speaking about the TV series, but the
books. During my journey to work, which is
about 45 minutes, I am improving my English
day by day. The storyline is great. It is even
better than Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and
The Da Vinci Code together…
This evening I went to eat out with my host
brother, a Brazilian guy. We ate in an Indian
restaurant, and I have to say: I had the best
chicken of my life so far!
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Hello again!
Saskia Pfiffner
This weekend it got really cold here in London
and it was time to get the warm jackets out of
the wardrobe. It already feels like deep winter
even though there is no snow yet, but the whole
city is decorated with glamour lights and the
shop windows are looking just stunning. There
was a huge thing about turning on the
Christmas lights for the first time (which was
already some weeks ago) in Oxford Street,
where I work. There was even a performance
by a singer; sadly, I cannot remember who it
was, but I missed it anyways.
Due to the fact that it is getting colder and
colder, my friends and I try to do a lot of things
before it gets completely freezing.
There are a lot of attractions, for example some
roller-coasters, ice skating, an ice bar and many
more! Also there are a lot of different food
stands and restaurants. We definitely want to go
there again.
On Sunday we went to Greenwich, which is a
beautiful place not far from the centre of London
and right by the river Thames. We thought about
taking the boat back instead of going by train
but
we
felt
too
cold!
There are still so many things left on our bucket
list! London gives you so many opportunities,
there is always something to do.
You will hear from me again around Christmas,
in the meantime have a lovely time!
This Saturday, Celine and I went to the British
Museum, which is massive. Not saying I was too
interested in the things that were behind the
glass but just the building itself is huge and just
impressive! In the evening we then went to the
Winter Wonderland, I strongly recommend it to
all Christmas lovers. It is at Hyde Park, quite big
and the atmosphere is magical. (Especially if
you go in the evening because then all the lights
are on.)
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Soon it's Christmas.
Vanessa Dubach
Hiya. Just one month is left until Christmas and
that means everybody is putting their Christmas
decoration up and of course the centrepiece is
a Christmas tree. As you already know, I work
in a language school and we also bought a
couple of trees. Almost everyone wanted to
decorate it and in the end I trimmed the tree with
six other colleagues. Although it's not
December yet, Christmas is in the air. Most
conversations are all about Christmas meals,
music and decoration. I love working here. They
are all such nice people that I'd like to stay some
months more.
And finally a French friend stayed over. Two
years ago I studied a few months in South
England and there I met her. We were in the
same class and became friends. She’s about
ten years older than me but we’ve got on so well
that we still meet up. Once we met in Paris for a
weekend and this time she came to London and
we stayed in a hotel in Central London. We
haven't seen each other for approximately 1 1/2
years, however it was great to see her again
and catch up.
Enjoy the Christmas time!
In the last few weeks I had some relatives and
friends over. A friend from Switzerland came for
a weekend. We went shopping and ate some
really nice food.
Then my mum, sister and cousins came for a
few days. Of course we went shopping as usual,
we also went sightseeing and walked from
Buckingham palace to Piccadilly Circus. We
stayed in an apartment as we were six people.
It was located in Old Street, which is close to the
beigel bakery, which I've mentioned in my last
blog post. It's an artistic area with lots of pubs.
Unfortunately I'm not 18 years old yet and so I
can't tell you if it's nice or not.
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3 more weeks
Sabrina Felder
Hey there. A lot has changed since my last blog
entry, many houses have lit up their Christmas
lights, all the shopping streets are busy due to
pre-Christmas time. It seems like we just came
here last week, and I think I still have so many
places I want to visit, so many things I want to
do before we go back.
The last few weeks have gone by so quickly.
Work is making you tired so the only time you
have left is the weekend. I met some nice
people in my company so one day we went to
Oxford to just wander through that town.
However most of the time we spend in shopping
places which is actually not our intention but
somehow we always end up in Oxford Street,
Camden Town or even the Westfield shopping
centre.
At work I am making and taking so many phone
calls, some of them to sell policies, others to
resolve issues over the phone, I really like doing
this because my English is improving a lot,
however I think my German is suffering a little
bit.
My main task is to do the customer service, so
if a customer has a concern I try to resolve this
for them.
Last week Mr Spielhofer and Mr Kunz came to
visit each one of us in our companies to have a
quick chat with each one of us.
Anyway, I really enjoy the last few days and just
like all the blogs before mine state: It is getting
so cold! Enjoy your time and have a lovely
Christmas!
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Living the London life
Alisa Gasser
Hi guys, it’s my turn again. Not much has
changed since the last time you heard from me
but there’s always something to write about.
The climate here in London has rapidly changed
from chilly to freezing. I’m shaking non-stop
outside, even when I’m wearing my thickest
winter coat. And the weirdest thing is that you
sometimes see people walking around in
SHORTS and you just wonder how it’s possible
that they haven’t frozen to death yet. Snow
made some attempts to turn London white two
weeks ago but it wasn’t successful, probably
because it wasn’t quite cold enough. But the
Londoners don’t care if their city looks naturally
Christmassy or not because they start putting
up the Christmas decoration anyways. If I
remember correctly, some of the famous places
like Oxford Street got decorated mid-November
and there’s something similar to an amusement
park (but festive) called ’Winter Wonderland’,
situated in Hyde Park, where you can do
everything related to Christmas.
I have to point out once again how quickly the
weeks pass here because it’s simply amazing.
You get up every day in the morning to start a
new day and after a few moments you find
yourself on your way home again. It’s almost
scary but I assume it’s a good sign.
The other trainee in the language school I work
for had her last day on Friday and that means
I’m the only trainee from now on until the
beginning of January. I would have been rather
nervous about that a few weeks ago but now I
feel prepared and relaxed, thanks to good
training.
A few days ago we finally received the longawaited results of the BEC Higher exam and I’m
very pleased to say that I passed. That’s it, you
will hear from me again in a few weeks. Enjoy
the Christmas time!
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Work, work, work… Christmas is near!
Lisa Häfliger
Hiya everyone! I’m currently in my 10th work
week and soon, we are heading back to
Switzerland. I think everyone is extremely
excited to see their families again.
We undergo annual audits and at this time of
the year, it can be very stressful. Our first audit
was at the beginning of November, so someone
of the framework comes to our office and
checks six candidate’s files on completeness. If
something is outstanding, I apply for the missing
(mostly passports, certificates or references
from former employers) by email. We have just
been informed that there is going to be another
audit in January. As I am working for a
recruitment company which supplies hospitals
with physiotherapists, occupational-, and
speech and language therapists, luckily, it has
been giving me the chance to attend the
meetings and enhance my knowledge about the
entire recruitment process. At the beginning, the
candidates get to know how this whole
recruitment process works and what has to be
done from their side. They have to sign forms to
prove they are ready to put into work. The
candidates have been asked in advance to
bring as many documents as possible which are
listed on a checklist to the meeting and my job
in these meetings is usually to copy and scan
these documents so we can keep them
compliant..
Last week, Mr Spielhofer and Mr Kunz came to
London to visit us in the company. On Saturday,
we had a meeting with Mr Spielhofer and the
whole class to talk about our Christmas break,
our IPT documentation about our work
experience in our internship and the Cambridge
Business English Certificate (BEC) Higher.
I am very happy to confirm that I passed the
BEC Higher for which I had been working so
hard the last couple of weeks.
As you may have already read in Larissa’s blog,
we went to Sea Life three weeks ago and I
couldn’t help myself from laughing at her simply
because she lost the plot due to her abnormally
large fear of sharks. After that we went to take
a walk in the lovely Regent’s Park and fed the
squirrels.
Soon, my dad is coming to visit again and we
are going to spend some family time together.
Best wishes and in advance, a happy New Year!
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I lost my mother tongue
Joshua Hangartner
Hi guys, to be honest I don’t know where I
should start. Since my last blog I have done a
lot of stuff and went to work on a daily basis.
All the credit card information I can’t explain in
German because I have no idea what you call it
in German.
First of all, let me tell you how it is to work on a
building site. The complete last month we had a
refurbishment at our hotel.
What was huge advantage? I didn’t have to pick
up the phone because I couldn’t hear anything
because of the drilling and so on. The noise was
the biggest disadvantage. Every day we had
complaints, I guess we gave more free
breakfasts than we sold in this month. But at
least, I know now how to do a refund on the
PDQ (this little machine to charge credit cards).
Ah, I have to tell you about the Christmas
dinner! People from Luton, who are working for
the same hotel chain, came to our hotel to work
for us while all staff member went to the BBC
Studios to eat dinner. The decoration of the
room in which we were eating was weird,
something between Christmas and a wedding
party. The live band played songs from the
eighties and after the delicious meal, some
women went to the dance floor, which was
allocated right behind our table. Do you know
this ‘big boned’ woman in too tight dresses?
There were definitely too many of them. But
after a couple of (free) drinks, I was able to
adapt easily to the situation.
The lobby, my workplace, is now brighter and
more open spaced and I have a brand new
reception desk. You should have seen my AGM
(Assistant General Manager, my line manager)
when the refurbishment was done. Every day
he arranged the stuff at the reception new,
again and again, until I told him that I couldn’t
work like this, because I couldn’t find anything.
Nowadays I am in a workflow, I found my routine
and don’t have any problems at all during work.
Oh no wait there is one! It is called German and
I always try to practise it when I have guests
from Germany, Austria or Switzerland. Most of
the time I fail in the second sentence. I am not
able anymore to speak my mother tongue
properly. My mind went blank so many times,
for example I couldn’t remember the word ‘to
move’ or ‘space’ in German.
My free time hasn’t changed at all. Church Pub
and ‘sightseeing’ with Alisa are my weekend
activities.
And yes, I am part of the lucky half of my class,
who passed the BEC Higher! It is not an A-Level
degree but close to it, which is fine for me.
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Christmas time
Larissa Heer
So, it is now the final week before the Christmas
holiday and I really look forward to it.
I have finished my Christmas Shopping and I
have already started to pack my suitcase.
Unfortunately, my gifts take nearly the whole
space of my luggage. However, I think that I will
be able to bring all the things back to
Switzerland. 
On 4th December, we had a Christmas Party.
Firstly, the principal of the Central London
School had a speech in the canteen. After that,
we went to a hotel, where we enjoyed a three
course dinner. It was a very enjoyable evening,
but I and Kevin were a little bit shocked about
how the English people drink. However, it was
funny to observe them.
Here, in London, I couldn’t get into the
Christmas feeling. It is just too busy to get the
right emotions. It is now very cold and windy, the
time where the umbrellas break.
The last weekend, I went shopping with Lisa,
her dad and his friend. After shopping we
enjoyed the Christmas feeling in the Winter
Wonderland. It is actually bigger than I thought.
As you can see in the pictures, they offer a lot
of spectacular rides and attractions and street
food. However it is more like a fun fair than a
Christmas market. Furthermore you have to buy
the tickets for some attractions in advance.
I hope you all enjoy the Christmas time with your
loved ones! 
I realised that I really miss some typical Swiss
things. And I never thought that I will miss the
small village where I live. The quiet and
balanced atmosphere there and I even miss the
transport in Switzerland where you have mostly
the chance to sit down and where it is not that
hot inside. The tube is always full of people
which makes them really hot and the air is
absolutely bad. During my time here in London,
I have seen some people who had a collapse
because of these circumstances.
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Ready for Christmas
Nina Lötscher
Last weekend, I went shopping for Christmas
gifts with my friend. We went to Westfield at
Shepherd’s Bush and I was able to get all the
Christmas gifts that I had the intension to buy.
It was quite funny since it was my first big
shopping trip here in London. I know that’s
insane that I was never really shopping here but
I’m just not so keen on walking around,
searching for stuff, spending my lovely money
on it and then eventually having to carry it
around the rest of the day. Still I have to say, I
really enjoyed this day and I had a good time
with my friend.
The thought of being in Switzerland next
weekend is a little bit disturbing and strange,
since it was so far away all the time and now
there are only a few days left. I’m happy to go
home over Christmas so I can see my loved
ones again after all this time but also to
celebrate Christmas with them. Furthermore, I
really hope that I get that missing Christmas
feeling eventually in Switzerland.
On the next day, I went with her to Winter
Wonderland to get that kind of Christmas feeling
that I’m still missing this year. We went on the
Big Wheel to get a view all over London and for
dinner we went to a Swiss Chalet to eat Alpen
Macaroni. I noticed that almost every Roller
Coaster was described in German or had a
German name. What I personally thought is
kind of odd and also dangerous is that a lot of
the safety instructions were in German as well.
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2016 is near
Alisa Gasser
This will be the last time you hear from me here
about my life in England since we only have 3
weeks left in London. Quite sad, isn’t it?
After spending a great week with our families
and friends in Switzerland to celebrate
Christmas, our whole class came back to
London last Sunday. I am very pleased to be
back because I really missed this amazing city
with all its little things. And while some of my
classmates have to work again this week, I’m
one of the lucky ones who have the whole week
off. That’s one of the perks that occur when
you’re working for a language school that closes
for two weeks during the Christmas holiday.
Nevertheless, I look forward to going back to
work in a week because I really enjoy my
internship.
I’m not saying everything’s better in London but
some things are. The way of life is just so
different and you have so many possibilities
here. A small village and even a decent Swiss
town is nothing compared to this city. I’m
expecting it to be extremely hard to get used to
the usual and dull life in Switzerland when we
leave England on 16th January but life needs to
go on, right?
Now I’m going to enjoy the three weeks and I
hope you’re having a lovely holiday and you’re
going to have a good start into 2016 as well!
New Year’s Eve is soon and I’m looking forward
to it.
Every time someone asks me how my time in
London was, I reply with “It IS great, not WAS.
Because it’s not over yet, alright? “I get slightly
sensitive about this topic.
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High technology restaurant
Vanessa Dubach
I went to a really cool restaurant with Julienne,
a classmate. It’s called Inamo and it is an Asian
restaurant where the control of the dining
experience is placed firmly in your hands. It’s
close to Tottenham Court Road Station and
another one is opening soon in Covent Garden.
You can order everything on your table surface.
Not only that, by clicking on the food it shows
you what it looks like on your plate. It’s
absolutely amazing. We could even discover
the local neighbourhood, play games with each
other, change the colour of our table or order a
taxi home.
As you probably know we spend one week over
Christmas in Switzerland. This week is almost
over and on Sunday we are flying back to
London for three more weeks. I’m looking
forward to go back as I just feel very comfortable
there and it’s far busier than in this tiny village
which I live in here. They would rather call it a
neighbourhood than a village.
So and that was already my last blog post.
Thank you for letting me make this great
experience. I couldn’t imagine a better place to
make my first work experience and improve my
English. It was just fantastic!
Last Friday I was invited to the staff Christmas
party. The party took place in a pub in Kentish
Town, where we had our own room. Weeks ago
we had to choose what we want for dinner and
traditionally we played Secret Santa. I was the
Secret Santa of a teacher who I have never
spoken to, so it was quite difficult to find a nice
present for her, however the evening was really
nice and now I know English people love
drinking more than anything else.
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Happy New Year
Sabrina Felder
Hiya! So we all spent Christmas at home last
week, and now we are back in London for the
last few weeks.
Ever since we got here the time has been
running so quickly! I cannot believe that it has
been already more than four months ago, when
we came to the UK and started this term. We
did some sightseeing, visited musicals, went to
work and many other things!
Last week we spent the holidays in Switzerland,
which was nice because we saw our families
and friends. Some of us had to go for some
interviews regarding the internship starting in
February and luckily all of us have a work
placement now!
Every year on the 26 of December it is Boxing
Day which means there are biiiiig sales!
Unfortunately we missed this day. So we just
went shopping again today to enjoy the last low
prices. At least that is what we thought because
actually it is not very spectacular so we did not
spend too much money.
This week I don't have to work but next Monday
everything is going to be normal again, well only
for two weeks but still.
Generally I really enjoyed the time in London, it
was very exciting and educational.
For the time being I wish you all a great New
Year and a lovely time!
It was very nice to spend the last few days at
home, however this time flew away too. Since
yesterday we are back at our host family's
houses.
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Back again
Michelle Ottiger
We just came back from Switzerland and the
last three weeks of our stay are now on.
The weekend before going to Switzerland, I
helped out at the pop up shop of my company.
Therefore I had to go to the Royal Festival Hall.
In there, about 25 different Charity
Organisations had their pop up shop. A lot of
them were well known, for instance YMCA and
British Heart. I was at the pop up shop together
with the CEO of the company and the E-Buy
Manager. My tasks were answering questions
of customers if they had any and looking after
the goods to sell.
One day after the pop up shop we had a
Christmas and Chanukah dinner with the head
office team. It took place in a pub owned by the
husband of a colleague in Potters bar.
As I told you above, we just came back from
Switzerland. There we celebrated Christmas
with our families. Although it was great to be
back home and see our loved ones again it
meant, sadly, that our time in the UK is coming
to an end and it was difficult to attach to my live
back home in Switzerland.
I hoped that there would be snow on Christmas
day in Switzerland but there wasn’t. One day
after Christmas I went to one of my favourite
places in Lucerne. I arrived on time to see the
sunset and it was great to see the mountains
and the lake that I missed in London. I finally felt
at home again.
On Sunday the 27th of December we returned to
London and I am now in my last three weeks of
my internship in London.
My colleagues had to drive me there because
there was no train, tube or bus connection. The
food was great and the mood even better. The
dessert was a buffet of mince pies, ice creams
and toffees.
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New Year’s Eve in London? Ultimate Guide
Lisa Häfliger
Hiya! It’s me again and this is my last blog, so
I’m going to narrate all about my last weeks at
work, my absolutely amazing New Year’s Eve
and my last two weeks before I’m heading back
to Switzerland.
The last week at work before our holidays was
a little bit mundane due to the fact that it was
nearly Christmas and I didn’t really have
enough work to do. My supervisors promised
me there will be more after Christmas because
then, it’s the busiest time in this business. They
kept their word and I had pretty much to do
when I came back but I like it.
My holidays in Switzerland were amazing and I
managed to see all my loved ones. As a real
Swiss girl, a typical Swiss brunch with my dad
and best friend couldn’t be missing. The day
before I left, a friend who I haven’t seen in a long
time and I made a picnic near the woods while
we were watching the sunset.
As you may have already read in my previous
blogs, I made some really great friends at St.
Giles. One of them decided to celebrate New
Year with his friends, Josh from my class and
me in London. We went to the Church Pub
(what a surprise) and after the countdown we
wanted to watch the fireworks from our secret
favourite spot on a bridge from where you can
see all over London but apparently we were a
bit late and missed the fireworks.
This didn’t hold us from having an amazing time
together. On Saturday, we planned to go to the
Emirates Stadium to see the match Arsenal
against Newcastle but my friend didn’t manage
to get tickets as they were sold out really soon.
I was really devastated but we had a great day
anyways.
On Sunday, I had to say goodbye to my friend
and brought him and his friends to the airport. It
was quite sad to see him leaving because we
both don’t know when we will see each other
again. Hopefully soon!
Now, I hope I can tick everything off from
Larissa’s and my bucket list. These were the
best four months I have ever experienced and I
am thankful that I have been given this
opportunity.
But, goodbyes are not forever and as London is
literally “just around the corner” I will be back
soon. Best wishes and I hope you have a great
time!
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What does ‘home’ mean?
Joshua Hangartner
I enjoyed to see my friends again, when I met
them all I was fighting with tears of joy, they
have won. I loved it to eat real bread again, to
celebrate Christmas with my family and to
record my own songs again. I wrote so many
lyrics in London, it took me about 3 days to
record them all. Back in London I had a lot of
work to do like mixing and mastering them. But
the week at home was kind of sad as well. I
didn’t feel at home, it felt more like holidays.
Holidays in a city you love and hate at the same
time. You love it because you are used to it,
your loved ones are living there and you feel
save in this environment. You hate it because
it is boring, compared to London not even a
small adventure; you know every street, every
pub, and every place, just everything. You even
have the feeling to know everybody in a club
when you are going out. Your life is a routine,
every day is more or less the same, it is like a
huge cage from which you want to break out but
you don’t know where the bars are.
Back in London I felt at home if the definition of
home is where you feel comfortable. This is the
way of life I love the most. Sure, I have a routine
here as well but it is not the same. I just have to
walk ten minutes or take the tube for a couple of
stations and I am somewhere I’ve never been
before. New places, new people, new
experiences, just everything seems to be
exciting. If I don’t want to see some people I am
not going to see them. It is not like Lucerne
where you meet people you loath every week
on the street. My whole life I have been kind of
a rebel, here I don’t have to be one anymore, I
don’t have to fight the world I am living in; the
world changes itself. This is much more relaxing
but exciting at the same time. Sometimes I feel
like I am stuck in a huge TV and every five
seconds someone is zapping to a new channel.
That’s where I have to fulfil a new task in a new
scenario, again and again.
answer to these questions when I reach this
point. We will see.
Now I just want to live my life to the limits in the
last couple of days here. I still have to shoot a
video here for my favourite song at the moment.
I’ll show it to you in my next blog post.
Nuff said about my thoughts and feelings. I also
wanted to tell you about the hip-hop jam I have
been to. There is a small jam not far away from
my flat where you can just grab a mic and start
rapping. A couple of weeks ago I couldn’t resist,
I stepped on the stage and showed the crowd
my lyrics. Of course I did it in Swiss German, so
nobody was able to understand what I am
talking about but they seemed to like it. The host
asked me if I would like to do an a cappella
written battle (so you write some lyrics before
the battle and perform them live on stage
afterwards) in English against another
foreigner. I agreed and they told me my
opponent is French and his alias is Eagle. Hang
on, France and Eagle? I could swear there has
been something recently with these two
words…
My whole text was built on references between
my opponent and the attacks in Paris. I
explained him lyrically how I am going to kill him
on stage, dropping bombs, spitting fire so after
this battle he will have to call himself ‘Eagle of
Death’ (Metal fans will know;-) ). So far so good
but when I mention the Bataclan itself
something hit my head. Someone in the crowd
was a little bit too sensitive and could not
understand that there are no limits in a rap battle
so he threw a full can at my head. However, I
won the battle and the respect of some MCs
over here, so I got that going for me which is
nice.
Cya soon, take care bruvs!
To be honest I am afraid of going back to
Switzerland. What if I’m ending up as the same
person I was? What if I am getting frustrated in
my daily life with the same routine and the same
habits I used to have? Well I hope I will have an
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Returning to London and Happy New Year!
Saskia Pfiffner
As I am writing this I am already back in London
after my one week holiday in Switzerland.
Time went so quickly and now it is already 2016.
As we came back on 27th December, we were
here in London to celebrate New Year’s Eve,
which is great but very expensive. My friends
and I went to a club paying about 40£ entry
which was the cheapest possible. The entry to
other clubs was from 50£ up to 100£. So we
thought about going to watch the huge firework
at Big Ben, but we were told that if you do not
have tickets you cannot see too much,
obviously the firework goes high up but
anyways it was very, very crowded so we did
not go there. But still our New Year’s Eve was
great, in the end it doesn’t matter where you are,
more who you are with.
We had one week holiday here in London too,
which was very nice because we never really
had holidays since we have been here. But also
we didn’t do so much because everything is so
expensive and we already saw the city and did
a lot of sightseeing so we enjoyed a bit more of
a normal, relaxed lifestyle rather than being
tourists running around the whole day.
However, we are planning to go to Brighton next
weekend, which I am looking forward to.
For now I am enjoying my last weeks in this
great city, you will hear from me next when we
are back in Switzerland. Hope everyone had a
great start in the New Year!
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Bye London, Hello Lucerne
Larissa Heer
Hi ya! So, finally it is the last week of this
exciting time in London. I look forward to going
home, but I think that I will miss London, when I
am there.
It is such an exciting city where you can get a
lot of experience and have lots of fun. However,
I am more than happy to go home where all my
friends and family are. I missed the organised
and quiet Switzerland and I am a little bit tired of
the London life. The mornings in the tube are
just terrible. So many people in there and when
you’d like to enter they push you away, so that
they can go in first. It is just crazy! I really
appreciate now that I live in the countryside of
Lucerne where it’s quiet.
But I am happy that I had this opportunity to do
this. I think that my English skills have improved,
not just in the business context, also the
everyday English. I loved to work at St Giles. It
was great that I could have a first work view of
the marketing department. Furthermore the
head office team there is very nice and I always
had interesting work to do. My host family was
also very nice and I think that I will miss them as
well.
During this time I also realised how important it
is to enjoy every second with your loved ones. I
really missed them during this time, because
you don’t get the same support as usual. You
cannot embrace them when you do not feel very
well or something like that. I think this was the
hardest thing for me during these 5 months.
But there were a lot of cool things to do and the
fireworks here in London were awesome. A lot
of people of our class enjoyed the evening in the
church pub. Vanessa, Julienne, Sabrina, my
boyfriend and I went to the “Bridge” where we
could see the entire fireworks in London. It was
amazing!
During our Christmas holiday in Switzerland I
did two short trial days and interviews in firms.
Finally I got a job for the last part of my
education in Lucerne. I'm very excited to work
at this company! My boyfriend accompanied me
when we flew back to London after our
Christmas holiday. He stayed for a week and it
was an amazing time. I only had to work three
days in this week, so I could enjoy the time.
This weekend, Lisa and I went to a restaurant,
called “Cereal Killer”, where we enjoyed a
breakfast. After, we went shopping for the last
time of our stay here.
Now, I will enjoy this last week in London! So,
see you soon, Switzerland  Have a nice day!
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Will I come back?
Nina Lötscher
For sure! As soon as possible. I really want to
come back as soon as possible since I had a
very nice time here and I enjoy life here much
more than in Switzerland. When I went back to
my home country over Christmas I didn’t really
feel comfortable when I went to Lucerne. It just
didn’t feel right. It’s so hard to explain but when
I was back in London I felt at home. I know that
London is so much bigger than Lucerne but I
had the feeling that I know London so well and
Lucerne was just like a stranger that I met for
the second time.
For me it is very hard to leave that life here in
London behind and go back to my other life in
Lucerne. Even when I just think of that I am
about to cry. On my last day of work when I had
to say Goodbye to everyone I cried literally four
times just because I couldn’t believe that
everything is over now. Imagine the face of my
boss when my tears started running down my
cheeks! He ended up being in the office with two
crying women (me and my supervisor).
To be honest, the thing that bothers me the
most is leaving my host mother. I grew very
close to her and she’s a true friend. I even had
tears in my eyes when I left her one week to go
to Switzerland. I can’t imagine not seeing her for
such a long time.
My goal is to come back next fall with my friends
and of course I will visit my hosts and maybe
even the people from my company.
Maybe this blog sounded like I hate Switzerland
but please note that that’s not true at all. I just
saw another country which I like much better in
general. Still I have to say I missed the
punctuality of Swiss people.
So overall I can say I am very grateful for the
opportunity I got to come to London. I think I
gained a lot of knowledge about not only work
or the English language, but also about myself.
Hence I just want to thank everyone who made
it possible for our class to go!
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Partner des MobiLingua Programms
Back home for good
Michelle Ottiger
Last Saturday I flew back to Switzerland. Now,
after nearly half a year in London, I’m back
home for good.
As I wrote in my last blog, I was in Switzerland
for Christmas. After returning “back home” to
London after Christmas, the time passed really
quickly. I had a nice new year’s eve, spending
it at home and watching the fireworks from
there.
Slowly the certainty that I have to leave my
beloved new home became one of my thoughts.
I tried to fill the time I had left with as many
activities as somehow possible. So I went to the
cinema, went shopping and enjoyed great food
in a number of restaurants. All this I did with the
sad thought that it maybe was the last time for
a long time. I have met a lot of nice people here
and it was very sad to leave them all. I’ve spent
a lot of time with them on Thursday and Friday
night, trying to not think about my leave. I hope
I’ll see them again as soon as possible.
On my last day of work, I got surprised by my
co-workers. I was working on some stuff on my
PC, when suddenly the whole team started
clapping. After a lot of hugs they all wished me
a lot of luck in Switzerland. I left with a lot of
presents. On my way back home, I took some
photos and tried to save as many impressions
in my head as possible.
On the day our class flew back, there was some
crying. Thinking of the good time we all had in
London, it seems normal to me. A friend and I
have already planned to go back in one year to
see London again, even if it’s just a short time.
As this is my last blog, you won’t hear from me
anymore. Goodbye!
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Partner des MobiLingua Programms
Saying Goodbye
Saskia Pfiffner
Our time in London has finished and saying
goodbye was harder than expected. Even
though we were in London for only half a year,
we all got so used to the life we have built up
there. Travelling with the tube got so normal that
it is strange to drive with trains here in
Switzerland. I have been back home for one
week now and everything seems different, but
also still the same. It is strange to explain. I am
still turning my head to the wrong side when I
want to cross the street, or I am also still thinking
in English, I guess this will still take me some
time to change. But it is good, I feel like I
understand the language a lot better now.
London is a great city, there are so many
opportunities waiting to be taken and so many
places waiting to be discovered. I am definitely
recommending London. Not only for young
people, but for everyone who wants to visit a city
that is alive and where there is always
something going on.
I am very thankful for all the people that
supported me during my stay and now I am
looking forward to starting another internship
here in Switzerland.
Since this is my last blog entry, I wish everyone
all the best for the future and… goodbye!
I learnt so so much during this stay and I made
so many experiences which I can use in my
future life and job. I am very glad that I started
this apprenticeship and did the stay. I need to
admit, in the beginning it was very hard for me.
I had bad luck twice with my host family which
made me want to go home. But as soon as I had
a nice family, I started enjoying it more and
more.
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