A cake with a Czech

Weekend! After some very hard workdays, during which we attended lessons from 9 am to 4 pm, there it came the golden, sweet weekend with all its promises of rest, relief and enjoyment. For us, here at Anglolang School and Scarborough, it was too an opportunity to get to know better each other, practise our English skills in a less formal social environment, and look for opportunities to acquire contacts in prospect of future european projects.

Anglolang offered some weekend activities. On Friday there was a Beach Sport Evening (I think I told you about it). On Saturday they offered us a School Trip to Edinburgh. And on Sunday another one to Newcastle and Durham. None of those activities were, of course, compulsory, and there were not free, but the Friday Beach Sports Evening. I signed up for the Edinburgh trip, and planned for a bike ride on Sunday. But things were not as I wanted them to. On Thursday they suspended the trip to Edinburgh, so I had to change my plans. I finnally signed up for Newcastle, and made my bike ride on Saturday.

So, after having a lot of fun with some classmates on Friday at the beach, we hired some bikes on Saturday morning. It was supposed to be a ride for four teachers, but some of them decided not to come in the end, so we finnally were only two, a Czech P.E. teacher and your humble servant. We went to the ´Cinder Trail´, a former railway line that went all the way from Scarborough to Whitby, though we didn't intend to go that far. Our aim was the Ravenscall Hall Hotel, about 16 km away from Scarborough. We had a great and fine British weather, which, for you, means that it was cold and raining all the way. 

We had fun. We sighted squirrels, and rabbits, and deers, and cakes  -twice-, and soups -only once. But, instead of telling you the tale of the Spanish and the Czech riding a bike, I'll just show you some pictures. Reading is boring, I know.

We sighted cows, too! I forgot the cows!

This, my friends, is a Yorkshire Curl Tart, a delicious piece of cake sighted twice at the Ravenscar Tearoom. One on the way out. The second one on the way back. There is a law on cake hunting, more or less like the fox hunting one. It says you can not hunt cakes, but if you happen to come into one in your way, you can hunt and eat it. And we are law-abiding people...

Our lunch here, a hot Brócoli Blue Cheese Soup, perfect for the cold weather of the British summer

The sight from the dinning room at the Ravens Hall Hotel was great. Here you can see the 'Robin Hood's Bay'. No, Robin Hood never was there, he was more fond of forests.

The Cathedral of Durham, our Sunday trip main aim.

Old Good Schooldays...

Here we go! As I write this lines, I´m in my third day here in U.K. Three very plenty and busy days, including first meetings, first classes, first school trips and first meals.

Anglolang school is just great. You can have a look at it here. I´ve got the best teachers I could ask for. Dan, i.e., it´s not only a great expert in education apps, but an outstanding teacher. And it's not the only one. Linda and Elaine, both of them in charge of Language Development, are incredible teachers as well. Alexis is in charge of CLIL lessons in the afternoon, and I can say no less of him. I've got a lot to learn from them, not only about English language, CLIL or apps, but about how they plan and perform at their classes. 

Anglolang School front yard.

Classes start at 9:00 a.m. During the morning we plough through Language Development. First break starts at 10:40 a.m., just time enough for a tea or a coffe before the following session starts at 11:00. The second morning class being longer, as it extends up to 12:50, it includes a little ten minutes break. After that, it's lunchtime. At 13:50 starts the afternoon class, the thematic one, being mine the CLIL class. CLIL stands for Content and Language Integrated Learning, which is why I'm here. It's the longer class of them all, up to 16:00. After that, we're done till the next day.

Anglolang also offers us a lot of activities, both during schooldays and weekends, and also in the evenings. Here, evening is the after-dinner time, being dinner at some point between 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. On Wednesdays, there are school trips. Today it was to Leeds and Bradford, and the next week trip will be to York, which I'm looking forward to. Some other day I may talk to you a little bit about our school trips. For the weekend, there's a trip to Edimbourg on Saturday, and I'm planning a bike ride on my own along the Cinder Trail on Sunday. In regarding to evenings activities, it depends. You already know on Monday I went to the Folk Night at The Merchant (read it here). It was not a school-organized activity, of course, but they publicized it. Tomorrow there is another Jazz Night at The Cask, which is very near my hotel. On Friday the school sets up a "Beach Sports Evening". You got the idea, haven't you?

But the scoop arose today. I've been moved from the "beginners" Language Development Class to the "advanced" one. Cheers! 

Scarborough Fair

While I write this lines down, I'm celebrating my first 24 hours in Scarborough. And in order to properly and... Britishly doing so, I decided to attend the 'Folk Night' at The Merchant, a very nice pub placed at Eastborough Street. Right now, I'm enjoying a Ginger Ale seated in a comfortable couch staring at a wide window as the rain softly soak the street an any bypasser bold enough as to have a walk so late at night. It's 8:30 p.m. This is Britain for you, friends.

So, as I was saying, 24 hours. Lot of things happened in those 24 hours, and I can not expect you to be in the mood of reading them all. So, I propose you a quick and easy 'van Gogh's style' post, a fast serie of paintbrushes so you can get an impression of how it was while not having to read a lot. Shoulders to the task.

First things first. British do drink a lot of beer. No, seriously. Way too much. Ok, maybe not them all. Only the ones that happened to travel in my coach in the 15:11 Manchester - Scarborough train. There were a large bunch of people seated and working, or reading, with scores of empty cans of beer at one side of the table, and scores of full ones at the other, calmly and phlegmatically and sistematically passing them from one side to another. I mean, from the 'full' side to the 'empty' side. The other way round would have been weird. British tend to manage beer consumption just like a worker manage car production in an assembly line. What do you think came first? Consumption? Production? 

Now, today's breakfast. My accommodation is set at the Raincliffe Hotel, a wonderful Victorian-style house run by a very nice couple. He is a marvelous cooker, and presented all newcomers with a piece of cake in the morning. Wish you had tasted it. Anyway, this morning I decided for a Full English Breakfast, a fry-up, and I got what I asked for. Well, I got twice what I asked for. Have a look. Of course, I had to surrender. Trafalgar, again.

After classes, me and some of my classmates decided for a walk and a traditional Fish & Ship dinner. I wasn't really sure I could take any more food for the whole day, but boldly I thought that, maybe, a long walk would help me open my stomach again. So we walked all the way down from Raincliffe Hotel to Waterfront, up to the Castle, and down again, and all the way to the venerable Scarborough Spa. A very long walk under the soft rain that begun to shower over the town during the afternoon. 

While my classmates surrendered to my tireless rythm and decided to go back to hotel for a well deserved rest, I made my mind up for a last run. And this is how, lads, I ended up my afternoon seated here at The Merchant with a Ginger Ale in one hand, my tablet in the other, a smile in my face and a really epic stomach ache. 

Before leaving you for tonight, I can not resist a final temptation. Take it easy, is not a culinary one. Scarborough is a very famous place, among other things, because of a very popular song, 'Scarborough Fair'. I can not think of a better way of celebrating those 24 hours than sharing it with you all. Here you have it. https://g.co/kgs/MLVaJF

And now, lads, I'm making my exit. For some strange reason that eludes me right now, I arranged a meeting tomorrow at 7:00 in the morning to go jogging with a couple of classmates. And I have to honor my word. So, excuse me my friends, this poor man is done, and goes to bed. Farewell!