Koreander's language stay

[Koreander]

English stay in Scotland

In this thread I'm going to post a small write up of my stay in Edinburgh, Scotland.
For your and especially my practice I'll do it in English.

Facebook photo album:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/...980.1073741825.1127104624&type=1&l=0e40b0f6f7

If you're terrible in English I can recommend Google Translater: http://translate.google.com
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Preparations
As some of you may know, my decision to go abroad was pretty spontaneous. I never really liked to work in the company and always wanted to learn English properly, So I made a quick decision three Months ago.
I quit my job and apartment in Dornach to start a new chapter in my life. (A big thanks to all the “Chraupels” that helped me to move my belongings)

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My last week in Switzerland was filled with small things to do. Birthday, visiting family members, repairing my brothers Computer and most important afk gathering in Darkfall!
After packing my luggage, losing my camera and tidying up my room, it was time to leave.

Departure and arrival
Friday, 4. July - 10 am.
After stopping my digging macro in Darkfall and shutting down my computer, I took a last glance back into my room and I realised that I will be gone for quite some time.

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My flight already departed and therefore arrived with a 30 minutes delay in Edinburgh Airport. It was slightly raining and cloudy, perfect day for Scottish standards. I took the bus through the city to reach my host family.
My host family is a lovely retired couple in a small house to the south of Edinburgh.
It’s not a big or beautiful house and I don’t have a big room, but it feels like I’m at home.

It doesn’t feel like I’m abroad, it feels like I belong here.

First weekend
My first weekend was not special. The weather was sunny and warm. I got up late, was talking with my host parents, read a book in the garden and watched some series later in the night.
On sunday the grandchildren of my host parents came over from Glasgow. Three beautiful young girls in my age.
So not an extremely exciting Sunday, but I got pretty tired after listening to so many people.

First day of school

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My host parents drove me the first day. The school is a lovely old church in the heart of Edinburgh. It has small but bright classrooms and a cozy common room.
The staff and teachers of the school are friendly and some of them pretty crazy.
My first day started with a test, to determine the english level. After some nasty grammer, speaking and reading exercises we got released for lunch break.
In the afternoon we got split into our classes. Because you don’t have the same people in each class it was a bit challenging at first, to make new friends. That the groups of spanish and italian people were speaking in their mother tongue wasn’t helping either.

Rest of the first week
In the following days I met a lot of new people, had english classes and we went to pubs.
The school was not really challenging, but it was always fun with the other students.
Since my digital camera is at home (couldn’t find it …) I convinced myself to by a new proper camera. So my evenings after the pub were filled with reading reviews about cameras.
On saturday I made my choice and bought my new love “Canon EOS 100D” with two lenses, a bag and a memory card. I feel like a professional now, stupid tourists with their big cameras.

Before I could go home and charge the batteries we went to Edinburgh Castle (no pictures).
Since I was already there last year it was nothing special, but it will never stop impressing me.
Edinburgh Castle is a magnificent piece of structure. And if you’re an ambitious Age of Empires or Stronghold player like me, you’ll always have the attacking and defending forces in mind.
After the castle visit, straight to the pub as always.


To be continued ...

 

[Kooki_ch]

i see what you did there ! Three girls, one koreander

 

[webtomato]

Pics or it didn't happen

 

[Varimathras]

fun fact: edinburgh is pronounced completely different than you would think:

(obviously cilantro already knows that )

 

[oNdsen]

yay! koreandeer going to school at hogwarts!

 

[Dovaner]

korea's gay diary

have fun! and please keep us up2date

 

[charly]

you're still gay bro

 

[Toxpack]

Do you even Haggis bro?

 

[Anansi]

Danke Korea. Bi gspant uf dr nägsti Part!

 

[Koreander]

Photo album link added !!

Thanks for the lovely comments :kiss:

 

[Anansi]

Looks like you have anice time over there. The dude playing the guitar looks a lil bit like "the janitor" from Scrubs enjoy your time there, and don't forget to send me a damn postcard (but not a plain one )

 

[Koreander]

Second part. I know I'm late but I have no time to write ^^
Just enjoy and go to my facebook for more pictschaas.

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Week number two
Because it’s summer time and there are a lot of students the school uses a second building A more modern and ugly building with big classrooms. The school was 15 minutes from the normal school away and we had to switch at lunch time. Fortunately I’m in Scotland and it’s always raining. (ironic)
Pretty much every evening was filled with going to pubs with friends and missing the last bus. Walking home is such a nice experience if you’re too good to take a taxi …
On Friday evening we went to a pub with live music. It was also the last day of some students I met and therefore we went to another pub later on and killed some ciders.
Saturday was a grey and wet day. It didn’t rain, it was just a scottish fog which gave the city a mysterious touch. We had lunch and enjoyed nightlife in the evening.

The sky cleared out on sunday and we went for Craigmillar castle. A well preserved ruin to the south of Edinburgh. It is completely different to the castles I know from Switzerland. It is quite small but is massive from the inside. In the courtyard, a archery exhibition was going on where I showed my non existing skills in shooting a bow. Nevertheless I really enjoyed archery and would love to do it again.
The castle is surrounded by a massive park including woods and fields.





After the castle visit we went into city centre where a “carnival” was ongoing. Since it was not very impressive, we left and headed home.

Week number three

The sunny weather continued in the next week. Therefore we were outside as much as possible. We went to the park after school for an ice cream or just to relax.

On Tuesday we went up Arthur’s Seat. The highest hill in Edinburgh. It’s in the Holyrood Park, a massive green bit in the middle of the city.
After buying a picnic, we went off. It was a hot and sunny day and therefore exhausting to hike up the over 250m mountain. Reaching the top, a pleasantly breeze welcomed us.
The view from Arthur’s Seat is magnificent!
On our way down, we ate our bought picnic at the Chapel ruin in the park and went to another significantly smaller hill called Calton Hill to watch the sundown.




After a relaxing Wednesday at home, sorting out pictures and update my facebook gallery Thursday arrived. The long awaited paintball battle between students. I never played paintball before and it was an amazing experience. Sadly we were almost 30 people on a close quarter arena which resulted in a camp fest and tons of bruises on the opposite team.
I was always a bit restrained about paintball, but now I’d love to do it again.
I advised our activity manager this paintballfarm which looks just amazing !!
It somehow reminds me of the paintballfarm in Lausanne with the different locations etc.
http://www.paintballgames.co.uk/paintball-edinburgh-centre

The weekend was filled and I had no time at all to relax. On Saturday we went to an airshow in Drem, a few kilometers south of Edinburgh. I had always the desire to go to one and finally the time had come. It was very impressive to see the different planes. Although the Spitfire, Hurricane and Lancaster combo was my personal highlight, it was magnificent to see the RAF’s aerobatic team Red Arrows. The Precision and coordination is stunning.



All over the airfield of Drem were military stands where you could see their weapons. Perfect for a geek gamer like me to point around with a sniper rifle… The atmosphere was peaceful and the weather hold out until the end, when it started to rain.

After a long day out, it was pub time with a big burger as dinner. Since I had to get up early in the morning, I went home quite early.

On Sunday we went to St. Andrews where they held Highland Games. St. Andrews is a lovely small town, mostly consisting out of golf courses, university and a castle. First we went to see the ruins of the Cathedral of St. Andrews. There is pretty much nothing else than the fundamentals left but it was a glorious and massive building back in the days.
Right after we went to the castle. Massive structure right at the coast. But the most interesting part was a storyteller, telling about the story of robert the bruce and the history of the wars against England. It is fascinating to listen to scottish stories and their teller. They are just so good at it and it’s a pleasure to listen to them.
Later on we went to the Highland Games. Was spectacular to see them throwing tree trunks around or compete in rope pulling. But there were a lot of common sports such as cycling and running which was not really interesting. It was a week filled with activities and it was satisfying to get some rest.

 

[Toxpack]

Sup Negro?
How much longer are you going to stay in scotland?
If you're still going to be there from mid to end of september i might pay you a visit.

 

[benserker]

Thanks for sharing Korea!

Good idea to copy the text in our forums...


Keep on posting!

 

[Koreander]

Sup Negro?
How much longer are you going to stay in scotland?
If you're still going to be there from mid to end of september i might pay you a visit.

Hi ye Tox

I can't really tell actually. I finished my school today and had my advanced exams. The next two weeks I'll be around and after that I'll probably travel around the UK for a bit before I go back to Edinburgh and take the plane to Switzerland ...

So if you can specify a date we might be able to arrange something.

Korea

 

[benserker]

Hey Korea you improved your English a lot. Congrats!

 

[Koreander]

I'll most likely take a flight back to Switzerland on 6. September.

 

[Koreander]

So, timetravel? Nice.

Shut up Damn stupid mistakes...

 

[Varimathras]

=)

 

[Koreander]

Four friends one car


During the week itself it was quiet. We went to pubs and were mostly planning our trip to the Highlands on the following weekend. Our plan was to rent a car for 4 days and travel around Scotland. It was hard to plan the trip with four different views on what we could see and it wasn’t easy to find a car either. In Scotland you pay more for a car when you’re under 24, some companies don’t even give a car to young drivers …
But finally we managed to get a car and had a fixed route.

The weekend began on Friday the 1. of August. As proud Swiss people, we went to a Korean restaurant and satisfied our stomachs. Followed by going to the Military Tattoo in front of the Edinburgh Castle which was a brilliant experience.
We all went home to rest, because we had an exciting trip ahead.

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We met at 8.00 am at the car rental and got our companion for the next 4 days handed over, a Vauxhall Astra. It was just the ticket for what we’d use it. Since I was the only driver I had an exhausting and tiring time ahead. The first hurdle was driving from Edinburgh to Durness in one day, what means from the south up to almost the most northern point of Scottish mainland.
On the way up we stopped in Inverness, the capital of the Highlands as they call it, for lunch and went to the Castle of Urquhart beside Loch Ness. It’s one of the most famous castles in scottish history and was under siege many times.

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After our visit to the castle we headed north towards a small village called Durness where we would stay for the night. It was a long and tiring way along single track roads. Whilst everyone in the car was sleeping close to nod off, I had fun driving up and down the hills of the Highlands and enjoying the scenery provided. The weather was a big mix of clouds and sunny parts through the whole day but fortunately never poured down rain.
Finally arrived at Durness, dusk was falling and we checked in to our youth hostel. We started to play card but went to bed after a short while.

Morning 3.August, the weather was foggy and we were starving. Due to the fact that it was Sunday, everything except a hotel was closed. So we went to the hotel and got us a full scottish breakfast before going to the Smoo Cave.

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When we got out of the Cave again the fog lifted and the sun was coming through, perfect for our main goal of the day, Cape Wrath. The northest point of the scottish west coast and one of the most wild lands in Europe.
To get to Cape Wrath you need to board a small vessel that brings you to the other side of a sea arm. It’s not an island, but there is only one road in that area and it’s not connected to anything. Once on the other side, a minibus takes you on a 11 mile trip to the lighthouse of Cape Wrath. The road is made of tarmac, but has more holes in it than a swiss cheese.

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During the ride we passed a few houses that were once populated during the whole year, now they are holiday houses of some rich doctors. There is a vast area of military grounds on the way with mortar impact holes just beside the road and target vehicles standing around in the grass.
After probably the longest 11 miles we arrived at Cape Wrath lighthouse. It’s based on a huge cliff and the view and even more the sound of the waves clash against the rocks was simply breathtaking.

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We spent most of our time at the Cape, sitting on a rock and enjoy the beauty that mother nature offered us. Way too soon, it was time to head back. On the way back, I don’t know how it’s possible on a road like that, my friends nodded away and didn’t wake up until we arrived at the boat.
Our youth hostel for the night was located in a almost soulless village called Achmelvich. It was quite a distance to drive from Durness, but luckily my friends were able to sleep in the car while I drove. Full of energy again, we checked in to the hostel and walked down to the beach where we were just on time to see a ‘sunset’. Because the Achmelvich didn’t have a restaurant we went to Lochinver, a harbour city just a few minutes to the South and filled our bellies with food and returned to our warm beds for some rest.

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The next day, we were not as lucky with the weather. Our destination, Assynt, which is normally a beautiful Highland region was completely covered in fog and it was raining. To make matters worse a strong and cold wind was blowing. I didn’t care much, it’s normal for Scotland to have atmospheric weather but our male companion didn’t enjoy it at all as you might see in the picture.

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Towards the afternoon and further to the south, the sky cleared out and the sun showed up. Perfect for our excursion to the Inverewe Botanic Gardens.

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We got another Youth hostel on the way down towards Fort William and spend the night there. Our last day of the trip included seeing the famous castle of Stalker from the Monty Python movie ‘the Holy Grail’ and Glenfinnan Bridge from Harry Potter.

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It was more a sightseeing day than a excursion but we were able to walk around quite a bit.
On the way back to Edinburgh we passed the Falkirk Wheel which is a masterpiece of engineering. Sadly we were late and it was not in use at that time, but was nevertheless impressive.
Our last stop on our journey were the Kelpies, 30 meters tall horse heads out of metal.
Now it was time to give back the car and get a big burger and some booze to end our trip.