Summary of the week ;)

Here comes my 3rd entry!  yeah! (clap clap clap...)

Though I didn't update my blog frequently, it doesn't mean that I have nothing to share.
Still I have a very wonderful week, and I would like to write some hightlights of the week!

Teaching Practice
I have done my first teaching practice here last week, which is quite relaxing. My groupmate and I did prepare a lot for this 20-minute lesson. We have many ideas and we want to do different activities during the class, however, we found it very difficult to manage the time. We tried to make this short lesson enjoyable and interesting, and I thought we were able to achieve it. I think it's a good start, but I know there're too many areas that I have to improve. I think giving immediate response to students and making changes in lesson according to different situations are difficult tasks for me. I am the kind of people who need planning and I really need to stick to my plan. I think what I need is confidence in making changes and flexibility. Sometimes I just worry and wonder if I can handle with chaos or accidents in the classroom, but I do believe preparation helps. Well, though it takes time to prepare for the TP, I still look forward to my next TP! I hope I can have some improvement in every little try.


A trip to Edinburgh
I spent my weekend in  Edinburgh with my classmates for 3 days 2 nights!
What I heard from my host family is that the scottish people in Edinburgh are veryveryveryvery nice
 and friendly. However, I think it is NOT the case. Since Edinburgh is a bigger ( a lot lot bigger!!!)  and more modern city when compare to York, people are busy. The bus drivers and salesladies there were not nice at all... I don't know if the reason is we are Chinese, I just couldn't feel people welcoming or showing friendly to us. I enjoyed the scenery, buildings and landscape there, but not the so-called "friendly" scottish people. I saw people getting drunk, crying and screaming, people speaking in very heavy accent, and people begging on the streets. Those were absent in York.
Though I really didn't have a good impression on the scottish people, I still admire their culture. I love the tartan, the woolen costume in checkers! There are lovely and classic! I saw men wearing the tartan quilt, they looked cool! I bought two scarfs in Edinburgh for myself and my mum. I think tartan is the best souvenir from there!

Hi! It's me on the Colton Hill! It's freezing there!

 

My lovely friends & the Edinburgh Castle!

There will be a Christmas carnival in Edinburgh, and the ferris wheel is being bulit in the centre of Ediburgh! Beautiful!

Cooking Fun!

During this weekend, I cooked a lot! :P

I made Chinese dumplings and some cantonese dishes for my host family. However, they seemed not to admire the food... :(  I know sometimes Chinese food may taste or look strange to them, but that's really what I love and I just want to share with them! Alright, I am going to have Chinese dumplings for the rest of my week because there are still many in the fridge :(

Apart from Chinese food, I also leanrt to make lasagne in a proper way. I used to make lasagne in Hong Kong but it's just a instant one. It's ready made and I just baked it! (or even reheat it...) Now I find that it's not that difficult to make a homemade one. I just put the lasagne sheet, mince beef and white source layers by layers, and it's nearly done (but of course you have to add flavour to it).  It looks really nice! The lasagne is now in the fridge, and we are going to bake it tomorrow for dinner. I just can't wait to taste it! yummy :)

The most lovely food I learnt during this week is the BANOFFEE PIE! It's a cake made of banana and toffee! It's so sweet and I am a suger lover! I like to eat every sweet food. This is the first time I ate and made a banoffee pie, and now I just fell in love with it! I'll try to make one in HK and show my mother what I have learnt (in cooking) here! Compare to Hong Kong, desserts in the UK like pudding, yoghurt, cheese cakes, ice-cream, pies, etc are much cheaper. I have also planned to go Betty's teashop for a very traditional English teaset! That's why I think I must gain a lot of weight after these 6 weeks.

What's next I am going to make a white chocolate cheese cake! See if it'll be another good one! ;-)

My first week in York

It's been the 3rd day here in York, but I'm still suffering from jet-lag.
I woke up at 5 this morning, and couldn't fall asleep afterwards, how poor!

Tonight is the Guy Fawkes Night! (or we can say Bonfire Night)
I have done some research on google about the Bonfire Night, I knew it's like kind of celebration that a guy called Guy Fawkes (yeah, humorous ;-D) failed the Gunpowder Plot of 5 November 1605. It's such a very old and memorable celebration, isn't it? It's been a long history!

I played fireworks with my host family in their garden. The little bonfires were nice and it just reminded me of the very magnificent firework display we have in Hong Kong. Normally, lighting firework is prohibited in Hong Kong, but we have very big firework display three times in a year, which are for the celebrations of Chinese New Year, National Day, and the day when England returned the sovereignty of Hong Kong to China (the first of July). Though fireworks are beautiful, sometimes I do think it is a waste of money because the government spends millions of dollars to light them up! Also, it is doing harm to the environment.

By the way, I love English traditions, beacuse we can have fun and holiday! I'm looking forward to the thanksgiving day, and I long to see how people celebrate it! We don't have such celebration in Hong Kong!