Life at Bellerbys College

Easter Holiday - Shopping and a Visit to Devil's Dyke

Posted by Shiny

Shopping

On the first few days of Easter, SING (Shiny, Ivan, Nelson and Gary) went out shopping.  As the May Ball is on the way, people want to buy an outfit so that they look their best.  A spectacular suit is the dream of many men, including the SING.  Shiny was not looking for a suit, but he had just got “annoyed” by ING who told him that the way he dressed was too childish.  So he began to check himself again.

Usually, when you are criticized by two groups of people frequently, you’ve got to review yourself.  These two groups of people are “boys & girls”.  As you can’t have a 3rd group, the opinions from these two groups of people are absolutely vital and fatal.  For the past 20 years in my humble life, what I wear has definitely demonstrated the aesthetics of my mom since I don’t really pay any attention to clothing and I am happy for her to do so.  Gradually I’ve got used to the life.  Virtually school uniforms have become my favourites after wearing them for so long.  It is actually a breakthrough to hear their comments since I don't window shop any more.  Therefore this trip was meaningful.

The comment from Ivan about me was “country boy who comes into town”.  It was a fair comment which clearly told my situation.  Yet I still think that being united in terms of uniforms may look tedious but I like the simplicity sometimes.  “Whatever” has become my personal idiom since long time ago.  Because I was “sealed” and didn’t grow tall (just as plastic which can’t be reshaped), and as time passed on, I kept wearing the same clothes until they were worn out utterly.  I was aware that I've saved loads of money by not growing up!  As what the people say, the clothes I’ve brought to the UK were regarded as “sports clothes” and classified as “for kids”.  OMG, life is so short that we can’t afford to waste any time, but why shall we spend lots of time on the silly dressing?

Devil’s Dyke

On March 24th, I went to the Devil’s Dyke in East Sussex with three lovely little dollies: Lim, Mandy and Yuka. To get there, you need to take a number 77 bus which only runs on weekends and Bank Holidays.

Easter Holidays and Mock Exams – My Heaven and Hell

Posted by Ksenia

Hello everyone!!

As you can probably guess I am already back in the UK and the new term at Bellerbys has begun.  Hope you all had a great Easter Break because I really had (as I promised you).

As usual it was so nice to see my dear parents, relatives and friends.  Everybody seemed very happy to see me.  I ate plenty of Russian food which is absolutely delicious and then…I went to Thailand!  So the summer arrived a bit earlier for me and my mum. 

I’d been to Thailand several years before and I really fell in love with this country.  The sea is always really warm as well as the air; people are really friendly, sand is white and extremely soft.  There are plenty of different plants around and views are just breathtaking. 

Last time we visited Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.  It’s quite a strange and an extremely interesting and exciting city.  Enormous skyscrapers and shopping centres, crowds of people and dreadful traffic exist quite happily next to a calm and relaxed atmosphere of Buddhist cathedrals.  One of the things that impressed me a lot was the royal palace – it was so beautiful and it seemed that absolutely everything is made of gold.

This time we flew directly to Phuket – an island that is especially popular with Russian tourists.  It takes quite a long tome to get there – about 9-10 hours.  For me it’s quite exhausting due to the fact that I can’t sleep in planes, I do not know why.  Anyway this magic island really worth it!!  It is just a pure relaxation – swim, sunbath, swim again, go for a walk along the seafront…  I gained some interesting experiences as well – Thai massage that is quite famous around the world.  The special thing about it that the masseuse only concentrates on particular parts of your body and uses her legs, elbows as well as hands, obviously.

Welcome To The Summer Term

Posted by Jag

Hello, I hope every one had a great Easter break. 

Welcome to the summer term.  It the most intensive term of the year.  Everyone is now preparing for the finals exams here at Bellerbys College, especially the GCSE students because our exams are in just three weeks.  We have now completed all our coursework so the only thing we are doing is revision, revision and more revision.

I'm a little bit nervous but I am actually looking forward for my exams.  Everyone came back from the Easter break and have now become very serious in lessons because it feels like our final minutes before our exams.

In class we are studying past papers and revising topics which we find bit hard or some students have doubts about.  Outside lessons some students go to the library to study and complete all the past papers which we are given as part of our homework.

Our exam timetable are now up on the student notice board.  They start from May 13th and end on June 11th.  For our exams we have to go Queens Campus which is across town so some students are planning to come to Manor campus and then share taxis together which is cheaper and can get you in the other campus in 15 minutes whereas the bus will take around 30 minutes. 

Another good thing is that after each exam we don't have to go the lessons anymore!  Which means that from start of June I don't have any lessons on Monday, Tuesday and Friday because I would have finshed all the exams for these subjects.  Finally on 11th June I will finish all my exams so I will be able to fly home and enjoy real summer.   I'm looking forward to that!

Trip to Bristol

Posted by Shiny

During the Easter holiday, I visited my relatives who are working in Bristol.

It was a long, long journey which lasted for over four hours.  As usual, I enjoyed the time on the train.  As I’ve never been on a train in China, after I came to the England, I’ve become attached to trains and never, or not yet, got fed up with it even if the journey is long or even though some trains are a bit filthy.

And as usual, it started raining not long after I left home.  Although my name is Shiny, it rains almost every time when I want to do something vital or meet someone important to me.  There is a saying in China: “The auspicious people usually travel with rain or immerse into water.”  I am not sure whether I am one of them or not.  It suddenly reminds me of an ex-classmate or a “diehard follower”, How Huang, who got wet three times when he came to my house.

It took me 1h 40min to get to Southampton Central from Brighton and it rained extremely heavily outside the window, which took away my interests of enjoying beautiful scenery.  But thank goodness, the sun smiled at me when I got on the train to Bath Spa. 

My Busy Easter Holiday

Posted by Sam

Hello.  Long time no see.

The short Easter holiday finished a couple of days ago.  During the holiday I went back to my hometown, Hong Kong.

I am proud of Hong Kong International Airport.  The efficiency is beyond your expectation.  Everyone should use it at least once in order to try that. 

One thing which is kind of odd is that I nearly lost my skill to control chopsticks!  It seemed that I needed to practice.  It doesn’t matter though.  It’s a piece of cake to overcome.

In contrast to Oxford, the weather in Hong Kong was really nice.  I do like the sun and the beach.  The warm weather encouraged me to go outside more often that I do in Oxford.

The low prices of things in Hong Kong is also very attractive to me.  However, the English books are more expensive there than in England.

After the exams, I did need some time to recover and relax as well.  Staying in such a nice place really helped. The third term is the busiest one as I am going to study four subjects, which are English, Business, Economics and Pure Mathematics.  Preparing for IELTs is also making it worse.

Hope you are not busy as me!