Life at Bellerbys College

The First Exam and Easter Again

Posted by Ksenia

The spring has finally arrived in Brighton.  With some sunshine (hopefully!), plenty of flowers around and fresh green leaves appearing on trees, the feeling is completely different.  It is just so natural to smile, be happy and wear short skirts! 

Nevertheless, people in Bellerbys College are becoming more and more serious and words like 'past papers', 'revision' and (the worst of all!) 'exams' can be heard everywhere in college.  During break times the library is always full and more and more students are coming there not just to chat or leave their stuff but to study in attempt to memorise as quickly as they can everything that should be learnt thought the year.

On Saturday, the 26th of April I had my Biology experiment that is considered as part of the exam.  It is a whole piece of coursework with a huge amount of tables, graphs and written work.  Introduction, method, analysis, evaluation: does not sounds very exciting, doesn't it?  However the actual experiment was real fun.

I was investigating the effect of temperature on amylase activity with starch (probably this won't tell you too much).  Firstly the experiment does not work at all as the concentration was wrong.  Then everything went pretty well until the solution started to change colour at the temperature that it actually should not do that.  I was not too disappointed because at the end of the day it gave an opportunity to write about it in my evaluation.  The whole experiment took about 3 hours and at the end everybody was very tired.  I've never thought that science could be so exhausting!

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.

Easter is Coming!!

Posted by Ksenia

Hello!

The end of term is coming very soon and actually I am a very naughty girl – I am going back to Russia even earlier – on 15th of March.  The Vice Principal of Bellerbys Brighton, Mr Corcut, was very nice to give me permission to go and in return I am coming back early to prepare for the BIG event – mock exams.  We have nearly finished the syllables in certain subjects, so I will have lots of revision to do… But I definitely won’t think about it during the holidays!

On Wednesday the attention of all AS students was focused on the presentation given by LSE, UCL, Kings, and last (but not least!!!) Imperial College of London.  One more time we realised how great it is to study in London at such prestigious places. 

Anyway, most of the AS students here are dreaming to study in one of these fabulous universities.  The talk made me go and visit the Imperial College website again and have a look at their courses.  Most of them sound fantastic and and I still can’t make my mind between Biochemistry, Biochemistry with Management, and Biochemistry with a year in industry (as you can see the only thing I am quite certain about is my favourite biochemistry, it’s a good start anyway!).

Last Saturday there was an interesting talk at Bellerbys as part of Brighton Science Festival.  It was about fusion – the process by which a huge amount of energy can be produced.  The realisation of this project is still quite far away in the future, but potentially it can give the mankind an unlimited source of energy (sounds exciting, doesn't it?) so we were really inspired by the idea.

Bella Italia...

Posted by Ksenia

 

Hello!

Hope you all have had a great half-term.  Personally, I’ve had a fantastic one.  As I’ve already mentioned in my previous post, we went to Italy as apart of the Europa+ project.  Initially we were planning to go via Milan to Bari and then travel by bus to Rodi Garganico, which is a small city on the coast in the south east of Italy.  However, there was a strike in the airport in Milan so we decided to change our tickets and flew via Rome.  Веcause of that we had some problems on the way back they just could not check us in.  But now I am in Brighton, continuing my studies, so finally we could get on the plane (some of us would prefer to stay in Italy I guess).

The journey was quite long and tiring but we did not lose our optimism.  On the bus we were inventing a fairy-tale where each person was telling only one phrase at a time.  Actually, it is quite a good and funny way to kill the time.  We ended up with something so stupid that it was even hard to imagine where such a strange ideas have come from (I believe the journey was really too long for us).

When we got to Rodi the Italians were waiting for us.  We all were in different host-families, and we even lived in different villages.  The first evening was quite strange.  I quickly found out that the English of the girl with whom I was staying (her name is Francesca) was not much better than my Italian (and I do not speak Italian at all!!).  Fortunately she could speak some French which I adapted a bit to make it sound more Italian (I am afraid to imagine what my French teacher would tell me if she heard me at that moment).  Her mum knew several words in English, but her father spoke nothing except his mother tongue.  Nevertheless I was surprised by the amount of effort they all made to try to say something and understand me.  It made me think that i should try to learn some Italian as well.

How Hard it Can Be to Get a Visa

Posted by Ksenia

Happy Valentines Day everyone!  Hope you all had a great time!!

This week was marked by our short trip to London.  Actually me, three Chinese boys, and three girls – from Ukraine, Moldova and Russia are going to Italy this half-term as a part of United Nations Association of Bellerbys.  Our final destination is Rodi Garganico but we are flying through Milan and Bari.

Rodi (I believe you have never heard of it) is a small city on the cost in the south east of Italy. We are going with Mrs Arulraj and will be having a great time with Italian students from the local fashion college.  I will tell you everything about this trip in my next post (something to look forward to during the half term…. Ok, I understand you have some more exciting plans).

So we went to London to get our Italian visa.  And of course it was just impossible for me to go without doing something stupid.  Firstly the night before I did not bother to check my documents thoughtfully. As the result when I was already in lift ready to ran to the station (as usual I was “a bit” late) and I decided to check everything just to be sure… I realised that I forgot my passport (what may be cleverer? To go to embassy for a visa without a passport!)  So I ran back home, took my passport…and then I was not “a bit” late anymore, I was very seriously late!!!  (It was me who said to others not to be late in the first place).

That morning I made my personal record – I reached the Brighton station in less then 15 minutes. Usually it takes me about 25.  Finally I was just a “bit” late again.  Luckily we had already bought our tickets so we caught our train and everything seemed to be fine.  We all were a bit sleepy because we had to get up really early (our meeting at the station was arranged at 7 o’clock). We were happily chatting all the time and the train arrived on time. But it was just a beginning of the story…

One Week and a Bit More of My Life

Posted by Ksenia

Hello my dear readers!  Hope you are enjoying your time as much as do!  Before I forget – if you have something to say or to ask – please to not hesitate to leave comments.  I will be very happy to answer you!

Ok, last time I wrote that my mum was coming.  It was great!!  She was in Brighton for few days and every evening after college I went to meet her, we had a nice dinner in a restaurant and a long chat, of course!  Obviously I did not do much work, but my teachers were real angels – very understanding as usual.  On Friday we went to London by train.  That is very convenient, only 50 minutes and you are in London Victoria!  What did we do in London?  I think the answer is quite predictable…  Like every female human being, me and my mum love shopping!

But London is much more than just great shops – after visiting our favourite places we decided to find an unusual restaurant to eat.  I’ve been to London so many times but I could never find China Town, do not ask me why.  I am absolutely hopeless and never know were to go.  But this time we were well prepared, we followed the map and finally succeeded!  That is really a great part of the city which does not look British at all and there were so many restaurants there, that the choice was extremely difficult.  But the food was really worth it!

We also visited Tate Britain Gallery (something for our cultural development).  I was very pleased to see some paintings of Brighton.  One of them was done two centuries ago on the exact place where Brighton Pier is situated now.  It was such a strange feeling to see it…  I also really liked several pieces done by artist called Rossetti.  Surprisingly he was born in England, even though his family name sounds Italian.

Great January

Posted by Ksenia

Hi again!

So, the first month of 2008 is coming to it's end.  Time for a short summary!

Until January 7th I was in Russia, it is so nice to be at home!  I visited all my relatives, went out with friends, went ice-skating, did some shopping, read books, listened to music, and did not think about studying at all.  So when I came back to Brighton my head was light and empty.  Thanks to my teachers, they were quite understanding...

The 18th was my birthday!!!!  I've just turned 17!  It was a great day; I received lots of presents, cards and greetings!  One more time I realized how wonderful are my friends and family.  In the evening we went out with my best friends to have a cup of tea and a piece of cake in the coffee shop and a good chat (see photos!).  As every girl I just LOVE sweets!

Of course there were some serious things as well!  I've already been to two meeting run by Mr Corcut for students who want to apply for Cambridge or Oxford. Obviously a chance to get there is very small, because they take only exceptional students, but I still feel that people should try.  Anyway it will be a good experience for us!  During these meetings students will give the audience a talk about the subject they want to study.  We have already had a very interesting one from Wang who started by saying that there is no randomness, so everything is our destiny and finished by stating that radioactive decay is random, so there is no destiny.  People were a bit confused but there was a good discussion afterwards.

I talked about GM products.  In my opinion it is a topic everyone has something to say about and people tend to think about this it a lot.  The following Monday there were two talks about economics.  Even though I do not understand anything about this subject I found them quite interesting and useful, especially a short discussion about happiness and its connection to economics!

There was one more event I need to mention - WTO Economics Adviser, Philippe Legrain lead a discussion on why he believes immigration is a good thing in our Exam hall!  He is really a great speaker, usually it is quite boring to listen to a person talking for more than an hour, but this time it was not!!  There were some very good questions from the audience as well, and Mr Legrain was very confident in answering them.  And free tea and biscuits were served (sometimes it is so easy to make people happy).  We met some Sussex University students; we will have a debate with them later this term.  Hope they will lose!

And just to finish this post - my mum is coming this Wednesday!!  I miss her very much so I am extremely happy now. And we are going to London for the weekend! I'm really looking forward to it!

Meet Our Student Bloggers!

Thinking about studying in England?  Find out more about the lives of some of our current students here in their blogs.  Each week, they'll share their thoughts and experiences as they progress through their courses.

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Our bloggers are:

Ksenia Rostislavleva from Moscow, Russia
Ksenia is 17 years old and in the first year of an A Level course.  Ksenia previously studied English Language Preparation and GCSE courses at Bellerbys Brighton. 

In her spare time, she enjoys shopping, reading, socialising with her friends and she is a member of the college United Nations Association and Debating Society.

Ksenia is hoping to attend Imperial College, London ("If I'm very lucky!") to study Biochemistry.

Wang Xuxi (Shiny) from Guangdong, China
Shiny is 21 years old and in the final year of an A Level course at Bellerbys Brighton.  He's hoping to study Civil Engineering at Imperial College, London when he leaves us this summer. 

Like Ksenia, Shiny makes the most of life at college and is a member of the Music Club, Poetry Circle, United Nations Association and Table Tennis club.

Sam Hang from Hong Kong
Sam is 18 years old and currently studying Business Foundation at Bellerbys Oxford.  He would like to study Economics at university in September and has a conditional offer of a place at Bath University. 

In his spare time, Sam enjoys reading, watching movies and telling jokes!

Jag Gupta from New Delhi, India
Jag is 16 years old and studying IGCSEs at Manor Campus, Bellerbys Cambridge.  After completing his A Levels at Bellerbys, he hopes to go to study Business at Bath University, followed by a Masters.

Jag is a sociable chap and outside of class enjoys rugby, cricket, basketball, drama, Young Enterprise and playing the drums.

Hello Everyone!!!

Posted by Ksenia

Hello!!

My name is Ksenia and I am from the capital of Russia, from Moscow!

Last August I came to Bellerbys Brighton for an English preparation course.  It was great!  When I came to the UK it was extremely difficult for me even to understand English and I was absolutely terrified to open my mouth and start saying something.  But I quickly made some new friends from different countries and even did not realise that I started talking!  Of course it was summer and most of the time we were having fun, but our teachers were very patient and tried to put a bit of knowledge in our empty heads.

In September I started my GCSE course and met some more fantastic people that I can be proud to call my friends now.  Surprisingly my level of English was enough to study because my teachers always explained everything very carefully and were making lessons interesting, sometimes they were even more enthusiastic that we were!  I am very grateful to all members of staff who helped and supported me during this year.

And now am an AS student (it means that I haven’t failed my GCSE exams!! Hurrah!!), I am studying Biology, Chemistry, Math, Physics and French.  Why French?  Just because I was studying it for 8 years in my Russian school and did not want to forget it.

I really enjoy science subjects, that is what I want to do in future (to be exact my dream is a degree in biochemistry) but I think that my teachers may not be always happy to have me in their class, as I always ask too many questions “Why?” and sometimes quite stupid ones… Sorry for that, it is a part of my nature!