Life at Bellerbys College

This Is Not A Goodbye... But A See Ya Soon!!!!

Posted by Linh

Windy... cold... lonely... and strange...

On the 1st of January, I put my 1st steps on a far-away country, wondering where I would go, what the new school was like, would people treat me well, or I would be thrown in a strange or racism environment? (lol, i know that sounds a little bit pathetic, but well, at that moment, in order to refill the emptiness of inexperience, I put an experience of imagination :D )

Later, I met a member of staff from Bellerbys College who had to throw away his first day of new year to pick up an unknown girl instead of staying at home, enjoying a celebration with his family or friends.  And instead of being such a stranger or feeling angry of my appearance, he seemed to be very nice, asking me about the flight, how I felt.

Then I met Ishy - the host mother of my new home, who had to wake up at 5 a.m to wait for a stranger to come.  She smiled at her and gave the new girl not only her first UK breakfast but also a cozy feeling that mad her feel protected as if there had not been any 20 hour flight at all.  

....

Eight months have already passed so quickly, and here I am, in the farewell party, saying goodbye to people I have gotten along so far...

Thank you Jackie, as we often say to you, YOU ARE THE BEST MANAGER WE'VE EVER MET.  No matter how many students there are, no matter how many works you have to do, somehow, you always manage to talk to each of us, help us on every step of getting to a suitable university.

From advising us how to write personal statement, how to fill in the UCAS track process until finishing choosing firm and insurance choices, you have shown us how much you care about each student here.  Awww, we are gonna miss you so much.  I wish you would always be like you are now, a super-cute and devoted manager!!!!

Thank you all teachers in Bellerbys, especially Susannah - our English teacher, Hassan - our Accounting teacher, Peter - our CIT teacher, Phillip - our Mathematics teacher, Rachel, Hilal, Ross, Linda, Sam - our Economics and Business teachers.  Haha, I'm sorry if I miss anybody or write your name wrongly. (Yeah!  Naughty student, I know, lol)

Through your lessons, I have learnt many, many new and interesting things which then help me to realise that I was not wrong when choosing Bellerbys Oxford and choosing this course.  I hope that your health and your career would always get better and would be an inspired motivation for you to get on!  And I also hope that your future students would be as good as ME (haha)!!!

Well, first it was really hard for me to write this final post!  I wrote and deleted, and then wrote again and deleted... haha, it's even harder than my first post!

I still have a lot to say to many people, such as staffs in Bellerbys - who have been really nice and helpful; my classmates and other students in different courses I have known; people living in Oxford I have luckily had a chance to meet, to talk and to share my feelings when I was happy or sad; a boy smiling at me on the bus; a stranger I have not even known her name who tried to comfort me when suddenly see me being depressed...

Life in Oxford, life in Bellerbys has taught me so much that I could never ever forget.  And now flying back to my country, I know I have more confidence, more to be proud of myself when facing my parents and my friends, because I know that I have had such precious experiences for my own!

I will come back to England soon to go to Aston University in Birmingham.  So THIS IS NOT A GOODBYE BUT A SEE YA SOON!!! :D

But for this moment, happy summer holiday! ^^

Aloha Summer!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by Linh

It has been so sunny in Oxford recently!  So sunny that you just wish to be on a beach, enjoying sunbathing or feeling the supremely cool water on your never-stop-rising-temperature body. 

So, well, even we still have classes at school but we still enjoy screaming out loud: “Hello summer, hello sunshine and hello sales season!!!”  That’s why my friends and I spent our Sunday shopping in Bicester Village.

 

There were many famous brands here, such as Calvin Klein, Dolce & Gabbana or Dior.  The most exciting news, however, is the price was perhaps just like in normal shops.  We spent more than four hours there.  Well, we did not buy much but, believe me, just having a window shopping can not take you less time because there are a variety of things there.

We came back home at about 6 o'clock. I bought a t-shirt from Polo and a cardigan from CK and the total money I spent did not come to £50!  The trip makes me feel that the more time I spent here in Oxford, the more I love it and certainly, the more I will miss it I go back to my country.

Hope you guys have a nice weekend too!!

Hey You! Try Your Best Ok?

Posted by Linh

It‘s already June - the month of exams (Help me God!!!).  But I still decided to go to Germany the second time.

The main reason of this three-day trip was my mother (oh….well…and some Vietnamese food she brought with her).  My mother went to visit my brother for two weeks.  It has been six months I have not seen her (Time goes fast, doesn’t it?).  My first impression was that she was thinner.  And the second impression was that she coughed a lot.  Poor her!  I sincerely felt scared of time, she looked older.

All the time I have spent in England, I always thought for myself, just focus on the study, sometimes scared that I was not as fashionable as other girls, sometimes calling back home to ask for money.  How horrible I was!  Yes, it was true I tried to ask about my parents through my relatives as well!  And now I knew how protective my parents were of me!  They have asked other people did not talk much about them to me and asked more about my situation.  And how stupid I was, believing in what they said, and thinking that everything was fine.

Now sitting here at the airport, waiting for the flight back to England, I still remember the wrinkles on my mother’s face when she was waving me goodbye!

The exam is coming!  Through this blog, I just want to say to all of you guys that: HEY YOU!  TRY YOUR BEST OK?  ‘CAUSE THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE SPENDING THEIR WHOLE LIFE FOR YOUR FUTURE, WAITING FOR YOU TO COME BACK!

Lol!!!  Sorry if you feel this post annoying!  Anyway, wish you guys best luck in the incoming exams!

Punting…Happy birthday…and Study…

Posted by Linh

Hello everybody!  How are you?

Since my last trip to Paris everybody was hoping to hear something amazing, unexpected about our second bank holiday. On Tuesday, the day after bank holiday that we had to come back to school, my English teacher asked me: “How was your weekend?  Another trip?  Italy?  Or Rome?”.  I had to apologize if you were disappointed but I just spent it right here in Oxford.  Believe me, it wasn't as bad as it sounds.  Actually, it was awesome!  Sometimes you don’t have to go far away to find happiness.

I spent the first day with a group of Vietnamese students studying in England, some of them live in London. We gathered at a Vietnamese girl's house and cooked a traditional food with rice noodle.  It was delicious.  Then we went punting.  Haha, it was funnier than I had imaged at first.  We hired three punts because our number was 15 people.  I asked to try to row the punt.  It was harder and exhausting than I thought.  It just took 10 minutes to knock me out.  Fortunately, other boys who wanted to show off by rowing the punt felt out of the punt.  We had a good laugh together.

 

The next day, on 24th May, I spent all the day with my classmate to prepare a birthday party for Saray - the girl from Venezuela that went to Paris with me last time.  She was going to be 19.  We gathered at an Iranian friend’s house.  The party started at about 7 pm and lasted until 12 am.  I wished that my birthday party would be like this too.  But it seemed impossible, as I would be back in Vietnam at that time. (Hix!)

Well, there was nothing much to talk about the third day as we were too exhausted to stay awake half of the day, lol!

Anyway, it was a really good time!  As we are getting older every year, every month, every day, every hour and even every second, it’s good to stop yourself sometimes, thinking of what was happening in your life, knowing that, sometimes, you did this badly, sometimes, you acted like a hero, but whatever has happened, you know that your friends are around there, ready to share any moment of your life.  And I know that moment spending time with your friends was always awesome!!!! ^^

Bonjour!!!!

Posted by Linh

Hello everyone!  How are you guys?  Hope you still doing well!

Oh!  This month is so great!!!  I mean we have two days which are bank holidays. That means we have 3 days off at the weekend!!!  Goodbye hard studying, hello traveling!!!  (Hey don’t tell that to the teacher ok? I promise I still keep up with school work :D (Crosses fingers)

The 1st bank holiday has passed.  It was on 4th May. We just had class in Friday morning, so I and Saray – one of my classmates who is from Venezuela, decided to book a flight to Paris from Friday afternoon till Monday evening (4th May).

The 1st day:

We bought the plane tickets from EasyJet.  The flight took just about 1 and a half hours but we got to the hotel at about 12 am.  However, the tiring trip did not make us stay in the hotel long; we woke up early next morning (or that morning) to go to the Museum of Louvre.  And that was the first time I feel glad that I was not 18 yet (c’mon, I was so bored of being 17, cannot sign the contract with the mobile company, can not go home late etc).  I did not have to buy the ticket to go inside the museum!

 

The museum was so large that we spent the whole day there.  I saw the original Mona Lisa picture and the statue of the Venus de Milo.  It was impossible to go near the ‘treasure’ because of security and it was hard to get a good place to take the picture as it was so crowded with tourists and people who wanted to have a view of a 77×53 picture which was at least 2 meters away.  Anyway, that was absolutely a great experience.  Besides, there were many other fascinating masterpiece I had not seen before (and by ’seen’, I mean really see in real life and touchable).  Here are just some in hundreds of photographs we took there.

I was quite exhausted at the end of the day, but we still managed to have a view of Cathedrale Notre-Dame and River Seine. Near there, we met a group of guys skating.  They are so amazing, their movements is no different, or even better than a ballet.  Admiring them too much, we finally took all our courage to ask one for a photograph.  That was an unforgettable memory.

 

The 2nd day:

Waking late the next day and still feeling a little bit tired of walking all the previous day, we spent half an hour to decide where to go because there were so many beautiful places.  Eventually, Disneyland was our final choice.

It was quite far from our hotel so it took more than half an hour to get there.  I was too excited about my first visit to the wonderland!  The trip made me feel like I was a baby girl again, nothing to worry, nothing to care, singing out loud in the middle of the park, watching Donald Duck, Peter Pan, Cinderella dancing, joining the dancing lesson with Stitch (it’s a famous character in a serial films in Disney Channel: Lilo and Stitch)…  Everything was great and perfect, except the rollercoaster which made my cry out loud later (it was scary, how come people can laughed and happy like that?).  And it took my friend a while to calm me down after she asked to try it again.

 

“Ah, it is the last day, there are still thousands places I haven’t visited yet. Where should I go now? Where? Where?”.  I screamed out loud the next morning, feeling worried, frustrated and confused.

“Hey girl, your life is still long.  You can go back to Paris later.  Don’t worry."  "But there are these places I’m not gonna miss today. So pack up and prepare!!!”  My friend smiled and it certainly made me feel better.

So the 1st place on the last day is a restaurant called Hard Rock Café.  It was nicely decorated with many guitars hanging thorough the room.  Later, I knew that they were all the guitars which had been played by famous singers.  My friend told me that Hard Rock Café was very famous and it appeared in many cities and countries around the world, such as Las Vegas in US, Spain, Mexico, and even in London. Hard Rock Café in Las Vegas even had a costume that Madonna wore in a show and then gave it to the restaurant as a gift.

Farewell to Hard Rock Café, we then headed to Louis Vuitton.  The trip was tiring and I had to carry the suitcase all the way because we had to return to the room at the hotel.  However, when I entered the shop, it liked you entered a suit life.  The stuff was expensive but there were still many customers there.

Next stop was the Arc de Triomphe.  The triumphal arch honours those who fought for France, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars.  On the inside and the top of the arc there are all of the names of generals and wars fought.  Underneath is the tomb of the unknown soldier from World War I.

 

There were four more hours until we had to get to the airport, so we decided to go to a place that if you did not go there in your first time to Paris, it would have meant that you were not in Paris.  And what I am talking about is: EIFFEL TOWER.

Lying under the sunlight in front of Eiffel Tower, I had a strange feeling.  It did not feel like the excitement in Disneyland; it did not like the mystery atmosphere in Louvre Museum. It was, how can I say, may be… peaceful.

The sun was shining, but not burning, the wind was blowing, but not violent, the cloud was floating, but not hasten.  You looked in the sky, and you knew that there was nothing to be regretted, nothing to be hurry because the time was like stopping there; you knew that you did not feeling lost because it felt like belonging, like… home.  (I don’t mean that I forgot my country or anything like that, it just a sudden emotion).

Unfortunately, that dream was too unbelievable to happen, the sky started to be darker, the wind blew stronger and it was time to go.  However, I already drew a picture which is a part of Eiffel Tower, so that I could never forget that precious moment in my life.

Adieu France! I will miss you so much!!!

Come Back to School!!

Posted by Linh

The two-week holiday has passed so fast that I feels like it just start yesterday (haha, or may be I am really getting lazy now, but I don’t think so =.=)

So how was your holiday? I bet that you have had a great time too.

As I have told you in the previous post, I went to Germany during these days off to visit my uncle and my brother. The bad news is that they were very busy so the trip to Switzerland was canceled (huhu).  On the other hand, I have had a great time with them.

I was living no differences like a princess there, you know, I can do stuff like going to bed late, getting up late too, watching films all day, just telling what I want to eat and no matter how hard to buy or find the food, my uncle always satisfied me (yeah me!!!) and the weather there is very hot and sunny.  But the most special thing was I have chances to talk with my brother, who is studying in Germany now and it has been nearly one year that I haven’t seen him.  Oh, I miss them so much now.

   

However, every situation has its advantage and disadvantage.  When I came back to Oxford, it was true that I do want to come back to Germany and I was very sad, but meeting classmates and sharing with them all the good memories help me to gain enthusiasm to start the new term.  Each of my classmates has had many interesting story, some of them went to their home countries, such as Kazakhstan, Turkey, Armenia, some were staying and travelling around England and some went to visit other countries like Canada.

Come back to the main topic which is about this new term, it runs from 14^th April to 12^th June.  This term, we have three subjects: English (Susannah), Economic (Rachel) and Business Studies (Hilai – hope I write her name right, I am not good at memory new teacher’s name).  All these subjects sound interesting so I hope we will have a good term (with a good report in the end ^^).

Hope you guys all doing well and having a good start!

Hallo Alle

Posted by Linh

Eventually, the exams for Foundation students have passed.  I hope you guys all doing well, or at least have tried to try your best!  :D

Now just put that aside!  It’s time to sing out loud: “What time ‘s this?  It’s time for vacation”

And guess where I plan to go!  He he, just take a closer look at the title! “Hallo alle” is how you say “hello everybody” in Germany.  Now you got it!  I decided to go to this country to spend Easter holiday with my uncle, my older brother and my cousin.

It took about 3 and half hours to go to the Stansted Airport.  Here you can check-in by yourself, it has an automatic machine which you just have to enter your reservation number and the airplane ticket will be printed out.  I found that very convenient and somehow quite interesting.  It seems to be a good start for my journey.

After 3 hours flying, I finally had my first step on Karlsruhe - a quite big city in the south west of Germany, located near the French-German border.  The weather here is a little bit warmer, I guess because it does not have that kind of wind which come in like a lion and go out like a lamb in March like Oxford.

We have a lot of plans for my trip here, going to Switzerland is included in that (yeah me!!! lol)

I think I will have more things to write for you guys after my holiday, so see ya!  Have a great holiday!!!

Happy Red Nose Day!!

Posted by Linh

Hi everybody!

Today is Friday 13^th – also the Red Nose Day, so what do you guys feel?   Unlucky?  Lucky?  Fascinating?  Boring?

Oh well for me I have a wonderful day!  I have gained more knowledge about this special day when people unite to help and support poor children in Africa (i.e. as far as I am concerned).  Then later of the day, I have had a look at the official website about Red Nose Day, I believe these facts might interest you.

·     Comic Relief was launched on Christmas Day in 1985, live on BBC One.  At that time, a devastating famine was crippling Ethiopia and something had to be done.  That something was Comic Relief.

·     The idea was simple - Comic Relief would make the public laugh while they raised money to help people in desperate need.

·     Before too long, Red Nose Day was created and the first ever event in 1988 raised a staggering £15m.

·     The eleven Red Nose Days have so far raised more than £420m.  That money has helped, and is helping, to support people and communities in dire need both in the UK and Africa.

·     The most important thing to remember is that Red Nose Day changes lives - thanks to the money you raise.

I have also found out that in the Red Nose Day in 2007, the iconic London Eye turned red, the entire nation went Red Nose Day mad. (lol)

   

At lunch time, I and my friends met a group of children wearing pyjamas and some had a red nose on … well, of course… their noses.  Also at the end of the lesson today, our kind and handsome teacher - Steve has dyed his hair for this special event to raising money for donation.  It was such funny that I still can not stop laughing now (sorry Steve, no offence, it was very nice of you.  Believe me, I even want to do the same too).

Could you believe that when I started to write this blog, the total raised so far in the official website of RND was about 30 million and now it is 41,799,343GBP? 

Oh, I almost forget this.  Next week will start the beginning of Foundation exams for this term.  So WISH YOU LUCK and TRY YOUR BEST!!!

Busy Week

Posted by Linh

Nihao (Chinese) / Ahoj (Czech) everybody!  How are you?

Thanks for your comments in my last blog, now I know two more ways to say hello in Chinese and Czech.  Isn’t that great to study among many international students?

It has been such a long time since my lazy mind has had some brainstorm and enthusiasms to write another blog.  Fortunately, as many interesting events have happened, I don’t have to spend much time for thinking what I should write.

First of all, did you guys have a good half term? (Oh well sorry for who don’t have that lucky chance-having 5 days off and do whatever just God knows)  For me, I enjoyed it so much that I even have planned fully for the next holiday after this term ending.  And what did I do during those wonderful, shiny and lovely days? I went to London to … know the feeling of getting lost again, again and again and suddenly “wooooo, I have been in this place 10 minutes ago”. (Sometimes you need to do some crazy stuff to know that you are normal in other normal days, you know, lol).  Anyway, I finally managed to visit Big Ben and Buckingham Palace which is totally awesome.

 

After enjoying the first day in London, I went to Nottingham to see my friends. Well this trip is a little bit more boring as I had a tour guide, who was my friend, so I could not get lost anymore (I don’t know about you but not getting lost in your first visit is actually an annoying feeling for me).  Except that pity tiny problem, I found Nottingham quite exciting too (but can not as good as Oxford and London, dude, heh I think I fall in love with these places).

The rest of the holidays, I enjoyed myself in an ocean of comedy, thriller and also documentary films.  And guess what, I believe this fact possibly surprise most of you guys: Five billion years more, the sun will run short of hydrogen.  Thus it will start to expand from a diameter of 1.4 million km to 200 times more than that size.  As a result, the nearest planets will vaporize, such as Mercury, Venus, and Earth.  Then the convulsion begins.  After that, only Mars will survive in lonely orbit.  Our sun will expire as a dead black dwarf. 

So if you are interested in that, could you give me your opinion or may be extra information about this unavoidable problem?  Thanks in advance!!

Secondly, thanks to the homework Susannah (our English teacher) gave us about note-taking during half term, I had to choose any reading and listening to take notes, so for listening I chose about the Sun (that’s why I know about that fact above :D), and for reading, I chose “Facts you do not know about Charles Darwin” as 12th February was the 200th anniversary of his birthday and also the 150 years of his famous book “On the origin of Species”.

I have found that Darwin had been known as a crazy insects collector.  Once day when he got two special beetles on each hand, he saw a new one.  In order to catch the new kind, he put one beetle in his mouth.  Unfortunately, the one he put in his mouth was poisonous so he got his tongue burnt and had to split out (lol).  Therefore, he lost two kinds of beetles – the one in his mouth and the other he was unable to catch.

Another fascinating fact is Darwin was born in the same day as Lincoln.  Although they never met each other, they had many in common, such as they both lost mother in early childhood, wrestled with religious doubt etc.

Thirdly, I have decided to be a bit more active in my boring social life so I went to the first meeting of Economic club. I have met some new students from different courses in our school, some from Foundation like me and some from AS Level.  After a warm welcome and introduction, we watched a film together called Counterfeiter, which is pretty good.  What is the content?  Oh, watch it yourself, curious people.

And finally, a memorable event happened last Thursday. All the Foundation students have an unbelievable chance to go to Bellerbys in Cambridge.  We met different people representing different universities there.  It was such a great opportunity for us to get information about which universities we want to go, the information of the course we want to study, tuition fees, accommodation, scholarship etc. I mean everything we need to know about our next 3 or 4 years in England.   That was the most valuable trip I have ever participated in as it did not provide only knowledge among different universities but also memories among close classmates and new friends from other classes.

  

The last thing I want to say in this blog is a little bit for my own feeling: It seems like time flying when I think about 17 years of my life have passed, two months I have joined this course, three weeks I have left until exams, three days more for some small tests in class.  But it seems like time frozen when I think about two weeks more I can meet a good friend from Vietnam, four weeks more for a trip to Germany to meet my uncle, my cousin and my older brother, six months more for a long flight back to Vietnam to breath the air which was so familiar just two months ago; to see somebody standing, waiting, and welcoming me with a hug although how naughty I used to be or whichever kind of person I will be; to know a place or a part I belong to, a precious place which give me the most peaceful feeling I could ever have. (Lol, just having a bit emotion today so wish that ya guys don’t feel annoying :D) 

Have a good week with full of enthusiasms my dear friends!!!

Xin Chao Privet Salem Hola Hello Everybody!!

Posted by Linh

Hi!  I’m a brand new blogger of Bellerbys Oxford!!  My name is Linh and I’m from Vietnam.

It’s quite hard for me to start this first blog and my mind is full of a variety of questions, such as what I should write, what the title and the first sentence would be; I really hope that it will be a good start.  And you know nothing can get done if there is too much perfectionism, that’s why I have not started since receiving an invitation letter for two days.

Then, this morning, when I woke up and had a look through out the window, I just could not believed in my eyes: it seems like the snow has governed all over this beautiful globe and turned it from a blue planet to a white one (lol, believe me, I never hope that it would come true).  It is hard to find a particular word to express my feeling at that time, may be excitement, curiosity or freshness etc. I mean it’s the first time I have ever seen that much snow, how about you guys? Anyway, thank to the snow, I have got some ideas and enthusiasm to start my first blog.

 

As I have introduced before, I’m from Vietnam.  For who does not know, Vietnam is a tropical country located in the south-east of Asia.  You can find it easily on the map by searching for a country whose shape is like the letter S and is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest and Cambodia to the southwest.  If there is more time, I will tell you more about this beautiful country as I think that most of you know Vietnam only like a suffering one due to wars.  And believe me, there are more than that, and properly even more than your imagination.

Now, back to the main purpose of this blog (which is ME), you may want to know about my course at Bellerbys (oh yes you are, ‘cause I know the God has sowed the seed of curiosity into your heart since you were born, who do you think you can fool? lol).  Oh well, I’m studying Foundation Business at Bellerbys Oxford and my subjects at school now are Academic English (Susannah), BusMaths (Phillip), CIT (Peter) and Accounting (Hassan).

It’s pretty great to study in Bellerbys Oxford as it has an outstanding location right in the city centre.  Therefore, it is quite convenient for students to do what they want, such as eating, shopping, visiting some old and famous buildings.

And the most excitement I have found while studying here is you have chances to greet many different students coming from different countries.  That means you also have chances to widen your knowledge about different cultures, different customs and different religions.  Now if you pay a little more attention about my title, you can see that there are some weird words that you might don’t know.  They are, actually, not weird at all, all those words mean ‘hello’.  I will show you concretely which country they come from:

• Xin chao: Vietnamese
• Privet: Russian
• Salem: Kazakh
• Hola: Spanish

That does not mean that there are only those countries in our school.  There are definitely more!  So can you help me to find out other languages that are spoken by other students in our school and have not been mentioned above?

Have a good week my dear friends!  (:-*)