Here is the video of the Winter Teenage homestay course!!

Hopefully it will bring back great memories 🙂

Click here: Winter Teenage Homestay 2015.

By Camila

SOS children’s villages is an organisation that helps children who have been abandoned and left alone on the streets. This organisation works in 195 different countries and their mission is to help homeless or orphaned children to give them a better future and a better life.

They give the children a home in a special village and put them with a family (usually a mother who takes care of them and other children that live there. This family look after them with the help of SOS children’s villages they try to give them a good education, good health and try to help the children if they have any problems because they had a tough life before they were rescued.

One of the children we heard about was Mouna. She was abandoned by her mother and left on the streets. She was all alone. But SOS rescued her and helped her. They gave Mouna a family who now take care of her, she started going to school, she had treatment for her problems and she became a happy and healthy girl who will now have a better future. Her story really impressed me and motivated me to be part of the SOS charity day at CAE because children are the future of the world and it’s not fair for them to be abandoned and have a horrible life when we have a happy life. So I really liked participating in the charity day because it was for a good cause and totally worth it. 

By Sofia

Yesterday we had a charity day at CAE to help SOS children’s villages which is an international charity which works in more than 100 countries around the world. The lady from the charity told us a lovely story about a little girl from Uganda. Her mother couldn’t take care of her and she was malnourished and nobody could take care of her. So this charity searched for a good mother for her, somebody who could feed her and give her all the love that she needs. Now she is happy and she goes to school like any other kid.

I think that it is an amazing charity because they want to help kids from all over the world, which is a difficult thing to do, and that’s why they need lots of hep and support.

After listening to what the organisation does, I realized that helping kids is more than giving them food, water or clothes because they also need someone to take care of them, a normal family with a mother and a father, also to go to a good school so they can have a nice job in the future and then have a better lifestyle than the one their biological parents had.

More information about SOS Children’s Villages:

http://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/about-our-charity

Last weekend we visited Scotland and had a lovely time.

Here are a couple of anecdotes from our students about the trip.

Paulina

So… my roommate and I woke up at 5am on Friday and silently left our home to take the bus to Edinburgh. It was very dark and I almost fell down the stairs!!

We stopped on the road to have breakfast and them continued our long trip.

When we got there it was late and I thought that we had free time to sleep but out teachers had other plans! We went on a Ghost Tour. It was more funny than scary, but we had a great time. It did scare a boy that was with us, he shouted like crazy! It was hilarious!

The next day we went on a bus to see different parts of the city. Edinburgh has so many things to do and see so when we had some free time we didn’t know where to start. My friends and I ate something fast so we had more time to explore. We went to the national art gallery where they had modern art paintings and it was inspiring and had a calm atmosphere.

Then we walked everywhere shopping and laughing. It was a lovely afternoon but after all that walking, my feet really hurt!

The other thing I loved was the breakfast at the hotel! There were lots of different options but the best were the waffles. The first time I tried they burnt but the second time I could do them and they were delicious.

We then had a long journey back to Cambridge but it was definitely worth it!

Jose

We hopped off the bus at around 6pm after a long bus trip. We were all exhausted and we had all our energies focussed on looking for a place to eat and head straight to bed, but ‘surprise!!’ We had already booked a ghost tour in the old part of the city. I went without being exactly thrilled with the idea, but it was totally worth it!The tour itself was both funny and scary and the guide gave us a glimpse of the dark side of Scottish history, but with a slightly comical twist. I walked back to the hotel shivering a little, but with a whole new perspective of the city, which had suddenly acquired an utterly unique atmosphere.

The next day we had a city tour on the coach which took us to several sightseeing places for us to take photographs. My personal best shot of the trip was taken at the top of the hill, where I took a panoramic photo of the city coastline, with some neoclassical buildings that were next to us in the foreground.

Afterwards, we went to Edinburgh castle, an important building that sadly hosted a military museum which wasn’t very interesting.

Next, we headed to get lunch in the city and I went with a small group of girls who were looking for McDonald’s. After an hour of walking around without finding it, one of the girls decided to ask a homeless person where we could find a McDonald’s. We followed his directions which led to an office building called ‘McDonald’s Financial Services’!! The girl who asked the guy was so mad she took off her hat and threw it on the ground! The rest of us couldn’t stop laughing!

At the end of the day, we had a deep-fried mars bar and headed back to the hotel, preparing for our trip back to Cambridge.

During our first weekend here in England we had the chance to explore some beautiful and famous places.

Two of our Chilean students share their diaries with you below:

Tomas – This was one of the most amazing weekends of my life, there were stunning landscapes, awesome buildings and so much more.

My weekend, by Tomas

It all started when we went to Ely and entered Ely Cathedral. My first impression was that it was very big. And I was right. The guy inside the cathedral mentioned that this was one of the biggest cathedrals in England. Then he offered to do a tour inside the cathedral, so we did it. It was an amazing place. All the walls, the floor and even the ceiling had paintings and sculptures, very detailed ones. The problem was that it was very dark, and that specially becomes a problem when taking photos. If you didn’t use the flash, it was all dark, but if you used it all the colours looked very different. After Ely Cathedral, we went to have some tea and scones and of course, clotted cream. It was delicious and I felt like an Englishman! Next day it was London, and at first things didn’t seem to go very well. We woke up late and almost missed the bus, the day was windy and very rainy and we had 2 hours to get to London. But when we got there, it all suddenly made sense. It was an enormous city, full of buildings, motorways and traffic and I absolutely adore it. After a while, the rain stopped and the sun came out. First we went to Big Ben. I’ve never seen anything as beautiful as that, it was superb. Then we walked towards Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square, it was amazing. But the best parted was when we had 3 hours to go shopping. Accidently, we went to the expensive bits of London. Cartier, Ralph Lauren, Rolex, Omega, etc. It was very expensive and yet very nice. The cars parked there were amazing. I’ve never seen anything like that before. I’m a petrol head, I really love cars and it was amazing. Maserati, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Bentley, Lamborghini, Porsche, everything! I can say this was the best weekend of my entire life!

My weekend, by Constanza

Constanza – This weekend was the most amazing I’ve ever had. Ely Cathedral was so amazing because of the structure and things it has. But the next day it was incredible to finally see London and all the tourist places such as the tower of London, Tower Bridge, which was more impressive and beautiful that I thought. Then taking such great photos from Westminster Palace, Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. Being there was the most exciting thing ever. Then going to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. I found it amazing to discover the changing of guards at the Buckingham Palace. After that, going shopping through Piccadilly Circus with an amazing friend was the nicest thing. But the most wonderful thing of being in London was seeing the London Eye but the worst thing that happened to me was that I couldn’t get in the London Eye. After everything, I think that going to Warwick Castle was the best thing, because it was so beautiful seeing all the landscapes, especially from the top of the tower. So, finally this weekend was better that I even could have imagined.

Bryony’s Class

Rob’s Class

A big welcome to all of our Chilean and Brazilian students!