Hi,
My name is Julien, I am 15 years old and I from France. From the 16th to the 29th of June, I spend two very exciting weeks with Kate’s family with Adel, my Russian course partner. It was very interesting to discover another country, with some new cultures and new habits.
The family is very thoughtful and very kind: They spoke a lot with me, so I was allowed to speak English. Kate and Peter have three old children, Jonathan, 31, Lucy, 29, and Hannah, 31. There is just Hannah which stays at home, with her boyfriend, Thiebault. Peter is passionate by history and arts, and he knows everything about English history and St Alban’s monuments. Kate is a very good teacher, and she cooks very well. All the family like music: Peter sing in a choir, Thiebault play the mandolin and the violin, and Hannah a little bit of piano. So that was very interesting to spend a few weeks with this family.
The city, St Albans, has about one hundred thousand habitants, so it is quite big. It has a very long history and culture, because the Romans built the first city. There are many old monuments, like the cathedral (which is very interesting because it is semi gothic and semi Roman), the many very beautiful churches, Roman museum, the tower clock where Queen Victoria had spent a night, many old houses… But there are newer parts, like the Westminster Lodge, the new sports centre, with a swimming pool, a big climbing wall, a fitness room, a SPA… The nature is here too with the beautiful lake with a little hood and a lot of strange ducks… Or we can go shopping in the city centre where there are a lot of shops. So the city’s atmosphere is very friendly, and it’s amazing to walk its streets.
During the two weeks, I did many activities with the family: I went to an Indian restaurant the first day for father’s day, to a lot of concerts all of a special kind of music, I went to Harry Potter tour, the making of the movies, before that, I visited London with Peter who told me a lot of really interesting things about London’s history. I went to the climbing wall, which is funny and quite hard. We visited Cambridge with Kate, who knows all the colleges and there history and it was really exiting. We went to a very funny party, and on all the Friday night, we went to a walk on the countryside with Kate’s friends.
So I spend two very good weeks and I wish to thank the family for teaching me English and for all things, physical and mental which she brought to me.
Thank you!
Julien
