Diary                                                                                                                     Thursday

15^th  June

Journey

We arrived in Abergele at 1o’clock a.m. We were very tired because the journey had been very long. The woman of the host family seems very kind and she is always smiling. She showed us her home and she said she had got a son called Mark but he was sleeping when Jenny and I arrived. What else? Our room is quite small and there is a big window that lights up the whole room with lights from outside. Now I’m tired I’m going to bed.

P.S.: She has a strange dog! Maybe she (She is called Tilly) is very old.

16^th June                               Friday

Today we went to the Conlan school. We were picked up by Liliana and Fabiana’s host lady. I discovered that Fabiana and Liliana live quite near to Jenny and me, in fact we live in the same street called Glan road and Fabiana lives at number 2 while I am at number13 I saw Gill’s son (Mark) a very handsome boy, very cute. He has blue eyes and he is quite tall. I think perhaps he is skinny (too thin) but for me he’s just right! Mark went to a concert in the South Wales and he likes dance music. This isn’t a good thing because I’m not sure when he will come back or whether he will come back here! Gill said that he goes to university in England. The house isn’t big, it’s quite small compared with the one last year which had a swimming pool. It has a little garden at the back.

What about the food?

I didn’t eat anything at breakfast.

At lunch Gill gave us a packed lunch with crisps, one and I mean only one sandwich, a snack, a juice and a dirty apple. At dinner, instead Jenny and I ate spaghetti with ragù. The sauce was very good, but the spaghetti was undercooked.

At the school we met Livia and Jessica who are the coordinators of the school. They showed us what we would do over the next few days. They are Italian but they speak English quite well. Then we met John our second teacher and he took all the group around Abergele to show us the main things to see. So the morning passed like this. In the afternoon, after lunch, John told us some historical information about Abergele, but it was very hard to understand what John said because he didn’t speak clearly. In the evening we went to Llandudno and I played in an arcade on the pier. The setting was very very beautiful. But I lost £3 or £4 playing to the machines. I wanted to win Winnie the Pooh to give to my  friend as a gift from Wales, but I couldn’t.

17^th June  

Today we went to Chester, it’s an old town in fact there are old buildings near new ones. The old shops are black and white and they seem very beautiful when you see them. There are a lot of shops and I enjoyed spending a lot of money, unluckily for my mum. I walked a lot and my feet suffered all the time. Another unusual thing about Chester were the shops on two different floors. In fact you could find a shop on the downstairs floor with a stairway in it that goes to another different shop on the second floor. Our guide was John again, and I didn’t understand  everything he said or rather I understood only a few things.

24^th June                           Saturday

I went to Liverpool, the city of the Beatles but we didn’t see the Beatles museum, and this was disappointing! We went around the town to see some places that John considered important, like China town and the Cathedral. There was a Scottish Wedding. The groom was wearing a kilt. In the afternoon we went around the shops for three hours and Jennifer left a shop assistant who she had asked to get her a pair of trainers and then Jenny convinced me to leave the shop, and so the shop assistant came back to find we had disappeared!

21^st June

First day of work.

Today was the first day of work. It was strange because I didn’t understand almost anything. The place where I work is a café and restaurant called Nino’s restaurant, full of old people who speak in an incomprehensible way and very quickly. Then I met Amy who is a young waitress. So she taught  me how to prepare teas, black and white coffees. A bird flew into the café twice and I also learned how to use the till.

1^st July  Saturday

I’ve been to Manchester. It was great, I liked it more than Liverpool. It’s so big and there are a lot of buildings, both new and old. I had a good time going round the shopping centre where I lost Jenny. I went to the Hard Rock Cafè shop in Manchester.

3^rd July

The last day of work.

Today was the last day of work. I’m very happy because the staff of the restaurant were very kind to me they gave me a gift and they said very affectionate goodbye to me . Then Gill gave Jenny and I a bracelet with a lucky charm. The stone of the bracelet is yellow and it represents happiness. I left my e-mail address with Amy, and Paula and Gillian Porter. Today was also Nino’s birthday and  we gave a surprise party for him. I think that he was happy. Now I have to pack my suitcase because tomorrow I have to get up at half past five to leave for London.

5^th July

Today I went around London for most of the time with Mirko and Francesco. Now I’m so tired and I can’t stay on my feet any longer, but I’ve understood the Tube of London. It’s easy if you know where you are going and where you are. I went to Madam Tussaud’s, and it was great , I had a really good time and I took a lot of photos with famous people. In the evening we went to a theatre and I saw “Dancing in the streets”. It was fun to see it even if I was really tired. Now I’m falling asleep!

Finally

It was a great experience. I enjoyed it very much, and I didn’t want to come back home. In my host lady I found a friend to whom I could talk without problems. She tried to help me, in particular when I couldn’t get money and I thank her.

As for the job, it was a great and important experience for me because I’ve learned a lot of words and I’ve had a lot of  contact with people so I think I’ve improved my spoken English.