With Distinction!!!

"Congratulations Liz, not only on passing all your exams but also graduating with distinction."

Sunday Lunch Scheme

Our Sunday Lunch Scheme exists to provide hospitality for those who are away from their families. On a regular basis, throughout the academic year, local Christian families invite students and internationals to their home for a meal and an afternoon with their family.  This is a great way for participants to learn more about British culture, to practise their English and hopefully to make some lifelong friendships.

Michael (UK), Andy (UK), Saka (Nigeria), Atouriya (France) and Amy (China)

How long will it take Andy to guess that he is a 'rhino'?

Hedbanz is a fun game ... I was going to say it's easy but in reality it can be quite hard.

My Birthday Hat

Last year my birthday coincided with TABLEtalk, this year it was the World Cafe ...

Ilya from Russia was celebrating his birthday the day after mine - a very special '21' (that's him not me!!)

Fears & Phobias

Fears & Phobias was our discussion theme at TABLEtalk on Tuesday, February 18th.  I wonder how well you might do with our quiz below. You need to match the technical word with it's correct meaning ...

1.  the fear of staying single
2.  the fear of computers
3.  the fear of light
4.  the fear of bees
5.  the fear of dogs
6.  the fear of going to bed  (not something I personally suffer from)
7.  the fear of the colour white
8.  the fear of water
9.  the fear of knees
10. the fear of being stared at

A.  apiphobia
B.  genuphobia
C.  anupteaphobia
D.  cynophobia
E.  ophthalmophobia
F.  leukophobia
G.  hydrophobia
H.  cyberphobia
I.  clinophobia
J.  photophobia

(answers below)

We also did an 'Agony Aunt' exercise in which students wrote letters regarding a particular fear they suffered from and then another student group responded with advice  -  some of which can only be described as 'harsh'.

Aiste coined a new fear for us ...
Baselphobia: a type of phobia when people are afraid of crazy, silly, unpredictable people who don't use their brains in the proper way.

This is Basel

QUIZ ANSWERS:
1C   2H   3J   4A   5D   6I   7F   8G   9B   10E

A Surprise Party

On Sunday, February 16th I was thrown a surprise birthday party by several of the students.  I thought I had simply been invited for a meal; but I guess they had other ideas.

I was given this great poster, along with several other gifts - so now I need to buy a frame and find some wall space.

"THANK YOU ... Mohamed, Basel, Chris, Ilya, Aiste, John, Vinila, Joyce, Sweety, Joy and Saira ... you have made this birthday a very special one :-)

Yummmmmmm ... chocolate cake!

Valentine's Night

TABLEtalk has been created primarily, but not exclusively, for students and internationals who live within the Medway area. Each evening provides a great opportunity for a whole variety of nationalities to meet together. Evenings are created to be fun and interactive, to provide a place for students to practise their English (if needed) and an opportunity to be part of a 'family' away from home.

On Feb 11th 2014 we celebrated Valentine's together. A BIG THANK YOU goes to Richard England who came along to walk us through a typical English church wedding. Not all weddings are so unpredictable - at one point the groom lost his nerve and disappeared - nor so hilarious!!  Our little role play was followed by some great discussion on a variety of traditions around the theme of dating and marriage.

As part of our evening students were asked to complete the sentence "LOVE is ..."  Here are just some of the responses:

"Love is accepting people the way they are;

trying to make them better."

"Love is something you can't explain."

"Love is the strongest driving force of life."

"Love is giving your all without reservation for a good cause."

"Love is life - where there is love there is life."

"Love is caring, sharing, forgiving, enduring, making sacrifices, beautiful, patient, kind, peaceful."

The World Cafe

Both TABLEtalk and our World Cafe have got off to a great start this term.  We have a regular 20+ students coming along to TABLEtalk and our World Cafe is often overflowing with customers.  

Aiste & Joy celebrate Chinese New Year

Jenga is taken very seriously at the cafe

Too many Goodbyes

One of the worst elements of my role is all the goodbyes. Spending time getting to know students, investing in relationships, getting close to people but then having to say goodbye.
January is one such month of the year when a number of students, especially those doing Masters, are returning home.  Maybe some day I'll get to visit some of the many students who have passed through my life for a season.

Festus from Nigeria

Hossein from Iran

Rebecca from Botswana

Celebrating Christmas

On Christmas Day 2014 my Dad and I hosted nine wonderful internationals and had the best day :-)  
Fortunately my Christmas dinner was successful, we watched the Queen's speech (very traditional), opened gifts and had a VERY competitive game of Rapidough.

Hossein (Iran), Basel (Jordan), Mohamed (Egypt), Narongrit (Thailand),
Piyanan (Thailand), Dad, Adeline (India), Me, Stephen (Ghana),
Maryam & Morteza (Iran)