The Host Families Business in Cambridge

Even though the task was to write a public diary entry, I decided to write my blog-post about host families, in particular about my host father, whose name I will not use in order to protect his privacy. For clarification he will bear the nickname Ed. 

During the first week of our stay in Cambridge a recurring topic was host families, and for the majority a rather negative one. In comparison to the language stay in Bordeaux there are some huge differences regarding the families that accommodate us. 

One of the biggest points is money (how unexpected). From my conversations with the inhabitants of the region I have come to understand that:

1. People in England don‘t earn very much. The average income is half the one we have in Switzerland. And the life costs aren‘t proportionally smaller, in some categories they are even higher (tobacco and alcohol). 
2. Cambridge itself is not a cheap city (compared to the rest of Great Britain). As Steven, our teacher at the Embassy school, explained to us, the rents are equal to the ones in London city.

These factors make it very attractive for people in Cambridge to house exchange students and earn money to round up their lean incomes. It has become a business, with host families housing students from schools that pay the most, and as it is normal in the business world, they want to minimize their prime costs and maximize the income. For the students this can mean that they must live in a small room without heating; eat different, worse food than the host and have a myriad of restrictions that they must follow.

In my case these restrictions included: only one shower (from 8.30 to 22.00) and one coffee a day, no Wi-Fi and only the cheap yoghurt and coffee. Regarding the food, although Ed once told me that he was a chef de cuisine, it seemed more like he was the chef of canned food. I was served every canned and ready to cook food possible, most of the times it wasn’t that bad, but I couldn’t imagine eating that for a longer period.

In the end I don’t want to condemn Ed or the actions of the other host families, because although they try to cut costs everywhere it’s possible, I still had a good time and Ed was never disrespectful to me.

Matteo L. Quadrelli 

The neighboorhood where I lived

A typical Ed's dinner 

Friday 18th May 2018

the greek food 

Today was our last complete day in Cambridge. So, I got ready and drove to school by bike. There we got all the information concerning today and Saturday, the day we are going to fly back home. Then at 9 o’clock we went to our last two lessons at the Embassy School. During the break some students were playing table tennis and the others were sitting around tables talking to each other. After the second lesson we had graduation, where everybody got a certificate for attending the lessons. Then we had a very long lunch break because we had to meet up at 3pm near the City Cycle Hire.

So, some friends decided to go to the market near the city centre. We ate some delicious Greek food. Then we went to a book shop and we were spending some time there. Because we still had a lot of time left, we went to Starbucks and drank some coffee there. After the lunch break we had to return the bikes and we met someone who showed us how to play Cricket. 

a cricket bat

Later, when we finished playing Cricket, we walked back to the city centre and from there Justus and I took the bus to go back home. At home I started packing my suitcase and while packing I realised how much stuff I had with me. Later in the evening I went to the living room and ate dinner with the other host students. We spent the whole evening chatting and talking about a lot of things. It was a lovely last evening in Cambridge.

Thursday, 17th May 2018

Today I had the privilege to sleep in a little longer because all students have to write the ETAPP exam. My test only started at 10:30 am so I had still some time to prepare my speaking task and shower a little longer as usually. Like every day I didn’t see my host family in the morning so I just left the semi-detached house and rode my bike to school. Unfortunately, without Laura. She had to be there earlier for her speaking part. As I got to the school I just met Anne-Sophie und Justus who looked very released because they just had completed their speaking task. Now it was time for me. Fabio my speaking partner was there already. In that moment, the examiner opened the door and asked us to come in. First, we had to talk a little about ourselves. Then we had to present our chosen topic and he questioned us about it. In the end, we had to talk about a problem. That was a difficult task. Finally, we were released. After the lunch break we had to take our written part which took us three hours. It was not very pleasant to sit in a hot room for three hours trying to concentrate, but the time went by and soon the ETAPP exam was done.

the boy are playing table tennis in school

At three o’clock, Luzius, Anne-Sophie and I went to a cosy café. There we filmed parts of our project. The location fitted exactly with the plot. Furthermore, we ordered some tea and scones and enjoyed an afternoon tea.  The scones we warm and with jam and clotted cream they just were so delicious. The tea was also made in a typical British way. Small silver tea pots and fine cups with a metal filter where you poor the tea through. After several hours in that café we slowly made our ways to the pub where we all were going to meet for the farewell dinner with the two classes. The pub lay directly by the river side. On the other river bank, all the different rowing clubs of all the different colleges were lined up. It was quite busy. Rowing boats were taken out of the water and were brought in the water the whole time. I thought it was fascinating how these very slim boats cut though the completely flat water. 

Back in the pub, we had great fun there. We managed that the hole 3Mc could fit on one table, even Ms Fischer. Everybody was in a good mood. We chatted a lot and enjoyed ourselves. Soon the food came. We enjoyed good fish and chips, big burgers and lovely steak. For desert, brownies, cheesecake and apple crumble was served. The food was delicious and the farewell dinner was a wonderful time for all of us especially when the fist beers were empty. The next day we all were a bit tired, but it was worth it.

traditional afternoon tea

Tuesday 15th of May 2018

On Tuesday we went to london again. But first we went to school in the morning. In school we did exercises about Idioms. It wasn’t the most interesting lesson we have ever had. We also had our new teacher, Steve for the second time. After not enjoying his lesson style on Monday, it got better on Tuesday. After school we went into the city to eat, we only had 2 hours to eat, so we had to hurry up. We went to the market and bought some Burgers and other food. Nico and I went to a waffle store and bought a really good waffle. After that we walked to the bus, where we left for London. When we arrived in London, we did a city tour. The tour was organized by JD Tours. Our tour leader was Justus, he did a absolutely fantastic job, it was truly eyeopening.

After the tour we went shopping. At first we all went on the same tube. Then we split up, Dionis and I went to Selfridges first and afterwards we went to a few Vintage stores. Some of them had nice things,but we didn’t buy anything. Afterwards we went to the theatre.We watched the phantom of the opera, it was a decent play,but I thought the story was quite predictable, however the special effect were fantastic.

I really loved the start, but towards the end it got a little boring. Then we got on the bus and left for Cambridge. I slept on the but and when we arrived Nico and I went to the city to get out bikes and then left for home.

by Justus Rumpf

Monday of our second week 2018-05-14

After I ate my cereal in the morning and driving to school I attended classes. The first instructor was Helen and after the break we had our first lesson with Steve. All of us enjoyed Steve and his tasks so the hour flew by.

For Lunch I went to the market right in front of the guildhall and bought a pizza with red onions, goat cheese and peppers. Pizza in hand I walked up to kings college to eat it there while sitting in the sun.

For our group had completed the relevant parts of our Sherlock project I had a free afternoon to make use of. I wandered of to a nearby bookshop called heffers and bought a book called being mortal authored by the surgeon and harvard professor Atul Gawande. His topics fit in nicely with another book I have been reading recently - called When Breath Becomes Air - and which I am also going to present on the ETAPP exam.

After buying the book of course I couldn't resist the urge to read a few dozen pages so I went into the park at silver bridge and found myself a bank to sit on. Surrounded by water, grass and cows I read for a while only once being pulled out of my flow by a cow liking my bicycles wheels and me worrying about my tires.

After a short retreat to my host-family I cycled to the castle pub and got to listen to thre different presentation about the way that we percieve the world - incidentally also a part of When breath becomes air. The speeches concluded that what we percieve as reality is what all of us share in their hallucinations and that only through halucinations you are able to differentiate patterns and attribute meaning.

Sunday, 2018-05-15

I started our only completely free day of our language stay in Cambridge by getting up quite early at about 07:00am and taking a shower. My host family was still sleeping at that time, so I eat breakfast, as usual, alone. Then I continued working on the Sherlock film project and added some new words and phrases to my vocabulary list, before visiting the Imperial War Museum Duxford together with Erik, Samuel and Marco. It was a very impressive museum with so much to see that you could spend there several days. I, however, left Duxford at noon to go eating pizza in an Italian restaurant.

In the afternoon, my team of the episode of Sherlock and I had a short filming session. Later, I met up with Timothy, Nico, Fabio and Simon to play two rounds of bowling. Tim won the first match with over one-hundred points. In the second round, he was not as good as before, but still scored some ninety points. I had about eighty points in both rounds.

In the evening, I returned home to have dinner with my host family. We had rice again, like all the other days before. After resting a while in my room and cleaning up my stuff, I went into a sports bar to watch the football match of Levante versus Barcelona. It was a vivid game where Levante has been winning with a 5-1 lead. In the end Barcelona scored three additional goals so that the match ended with 5-4. With that loss, Barcelona’s dream of going a whole La Liga season unbeaten ended.

I finished the day by meeting my classmates in a parc. There, we had a good time and ended our first amazing week in Cambridge before returning home and starting completely recovered in our second week.

Saturday 12.05.18

Today was Saturday, the day everyone was looking for. We were finally going to London and for many of us this meant SHOPPING.
We met at 9 O'Clock at the Cambridge train station, as the train was leaving at 9:12. Everyone was quite excited to see the wonderful city of London and eat Fish and Chips. Although there were very few free seats remaining and most of us had to ride the train while standing up, the train ride passed quickly. After arriving the first misfortune occurred. Tim had thrown away his Ticket, which he needed to travel with the tube. He had to buy a new one for 12 pounds, ouch. In the morning everyone attended a city tour in three different groups, lead by our wonderful teachers. Right after the tour ended all the students went off on their shopping tours. Some had already exactly planned their route and were on a tight schedule. Others relaxed a little more and just casually went into some different shops. For most of the students 4 hours just weren't enough to visit all of the shops they wanted to and to find something they liked. Others again went sightseeing although it was raining. A popular spot to see of course was the Buckingham Palace. We were lucky, because the the Queen seemed to be at home!
After the 4 hours of free time, we met at the London Eye for a boat tour on the river Thames. It was nice to see the city from a different perspective and also to see the different bridges, especially the Tower Bridge from very close. we returned by train, which departed at 18:14. The train ride took about 40 minutes and most of us had a place to seat. Arrived in Cambridge, one could truly say:"It's raining Cats and Dogs!"
All of us were very tired and just went home to sleep in the next morning.

Saturday, 12th May 2018

Today was the day everybody was looking forward. London was calling! At 9:00 a.m. sharp everybody was at the railway station but the majority of the class seemed a bit tired perhaps because of the fact we were allowed to stay out until 11:59 p.m. yesterday. However, the train was pretty crowded and some of us had no seat. After the train ride of about 50 minutes we finally arrived in London. There, we splitted up in three groups and every group had a tour guide respectively one of the teachers. Actually, all the groups made the same sightseeing tour but they all started and ended up at different places. Piccadilly Circus, Buckingham Palace, St. James's Park, Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament (Big Ben), London Eye- we spotted all the typical tourist attraction of London. Then we had four hours free time and most of the students went shopping. It was really hustle and bustle because there was not enough time for all the shops, it started raining and of course it was a Saturday. So the motto was; Shop until you drop.
At 4 p.m. we met our teachers and classmates again for a boat trip on the Thames. Unfortunately it was still raining and the trip took us only about 30 minutes. One tourist attraction was still missing-the Tower Bridge. So now we had a nice overview of London.
However, the chaos began after the boat trip in the Underground. In fact all students were supposed to follow Mrs. Fischer but somehow a group of about ten students and Mr. Hensler got lost and Mr. Juric who was looking for them was alone as well in the end. But there was more to it than that. Mrs. Fischer's group took the wrong Underground. Luckily we all found each other at the railway station and we had enough time to buy something to eat for the train ride back.
In Cambridge it was raining cats and dogs and nobody was delighted to take the bike home. Anyway, everybody was glad when he or she made it home and exhausted but satisfied we fell asleep.

Friday, 11th of May

Today was a very exciting day, because it’s Friday the 11th of May. After I got up, I realised that I was late for school. So I needed to hurry. I jumped under the shower and shovelled in them Cereals like a tiger that hadn’t found food in three days in a row. A few seconds later I grabbed my backpack and jumped on the rented bike from the city cycle hire. 35 minutes later I finally arrived at school just on time. After an absolutely amazing presentation of the plan for today by Matteo, we already needed to study in our classrooms. In class we needed to analyse some classic songs and to do some reading comprehension tasks. But the time pasted by fast and we already had our break. During the break, there is nothing more fun to do as playing a few games of table tennis and eating some epic grilled sandwiches. Later we needed to go back into our classrooms. The lessons after the break were pretty boring, but at least our class found out that our teachers son was a really famous surfer. Everyone thought that this is quite cool, so we watched a few videos of him surfing some gigantic waves on the shore of Portugal. At 12:30 we were finally free to leave school for a few days. It’s weekend! In the lunch break we searched for some fantastic food on the local Market. The others bought some Hamburgers and I bought myself a baguette. After lunch we got spit up in three different groups for some different activities. I got the chance to visit the botanic garden with Mrs. Fischer. We all had fun to find the special trees of this garden, which Mrs. Fischer had marked us on a map. A few hours later we left the botanic garden and went home for dinner. At 8:00 we met at the Anchor Pub to enjoy our self a bit in the park nearby. We all had a blast this night and everyone returned home safely on time at 11:59.

Thursday, 10th of May

Today was a very exciting day. The sun was shining but the temperatures were still relatively low.

When the class assembled at the embassy of English some good news awaited us. Anne-Sophie was allowed to finally change her host family. The whole class hoped that she would be able to do so. We were all relieved and happy when we heard it.

But the good mood stopped when we started the day with our English classes. Our teacher Meera prepared a game for us. For every letter of the alphabet we had to find a verb. It was as boring as it could possibly be. Luckily the second lesson was much better. Our other teacher Viv seems to be more interested in the things we like. We discussed a lot of different topics together. I noticed that Viv has a big general knowledge.

After a short lunchbreak we met again in front of the city cycle hire. Many students used that opportunity to let their bikes get repaired. The result was that we had to wait until every student got his bike back before we could start our bicycle tour. The tour was short but the route was beautiful. We cycled through blooming planes and all around us were big trees. Once we’ve arrived we were all stunned. The garden was gorgeous and we all looked forward to drink tea in the comfort of the deck chairs in the orchard. We didn’t just simply drink tea, but we also ate British scones with it. They were absolutely delicious and we all enjoyed the sunny weather. The time flew by so quickly and eventually we had to leave the wonderful garden behind us.

In the evening we went to the theater to watch a play, which was called Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It was really good. Everybody thought that the actors played it very well.