MY ERASMUS PLUS EXPERIENCE IN CAMBRIDGE
On the off-chance you don’t know what it is- Erasmus (EuRopean Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students) is the European Commission’s programme for students, teachers and institutions aiming at increasing student mobility within the European Community. This has been my second Erasmus experience, since I was awarded this scholarship to study my whole last year of university in Hull, England. However, this is for sure my first Erasmus experience as a teacher, and it is clearly different. This teacher’s funding covers the course I have taken, full board accommodation, transport and transfers. Cambridge is a traditional world-class university city with a global reputation for academic excellence. Many of its residents are students, even in summer, giving the city a modern, cosmopolitan feel and the streets are full of fascinating museums, restaurants and shops. An inspirational setting for your studies, past students of the city include Sir Isaac Newton, Professor Stephen Hawking and Charles Darwin. We stayed at Bell Teachers Campus, called Homerton College, which features many different buildings. All rooms are single private rooms with their own en-suite toilet and shower room. This is a typical individual room.
We had breakfast and dinner at The Great Hall. This is called Half-board accommodation, it means that daily breakfast and weekday evening meals are included with your course. A continental breakfast is served from 7.30 – 8.45 everyday, including the weekends. On weekdays dinner is served from 17.30 – 19.00. Lunch is available (at additional cost) in the college Buttery (canteen shop) and in the Great Hall from 12.00 to 13.45. But the truth is that it was quite expensive and it wasn’t worth it, so most of us would go the nearby shops and had our lunch on the green. The receipts from this food had to be handed in later to get them payed back by the funding budget.
For Harry Porter lovers, the front door of this lovely Hall is “Harry Porter’s magic door”:
At Homerton, they hold candle dinners with flying owls over the place in a Hogwarts style, they call it Homerton Harry Porter Formal. This is very common at UK Colleges. Did I get to enjoy this?? Of course not, it is only for Graduands Graduates? or other events, not for Erasmus Plus teachers, what a shame!
I have taken a fortnight (2 weeks) course on Contemporary English for English Teachers. The language level is C2 proficient, and we dealt with trends in lexical change and new words. My lessons were top quality and my teacher is known to be the best teacher on this subject.
In addition, we also attended lectures, workshops and plenary sessions by wellknown ELT expert Jim Scrivener, whose books I finally bought.
Having the opportunity to go back to university to keep on learning is an exciting experience. As teachers, we love learning, and sometimes we miss being students and not teachers, I guess. But learning a language entails learning its culture, so when in Cambridge we must experience College life. We visited the city centre and the most important Colleges: Queen’s College, Trinity College, St. John’s, Corpus Christi and we went to Kings College to watch a Shakespearean play. It is the custom, in summer, to have a picnic during the breaks.
England is very fond of Pubs, and The Eagle is a must see on our tour.
This pub was a popular lunch destination for Cavendish Laboratory students and workers, and as the outside plaque says, the discovery of DNA was first announced at this Pub.
However, the most “Cambridge-ish” tradition is PUNTING!! You may wonder, What is Punting? It is Cambridge students’ favourite past time: to see all the bridges punting the river Cam. Punting is a Dutch word to ‘Push’ but there are other theories as to where the name comes from. Previously this was a way of transporting products to mills along The Backs but now it’s simply a leisure activity.
It is common to have champagne and strawberries on a ride.
Several day trips (additional cost) are planned by the university. We visited a beautiful Cathedral in Ely, and had a yummy traditional “Afternoon Tea�.
At the weekend we travelled to Shakespeare’s birth place, Stratford upon Avon. And guess what, this is my second visit to this town, my first time was 10 years ago, and this time I could not visit Shakespeare’s tomb yet again!!! A wedding was being held!!! No way!!! I hope next time I can finally see it, and I hope it doesn’t take me another 10 years to come back! LOL.
Obviously, I couldn’t avoid remembering my students when I saw the name of this restaurant. This is a gesture to my students’ assignment and our visit to Broadstairs.
These are my international classmates. They are all devoted English teachers from different countries. They have been a pleasure to share this amazing course with.
This probably was the most important and nicest part of the trip. I made new friends there and we are still in touch, mostly because some of us taking part in a new Erasmus Plus Project. This time we want to enrol more teachers and students.
This has been an exciting experience and I am really looking forward to starting my next one. Will you join me?