Living in London

Every Tuesday evening I go to an International Cafe in a church that I go to. It is really fun to join after my long day because I get to relax, eat dinner there and play some games. I feel so comfortable in the group because we are all from outside England so we have lots of things in common. We talk about english culture and the things we are struggling with.

A few weeks ago I went to london by myself. I was scared, but the moment I stepped out of the train, I realised that it wasn't that hard and I could do it by myself. Lots of thing went wrong but it helped me to learn important things. For example, I left my student Oyster card and my school ID card on the bus. I panicked and I didn't know what to do, so I called my host family's daughter and she helped me.

I prayed to God because I really didn't want to bother other people and have to apply for the cards again. I asked a bus driver to help me and he was so kind. I told him what happened and he offered to drop me at a place where all the buses come in to. Then amazingly I arrived and saw the bus that I had been on and I found both my cards!! Now I know there are things that can go wrong while you’re traveling.

Because it was almost christmas time, the city was full of christmas lights. It was beautiful beyond my imagination. I just couldn’t describe it. It was something that you have to experience by yourself.

Daily life at school

After I came back from scotland, my school had another half term to go before Christmas. I felt so much better than when i first started because I had a good holiday and I was now familiar with all the people in Rambert . All the people in my class are getting along much better now, we are more relaxed and settled. I felt stronger and I noticed improvement from last half term.

Everyday my school schedule is similar. I get up at 6 to get myelf ready, then it takes me 45 minutes to travel to school. We have dance classes for 4-5 hours. We always have ballet class first thing in the morning because we believe that doing ballet first is the best way to warm up and prevent injuries. We do contemporary dance in different styles. Once or twice a week we have a choreography class, where we improvise, play around with movement and create either a solo or a group dance.

Every monday and friday we have Pilates and conditioning classes because we need to get strong and build stamina. To be honest, this is the class that we don't really like because it's hard, but we know that it is really good for us.

During the week we also do some academic study because we are preparing to work towrads a university degree from the University Of Kent. This class is called critical studies and we are learning how to analyse performances, take time to reflect on ourselves and research dance in our wider culture and world.

At the end of term I had to finish a piece of writing that had to include my reflections on what I am learning in class, a performance review, notes from critical studies and a piece of research. I have never done academic writing in english before so I was struggling. They have people in school to help me but I really needed someone who knows me and understands dance and my culture. So even after I got help from school I panicked and had no clue what to do.

Thankfully they gave international students one week extention. So when I came to Rachel's house for the Christmas holidays, I had one week left to work on it with her. I'm so thankful that I have Rachel. She knew what I wanted to say, she knows dance and understands how different our education system is in Cambodia . I finally understood what my task was and was able to finish it in time.

There are other international students in my class. We have a special english class after the end of training every monday evening. Whenever we have lunch or a break time, we sit together in the student common room or somewhere in school to talk about how we've been doing. Since we're from different countries, we sometimes share about our cultures, and teach each other some words in our language.

My Birthday In Scotland

In October, Rambert school gave the students two weeks holiday. I went to stayed at Rachel’s house for one week and then we went to visit Rachel’s sister in Scotland for a week. I was excited because I have heard a lot about how beautiful and amazing scotland it is. And now I got to see it and stay there for myself. And Scotland is amazing!!! It’s so beautful, especially the forest, houses, mountains and weather.

The weather was really good, we had sunny days while we were staying there. But it was cold. I could see the steam coming out of my mouth. I could see the lake and water frozen. The exciting party was to hear Scottish people speak. I didn’t understand what they were saying but i found it so interesting how people speak english but it almost like listening to a different languge. I didn’t mean to be rude but i found it funny when i listened to them talking to each other. It was amazing to witness their culture. The moment we entered scotland, I could see its beauty!! It was full of trees, greens, and small hillls.

The best part about staying in scotland was, I had my 19th birthday! I had a traditional cooked breakfast that included haggis - this is a Scottish food. It was so delecous!!!! I got presents from my host family, Rachel’s family and my Gateway family and friends back in Cambodia!!! It was a big suprice because i didn’t expect to recieved any gifts from home. This meant a lot to me because it was all the way from Cambodia.

.On my birthday I wante to try to go into the river and swim, that was my plan. But guess what, the moment I put my feet into the water, they started to freeze and i could’t feel them at all. It was so weird because whenever I see water in Cambodia, it always makes me want to swim. Rachel and Jon warned me that it was going to be very cold but becaus I wanted to show off. But now i wish i hadn’t gone in the river (hehe). Here is a video of me going in the water!

I will always remember my 19 birthday. It means so special that I got to celebrate my birthday in Scotland. It was really fun and i really needed it. It made my heart so calm and peaceful to see the beauty of the nature, people in Scotland and to try new foods.

After we came back from Scotland, I had to go back to london because it was time to start school again. I was so happy and blessed to have had that oportuniyty. I had a very fresh start and was ready to start another half term.