Bath Christmas Market

On Thursday most of the students visited the nearby town of Bath to see the Christmas Market there. Here you can see (left to right) HyeJung, Micheline, Fanny, Andressa and Moussa snacking in a nearby cafe, where we warmed up with hot drinks and delicious home made soup and panini

We arrived at the square near the abbey around 6.30 just before the choir outside began singing a beautiful rendition of a christmas carol. The market stalls were stunning, there were lots of people, and many of us wandered around having a look, trying mulled wine (hot spiced wine) and soaking up the christmas atmosphere.

HyeJung Lee's Article

Last week in our Reading and Writing class I set my three students this task: to produce a piece of writing which would explain how to do something.
First, they brainstormed topic ideas, and after that they did some research on the internet and created a plan for the layout of the piece. They gave each other feedback on their initial plans.
R&W class takes place everyday for one hour - the articles by Armand and HyeJung took three days (i.e. 3hrs) to produce. Their next step was to write the first draft and make corrections, and now you can enjoy reading HyeJung's final draft of her article: HOW TO GET INTO THE UNITED NATIONS.


"Are you looking for a global, professional job in the future? Many students have a dream like this. The job which is the most competitive, official, and professional might be a member of the United Nations. Here are some crucial tips for students who are not ready to win global competition.

Firstly, you should decide accurately which kind of organization you are interested in. As you know, the United Nations comprises 192 countries with diverse organizations overall. Making sure what you prefer enables you to prepare well. Then, plan! Before planning, I strongly recommend you to become the best strategist in the word. Generally, students misunderstand that fitting themselves into the criteria is the top priority, however, you shouldn’t forget that almost all of the competitors know this. It means that even if you have the perfect background, there is a risk that you will not be accepted by the United Nations. So, what can you do?

In fact, the United Nations is not just a workplace, but also a huge government which has to take care of humanitarian affairs. Please make a special global project on your own. Regardless of region, there are many economic, political, or cultural issues all over the world. Choose one and solve the problem as well as you can. Analyze the fact, gather detailed information and be a strategist as I recommend. Since you are free to design ideal world in this project, you can show your passion, high intelligence, and also remind the United Nations who they are looking for.

Finally, your life is yours. Don’t hesitate to find your way in the world. Take time to find yourself (it’s not wasting time) and then, make your own way, dreaming of your beautiful age in the future."

Francisco Unplugged

Lee told me today that one of our former students - Fran - has now got a job in Cabot Circus. Well done Fran! Here's his testimonial, recorded just before he left:

Armand's Article

This article is aimed at people who want to become bodybuilders in a short period of time and in an efficient way. If you are one of these people, how often do you think about exactly what you are going to eat before exercise? What are you going to eat when you are done exercising?

First of all you have to be careful when you begin your new training regime, because the risk of injuring yourself is higher. And this can make you give up before you start.

Getting to the main question, you should eat two hours before your exercise because this way you are going to have more energy and you are going to be able to lift more weight. It is not necessary to eat a lot, in fact you should eat some carbohydrates, that means pasta, bread or rice. So you mustn’t eat proteins.

Let’s look at the second point now. You may think that you should eat while you are doing exercise, however in this type of exercise it is not necessary, because we eat in order to recharge our energy. Nevertheless in this case we do not exercise long enough to use up all our energy, so it does not make sense. Although it is really important to replenish the water in your body, so you must drink water.

As for the matter of the type of exercise. The general rule is do fewer repetitions such as 10, 8, 6. The last try it must be very hard, because this way you make sure that break all your cells and then when they reconstruct again they will increase their volume.

Turning to the issue of what you eat after you exercise and when. First of all, during the first 20 minutes, you shouldn’t eat. You should eat between 20-60 minutes after doing exercise, because at this time is when muscles are able to accept more proteins and carbohydrates. So you should eat food that contains proteins and carbohydrates.

Using English in the Classroom

Hi OISE Bristol Students!

I'm currently at a training course in Exeter where I'm learning about setting up blogs.

Actually, OISE Bristol used to have a blog a few years ago, but I guess it fell into disuse after I left in 2008. Anyway I'd like to start it up again, because this training course has got me all enthusiastic!

Looking forward to reading your posts online.

All the best,

Hannah