Wonderful life in Torquay

My Name is Jasmin Schneider (21), I’m from Donzdorf it’s a small town near Stuttgart (Germany). I do an apprenticeship as an office communication clerk at WMF, the market leader in cutlery, kitchen accessories and gastronomical coffee machines.

And now I spend 5 weeks in Torquay to improve my English and also to get work experience abroad. With eleven other students of the WMF, I arrived on Sunday the 1^st April. We just had a lovely welcome in Torquay and Paignton at our host families.

The first week started with the language course at the Riviera English School. We had to do a test at first. Then the teachers arranged different groups. The language course was quite good because we had the chance to decide what we wanted to learn or improve. We all get a certificate at the end of the course. As well in this week we tested the various fast food and take away restaurants at Fleet Street. But it’s not that good for our wallets. On Thursday I participated at my first student meeting. A walk to the small Village Cockington, but the weather was not really nice, so we drank tea and coffee at the Grand Hotel. It’s a good chance to meet other students.

At the Easter weekend from Friday to Monday we had much time to look around Torbay. For example we went on a boat trip. We visited the beach in Paignton and we also took the bus to Brixham. The bus connections in Torbay are very good, much better than in Germany. Especially we went shopping and we are all sure we love Primark. The nightlife in Torquay is very impressive because of the many crazy people coming over there to celebrate their stag party. On Sunday our host family, the Falconers, invited us for dinner. It was very delicious!

On Monday evening I felt very excited because of the start of the work placement at TTPL on Thursday. And now I can say that I’ll have a great time here in the office due to the fact that they are all friendly and helpful. Fortunately there are two other students, Suad from the Netherlands and Davinia from Spain, doing their internship at TTPL.