Paola...an Italian in Torbay.

Hey, my name is Paola I’m 18 and I come from Italy.

When I arrived in England the first thing that I thought was: “ the weather is very terrible, I can’t survive here for a month”!

Fortunately the weather and the temperature became better and I started to get used to the English clime.

In the starting days I attended school and after I worked for 3 weeks.

My work placement was in The Training Partnership Ltd in Torquay; here people are very helpful, friendly and funny especially Nadine and Sam! I worked in marketing sector with Lorenzo, he was very kind and available to repeat and explain me when I didn’t understand. I liked this work placement and I knew the office job and clime!

In the free time me and my Italian group visited lots of cities like Bristol, Plymouth, Exeter and Cockington Village. We went to the sea and stayed there all day, it was very relaxing ;) I went to pub of Torquay like Mambo and others, but I went shopping because here there are many good shops.

Every Thursday the TTPL organize a meeting for all students, every time in a different place, we went to the water park or bowling for example,  it was very amusing and a way to know new people from different countries.

My host family was perfect and like me upon I arriving. My host parents were funny and spoke a lot with me and my friend, the house was beautiful and the food was very good because my host mother likes cooking!!                                        The English people think outside of the box and have an open mind, here there aren’t prejudices and everyone is free wear the clothes he likes without feeling ashamed… I love this!

I hope to come back here in the future and call in to see my host family!

Paola 

Isabel’s Story at Totnes Rare Breeds Farm

You definitely should love the work on the farm and the animals living there. The Rare Breeds Farm in Totnes does not only have rare breeds like some goats or geese they also have for example a snake, two tortoise and chipmunks. It was very interesting to learn so much about all of them. I was able to answer a lot of different questions after a while, questions like “What is the difference between a lama and an alpaca?” or “Why are the red squirrels a rare breed in England?” The farm manager was a very lovely, helpful and funny person. She explained everything very easily to me and even if I didn’t understand everything right away or I had to ask one or two more times she took time and explained it again or even showed me what she meant. I felt very welcomed on the farm. It was a great atmosphere because we all had the same interest…The animals. That made the last day a little sad. The work on the farm was so great that I also came in on Sundays.

A waterproofed coat, pans and shoes are definitely needed because you never know about the weather in England. If it rains you can’t just say, that you are going to stay inside because the animals still need food, water and cleaning. But if it rained and we didn’t have too much to do outside we all gathered in the ICU (Intensive care unit). There are the snake, the chinchillas, the hedgehog, the chicks and some harvest mice. Because some chicken or geese were rare breeds we tried to hatch the eggs in an incubator which is also in the ICU. I saw one egg hatch on my very first day. That was a great experience. Just one experience from a lot which were great. One other very good thing is that the farm is providing you with lunch. And it was great lunch, always a salad and a sandwich and chips if you wanted with cold and hot drinks.

I wouldn’t want to miss one day of my gained experience on the farm and I hope that the following students have the chance to get a very great stay as well. If you want to find out more about the farm then visit: http://www.totnesrarebreeds.co.uk/ 

It is worth a visit! Especially if you never touched an owl before ;-)