Student City..

Well, the student season has started in earnest here in not-so-sunny Brighton. My first Summer student arrived on Sunday (which was very hot and sunny actually) and though I was expecting a young woman from Switzerland, I wasn't prepared for a 22 year-old Turkish Muslim who lives in Switzerland (was in fact born in Switzerland), speaks German and Turkish and whose family run an Italian restaurant in Berne! Beat that! That has to be the most multi-cultural situation I've ever encountered all in one person. She is extremely nice too - very polite and we will get on famously I'm sure. She is here for six weeks and will be joined next Sunday by a man from Brazil, a mature student of 44, who is an English teacher and is coming to brush up on his English teaching skills for a couple of weeks. After him comes a Russian girl for three weeks, so we have a full house for six weeks altogether, and no doubt it will be a pretty full-on cultural experience too. With any luck we can also expect a few laughs language-wise along the way!

Added to that, it's the start of Grandson's summer holidays. He finishes school on Friday and is actually leaving St. Aubin's, which will be rather sad for all of us.
Never mind - it was exactly what he needed when he and Daughter moved back from dreadful Dorking, and now he is quite ready to move on. The lovely teachers in the pre-prep could not have been better, and we have chosen presents and cards for Grandson to give them. Tomorrow is Sports Day, so we are hoping for a bit of sunshine so that we can enjoy the races and our picnic. Afterwards there is the Class 2 end of year performance, The Enormous Crocodile, in which Grandson is playing Humpy-Rumpy the Hippo. That just leaves Friday to say goodbye to everyone, and I expect there will be a few tears. Luckily though he is not the only one leaving - there are four going altogether, for different reasons I'm sure, but I'm equally sure that lots of families are really feeling the pinch when it comes to affording something like private school these days!!

Time for bed. Must be up bright and early to make ham rolls and cook sausages for the picnic. Oh, and I've bought some of those gorgeous little pork pies to have with our salad. Yum yum, pig's bum (oops, don't mention pork, ham or bacon for the next six weeks, or sausages, and certainly not pigs...:-)