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You'll find the link to my online photoalbum in the links section, other documents are to be retrieved from the archive section.
I truely regret to have forgotten writing something for number one and zero in advance. I won't do it now because it doesn't make sense. For in the moment of looking in the future I truely like to look back at the entire time I spent in England.
I would go again and I would do some things different if I could go for the first time. One thing is to prepare myself, take more time to leave and think good about the consequences of working for no money. It was not an option but afterwards I have to admit that a proper job with payment would have been better, but nevertheless more difficult to find in these times. At least I've found what I've been looking for, I made great experiences got to know many new people and proved my self to be capable of working properly, in a company.
My English got better, too. Unfortunately, I can't judge myself but my parents and friends assure me it has. I think a great deal of the improvements is due to fluidity in speech and spoken production, some of the most important parts in free speech. To all who ask themselves, if doing a language course abroad is a good idea, I say do it! - You won't regret it (if you are lucky enough to have good accomodation and weather).
I can finish with the happy note that I now have a certificate (no CPE, but still good) from my school rating my English as C2 (CPE level) and one from Professionals UK certifying that I've done an internship as Business and IT Assistant for Pinnacle Publishing Ltd.
Time is running fast and it is nearly the hour to say good bye. But not with a little lap of honour around South England. Yesterday, after our delicious dinner at Harvester's (a good restaurant near Brighton Pier, good food and good value for money) my parents and I decided that we'll go to Bristol befor turning our backs to the UK. Leaving Bristol on Monday afternoon and the UK on Tuesday. Stopping on our way back somewhere in South England, and twice in France, arriving in Switzerland on Thursday the 22 October.
It is strange. I have been in Brighton for four months now and slowly all the extraordinary things became normal and I didn't see them anymore. But now walking through the city with my parents I suddenly see more new things, because six eyes always see more than two and the city is new to them as it was to me.
I'll finish work tomorrow and then we'll take a walk round Brighton on Saturday and we'll start our journey back on Sunday ...
Guess what, today my parents came over from France and we'll be staying a bit longer. I think well start driving back on Wednesday so that we're back by Friday with to stops inbetween. I hope you're all as happy and well as I am.
See you soon ...
What would I watch so late at night it’s Doctor Who, if only ever I might! – You see this is a bit a drama, this series is so terrific and quite interesting, not only for the comic action but also for the scientific sense / nonsense. I love it, I just love it and after, by a stroke of luck, I’ve seen all four series of the “new version”, I crave the coming of the fifth. There is only a little problem, it only runs on BBC One or the repetitions on BBC Three - don’t get these in Switzerland!
You could now describe me as an addict, but I can explain why I’m not. I have let go, I didn’t go on youtube to search for the fourth series, when there was a month’s break. But I want to see the fifth series and you’ll would, too.
If you were only a bit like me …
This week promises to be great. It is fresh now, in the morning and the sun is shining with its soft autumn warmth. The sea was like velvet, moving softly in the breeze. – I mounted a sad smile; what am I supposed to feel? – Yes, I’m happy to be coming back to Switzerland, its food, its landscape, its people and its climate. However, I am quite sad about parting with England, too. It is not easy to admit, but I wouldn’t mind living here, for holidays in Switzerland seem far more interesting than holidays in Britain. I would enjoy the autumn mountains and the cold and grey winter days so much more.
Considering the infrastructure I have here and the one I have in Switzerland I would, even over the inconvenience of late and early departing buses, a rather more ladida attitude on cleanliness and perfection choose to live here. Because, Switzerland is sometimes a real pain in the neck and a bit distance doesn’t do any damage, more so if I think of those stupid SVP campaigns.
I’ll be missing the sunset. – For today was grey and damp and if the sun had been shining, it wouldn’t have been much different from the one in Switzerland. As for the sunset, it had such vibrancy, variability and radiance; I would like to look at it every evening. The colours in the sky and on the sea make it even more beautiful. I truly think, that what makes this place different from others I’ve been to, is not only the culture and circumstances, but also these special seaside features. Looking out onto the sea, the fresh breeze that always comes in from the sea and naturally the seaside sunset.
Naturally, I’ve not only thought about the sunset today, I’ve also been in Royal Tunbridge Wells. It is the furthest you can travel with a three monthly ticket on the Brighton & Hove bus network, so I thought I give it a go. - It is a nice town not much more, at least to the unprepared visitor like me. Therefore, I just took a walk around the city, ate something for lunch and went back to Brighton again. There was not much time to do anything else, because the bus journey takes two hours.
So long for today, …
As it is Saturday I just have a report on what I've done today.
First, I wanted to go to Tunbridge Wells, which as you may have guessed, hasn't happened. As always I got up with nothing to do in mind by the time I knew what to do I had missed the bus and abandoned this idea for the day. - Though, I still had a good time.
Deciding to stroll through the city's streets once again proved as a true stroke of luck. So it came that I walked up a street and ended up in a part of the city I've never been before. Looking to the East over the railway lines, London Viaduct and the visible part of Brighton east of the station. After that splendid view I walked round the train station and across the site of some modern housing built in the place where half a century ago the remains of railway worker's slum stood, the parish of St Bartholomew's. This is the way I finally came to see St Bartholomew's church, which is something you shouldn't miss, if your interested in architecture. It is a huge rectangular building without tower about the width of a tennis court but with the height of about three times its width, the length only about a third longer than the height. The inside is stunning, built from red bricks and a wooden roof there are no pillars it's just a open space with a roof bending to the middle like the hull of a huge ship. You can appreciate, that the acoustics must be great and I was lucky enough to witness it as an organist was playing when I entered the church. However, you'll have to see it yourself to understand ...
Something that has become a routine since the end of September is going to Waterstone's and browsing the bookshelves for something to read. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything today, thus good for my purse, bad for my time on the bus.
Finally, I comforted me with a coffee at Starbucks' and writing this text.
Since I’ve started to realise that I’m actually going back to Switzerland the days have started rushing past me. - I’ve barely forgotten last Saturday and again there’s only a few hours stretching between now and the next. Honestly, it is a shame rather than thinking what I could be doing here I start thinking what I’ll be doing in Switzerland before I start the military service. Playing the Marimba, practising my archery skills and cleaning my room out are just a few things.
I realised today that I’d rather wait with deciding what to do until I’m back and concentrate on what I’m doing this weekend. As it has cooled down and is raining more and more, taking another walk through the countryside becomes not impossible but a lesser option. Naturally, I could still go and visit St Bartholomew’s Church, what I’ve been planning for a few times now, but always refrained from doing so, as it is not really my thing to visit churches. For going there would be because of the architectural aspect, which I dare say doesn’t even take half a day, still I might do it.
The thing you’ll could nearly bet you soul on, is that, if I buy another book tomorrow you’ll find me sitting in Starbucks by four o’clock. - I finished “Graceling” yesterday and it was a great book, a bit more feminine than other fantasy tales I read but still gripping and strong, I just hope I’ll finde something or commuting will get boring next week …
As my time here is ending, so is this text for today …
Today is Thursday and by accident, I thought I'll count a countdown, without knowing that my official departure date is 10 days from now. You may not believe me, but that is what happened. I was sitting on my desk, waiting for confirmations coming in, and thinking it is time to start the countdown. I started counting the days and the 18.10 came to be the tenth day from now.
As some of you may have heard I'll be staying longer, but the 18th is still the date I intended to leave and the date Prolinguis thinks I'm coming back. As with so many things in life, this stay in England doesn't end like I would like it to. - The other way of saying this is more to the point; my return to Switzerland doesn't start like I would like it to. The thing I would have liked to do was studying, but as we are lucky enough to have compulsory military service for the male population, I'll be returning to do something I see more as a burden than an opportunity.
Still, I see some light at the end of the tunnel. For I can't deny that I need money in my pockets and the military service gives me not only the money, but also the opportunity to find a weekend job or if not, at least a job for the time between the end of the RS and start of the term. I wish I wouldn’t have to think about money right now, but it is important to keep the pockets filled with it.
So long, time is running and I still have some things to reveal …
The first day of work was good. I got a good start and could get familiar with the work place. As all was new I couldn't really work with speed but I got faster and faster. Finally, I noticed that sitting in front of a computer can be very tired. The second day was much more routine, but there are some communication problems. Today, I spent the most of the day searching raw data to send the invitation E-mails to companies. You may know that I work in a company, which publishes brochures for golfclubs for free financing them through advertising of local companies. The invitation E-mails have to be sent to the local companies to determine if they are interested. As I wrote before I had to search raw data for these E-mails. The problem, there is practically no data collected for local businesses. You have to try and find any PDF or .xls or what ever files with data. So, my bad luck was that I found nothing but a list from a school with conntact adresses of local businesses and if I'm honest I feel rather bad doing this as these aren't really businesses but persons.
This week was a bit better than the last one as I get accustomed to the job. I'm now also more integrated in the work process so it's not so boring anymore. On thursday (yesterday) I had a presentation of the work I do together with my partner / instructor (or what ever you want) to the boss. But that's about all there is to say.
But my job is in general not so interesting, I think what I do besides it is far more important. So, I'm going to tell you about the last weekend.
On Saturaday (1 august) I was really tired and had a horrible headache so I didn't do anything but luckily I could get some photographs of the fireworks from the gay pride. On sunday I decided it would be best to get a bit of fresh air and so I wandered of to the beach to read a bit in a book. Afterwards, I walk a bit through centre of Brighton finally enjoying a coffee in a prête-a-manger café. After that I walked home to get dinner and a good long nap.
So, what did Ido? - I was working but if we are all honest this is the dullest answere you can get from someone who is staying abroad. Thus I'm telling you what exactely I did. last week was rather boring apart from a presentation to my boss about the current work process and trying to buy a new router on Dell UK with a Swiss credit carrd, which is, you can believe it or not, rather difficult. After overcoming the Dell ordeal i took the weekend on, but with a slow pace. Meeting a guy with whom I was at St. Giles and going swimming in the sea for the first time since I'm here. Saturday evening I meet up with the same guy and some of the people who were now in school with him or he knew.
This week was interestin or from another point of view you could say horrible. On Tuesday the new router arrived, while I was doing the days work waiting for the Salesmen finishing, so I could work on the internet connections, I asked myself how much later I would come home. In the end it was about one and a half hour, but on Wednesday I had to reconnect all the computers because I forgot to address the issue with conflicting IP addresses. At least after solving this problem on Wednesday I could come in later on Thursday. But the next task was already on the schedule. "Connect the ICY BOX (a NAS, Network Accessible Storage) to all the PCs in the room, problem this is impossible as long as you can't access the ports of the router. And the PCs connected to the buildings network couldn't access the router because the ports on the buildings internetconnection are closed. And I have no controll over these.
As I had to connect all the PCs to the router now changing the hole layout of the wire connections Thursday became another day to come home late. But at least there is nothing without reward and Friday all systems were working well if not better than before and I had a quite day.
And now I'm sitting once again at Starbuck's drinking coffee and eagerly waiting to try out the new earphones I bought thinking of the things I could do tomorrow. Maybe I'll go walking in the South Downs as I finally bought a map.
S o l o n g, . . .
P.S. / What I forgot / What there is to add from Sunday
Apparently there are fireworks every Saturday night in Brighton I haven't found out why until now, but if I do I tell you. The there are new photographs online from the weekend of the 5 August to this weekend. So quite stuning from the night of full moon, which look like taken of the sun and last but not least some bad shots from buildings at night as I wasn't able to take my tripod with me. The latest pics are from this Saturday as I didn't have my camare with me when I went swimming on Sunday despite the rough sea.
Something I have to remember and you should, if you ever intend to send letters outside England, too.
YOU HAVE TO BUY AIRMAIL STAMPS OR THE LETTER WON'T BE SENT BECAUSE THERE IS NOT ENOUGH POSTAGE ON IT, THEY WON'T EVEN SEND IT WITH THE SLOWER NORMAL INTERNATIONAL SERCVICE! But it's not as bad as you could think, I'm just left with two choices. I use the remaining first class stamps and just go to the post office to pay the remaining postage or I go and buy airmail stamps to be lazy and sit at home carrying the mail when leaving for work. Well, these are my choices and you'll notice what I've done if you receive a letter or post card from me.
So long, ...
Saturday I had quite a problem to make my decisions for the day. At first i wanted to go to Lewes or Eastbourne but then I overslept. Then I couldn't make up my mind about staying at home or going swimming or something like this. Finally, I walked into town and along the beach spending an hour drinking coffee and reading Ulysses. I nearly went swimming but decided against it as I'm still not totally healthy after my summer cold.
On Sunday I got up early enougth and made my way to Lewes. There I had a look at the city and Lewes Castle which is not especially interesting itself but gives you a stunning view of the surroundings (which you can see in my photographs from this day).
To round off the day I walked home to Brighton following Jugg's Road through Kingston over Newmarket Hill to Woddingdean and finally my home. Both tired and quite satisfied I enjoyed the rest of the afternoon / evening watching television and being happy that I didn't get sunburnt as I had forgotten to put on suncream.
I'll certainly won't forget it next time as I don't think I'll get lucky again. Especially, if walking along the cliff top from Eastbourne to Newhaven as I'm planning to do next weekend.
Yesterday, which was in case you wonder the 29 August, I went on a wonderful walk. Unfortunately, the wind thought he would go in the other directionor luckely as otherwise it would have been very hot.
I started in Eastbourne which is about 30 km to the east of Brighton, if you draw a line on the map, but the way I took is slightly longer and naturally I was to lazy to get up early and walk the full distance, so I only walked to Seaford. Still the way took me four and a half houres (c15 km) with constant strong wind blowing in my face carrying salt and the sound of the sea. Considering that the way along the coast is on top of cliffs about a hundret feet high and it's rather a wave like than flat landscape I think I was quite fast.
But what is so interesting about this stretch of land? - Well, obviously the impressive cliffs and especially "Beachy Head" the highest chalk cliff in Britain with height of a 162 metres. Also following my way you see and walk across the Seven Sisters a combination of seven cliffes standing tall above the waves as a landmark of the South Downs. As there is the Seven Sisters Country Park in the back-country you don't register the cities of Eastbourne and Seaford untill you reach their outskirts and naturally the nature is great, too.
I have only two further things to say if you do this walk. Firstly, prepare your self for a salty bath in the evening as your face gets crusted with salt blown in your face by the wind and secondly don't underestimate the additional time you need because of the topography (I didn't, I started too late).
Now, go and see the pictures on my Photobucket album ...
Yesterday I was in London. Finally realising a thing I wanted to do since my first visit to London and one thing I had just stumbled across. So, how did I come to decide to go to London on a Wednesday? - All began with the leaflet of the BBC Proms reading it while sitting in Starbuck's on Saturday, stumbling across the Prom Nr. 63 with quite interesting music. Until Monday evening I thought I wouldn't do it, firstly because it was a Wednesday and secondly because traveling to London for a evening becomes quite expensive at a price of £10. But then I had no real reason why not to do it and my parents encouraged me to do it. It was truely a treat, with pieces from Rachmaninov, Shostakovic and last but not least Xenakis (1922 - 2001) a Greek composer.He was mainly the reason why I wanted to go to this concert as he wrote rather unusual pieces, one of which "Nomos gamma" includes the orchestra spread through the audience. So, the first thing to do after this decision was to ask my boss for a day off as spending the money on the train I wanted to enjoy the hole day in London visitin the Tate Modern in the afternoon. - As you can guess I was allowed to go. Now, I was traveling to London on the 10:19 train (if you want to travel earlier than 10 o'clock you have to pay more) planning what to do and staring out of the window. Leaving Victoria Station I went to the shore of the Thames to take some shots of the iconic Battersea Power Station and Chelsea Bridge heading for the next Tube station. Reaching Pimilco a station on the Victoria Line I headed for Southwark where I went to eat lunch. Strictly following my plan, I went to buy the tickets the current exhibitions about Futurism and Per Kirkeby at the Tate Moder. As going through a exhibition is tiring for the eyes i made a break inbetween the two drinking coffee and buying some post cards as souvenier. As I still had about two houres to the point where I had to go I also had a look at the regular exhibition, including works of Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Giacometti. One work impressed me especially, it was an animation of a woman / girl that was projected in life size on the wall of the gallery asking the passersby for 2' 15'' of their time. Telling of the product she was, how only we the audience give her a meaning, she is "no ghost just a shell", as the work is called. Finally, it was time to get myself to the Royal Albert Hall to collect my ticket and eat dinner. Making my way over the Milleniums Bridge and a short stop to have a look at St Paul's Cathedral (last time I saw it, it was wrapped in scaffolding) I headed to South Kensington collecting my ticket and eating a sandwich. As the concert began with "Nomos gamma" it became clear that I wouldn't have had the same expirience listening to the radio, as the circular layout of the orchestra can't be recreated in stereo tone. All the pieces played were rather special for classical music as Xenakis pieces are modern and the pices of Rachmaninov and Shostakovic are mysteriously strange (at least to my ear). But still I liked it very much and I enjoyed the hole day. So, not bothering you with further blabla about the music, I just have to tell you, that I went straight home afterwards and into bed, as I had to get up today.
Pictures of the day are now online.
London Gatwick Airport we were on time (so I thought),
but as I had to pass the passport check time was lost and with that
happening I had a
hard time finding the taxi driver. So the bad things began to become
more and more. In the cab the driver told me that I couldn't stay with
this family for more than one night as something wasn't right, I could
tell you what but I don't want to discredit anyone.
So, as I finally arrived at my home for one night, I had to sneak up to
the frigde (where nothing was in it) to get something to eat. After
wards I went to bed but couldn't sleep because it was so hot.
The next day I stood up at 7 o'clock. Fortunately,
there was something for breakfast or I would have died. Then I headed
to school with all my baggage. Taking the bus I was really happy that I
had looked up all these things at home in Switzerland and so I found
the way with no problems.
In the morning we got a short introduction to the schedule of the
typical schoolday. Afterwards we had to take some tests to assess our
language levels. Shortly before it was time for lunch we went for a
little tour of Brighton.
In the afternoon I had my first lesson. And it was a great surprise as
the lesson was more or less copy and paste in comparisen to the ones of
my previous English teacher (John Lutz).
In the evening my "hostfamily problem" as I tend to call it was solved,
and I now live with a nice elder lady. And the best thing is I have a
view of the sea out of my room.
I think that looking back at the end of the year, this
tuesday will
have been the hotest day and if not one of the hotest throughout the
hole year, but it was a good day.
At 8.30 am when I had finished breakfast I went to go to school with
the other student who is staying here.
In school we had a discussion about differences between the genders and
we did some work on idioms relating to workplace situations. In the
afternoon we did a quiz about the English language (which was, I have
to say, seen from the point of effect on learning near zero) and went
to the language laboratory. This was interesting as I've never done it
before but as it was the first time for everyone we had to have an
instruction. Unfortunately, this also meant that the exercises we did
were not done properly, but rather fast.
So, all in all it was a good day, but now I'm tired and will soon go to
bed.
One should think that people are afraid of that
happening, but they do still sit in the park in great numbers. So, what
am I talking about? - Today a seagull nearly shit us on the heads,
leading to the behaviour that we are watching the sky a bit more often
than normal.
More important is that I got the first invitation to a job interview.
This will be the reason for a trip to Newhaven on 8 July. The company
is called Pinnacle Publishing and they asked me to come for an
interview as IT Assistant.
The last thing I did today was watching Ice Age 3 in 3D with some of my
friends from school.
Sadly, I again missed to subscribe for
football and the
trip to
Stoneheng and Bath was fully booked too. But besides that I'm in a good
mood and more and more convinced that I do the right thing with staying
in England.
As some of you may have heard the company I went to apply this week has
taken me on and I decided it would be best to give it a try, dispite
the doubts I had about my suitability. As the consulting with the
people from school ended I thought it best to try and do my best.
But maybe I should start earlier this week or better Saturday.
Saturday, I started with my fellow "homestaymate" for what would become
a 10.86 km walk round the city. Starting with making our way up to the
race cours and then down to the beach. Later we made our way to the
marina and then to the Westpier (which unfortunately burned down
completely in 2001) finishing with the wlk back home through
Queenspark. After this long wlak I didn't fancy doing something similar
on Sunday and to be honest I just wanted to see the Wimbeldon finale.
It was the right decision.
The rest of the week passed by with nothing much to tell, apart from
the job interview, which I thought went horrible.There are several
reasons for this. Firstly, it was my first job interview and I had no
idea what the procedure was. In addition to that I was not familliar
with the way they would decide that I qualified. In the end I must say
that this was as I think not a normal job interview but rather a
introduction to the company. Secondly, the boss of the company was
thinking I come on Thursday and he wasn't told that I had no special
training in the IT sector. The third and last thing I thought would
cost me the position was that I had to admit that I have no idea of
Microsoft Access and spreadsheet. Well, you and I know now that they
aparently think they can use me, so I give it a try.
Anyway, it took me sometime to write this on the computer but as I did
on paper I was sitting in the Starbucks in St. James street and
drinking a gairly cheap "Cappuccino Venti", kind of XXL.
Today I went to see "The American Scene" in the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery. It is an exhibition of American Prints dating back to the first half of 20th century.
I really enjoyed it and there are some very impressive and touching picturs presented, for example a picture from John Ward McClellan called "Entrapped" from 1936. But I won't bore you with my museums visit, as it was also glorious weather.
After the museum I met with my fellow gueststudent and we went to the Seafront and the Pier where I was able to take some great pictures (You can see them on Photobucket, including a panorama of the eastern half of Brightons seafront).
Today wasn't an especially interesting day but I think it is worth to say that we finally got typical English weather and it rains at least once a day. I also subcribed for a trip to Bath and Stoneheng on Sunday and I think I'll go to watch Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on Thursday (the question is if there are tickets or not).
Today was a strange day. We had a test in the morning, although it seems to have ben rather good I didn't feel like taht. We corrected it afterwards and I only had about 1 or 2 faults per page (5 pages) and I haven't learnt anything for it. Before the next class we had a ten minutes brake in which I noticed that I was getting hungrier and hungrier. This was not good as the teacher for the next lesson was Claire who unfortunately has a rather annoying way of teaching. By the time I could get my teeth into something I was about to rip my hair out!
In the afternoon we had kind of a deja vu as we discussed film genres again (and "schwas", that's a sound; and I'm really bad at finding it in words). So, the only interesting thing was the scene from "Blad Runner" we watched.
The most interesting thing I will do today is that I go to watch HP HBP. As I only could get tickets for the 21:30 presentation I will write more on that tomorrow. But i think it will be interesting to compare my expectations to the review I'll write tomorrow.
From what I've heard it is an excellent movie, but as some other people I am concerned about the added bits and snipets. I also hope that they haven't exaggerated the romace thing as i hate such sweet movies and it wouldn't be in the same spirit as the books. A big thing to me is also that they cut the memories short leaving only certain things. So I ask myself will there be the Gaunt house, will there be anything but the scene from the trailer? - I hope that there will be at least a bit more.
The last thing I'm really keen to know about is how they realised the last few scenes. Will it be only the snippet with Harry and Snape or have they staged the hole big fight?
S P O I L E R S P O I L E R S P O I L E R S P O I L E R S P O I L E R S P O I L E R S P O I L E R
I have to admit that I'm more than pleased with the realisation of the book. But I also finally see the true need to split the movie of book seven into two parts.
Althought I stated above that it is a good movie it is not flawless. As I said I am more than pleased with the realisation of the movie. The main plot, the most important scenes are condensed in a pacy movie. I may have to watch it again but there are some points I want to warn you about and I was quite unsettled by.
What I first noticed was that the connections between the invidual scenes were more than weak but mostly not there. It is not necessarily a bad thing but then these jumps have to be well explained. For me this jumps meant that the tension couldn't build up. And then there's tis second thing with you only add the main scenes of the book to the movie. It creats distance, distance from the story and distance from the characters. For much of the tale is lost. In the book there are three or even four different plot lines of which only two and a half made it into the movie (and one of them is, at least to me, not so important). Love is a big thing in this movie as is the hunt of the Horcruxes and then there is this lost bit of the "Draco is a Death Eater" thing. The hole thing about people disappearing / being take out of school and so the impression of eminent danger didn't make it.
Another thing I don't like is that there were changes made to the scenes that made it. I will come to that later as I want to tell you about the added / missing scenes first.
The movie starts of unlike the book with a scene in a caffe opposite a train station. Harry is flirting with a girl but is disturbed by Dumbledore appearing on the plattform. Now it should be clear that they have left not only the scene with the Dursleys, but also the scene between the ministers. then they added the scene at the Burrow which is good work but also strange. For as far as I remember Dumbledore himself put protective charmes up to prevent attack on the Burrow.
The nest thing is that they changed certain scenes. The first one is Diagon Alley where they let go of the invisiblity cloak and the extendable ears. The second one is the scene at the gates of Hogwarts, rather than letting Snape be the old git they just let Flitwick stand at the gate and tick of names. To add to the scenes they didn't realise is the scene with Trelawney comming out of the ROR, telling Harry that Snape told Voldemort about the prophecy and the one at the end where they are fighting in the castle. That they also didn't shot the funeral isn't as bad as they are likley to add it at the beginnig of the seventh movie. There may be more with changes that affect only the appearance but it is the changes to characters that annoy me most.
The changes that unsettled me most were the ones made to Snape, Dumbledore and Ginny. Ginny is in my view portrayed to confident and so she and Harry get together much faster than in the book. She also seems to have lost this soft and kind behavior, I know it is difficult to play but some how it just affected my view on the movie.
Dumbledore was denied his final show, as most of the brilliant magic he works in the book is just not shown. From the funny bits (the glasses knocking at the Dursley's heads) and the earnest scenes (inspecting the cave's entrance and conjuring the goblet which will mean to weaken himself) they just left it untouched. The only scene where Dumbledore's power really comes to eye is when he conjures the fire to fend off the inferi.
The changes to Snapes position and behaviour in the movie seem most extreme to me. In most of the scenes he appears they are changed, infact I don't think that any but the final scene with him are true to the book. More so his character seems much more kind and soft than before and he doesn't confront / isn't seen confronting Harry as often as in the book.
I don't say the movie is bad but from my point of view it is the one with touched me the least. Maybe my expectations were just a bit too high and I have to watch the movie again to really grasp the thing. As I may have unknowingly only watched for the bad bits. It is certainly a movie worth watching so go to the cinema watch it and come up with your own oppinion.
I will certainly go and see the movie a second time. Firstly, because its overall appereance is great and secondly because I want to do it justice. It is a well crafted movie as you cry and laugh at the right point and I my have been a bit harsh now but I hope my view will have to change.
As you can read I was on a coach tour to Stonehenge and Bath. Stonehenge is impressive and more so in the rain as it becomes kind of a mysterious building blured and still massive. But there's also a negative side, if you ever want to visit Stonehenge and being on your own it is just impossible. There are just so many people around you won't be able to do this, but the best tip I can give you is not to go in the middle of the day as when we were there it was so crowded that you weren't able to watch in peace. Still it was worth the experience.
Bath was very different, the streets were also crowded but I think this city would seem dead if not. It is how ever, from the architectural point of view, a strange city and still beautiful. I've seen no building but the new busterminal and the new Spa that weren't built entirely of the honey yellow stone from the local quarry. Even the new buildings are built using a method covering the concrete with thin stone plates. But speaking of architectural specialities I naturally have to mention "the Circus" and "Royal Crescent" both luxurious rowhouse the first built in a circle and the later in a half circle. These are massiv structures both built by the same enterpreneur and still splendid in their appearance. Finally, I needed a break so I went to a cafe to have a pot of tea and some cake. First I thought of going to "Sally Lunn" (from this very bakery the famous Sally Lunn Bun orginates), but as this was really expensive and naturally crowded with tourists I chose a cafe called "The Courtyard" which was neither crowded or expensive. I had a pot of house tea (a velvety black tea not unlike Earl Grey) and a piece of toasted tea cake (which was like a sweet bread) and all together it was really delicious. Before and after this break I visited the cathedral (as when I went before it was closing for visitors because they had Sunday service), it is a building approximately dating from the 14 / 15 century. In it you can marvel the mason's work, which I think is besides the fantastic windows the most beautiful thing about this building.
You can guess what happened. - You didn't discover it. Well, a teacher of mine forgot to give me a note from the reception today. As he missed that I carried on with school until 15.30 when I went out of school go and buy the Dead Weather CD and walk around with some friends. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that I had told Matthias I would play table football after school (sorrry) but I didn't. And then when I came home at five o'clock my host told me that the reception had phoned I would have another interview with the same company from last time tomorrow at ten.
So now I have to apologise a thousand times to Matthias that I forgot about the table football and I don't know why I need to go to a second interview with this company. So I go and get the very thing I need, sleep! - Oh, what a mess, know you lot understand too.
That were four wonderful days, although not directly
relating to the
weather, but at least it was always dry. As this was the last journey
with my class mates for a long long time we tried to do something
special. The first day we just took it easy and relaxed in the hotel,
playing
PS2 games, table tennis and table soccer.
Tuesday afternoon we
had some fun with mountain carts and other funny means of transport.
Moving up the mountain with the cable car and down with the carts or
what ever.
The next day we were all a little nervous as the teachers from school
would finally decide who had passed the Matura. As we couldn't
influence the decision we went to play minigolf and enjoyed the
afternon in a climbing park. In the evening we sat together and
celebrated the passing of the matura as all who were there came through.
And now finally the last day (25 June) we left Savognin and headed to
Ilanz to do some river raftin on the Rhine, which was, I have to say
the best part of the hole journey and I'm sure I'll never forget it.
So long this was the last time the class 4MN (2005 - 2009) met.(If you
don't consider the ceremoney to hand over the certificates on Friday
and the Maturaball on Saturday.
