HND AIT AngusCollege

well folks back in sunny scotland, really tired after running throught all the airports, hopefull lost about 2 stone, NOT!!! wont be eating pasta or pizza for a while anyway lol.

Back to college tomorrow, for a fresh start, hopefully i will be able to keep my eyes open ha ha, see you all there

Hey guys,

Thanks for the updates.

Hope you enjoy your last full day. Safe travels back to Sunny Scotland.

See you all next week - I'm dying to hear all the stories!

Maria is Mary in Italian

Here I am sitting at this computer with a huge keyboard that is not easy to use, Eh Pam !!!!!!!
I have been busy translating a web page for almost a week now and then have to do a Powerpoint Presentation, Yippeee!!!

Hope the weather back home is fine because it is freezing here it is like living at the North Pole.

1st Wednesday - trip to Tropea

sorry about the delay in posting..

Last Wednesday we were up bright and early for a trip to Tropea with the greeks and lithuanians. On our journey Aldona (Big Mamma) had a sing along to songs in different languages. Lets just say shes \\\'larger than life\\\'. Once we arrived we took a walk down to the coast taking loads of photos and looking at different buildings.

Here is a picture of the gorgeous church that we saw when we got to the beach

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Castle_on_an_island,_Tropea,_Italy,_Sep_2005.jpg

When at the beach we saw a strange creature splashing about in the water (turned out Aldona decided to strip to her bikini and go for a swim)

Once we finished looking about Tropea we bought some souveriers and headed to Capo Vatticano and took some more photos.

We may need another 2 weeks off to look at the photo albums ;-)

1st Wednesday - trip to Tropea

sorry about the delay in posting..

Last Wednesday we were up bright and early for a trip to Tropea with the greeks and lithuanians. On our journey Aldona (Big Mamma) had a sing along to songs in different languages. Lets just say shes \\\'larger than life\\\'. Once we arrived we took a walk down to the coast taking loads of photos and looking at different buildings.

Here is a picture of the gorgeous church that we saw when we got to the beach

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Castle_on_an_island,_Tropea,_Italy,_Sep_2005.jpg

When at the beach we saw a strange creature splashing about in the water (turned out Aldona decided to strip to her bikini and go for a swim)

Once we finished looking about Tropea we bought some souveriers and headed to Capo Vatticano and took some more photos.

We may need another 2 weeks off to look at the photo albums ;-)

My God Thursday al ready and its still cold and dark, got told today by the guys in work to take the bad weather home with me haha. Friendly bunch. this week has went by so fast. Miss Al-y-son hows are u doin back home!lookin forward to coming back to scotland x

Glad to hear you arrived home safely Alyson and that you're back in to the swing of things! Week 2 is going fine, cant believe its Thursday already! We enjoyed our visit to the University yesterday, the buildings are more modern than we expected and the campus is huge! We managed to fit in a Chinese lunch as a treat which was a nice change from pizza and pasta!

Good to hear all is well back in Arbroath and that you had a nice lunch yesterday. Say "hi" to all the students from us - we are looking forward to seeing them all next week. Hopefully the weather will improve before we leave - we've been exposed to all the elements since I arrived even had thunder today! LOL

Ciao for now! Ps Loving the Italian lessons!

Hey everyone,

Hope all is going well this week? I believe that you have been on a visit to the University of Calabria today - hope you enjoyed it.

The rest of the HND class were away out for lunch today, I've got a funny feeling they are missing you all!

Enjoy the remainder of your time in Cosenza - hope the weather picks up for your last couple of days.

Hi folks - sorry to hear that the weather hasn't been so great. I hope that it warms up a little before the end of the week. If it is any consolation it isn't that warm here either!! Hope the placements go well this week and that you are looking after Dawn.
byeeee

Mina

It is now monday morning again, and the weather is disappointing, yesterday was 5 degrees, think dawn has brought the bad weather with her ha ha. Pam is wearing 2 jackets shows how cold it is here. Work placements going fine, finding the translation part of it really hard. Missing alyson too, wish she was back with us as she kept us all insane, thanks alyson xx.

Hi all - wow!! You lot sound like you are having a fab time. Well done on settling into the placements. I know there will be ups and downs but I certainly think the ups are outweighing the downs!! Your Italian will be really coming on now. Just spoken to Dawn and she is away to take her bikini out of the case and replace with her wellies!!! Hope the last day of work for this week and the weekend go well. Continue to enjoy the experience - you will take back with you memories for life!
Take care
Mina

4th Day in and the trip is going great, starting to take the italian way of life(take note Mina only joking) everything is relaxed here and the people are freindly and anxious to find where we are from! Where we are finding it hot the italian's are finding very cold. Us scottish are a bit different in the weather department.The placements are going well now.first week is nearly over how time flies when ur enjoying urself??life just does not get any better than this haha. lovin it.Lets see what tomorrow brings, and the weekend we will say goodbye to Alyson:( not without a drink thou and maybe some dancing what u say Alyson???

Monday Evening...

In the evening we get the opportunity to meet the other Euroform participants from Greece and Luthiania and learn traditional Italian dancing. After a few vino rosso we also get the opportunity to learn some traditional Greek dances, and are treated to the Luthianian teacher’s (who can only be described as being larger than life) favourite song. However, without any ceilidh music we opt to teach the group the running man and the YMCA!
All-in-all a fun night was had by all.

News on placements...

Alison is working for a small company called Abracalabria where she will be creating marketing tools and material for some of the company’s clients. This will involve translation and revision of text for websites, PowerPoint presentations and marketing campaign material as well as looking at internal company corporate marketing.

Roisin is based within FUTURA and is working on various ICT projects. The work consists of administrative and IT duties as well as translation.

Zoe and Raychel are both working for the local Chamber of Commerce within the Department of Handicrafts. They are carrying out general administrative duties within the organisation and helping with English translation where needed.

News on placements...

Mary and Denise are based within Euroform and are working on different projects. The majority of work is based around research, translating information in to English and utilising their IT skills in Word and PowerPoint. They are also tutoring one of the staff members in English.

Kim is based within a small IT company called Echopress where she is undertaking a Social Inclusion project. Kim is researching and preparing a report on Italian migrants and the problems they may face when coming to live in the country. This information will be used to create informational documentation and websites.

Bright and early on Monday morning we arrive at the Euroform Office building before 9 am in order to meet Sandra (Euroform project co-ordinator for our group) for orientation and interviews with the prospective companies.
We find out more information about Euroform and the local area. Cosenza is situated in the north of the Calabria region, with a population of around 140,000 people, of which 40,000 are students due to Consenza being home to Calabria University (the statistics are very similar to that of Dundee, Scotland).
The students also find out their schedule (work/Italian lessons) for the next two weeks and then the students are accompanied to meet their employers. Some of the students find that they are based close by and others will have to travel to and from work via the local transport.

We all enjoy a lie-in on Sunday morning after the long days travel the previous day. Sunday is a free day so we decide to explore the local area of Rende where our hotel is situated. You could describe Rende as the ‘Fintry’ of Cosenza...but not quite as posh! We decide to locate the restaurant where we will be eating most of our evening meals and walk for about a mile before discovering the restaurant is ‘just round’ the corner from our hotel. A further stroll doesn’t bother the group too much as we are all enjoying the warm weather. In any case, we stumble across the local shopping mall and some nice little coffee shops on the return journey.
The streets are very quiet. We later find out that Sunday afternoon is a family time, where they meet at each other’s homes and enjoy a long leisurely lunch.
We enjoy the weather anyway and everyone is buzzing to learn more about their work placements the following day...roll on Monday morning to find out more.

Saturday morning and the HND AIT students are not quite as rowdy as they normally are! Is it anxiety at being away from family and friends for two weeks? Is it nervous tension at missing college and their graded unit project!?...or is it the fact that it’s 3 am in the morning!?
The minibus fights its way through the wind and snow to get us to Edinburgh airport so we can begin our adventure to Consenza, Italy. The nervous yet excited chatter is coming from everyone on the bus, including the staff!
Thankfully the bad weather has not caused any delays at Edinburgh, however the same can’t be said for our flight from Heathrow to Rome – delayed for an hour - and we miss our connecting flight to Lamezia.
Only 45 Murray Mints, 21 hours, 3 planes, two minibuses and one missing suitcase later...we arrive at our final destination – Cosenza, Italy. We check in to our Hotel (Hotel Europa), unpack and enjoy some well deserved sleep...Zzzzz!

Well done Alyson. Look forward to seeing your blog developments and hearing how you are all doing in Italy!!