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Guerasimova Irene, an English Teacher



2019-12-29 186 Обсуждений (0)
Guerasimova Irene, an English Teacher 0.00 из 5.00 0 оценок




I'm an English teacher, and for all my teacher's life the only dream I had in a professional and emotional sense was to visit the country of the language that I teach my children to speak. I've read a lot of literature of various kinds, I was brought up on W. Scott, A. Conan Doyle, Somerset Maugham, Jerome K. Jerome and many others. But this dream was rather phantom. You can guess about the income of an ordinary school teacher and the price of tours to the British Isles.

But all happened like in a fairy tale. At first I got rather a great and unexpected deal of money. Then I decided to prepare for my touring. I didn't want to take many pupils with me, because don't forget, it was a dream, and I didn't want it to be spoilt by an awful behaviour of some boys and girls. That's why our group consisted of three girls, I trusted very much both in language skills and in culture, and one mother. The next problem to solve was getting VISA for me in the British Embassy. They didn't usually give Visas to those who have a clear passport (without any other European Visas). Mine was just like that. So I was preparing for a conversation in the Embassy. I was very nervous, but I spoke without an interpreter and tried my best to show the official how much I wanted to see their country by mentioning some rare sights and places of interest which are not usual for common tourist groups. And I got it!

Now I was to work out the plan of our excursions and trips in order not to lose a minute of our visit. This plan included usual sights in London: St. Paul's, Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, The Tower of London, London Bridge, the British Museum and the Museum of Sherlock Holmes, London Aquarium, Buckingham Palace (they call it Buck House), Kensington Palace, The Natural History Museum, Hampton Court Palace and park, Windsor castle, the famous Roman town of Bath and the "place in nowhere"- Stonehenge, and, at last, Kew Botanic Gardens. And all that was to be done within eight days. My companions were not very sure that we could do without a guide and tried to persuade me to book more excursions with a Russian guide. Later they understood that our two official excursions were too much.

All I had instead of a guide was historic knowledge of this country and its monarchy, geographical knowledge, a very good map of London and an ability to orient myself in this city. And as it proved to be, it was quite enough.

And at last, there came the great day, when we were in Lon­don. We stayed at the pretty hotel of Henry VIII in Kensington. Kensington Park was just across the road of our hotel. When we  got into a coach from the airport, we saw streets full of exotic trees in blossom. Every window was in flowers. The day was cold, but very sunny. If we hadn't known we were in the capital of Great Britain, we could have thought it was some southern town in Europe (palm-trees, Japanese cherry-trees (sacura) and something of this sort).

While we were unpacking and making ourselves comfortable in our rooms, the weather changed and it started raining "cats and dogs" or pouring if you like. But Russians are not afraid of anything, especially weather. We took our umbrellas and went out bravely. The first place to search was Kensington Park. Though it was raining hard life outdoors went on very cheerfully: people were busy with their usual occupations, they ran, walked, went shopping. To tell the truth, they've got nice umbrellas, those Londoners. Their umbrellas reminded me of their famous "My home is my tower". We walked along the wet avenues of the park and enjoyed fresh green trees and grass, squirrels and birds, dashing about to ask somebody for something tasty or to find a partner (I've quite forgotten, it was in the end of April).The park was full of tulips and other spring flowers. We breathed in fresh odour in our lungs and quite forgot of the rain. In spite of the fact we got drenched to the skin we didn't catch any cold and the next day were fresh and ready for adventures.

Now I'm not going to waste your time telling about all our trips and excursions, but just about the most interesting of them, some funny incidents, some interesting details.         

Russian Guides.

They were annoying. They had an awful accent and the ap­pearance of Cherkizovo market. Every time we were to meet them they were late. On our last day in London we nearly missed our plane, 'cause our guide was later than usual. The only idea they had was to have more from poor naive tourists – their compatriots. At the beginning of our tour they frightened the tourists with different things: "it's so easy to lose your way in London without a guide", or "toilets in London have a very high fee, and only your guide knows where it is the cheapest", or "you won't be able to understand a word without a guide" and so on. The first toilet with a high fee in London, which our guide advertised, seemed to be the only thing of this sort. We didn't face this problem any longer. The most expensive excursions to museums and other sights are those with a guide (a Russian one). Almost all museums and galleries have got electronic guides in different languages free of charge. Guides mix up all the names and dates of English history (they think an ordinary Russian tourist will have it). Now it's enough of them. I hope they have respectable, high-educated guides, and simply we were not lucky.

 

London Classics.

Tower Bridge . The symbol of London, a very interesting mu­seum inside, a magnificent view of London from the Thames.

The Tower of London. The heart, the beginning. How old is this grass with daisies? Through these gates nobles were brought in to wait for execution or death. Little Princess of York, what hap­pened to you? Arms and armory, Royal Regalia, jewelry, instru­ments of torture. I was very interested in one having an opposite action to a rack, but my companions didn't want to share my interest and made me go further. Ravens. They are all in cages. The Government seems to be worried of British stability and flourishing. Mc Donald's – the final point.

Saint Paul 's Cathedral. It was under restoration, but visitors were allowed in. The Gallery of Whisper – it works, we checked it up. The stairs up to the top, it's a hard work to go upstairs in St. Paul's even for teenagers let alone ladies, the stairs, are erased by the Time, very slippery. But the view from the top is magnificent. There's a very nice churchyard around St. Paul's, all in flowers. London down-and-outs like having a relax here.



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