Students at Embassy

Accommodation at Embassy Auckland

There are two main types of accommodation when you are taking an exchange course: you can either choose a Homestay family, to live with, or you can share a flat with other students (or even live by yourself in a single room). Choosing the best one depends entirely on the kind of person you are. Independent people might find better to live alone or to share an apartment, whereas dependent ones would feel more comfortable living with a Homestay family.

I personally had both types of experiences. In the beginning of my course, I used to live with a typical New Zealander family. My host-mother was a Kiwi and my host-father was originally from England, but has been living here for more than thirty years.

They were a welcoming and very sympathetic couple, and I was really well treated. They had four young adult children, and every once in a while they had dinner in the house. It was a great opportunity for not only practicing English with native speakers, but also for having insights about life in New Zealand and its culture in general. If you are lucky enough, you can actually even become friends with your host-brothers. This happens quite often in New Zealand, as I said before, New Zealanders are very friendly in general.

After a certain period of time, students prefer to live downtown, or in a place located near school. Auckland is a very spread out city, and distances can be long and quite time consuming. So, nowadays I am living in a single room in the city. It is more convenient because you have everything you need just meters away (you can easily walk everywhere downtown).

The disadvantage is that you have to do everything by yourself (all your cooking, dishes, laundry, etc.). However, you can have more privacy and more opportunity to meet people from all over the world other than just school. In my case, I can talk to Japanese, Russian, Colombian and Chinese students who are in the same building, and share information about our countries.

No matter what type of accommodation you choose, there will always be the chance to improve your English and, mostly important, to mature.

by Andre Campos

Read more about the accommodation options at Embassy Auckland school of English.

The Facilities At Embassy Auckland

Our Embassy Auckland blogger Andre (from Brazil) tells us about the facilities in and around the Embassy Auckland school that he has been enjoying so far...

The Embassy school in Auckland is located in a very convenient place: just around the corner from the city's main street; Queen Street. It is pretty central indeed.

You can have any kind of meal or snack for your lunch; you can have a coffee in the nearby cafés with your classmates after class; or you can go anywhere in Auckland as you have access to all the bus lines going from Britomart (the main station in Auckland).

The school facilities are really good. There are two common rooms, where students can have their meals or just chill out. There are four computer rooms with free internet access (and also wireless access, if you have a laptop). The majority of classrooms have a Smart Board, making classes so much more interesting.

The teachers are the best people that you will ever meet in Auckland, and I am being completely honest. Being an English teacher myself, I have met many teachers in my life, but not as friendly and easy-going as the ones in Embassy.

What I particularly like best about the school is the library. There is a great selection of DVD's that you can borrow (free of charge). There is a really good variety of movies, from the basic Hollywood blockbusters, to cult and artistic, and finally to New Zealand local movies. Not all international language school feature a nice library as Embassy.

Finally, another unique aspect of Embassy is the assembly. Every Thursday, the whole school gets together for the students' graduation. Each graduate can make a speech if he or she feels like, and some of these moments are a good laugh (depending on the student's creativity). 

Again, this is not something that happens to all international schools.

by Andre Campos

Find out more about the school facilities and local amenities at the Embassy Auckland local information page, then take a look at what courses are available at the school (the Embassy website is translated into eleven languages).

Memories of Florida

Our former blogger Marriane Giger, from Florida wrote us a letter to tell us about her adventures in Florida after she graduated from Embassy Fort Lauderdale.

16th of September 2009:

Today it is about nine months since I wrote you my thoughts about Florida. As you may remember, I came to Embassy Fort Lauderdale on January 2nd of this year and I mentioned then how many things in Florida amazed me.  The thing that comes to mind is, for example, shopping in Publix, where for many years (even before the swine flu epidemic) disinfectant towels are used on the shopping carts. There are also cute little shopping carts for children and special carts for handicapped people or people who are too tired to walk.

After arriving in Fort Lauderdale, I went to the Embassy School to learn English. This kept me quite busy, but I also explored the surrounding areas with the local bus. One long weekend I visited my sister-in-law in Fort Myers. On another occasion I went to Sarasota. The sands on the beaches of the west coast are marvellous.

After completing three month of English language study in Fort Lauderdale, I took a train northbound to Orlando and stayed there a few days before heading west again on a train to Tampa where I arrived on April 1st. There I stayed in a very nice room in John Knoxville Village for the whole month of April. There was a huge pool, which I had mostly to myself for water exercises.

I think this time in John Knoxville village is one of the nicest experiences in my whole life. It was so wonderful to see my girlfriend Joanne and her family. I am especially grateful to her for letting me share in her graduation as a teacher from the University of South Florida on May 2nd in Tampa.

For recreation, I went to the movies, I especially liked the price of $6.50 per ticket for seniors and I saw many senior citizens go to the cinema.

A good example of USA ingenuity is that outside many movie theaters there is a bus parked, where you can give blood and then get a free ticket to go and see the movie. That helps the people that need blood and helps also the people that might not have the money to go to the movies.

In Europe you do not see so many seniors going out to see a movie. Here we pay $15.00 per show and so elderly people don’t go outside for cultural events but stay home and watch the television. The idea of giving blood for tickets could help in Europe where they never have enough blood donors.

In an earlier writing I mentioned that the bus system in Fort Lauderdale was not very good, however I found it to be very good in Orlando and Tampa.

Since May 7th, I am back in Switzerland and Florida is a nice memory of an exciting time and I fondly remember all the new friends I made. The lessons at the Embassy School have helped me to communicate much better and have given me more security to read and write in the English language.

I wish there was some classes created for older peoples that want to still keep on studying; I would return and join one of these classes.

By Marianne Giger

Visit the Embassy Fort Lauderdale homepage to find out more about studying English in Florida.

A Brief Guide to Auckland City

Auckland is New Zealand's biggest and busiest city. Even though it is not the country's capital, it is still the most famous and popular destination in New Zealand, especially for foreigners and exchange students. When you walk through the city's downtown, you can listen to several languages and see different people from all over the world. 

  

Walk down Queen Street, and you can have the chance to try a great variety of ethnic food for a very good price (around ten New Zealand dollars). Or, if you just want to spend some time with your friends and have a nice conversation, you can go to the various cafés that are spread not only downtown, but throughout the whole city (from personal experience, this is the best way to improve your English). These facts make Auckland one of the most cosmopolitan cities of the world.

However, what makes Auckland different from other main cities is its nearness of water. Auckland is surrounded by the sea. There are many nice and really pleasant places where you can take a walk and enjoy the beautiful views, or do some exercise (the harbour, marina and Mission Bay are some of the options).

If the weather is clear, it is an excellent idea to take a ferry and go to one of the smaller islands (Waiheke) or other suburbs (e.g. Devonport) near Auckland and spend the day there. Or, you might as well rent a car (or take a bus), drive thirty minutes, and enjoy the nice beaches in Orewa. Drive a little longer, and you will be blown away by the Piha Beach's beauty. And I haven't mentioned all the public parks yet, where you can have a picnic or just chill out. New Zealanders love the outdoors, and in Auckland it is no different.

Of course, if you love partying the city has much to offer. There are many pubs, and all the nightclubs don't charge anything to enter. A really good deal for students!

And if none of this is good enough for you, there is always the option to travel around New Zealand. Take the weekend out, choose a destination and enjoy. It is very easy to travel around the country. The airfares and bus are reasonable. There are many affordable options for accommodation, and the destinations are always worth a visit.

There's a lot to do and to see in Auckland!

Meet Andre our new New Zealand blogger

Hello, everyone! My name is André, I am twenty-five years old and I am from Brazil. I have always lived in a not so famous Brazilian city called Goiânia, in the middle-east of the country and quite close to the federal capital, Brasília. From now on, in a weekly basis, I will be posting everything related to my experience as an exchange student in Auckland, New Zealand.

I would like to start by explaining the reason why I chose New Zealand, among all the possible countries to take an English course around the world.

It is true that there are many English speaking countries where you can either learn or practice the language, but New Zealand has something unique. It is an abosuletly beautiful country, with breathtaking views and landscapes. You can choose your favorite: beaches, moutains, forests, lakes and rivers. 

  

The most amazing thing of it all: everywhere is reasonably near. It is easy to travel around the country and airplanes fees, as well as bus and car rentals are quite cheap. In my peronal (yet quite small) travel experience, I have not heard about a better country to travel than New Zealand. If you like to travel around and enjoy the country as its maximum, then New Zealand is the place for you. 

Another reason (and this one is specially important to brazilians) is that New Zealand dollar is cheaper than American or any other type of dollar. The cost of living is also not as high compared to other major cities. Lastly, the immigration allows students to work part-time depending on the course length (a good oportunity for not only practicing English, but also to support yourself).

Finally, New Zealand is famous for having kind and friendly inhabitants. Something that proved to be true for both the natives and also the foreign students here in the country. Maybe, partially because of the adventurous atmosphere, the fact is that the majority of people that come to New Zealand seem far more friendly than other popular destinations. 

It has been a great and once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I am looking forward to sharing with all the readers.

As the Kiwis usually say at the end of every conversation, "Cheers!"

by André

To find out about studying English in New Zealand or any of the other Embassy schools, in the UK, the US and Australia visit the Embassy website.

Visit to Big Sur & Berkeley Botanical Gardens

During my last week I had the opportunity to visit with my parents two great places here in California, that anyone spending time here really shout try to visit.

If you want to travel in California you can not miss these spectacle of nature; the gorgeous landscape of Big Sur and the Botanical Garden in Berkeley.

The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary off the Big Sur coast is located in California's central coast, between San Francisco and Los Angeles.  It looks like it could be somewhere in heaven.

The name "Big Sur" is derived from the original Spanish-language "el sur grande", meaning "the big south", or from "el país grande del sur", "the big country of the south.

The University of California Botanical Garden in Berkeley is a living museum. It is open to the public and features one of the most diverse plant collections in the United States.  Established in 1890, the Garden's 34 acres contain over 12,000 different kinds of plants from all over the world, arranged by region, as you can see in the pictures (above).

Find out more about studying English at Embassy San Francisco.