Students at Embassy

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.

Barbecue in Golden Gate Park

This week, I’m going to tell you all is what have happened last Friday here in San Francisco, to be specific at the fabulous Golden Gate Park.  One of the oldest American traditions; a barbecue in this lovely park.

I was finishing my class while a group of students were waiting for me in front of the door to go together by bus. This was because the park is really big and some new students didn’t know where the place was.

When we arrived, all the staff were there preparing the two grills necessary for all our delicious hotdogs and hamburgers. Within one hour the park was full of people eating, drinking and dancing, and of course respecting our school’s first rule: "Speak in English!"

 

 

We were so lucky, because it was a beautiful day. There was no classic San Francisco wind and no clouds in the sky, just sun and warmth. As a result, everybody enjoyed the afternoon.

 

Some people decided to play rugby, others started playing UNO, then fanatic soccer players started a match whilst, like always, some were just chilling in the grass and sunbathing and we knew it and appreciated it.

 

I guess that day there were almost 100 students, and for us it was a great achievement because we really like to organize something cool and great for our fellow Embassy students.

 

In conclusion, I want to say thanks a lot to John (our Director), and Jon, Zach and Sarah (amazing Embassy San Francisco staff) for having giving us this wonderful day and, once again, to be able to take the opportunity to practice English language in a fun way during our stay in the U.S..

by Doriana

To find out more about what learning English in San Francisco, visit the Embassy website.

International Dinner: an amazing experience

Where can you find people from twelve different countries cooking and eating together?

That's what happened in our school, what we call the "International Dinner".

The purpose was to organize an event where everybody could enjoy the magnificent world of food.  You might say “How is it possible, twelve different kinds of food in just one night?” Yes, it happened. United States, Germany, Spain, France, Japan, Korea, Italy, Colombia, Brazil, Switzerland, Turkey, Taiwan. 

Bruno and Renato were with all the Brazilian guys in one room where the ambience, as you can imagine, was warm and festive.  There was vibrant music, and could you miss the delicious capirinha? Of course not! Delicious little cheese puffs known as pao de queijo are sexy Brazilian party food. Pao de Queijo is one of my favorite Brazilian treats. They told us that these are best served straight out of the oven, when they're still a bit gooey inside from the delectable cheese but they have served these cold alongside some cool and delicious Caipirinha cocktails. And for dessert our friends made the most famous Brazilian dessert, Goiabada, beloved by Brazilians and foreigners alike, "not much work for this one... a 'no-sweat' kind of dessert", they said.

Along the corridor we encounter a strange room, because there were several flags! Germany and Switzerland together? Yes, I realized after that they made a perfect mix because German cuisine shares a culinary culture with Switzerland.

Francesca, Pia and Tania, three German girls, cooked for us delicious Frikadeller (meatballs) combined with Kanzoffelsalat (potato salad). It is a popular menu choice of cooks preparing food for a large number of people, because it is easily made in large quantities, it can be prepared in advance and refrigerated until needed, and requires only inexpensive ingredients. For dessert, Brezel for everybody; but it was really interesting to hear about the history of this food. Pretzels are associated with superstitions. In earlier times in Europe people wore pretzels around their necks to scare away evil spirits. Pretzels also were hung on trees, to help them to grow well. Some think that breaking a pretzel is like breaking a wish-bone; Breaking the pretzel ceremoniously will make a wish come true, but I prefer to eat them!

Oh, and then finally Switzerland with their wonderful chocolate. Urs, our sweet and tender "big brother", brought for us a whole bunch of  Lindt chocolate candy, the best part of the party for lovers of chocolate. 

In my case, of course, I was the Italian representative; the idea of this party was to bring something relative to my Country so I prepared Crudaiola, the yummy cold pasta that is done with ingredients that have the same color of the Italian flag, so with basil, ricotta and tomato. During the organization of this event everybody asked me to prepare Tiramisu, so I decided to prepare it for my friends. Good idea…. just one problem. It was all finished in just five minutes.  

"Mi casa es tu casa!" This was the exceptional welcome the Spanish made. All typical Spanish food was there just for us, and I can swear, it was delightful; jamon serrano, chorizo and tortillas de patatas. Could you miss the sangria?? Of course not! Party sangria is a popular choice for parties, and almost everyone partaking of it is bound to find at least several delicious fruit slices bobbing around in their cup. As result, everybody was dancing and eating to the rhythm of flamenco.

During that time, something happened. Feiz, our beautiful Turkish friend, came a little bit late and to settle his debt he brought a tray with Turkish appetizers.

In conclusion, we moved on to another continent only in thought, of course. Asian food: the boom of our times. The major types can be roughly defined as East Asian with origins in Imperial China and now encompassing modern Japan and the Korean peninsula.

Eric, Stan, Teddy, Andy and James brought us delicious Asian food in huge quantities.  There was Kimchi Bokkembab, fried rice with meat; then, Korean Spicy- and Bibim- Noodle from Korea; Okonomiyaki and Japanese Udon Noodles from Japan. (I hoped that they would bring me Sushi, I still don’t know why they didn’t do it! ;)

This was our amazing International Dinner. Now let me just express what my feelings were during this night, because it was a strong sensation, for everybody. Eating, dancing and speaking different languages within the same building was, in my opinion, an opportunity to understand that world peace can start with just daily and normal behavior.

(PS: I have omitted the description of some countries only for time reason;  I hope that my friends will not be angry with me. J )

by Doriana Siracusano

Meet Doriana: "An Italian Girl in Frisco!"

Meet our newest student blogger Doriana from Italy, who is studying at Embassy San Francisco...

Hello!

My name is Doriana and I'm 23 years old. I'm from Sicily, Italy and I graduated in November, 2008 in Public Relations and Advertising from the University of Milan.

I came to San Francisco about three months ago and I'm trying to reach my goal, which is able to speak fluent English. In addition, I am proud to be a Student Worker because this gives me the opportunity to organize activities and to develop projects for the school, while remaining in close contact with students via the facebook page and this blog.

I attend the Embassy San Francisco school and I am completely in love with it, because it manages to combine a high disciplinary study level, with a sunny and friendly environment.

San Francisco is awesome. When you are walking, everything you see is absolutely fascinating. There are a lot of students from all over the world and it is very easy to make new friends and discover something unforgettable everyday. For this reason I'm happy to have gotten my visa in Italy and that this is valid for five years.

Over the weeks I will be giving you information and news about San Francisco, Embassy activities, and being a student in San Francisco.

I hope to see many of you in San Francisco!
All regards.
 
Doriana.

Find out more about the range of English courses on offer at Embassy.

San Francisco

During my vacation, I travelled to San Francisco with a friend. It was tons of fun even though we could spend only a little money. I'm going to introduce the attractions in San Francisco that I visited, with my comments.

• Pier 39

This place is called Pier 39 and has tons of entertainment such as restaurants, a small stage show, souvenir stores, and other fun things. The thing I most recommend you to see is the sea lions. Hundreds of sea lions are lying down on the wooden floats on the ocean by Pier 39. They have caught lots of people's attention, and there is the restaurant named "Sea Lion Cafe".

• AT&T Park

This is the home baseball stadium for the San Francisco Giants. It has a very long history and is famous for the unique shape of the stadium. The right stand is beside the ocean and very thin. If a batter hits a home run (HR) to the right stand, the ball goes into the ocean. It is called "splash hit" because the HR ball falls into the water with a splash. There are lots of people who wait for HR balls on the ocean. I and my friend visited the stadium but we did not watch the game. We just felt its atomosphere and looked at the classic building from the outside.

• Seafood restaurant

There are tons of seafood restaurants by the ocean. It seemed like crabs and shrimps are famous and sort of expensive. I tried a meal made out of tiger shrimp and my friend had crab cakes. Both our foods were amazing tasting and made us satisfied.

• Youth Hostel

The youth hostel we chose cost just 19 dollars each person per day including breakfast. The unique thing is there are 14 beds in each room, so you can see strangers and have to share the space with them. Many backpackers or tourists tend to use this kind of youth hostel, and the price and the system (you can use the Internet for free) helps for their cheap trips like ours.

• Alkatraz

Visiting Alkatraz was the main purpose of our trip to San Francisco. This is an old prison on an island 15 minutes' journey by ship away from mainland. As we were approaching the island, the sight of the old building was making me uneasy but excited because it definitely seemed and smelled like an old prison. Inside the building it was much more like "prison" than the prison I had imagined. It was unbelievable that there used to be hundreds of inmates on such a remote island, and I was lost for words to see a real prison. I started wanting to know more about Alkatraz and bought a book  about it written by an old man who used be an inmate. When I was heading to the mainland, I was feeling like I am going back to the real world. Alkatraz was such an unreal world.

• Golden Gate Bridge

We visited Golden Gate Bridge almost at the end of our sightseeing. I just can describe it with the words "huge" and "great". The sight of the bridge from outside and the sight from the bridge, both are incredible. From the bridge, we could see all of the town of San Francisco and horizons on both sides of the bridge. I had heard that the place is famous for suicide. I looked from the bridge down to the ocean, and the rumor made sense. Golden Gate Bridge is one of the biggest faces of the town San Francisco, and I strongly recommend you visit, not to commit suicide there when you go to San Francisco.