Introduction, members, objective and bibliography

Introduction
Good morning, we are going to present our project. This project has been prepared since the beginning of the year, in September with the reading of Trip to London, which is about a man who  goes on a trip to London and visits the most popular monuments and places in London. Then all the people in the class made projects and power points related to the food, culture, sports, history and many other aspects of London culture and way of life. We learnt a lot about all its culture and the differences between their daily life and ours.
During our trip we continued the work we had started in class. We completed the worksheet of each place that we visited. All these worksheets had been made by ourselves. We had to search information about  each place and talk to our host families. That helped us to practise and improve our English and get to know  our host family better ,too.
With this blog and album, we are gathering all the information that we took in London (from the worksheets and realia such as  underground maps,  tickets, and so on ) together with our impressions of the trip. We are also completing the tasks made in London with more information we have got from books or the internet . We have been  working hard during this week.
We hope that you like our project and if you want to go to London, visit our blog, it could help you!!

               In this video you can see all the students doing their worksheet in Tower Hill.

Conclusions

With this project we have learnt how to make a blog. We have learnt how to upload videos and pictures and write a bibliography too. Now we can create a new blog by ourselves about any subject.

We have learnt a lot about English lifestyle and culture. While we were with the host families in London, we could adapt to their daily lives and their timetable and we learnt a lot about their customs but now we have widened that with information from books and the internet. 

In addition, we have learnt a lot about the history of different places, monuments or museums. We had to make a lot of research about  each visit so we have learnt about these places.

And finally, we have improved our English a lot, not only during the trip, by doing the worksheets and talking to the people there,  to the extent that now we can have a normal conversation with a native English person, but also, of course, with the creation of this blog , to do this research project, we have had to read a lot, to translate , to look for information in English on the internet, to write summaries, to explain our experience, and last, but not least, to prepare this  oral presentation in English. 



Bibliography: 

- London Worksheet

- Host families

- Trip to London

- John Escott, 2008 London
1st ed., Oxford: Oxford Bookworms 1

- Philip Prowse, 2006 This is London
1st ed., Oxford: MacMillan

- Michael Kellogg, (2012), Wordreference
Consulted: 11 june 2013
<www.wordreference.com/es/en/translation>

-  Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, (13 jun 2013), Wikipedia: Tower of London
Consulted: 12 june 2013
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_London>

- Van Ermengem bvba, (2013), A view on cities: London
Consulted: 11, 12 june 2013 
<http://www.aviewoncities.com/london.htm>

- Trustees of the National Gallery, (2013), The National Gallery
Consulted: 13 june 2013
<http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/>

- Trustees of the British Museum, (2013), The British Museum
Consulted: 12 june 2013
<http://www.britishmuseum.org/>

Pictures:

- from our trip

London guide

Welcome to our new blog where we are going to explain our day by day in London and our experience being a British citizen.

We had been waiting for this trip for a lots of months and when the moment arrived, everybody was nervous and excited.

In the English class we had done some projects, videos, Power Points and we had also read a book related to the trip. Thanks to all these projects, when we arrived at London, we knew something about English history and English lifestyle.

Finally the 16th of February arrived and the trip started!

Here's a picture of us at the airport. We had the passport and the flight tickets. 

First day

We got up at six o'clock because we had to be at a quarter past eight at Barcelona's airport.

When we arrived we met our mates and our teachers (Consol, Maite and Eusebio). Then we said goodbye to  our parents, sisters and brothers and we joined a queue to ship our luggage. We had to wait for an hour to get on the plane, which took off at half past ten.

We were really nervous and the flight seemed to be very long because we wanted to arrive quickly at  London.

We arrived at London at half past twelve. Our host family was waiting for us in front of a beautiful park, so everyone got into their host family's car and went to their house, where we settled down  and had something for lunch. Then, at five o'clock, we had to go to our nearest underground station. Some people went to Northfields, some people to Southealing.... But then all of us had to go to Acton Town, where we met all our friends.

At the time all of us  were in Acton Town, we went into the underground and after some stations we arrived at Westfield. Westfield is a popular shopping centre in London. It seemed to us a bit expensive but it was very big and it had shops that we knew and we have here in Barcelona like Bershka and Hollister. We did some shopping and we returned to the underground station.

The teachers gave us the underground tickets for the next day and we went to our houses to have dinner with our families and we talked with them to know more about them: their work, their children's schools and interesting places in London. The majority of the families were nice and kind so we could learn a lot about them. 

We knew that we were going to spend great days next to them in London!

Second day

It was the first day that we woke up in London, so we were really excited.

We woke up very early to see the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace.

Buckingham Palace is the official London residence and principal workplace of the British monarchy. The original building was constructed as a country house in 1705 by the duke of Buckingham. King George III bought the house in 1761 for his wife. A flag is hoisted each time the Queen is in the Palace. The palace is not only home to the royal family; there are also a number of staff members living here. The palace has about 600 rooms, including a throne room, a ballroom, picture gallery and even a swimming pool. 

We were surprised by the Changing of the Guard because it's a nice ceremony. It takes place daily at 11 o'clock. The New Guard parades along the Mall towards Buckingham Palace and during a ceremony replaces the Old Guard.

The ceremony, which is accompanied by music played by a military band, always attracts throngs of onlookers.

Next to the Buckingham Palace there is St. James Park. It is a huge park with a large lake. There are many animals such as squirrels, pelicans, ducks… who were introduced to the park in the mid 1600s.

After that we went to Trafalgar Square.The square is surrounded by many great buildings . At the center of the square is the tall Nelson's Column which was built to commemorate the victory of Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar against the Spanish fleet in October 1805. Nelson was wounded during that famous battle off the Spanish coast. His body was taken back to London and buried in the St. Paul's Cathedral.  It also contains a large number of statues and two fountains. On the north side is the National Gallery, built between 1834 and 1838. It houses a collection of more than 2300 paintings. We could see Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet or Leonardo Da Vinci's paintings. They were amazing! People liked the best The Sunflowers by Van Gogh and the landscapes of Monet.  

Then we went to visit the Houses of Parliament. In the middle of the 11th century, King Edward the Confessor had moved his court to the Palace of Westminster, situated near the river Thames.In 1834 a fire destroyed the Palace of Westminster. After the fire, a competition was organized to create a new building for the two houses of parliament. We were shocked when we finally saw the Big Ben. It was originally called St. Stephen's Tower, but it was soon named after the tower's largest bell, the Big Ben.

Next to the Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament we could visit Westminster Abbey. It's more a historical site than a religious site. Since 1066 every royal coronation, with the exception of Edward V and Edward VIII has taken place there. The abbey also serves as the burial ground for numerous politicians, sovereigns and artists. We also visited a beautiful cloister with many tombs. We could see the children from the choir leaving the cloister in a very ordered queue. They were all dressed with black capes, which reminded us of the Harry Potter film.



After this last visit we took the tube - which is how the underground train is called because of its shape- and went to our host houses. It was a long but productive day!

Third day

The day started, like everyday, with an underground ride that took us to  Tower Hill. 

There we were able to take good pictures of  the Tower of London.

The tower of London is a historical castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England.

The Tower of London was built at the beginning of the 11th century by William the Conqueror. He was called the Conqueror because he was the first Norman King of England, born in France. He was the descendant of Viking raiders and he had been duke of Normandy. After a long struggle to establish his power, by 1060 his hold on Normandy was secure, and he launched the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The rest of his life was marked by struggles to consolidate his hold over England.

The tower was expanded during the 13th century into the fortified complex that we know today. The Tower's most popular attraction is its famous collection of Crown Jewels that has been on display there since the 17th century, during the reign of Charles II.The jewels can be found in the Jewel House, which is part of the Waterloo Barracks just north of the White Tower.

During the reign of Henry III, when two defensive walls were built around the White Tower. The inner wall had thirteen towers and the outer wall another six. The towers were mostly used to imprison political opponents.

In Tower Hill we filled in  one of the  worksheets that our teachers and classmates had prepared for us. We had to find important dates in the history of London. Then we continued our trip to the Tower of London. When we arrived we separated in little groups and we agreed with the teachers to be in the principal door at 1 p.m so we did our work, we visited all the towers. There are seven principal towers. In the Bloody Tower we learnt that the bodies of two children were found under the stairs of the tower.
 the souvenirs shop and finally the CROWN JEWELS! they were fantastic…   

When the time arrived we all met with the teachers and we got out of the tower and went to  have a look at  the Tower Bridge. London's Tower Bridge is one of the most recognizable bridges in the world. Its Victorian Gothic style stems from a law that forced the designers to create a structure that would be in harmony with the nearby Tower of London.

Taking photographs of the Tower bridge is a favorite London tourist activity, but you can also go inside the bridge, where you can have a magnificent view over London from the walkway between the two bridge towers. 

So,we took some pictures and then we walked for a little time to get to  Saint Paul's Cathedral.

St. Paul's Cathedral was built by Christopher Wren between 1675 and 1711. It is one of Europe's largest cathedrals and its dome is only exceeded in size by that of the St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

St. Paul's Cathedral has had an eventful history. Five different churches were built at this site.

St Paul's Cathedral acts as an important meeting place for people and ideas, as a centre for the arts, learning and public debate. 

But this time we couldn't enter there but we took some pictures of us in front of it. Later, we arrived at the Tate museum. Tate Modern has an excellent collection of modern art, from 1900 until now. It is housed in a former power station. Since its opening in 2000 it has become one of London's most popular museums. Also, entrance to many of the collections and exhibits at Tate Modern is free, which adds to its popularity.

There we could watch all the new and modern pictures, paintings, sculptures,… we really loved all that we saw, specially the Picasso's paintings.

Once we had eaten we went walking to the London Eye to go for a ride and had a great time enjoying the sights up there. The London Eye is a giant Ferris wheel situated on the banks of the River Thames in London, England. The entire structure is 135 metres tall and the wheel has a diameter of 120 metres. 

It is the tallest Ferris wheel in Europe, and the most popular tourist attraction in the United Kingdom, visited by over 3.5 million people annually.

We loved being up there and , as we were there at  sunset, the sky was orange, pink and purple…it was AWESOME!

Fourth day

On the fourth day we were in London, we met with our mates and the teachers in Acton Town like we did every day. We got into the underground and we went to our first destination: The British Museum.

Established in 1753 with the donation of 71,000 objects from the collection of Sir Hans Sloane, the British Museum quickly became one of the city's top attractions. 

The Museum became an interesting site when Sir Robert Smirke's constructed the  big neo-classical building, with its famous columns.

The collection found at the British Museum is enjoyed by millions each year. Because the museum is so large, many visitors take more than one day to explore it. Not all of the more than 7 million artifacts are on display, but much of the collection constantly rotates so you'll see something new with each visit. In its collection you can see: Elgin Marbles, Egyptian Collection, Assyrian collection, Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, Sudan, Asia, Coins and Medals, Conservation, Documentation and Science, Greek and Roman Antiquities, the Middle East, Portable Antiquities and Treasure, Prehistory and Europe, and Prints and Drawings. We realized that there were many collections of different civilisations because of the English Empire conquest. The exhibit we like the best was the Egyptian. The Pharaoh's coffins were really luxurious. The other attraction was the Rosetta Stone which helped to decipher the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic script because of the three different scripts - hieroglyphic, dematic and ancient-.

After our visit to the British museum we had our reward and the teachers took us to Piccadilly Circus where we had the possibillity to buy clothes or whatever we wanted to. Piccadilly Circus is a busy square in the heart of London. It is famous for the fountain that was installed here at the end of the 19th century and for the neon advertising that turned the square into a miniature version of Times Square.  

Then we went to Oxford street, a large street full of shops, and we continued shopping and spending our money in presents for our families or for us.

So, in conclusion, that day was full of shopping and fun!! 

Fifth day

On the fifth day we felt like one English citizen. We used to eat English food such as Roast Beef or Fish and Chips and we were now used to  eating early and going to bed early too. We also understood  our families better when they were talking and were happy to realize we were improving our English. 

This day we visited the Natural History Museum. One of the best things that London offers to its tourists are the museums. Museums are really big and interesting and they are also free.
In this museum you can find enormous collection of artifacts and specimen. The Natural History Museum is divided into different color-coded zones, each focusing on a specific aspect of life on earth. 
Also a favorite with visitors is a hall dedicated to large mammals, including an enormous model of a blue whale and elephants.

The collection of dinosaur skeletons is one of the museum's biggest attractions. There are several life-sized models in the Dinosaur hall and we could see a huge skeleton of a Diplodocus in the central hall. In the Dinosaurs Gallery we were shocked to see many dinosaur bones and mobile recreations of a T-rex.

We enjoyed ourselves a lot but we were a little bit tired because we were having a really busy week. During the day we hadn’t time to relax so in the afternoon we had to go to Greenwich. We had to go with a special train and the journey was a little bit long.

Greenwich is a charming and historic area of London that is best known for lending its name to the time by which the world sets its clocks. In the park is the former Royal Observatory, through which the Prime Meridian passes. The goal of the observatory was to help navigation of the ships by studying the stars, creating maps, and determine the longitude when at sea.

The fifth day had finished. Our dinner was waiting for us…