PS I answered the questions about "apart from" and "besides" on the last entry.

•  David
• 2011年10月18日 00:07

Hi David,

Thank you for your early new entry. I was going to post this in the old entry, but I did here. I haven't read the new entry, so I'll read it later or tomorrow.

Hi Emma,

Nice to have you here.

> Did any of you try talking to Siri or Goole Voice Search or anything?

I have neither seen a new iPhone nor talked to Siri, but I watched a funny video from Singapore where Siri voice assistant only answers in Singlish. If you are interested in that, please take a look. Here’s a link. http://youtu.be/UDY9HiChArQ

Hi Fumie, Green, Katherine, Anne, and Jazmín,

Thank you for all of your concern. Yes, I have to have the roof and windows repaired quickly. Otherwise, the house will rot before long. Some men from a repair shop came to check the damaged parts and let me know the quotation. It shocked me again because the money will be much more than that I could afford.

Hi Green,

>If you know good idea about moving please let me know!

I'm afraid I don't quite follow what you really need, but I know that you have to do a lot of things before/after moving house because I moved houses many times. One thing I can say is that you have to take good care of yourself, especially for your back. ^^

Hi Anne,

>What do you think ?

Thank you for sharing your question. I would say "except" in your original sentence because I've never tried to use "apart from" or "other than." The explanation you introduced was easy to understand for me: リストからそれを除くときはexceptで、リストにそれを入れるときはbesides、そして "apart from"と"other than"は両者に使える。iPodは持っているので、「持っていないApple製品」リストから除く訳だから、exceptを使う。これで解決の筈でしたが、Pandaさんの見解やDavidさんの「besidesは少しformal過ぎるから」という新たな説明を読むと、besidesの定義がまた変わってきたような気がします。Nativeの生きた英語の世界は奥が深そうです。

Good night, everyone. See you later today.:)

tsuneko

•  tsuneko
• 2011年10月18日 00:19

Hi David and everyone,

David,thanks for your advice about my question.
> "besides" sounded a bit too formal for the context.---Oh, I see. I've never thought about it! I'll add your advice on my red book.

panda and tsuneko,
Thanks for sharing your ideas.
panda の見解もおもしろいし勉強になりました。、tsunekoの言うようにニュアンスまでつかむのは本当に難しくて奥が深いですね。ちなみに、apart from /other than　は私はDavidの本で知って使ったことあります＾＾）

This week's topic is interesting, but I've just finished reading your entry now, so I'd like to write something later. Anyway, I studied at a language school at Cambridge in the UK for years ago.

See you soon,

Anne

•  Anne
• 2011年10月18日 05:49

Hi David and Kattie,

Thank you for giving us such a chance. This week will be a lot of fun to me. I read the entry last night and was going to post a comment, but it was rejected. Your student, he did a great job giving Kattie a very good impression. Kattie, I'm doing the similar business to yours, so I'm very interested in how you are running yours but I have to go now. See you tonight.

Hi Anne and Panda,

As for the issue of "besides", I found another expression in a grammar book: "After no, nobody, nothing and similar negative words, the three expressions can all have the same meaning." like the below.

Anne has no Apple pruducts besides/except/apart from an iPod.(= Anne only has an iPod.)

すっきり爽やか、いってきます。

tsuneko

•  tsuneko
• 2011年10月18日 08:49

Hi, David

Thank you for telling us the answer for ''besides'' question. The sentence seems odd because it's a little formal... so I think I had better use other expressions.

Hi, Tsuneko

The expression you found in a grammar book is really helpful. 私も、すっきり爽やか！Thank you!!

Hi, all
I had never stayed with a family abroad.
I had only stayed in a dormitory in Oxford. (that was really cheap!)
So I am looking forward to reading other members' stories.

•  panda
• 2011年10月18日 10:05

Hi Kattie,

Well, I've never experienced a homestay with a foreign family myself, so I hope I will be able to visit and stay with your family some day in the future.

I haven't been to the UK, actually I've never been to Europe, so I don't know much about Manchester. What months in the year would you recommend for me visiting there? I'd like to interact with local people as much as I could. What kind of activities do you think I could take part in? How long do you usually let a guest stay? How about primary school students? Do you accept them? If so, are there any schools in your place where they could join during a vacation?

Sorry for too many questions. I would appreciate if you would kindly answer one or two questions among them. Take your time.

Bye for now.

Tsuneko

•  tsuneko
• 2011年10月18日 23:46

Hi Tsuneko,

Nice to hear from you.

As you probably already know, people don't visit the UK for the weather! However, I would say January through to March are probably the worst months of the year to come to the UK because it can be cold and miserable. In the summer months there are a lot of music festivals and events on in most cities and December is also very nice because cities and towns are decorated for Christmas. Christmas is a very big event in the UK. I love Christmas!

Manchester is well located because you can go to London for a day (the trains take 2 hours and are very regular) and you can also go to Edinburgh which is the capital of Scotland. Edinburgh is a really beautiful city, it's where JK Rowling lives and where she wrote the Harry Potter books. Liverpool is also less than an hour away and is best known for being the home of the Beatles - you can visit John Lennon and Paul McCartney's houses which are really interesting. Liverpool is also well known for it's football club!

Manchester itself was the world's first industrial city and there is an excellent museum called the Science and Industry Museum which tells you all about the history of Manchester and the North West. The city also has some beautiful libraries and very old libraries (Cheetham, John Rylands and the Central Reference libraries) and some very good theatres, in particular the Royal Exchange. Apart from this, Manchester has a very good night life with plenty of bars, clubs and restaurants, a well established China Town and a Gay Village. Manchester is also well known for having a good music scene and many famous bands come from the city e.g. Oasis, New Order, The Happy Mondays, The Smiths ......and of course, it is known for its football (Man Utd and Man City). Our house is 25 minutes by train from Manchester City Centre and there is a regular train service - although the last train leaves Manchester at about 11.50pm, which can be annoying!

Our Japanese guest stayed with us for 2 weeks, which is a good length of time. He was very busy and did all of the above activities as well as going on the Man Utd Stadium tour and watching Man City play at the Etihad Stadium.

We help our guests book train tickets (which is not easy in the UK!) and give them advice on places to visit. We try to take them to any local places and events which tourists would not normally see, for example unusual pubs or festivals and they sometimes even join in a local game of football! Our guests are out most days and in the evenings we have a nice meal together and chat about what they have seen and plan the next day. We often have friends popping round, so there is also the chance to meet other local people.

We don't have primary school age children and I am also unsure whether any language schools would cater for children at such a young age. Tom (my husband) and I are self employed, Tom is a musician and I work in recruitment, so I am sorry but we could not look after young children full time.

I think the ideal length of time to stay with us, unless you were planning on attending a language college, would be about 2 weeks. If you wanted to stay 3/4 weeks that would be fine, if we had availability. If you are planning to stay 3/4 I would suggest you hire a car and travel to country areas near us - North Wales, The Lake District and the Peak District - these are all very beautiful areas. Some of our guests stay with us for 2 weeks and then travel on to Europe - I think this is a very good idea.

I hope I have answered your questions but if you would like to ask anything else, please feel free to.

Kattie

•  Kattie
• 2011年10月19日 01:14

Hi Kattie,

Wow, you've answered all of my questions in detailed so quickly. I'm most obliged to you. Now, I know more about Manchester including other nearby places because you introduced a lot nicely. It sounds like there are tons of nice places to visit and see and interesting activities to join. That sounds exciting. Now, I'm drawing a map of Manchester in mind. Apparently, two weeks will be not enough for me.

As for the availabilities for young kids, I got your situaton. I don't have any kids myself but I'm taking care of some, so I just wanted to know the possibility for them.:)

I hope I will be able to homestay with you and Tom near future, avoiding through Jan. to Mar. as you advised.

Thank you once again. Have a nice day!!

•  tsuneko
• 2011年10月19日 08:51

Hi David,

When I was doing home stay in Australia about 20 years ago, I had no idea that I had an option to arrange everything by myself. It was shocking to know that Japnese agents take more than 60 percent of the cost. But I was wondering how can we find host families if we don't book through any agents. Like in your student's case, he knows you and you introduced one. I thoght maybe nowadays people put advertisements on the web. So I searched and I found lots of host families on the Net. I hope I will do a home stay in the UK in the future. Of course I'll arrange everything by myself.

Hi Tsuneko,

I saw the Youtube you introduced us. Singlish is all Greek to me.

Fumie

•  Fumie
• 2011年10月19日 11:28

Hi Kattie,

It's so wonderful to having you with us! Tsuneko already asked you most of the things I wanted to know and you already answered them. Your introductions about Manchester and other places get me itchy feet. I want to grab a suitcase and fly to the UK at this moment! Unfortunately that is impossible. Anyway, if I may, I want to do a home stay in the UK during Christmas season.
I have some questions.
Do you put advertisement or something on the Net that tells people you are offering home stay that we can look?
How many students have you had until now?
What is the most good thing by being host parent?
It's so lovely to talk to you.

Fumie

•  Fumie
• 2011年10月19日 11:52

Hi kattie,

Thank you so much for joining our blog. It's very nice to have you with us.
You answers to tsuneko make me feel more interested to visit Manchester and to stay with your family.

My image towards Manchester was ''industrial city'' and the football team ''Man Utd.'' Thanks to your detailed explanation, I was able to visualize the image about Manchester a lot more and a plan how I can spend days there when I have a chance to visit there. As Fumie said, I wish I could visit Manchester in December!
Among your explanation, I especially got interested in libraries and theaters.

Apart from Fumie's questions, can I ask you a few questions?
* Do you accept only students at language schools or colleges?
I mean, do you also accept tourists when they hope to do a home stay for a while?
*Is one week stay available?
*How many people do you accept at a time?
*Do you exchange e-mails or letters with students directly before accepting them?

I'd appreciate you if you would answer my questions.

Anne

•  Anne
• 2011年10月19日 17:56

Hi David and everyone,

David, thank you for giving us a chance to talk with Kattie.
As you said, it’s quite understandable for a lot of Japanese people to ask a Japanese company
to arrange everything. It was my first trip to foreign countries^^)

I studied at a language school in Cambridge for two weeks four years ago.
I contacted school myself and arranged everything.

Let me share my experience with you:

First, I used some agent that has an office in London to find out at which school I should study.
I’m in my late 50’s, and wanted to find the school that wide range of generations attend,but didn't want the school just for the middle -aged. I chose one school among a lot of options(schools?) and got some advice but the cost was free. It was a big help.

After deciding the school, I contracted myself; I asked to send a prospectus from school and
then, I filled in the applicants and sent it back to school.
In it, there was a part about accommodation; you need to decide which type you want such as a home stay(2-3types),dormitory and hotels.
There were several things you had to do before going to the UK including sending money for a course fee.
I exchange emailed with the staff at school several times.
I think these processes are also the part of studying abroad. I felt nervous, but was also thrilled with these things.

Actually, when I arrived at a home stay family, an unexpected mishap waited for me. The home stay parent double-booked, and when I said to them “Hello!” ,a host mother said, “I’m sorry,but we
can’t accept you.” I had no idea what had happened! Anyway, a few hours later, young students from East Europe also arrived at the house. I slept in the living room, and washed my face in the kitchen and used the bathroom outside the house. It was really an unusual experience, wasn’t it?
The next day, I met with the staff before the school started. According to him, he knew(noticed?) this mistake after I left Japan and couldn’t let me know. Actually, while was in Japan, I sent a letter saying”Hello!” to my host family, but didn’t get any letters. I was worried about that, and sent emails several times and lastly made a phone call to school. The staff of the school answered,” No problem. There’s nothing to worry about.”
The second home stay family was nice and very friendly. There were two boys from China and a boy from Qatar at the house, so I shared the bath room with them.
The host mother said, “ We don’t usually accept woman( she said ‘a girl’!), but it's an emergency.” She was from Singapore and we talked a lot.

If I were to say one thing that I felt puzzled while I stayed with them, the host mother’s words,”Feel free to eat bread and have coffee for breakfast.”

Hi tsuneko,
I had a look at the site. It was interesting, but was difficult to understand!

Bye for now,

Anne

•  Anne
• 2011年10月19日 18:22

it's me again.
>"It was my first trip to foreign countries^^)"---This sentence should be placed after "
I studied at a language school in Cambridge for two weeks four years ago."

•  Anne
• 2011年10月19日 18:34

Hi David,

Thanks for introducing Kattie to us. It should be very interesting topic for all of us:)
I  had a home stay once in my early 20s. I stayed with a family in Brighton. I am sort of a lazy person and I really don't like to arrange or coordinate things. So it's natural for me to go to a Japanese agent. I am not sure but it was not that expensive at all. Besides, I don't think I would manage to arrange everything by myself at that time. Thanks to the Internet, I might be able to do it by myself now!!
Hi Kattie,
Glad to have you with us. I enjoyed reading your comment. Manchester is one of the places to visit because I am a great fan of New Order so I want to visit near future. look forward to your next comment.

Good night and sweet dreams,
amo

•  amo
• 2011年10月20日 00:53

Hi Amo,

I really understand what you mean about not wanting to plan everything yourself. It can be particularly difficult when you are in a foreign country and you are unfamiliar with the language and how to go about things.

I think agencies often arrange stays with host families but they don't generally help with planning your trip once you are there, this means that people often don't get the most out of their experience, it's really a matter of luck whether you get a helpful host family or not. We like people to have a really good time when they come to us, so we help them with all their planning.

My eldest daughter went to a language school in Spain and stayed with a host family when she was 16. I was unfamiliar with the way things worked at that point and so I booked with an agent because I thought it would be the easiest/safest thing to do. Her experience was okay but not brilliant, her host family had many foreign students staying at the same time so she had little chance to practice her Spanish and they were too busy to show her around. She was also mugged on her first day just outside the college, she lost her bag with all her money, her keys, the directions to the flat where she was staying .... and she even lost her shoes! She went back into the college crying and told them what had happened. They said students were regularly mugged outside the college and just gave her another map. No one helped her home. I was very disappointed by the lack of support. However, on the upside (do you understand this expression?!), she survived and she certainly had a good story to tell when she got home!

By the way, I wonder whether you have watched the film '24hour Party People' - it is all about the Manchester music scene in the 1980s - if you haven't seen it, I think you might enjoy it.

Kattie

•  Kattie
• 2011年10月20日 02:02

Hi Kattie,

Thanks for your words. Glad that you understand what I meant. At that time, I had no confidence to communicate in English but as I mentioned, I want to do it by myself if I had a chance now. Anyway, thanks for sharing your daughter's story. It was a bit of surprise to hear about, though. I am on the way to work, so I will write a comment tonight.

Ps, of course I have watched the film that you mentioned;)

Have a nice day!

amo

•  amo
• 2011年10月20日 08:16

Hi Fumie,

Good to hear from you. The Christmas season starts in late November and lasts until 6th January but really it is best up until Christmas Day (25th December). We don't usually have guests staying with us from about 22nd December until New Year because this is a family time, however most of the fun takes place before Christmas, so you would not be missing out.

I assume you are thinking about coming in 2012 and it's definitely a good idea to plan your trip well in advance. If you buy train tickets up to 3 months beforehand, you can get them much cheaper and we can help you with this. Manchester is particularly good at Christmas - the Christmas markets have been voted the best in the UK - they open in November and go on until about 22nd December. They sell gifts from around Europe (handmade craft gifts like toys, slippers, hats, candles and ornaments) and they also have some fantastic food stalls. People often meet up with friends after work and go to the market stalls to eat and drink. All the streets are lit with Christmas lights and there are some outside ice skating rinks. Here is a link to the Manchester Christmas Markets - there is also a very good video in the article which shows you exactly what it is like http://www.manchestermarkets.com/Specialist-Markets/Christmas-Market/Christmas-Markets_15_p1.asp

We always have a large, real Christmas tree in our sitting room and I spend hours making sure the decorations look just right and we put up all our Christmas cards, hang holly and mistletoe and put a wreath on our front door. I also like to have a real fire. As I said before, I love Christmas!

Over the past couple of years we have had 15-20 guests and we learn something new every time. We have had French air traffic controllers, a Swedish professional show jumper, an international synchronised swimming judge, quite a few students, including most recently 2 Japanese language students etc. We learn about different cultures but also it's nice to show people British culture and hopefully change people's ideas about British food, which, like all cuisines, can be very good! We have kept in touch with virtually all our guests and it is interesting to hear what they are up to.

Our daughters have recently gone to university so we now have more time to have guests so we are hoping to have more people to stay in the future. I usually get enquiries via an agency but I have been increasingly concerned about how much the agents are being paid. The problem is that a lot of host families receive very little money, but the people booking the holidays have paid a lot. I understand from some of my guests who have been on a number of homestay holidays that this means that the service they have received can be quite poor - for example bad food, unhelpful hosts, too many guests at the same time etc. It also means that there is often not enough (if any) communication between the host family and the guest prior to arrival. There are too many middle men.

If students book directly with a good family, we can help you plan your trip, arrange cheap train tickets, maybe even get hold of tickets for special events which have to be booked a long time in advance.

We don't currently have a website but, if we felt there was enough demand, this is something we would look into. In the meantime if you would like more particular information e.g. a profile of us, photos of our house and rates, let me know your email and I will mail the details.

Hope to meet you one day.

Kattie



Hi Anne,

I hope I have answered some of your questions in the reply I have sent Fumie so here are just a few additional comments;

As you can see we accept a variety of guests, most of them are visiting tourists, although we do have a Japanese student staying with us who is at a language school in Manchester until the end of December.

Yes, a one week stay is absolutely fine with us - you might decide to fly on from us to Europe. We are only about 25 minutes from Manchester Airport and Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels etc are all just a short flight away.

We have 3 spare rooms, so I suppose the maximum number of guests we could have would be 3/4 but we would only do this if we felt this would not spoil the enjoyment of our other guests - for example, if the guests were all friends then this would obviously be very nice for everyone.

Yes, we can email guests directly before arriving and I think this is a very good idea because it means that we can help you plan your trip.

Hope to see you too.

Kattie



Dear Everyone,

I hope I have answered all your questions but if I have missed anything, please let me know!

•  Kattie
• 2011年10月20日 08:53

Hi　David , Kattie and everyone、

It's been a while since I posted the last comment.

This week’s topic is really interesting to me because I experienced a home-stay in Britain and a host mother in Japan.

Kattie, thank you very much for the first-hand information about Manchester & other cities, travel tips, Christmas events and others. They are very helpful, so next time　I will definitely visit Manchester and hopefully stay at your home. Anne , Tsuneko and other mates asked you the same questions I wanted to ask and perfect answers returned from you, so I am now ready to go to Britain if the money situation permits. I hope you will make your own website very soon so as to know the details. Kattie, it would be nice if you put me into your friends' list. Thank you.

David, thank you very much for giving us a chance to talk about a ‘home stay’ things.　

I went to Cambridge in 1997 to study business English for two weeks. I lived with a family of three. Back in 1997 , the Internet was not widespread among the public, so I asked a travel agent to arrange a school and a home-stay. It was surely expensive. Maybe there were many middle men in-between.

My host mother was over 75 years old and she was a very good cook. I enjoyed her cooking and chatting with her everyday. To tell the truth, I listened to her grumbles about her son’s wife everyday. Mothers-in law are same everywhere #ha,ha#.

I also experienced the acceptance of two home stay students in my home in 1992 and 1993.

The first student　was a girl and came from U.S.A and secondly we welcomed a boy from New Zealand. Both of them stayed at my home for one month.

The boy's name was Mark and 17 years old then and now 35. We still keep in touch. Last January my husband and I attended his wedding ceremony held at a vineyard in Waiheke island near Auckland. It was one of the most pleasant and precious moment as we had a great chance to meet many friends of Mark.

Have a good day, everyone.

•  Kyon
• 2011年10月20日 10:31

Hi David
It's first time for me to give a comment here.
I also have had a similar experience.
I homestayed at one australian host family and host mother was surprised when I told her how much I paid to a Japanese agent.
Also I use to work for a tax free shop.
Most of customer(probably more than 95%) were Japanese people. We sold Australian famous chocolate there about $20. But if you buy one at a local supermarket, you just need to pay around $3.
Package was nicer, but will you pay $17 for a package?
I just feel that Japanese agents are taking advantage from Japanese students and tourists.
Because Japanese people prefer group to indivisual, also they trust agents or shops easily.
How do you think about that?

•  fuji
• 2011年10月20日 15:30

Correction:

The first student was a girl and came from U.S.A. ⇒　The first student was a girl who came from U.S.A.

Thank you.

•  Kyon
• 2011年10月20日 17:17

Hi Kattie,

Thank you so much for answering our questions.
With your story about the atmosphere during Christmas season and the website you introduced us, I felt more interested in visiting Manchester during Christmas season when I could afford to go.

*Having 3 pair rooms is nice because when I'm visiting with my friends in the future.

*As kyon said, I also hope you'll make your own website.

By ther way, I'm sorry to hear what happened to your daughter when she studied in Spain. I can't believe such a horrible thing could happen! The attitude of the staff of the college was unbelievable, wasn't that!?
I'm glad to hear,on the upside(it's new to me!), she got back home with lots of good memories.

Hi fuji,
Nice to meet you. It was surprise to hear about the story about a tax free shop.

Bye for now,

Anne

•  Anne
• 2011年10月20日 23:51

Hi david,
I havn't had any chance to staying a family abroad befor. But I had hosted a guest three times several years ago. Because our town has a international exchange association. It has a relationship with a Japanese language school and it invites some students as homestay event every year. Also it has to look for some familys that it can welcome them to stay and take care of them for free. So I volunteered. The student came from many kinds of countrys and I hosted three times they were a Mongolian a Thai and a Australian . We lerned about different cultures and cooked delicious foods each other. We had a good time and had s good momorys.

Hi Tuneko,
I saw the youtube you recommended. But I couldn't catch their words at all. But it was very interesing and enjoyed. Thank you.

Hi Kattie,
I enjoyed reading your comment and watched a video. I would like to visit to U.K soon ( of course your home) but unfortunately I don't have a chance now. I hope I could go to Manchester near future. Thank you for a lot of information about Manchester and your family. I'm looking forward to reading your next comment.

•  匿名
• 2011年10月21日 00:36

My mail name is katherine. I'm sorry I didn't write my mane on the comment .

•  Katherine
• 2011年10月21日 00:41

Hello Everyone,

I was trying to think of the type of things I would be interested in seeing if I was visiting the UK for the first time. I recently looked at a Japanese guide book of the UK and thought it tended to mention the very obvious tourist attractions but failed to mention some of the more unusual places. So I thought I would tell you about a few places which probably won't be in your guide books but which you might like. I don't want to ramble on too long here but if I mention these places you can google them yourselves. If you want to know any more about them, please feel free to ask me.

Denis Severs' House, 18 Folgate Street, Spitalfields, London - my friend recommended this to me and it sounds fantastic

Edinburgh - Mary King's Close and the Camera Obscura

Near Durham - Beamish Museum

North Wales - A walk up Mount Snowdon

The Lake District - very beautiful area and you can visit Wordsworth's house; Dove Cottage

York - The Jorvik Viking Centre, The National Railway Museum (which also has a 1976 Bullet train!) and the city itself

National Trust Properties - the National Trust own buildings which are of historical interest all around the UK, properties near us include Styal Mill, Dunham Massey and the homes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney - all worth a visit

Port Sunlight near Liverpool

Glencoe in Scotland - a beautiful and haunting area

The Fusilier Museum - this is a tiny museum in Bury, North of Manchester - my friend who is interested in military history says this is important because this regiment was responsible for guarding Napoleon Bonaparte on the Island of St Helena until his death and has notes etc from the doctor who treated him. It won't be in your guidebooks!

There are a lot of old pubs such as Mr Thomas' Chop House in Manchester, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese and The Lamb and Flag in London. You must go to a traditional pub, at least once!

Haddon Hall

Chatsworth House - one of the finest stately homes in Britain - it may be in your guide books

Haworth - This is where the Bronte sisters lived

The National Football Museum - reopening in 2012 in Manchester

Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre - for the scientists amongst you

The Halle Orchestra and the Bridgewater Hall - if you like classical music

John Rylands Library and Cheethams Library

Events
Pride - Manchester - large gay festival with parades and celebrations - you don't have to be gay to enjoy the fun!
Nottinghill Carnival - London - very big, possibly mentioned in guide books
Mathew Street Festival - Liverpool - music festival
Edinburgh Festival - This might be in your guide books
Chelsea RHS Flower Show - Very large flower show
Tatton RHS Flower Show - near us
The Manchester International Festival - an Arts festival which attracts premiers by major international artists e.g. Carlos Acosta

On a much, much smaller scale there is a really lovely celebration near us, it's called the Lanterns Procession and it's in a town called New Mills - this year (September) there were 4000 people there and I think our Japanese guest was probably the only tourist! People make lanterns in specially run lantern workshops in the days running up to it and then they walk through the woodland which is all lit up with lanterns and flaming displays.

Bonfire Night (or Guy Fawkes Night) - 5th November
Manchester Christmas Markets

I'm sure David can probably add to this list and any of you who have visited the UK will probably have places you want to mention too.

•  Kattie
• 2011年10月21日 02:35

Correction

Manchester is one of the places to visit....
> Manchester is one of the places that I want to visit...

Hi everyone,

I still have a trouble to access here wirelessly. I have decided to buy a new pc, but I am too busy to go to a shop. It seems that I have to wait till next month:(

Have a good day,

amo

•  amo
• 2011年10月21日 08:33

it's me again

I have a trouble to access here...
> I have trouble accessing here...

amo

•  amo
• 2011年10月21日 09:28

Hi Kattie,

It's very kind of you to answered me in a detailed explanation and also introduced us firsthand information to more unusual places and events which are not covered in guidebooks.
Thank you SO MUCH! I understand you are a great, the greates host who care for guests and do lots of things for them to make sure that they have a wonderful time during a stay with you.
I watched the site of the Manchester Christmas Markets. No wonder it have been voted the best in the UK. I noticed they sell "Takoyaki" Japanese dumpling with diced octopus inside. I love Christmas too, although I am not a Christian. I just love its warm atmosphere and festive mood. Most Japanese are not Christians but we celebrate Christmas.
I also googled most of the places and events which you had introduced us. Looking at them, I became want to go to Manchester and other places more and hopefully stay at your house. But maybe it would be in a dozen years later or more when my husband retired. Now we have 3 children who are still school age. We can't afford the travel expenses of 5 of us. When we go to the UK in the future, we want to stay at least a week because there are lots to see and do. In the meantime, I enjoy the happy moment reading your story and dreaming about future travel!
Thank you again for all your kindness!

Fumie

•  Fumie
• 2011年10月21日 10:17

Hi fuji,

Nice to meet you! I was surprised at the price of tax free shops. That's a rip-off!

Fumie

•  Fumie
• 2011年10月21日 10:26

It was good to chat to everyone this week and hear about your homestay experiences.

We would also like to visit Japan one day. From what I hear from our Japanese guests, it sounds like a fascinating country, full of diversity. I think travel and cultural exchanges make you realise how similar people all around the world actually are.

If anyone has any further questions, please get in touch via David.

Kattie

•  Kattie
• 2011年10月22日 02:17

What a fun pattern! It’s great to hear from you and see what you’ve sent up to. All of the projects look great! You make it so simple to this. Thanks

•  abercrombie
• 2011年11月16日 12:20