Wednesday 24 March 2010

Culture vs shopping

Dreadful weather on Saturday, but we took Andrea to Wickenden's (which is due to close in September)...(see the face book link here http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=243003217001), to East Court to see the Meridian Line and then to Crawley to shop. This was a good move, the Norwegian girls had done their homework on line and had identified certain items in certain shops and off they went!!
The verdict was that Primark was like Heaven!!
Bowling followed and then a quiet evening at home.
Sunday dawned grey, but turned into a brilliant day. We were to take the train to Brighton, but good old British rail was not running trains to the coast, only buses. I took 7 girls on the bus with me and we joined two more at the beach.
Here is the parental comment. Two of the girls did not appear to be all that happy. They were with their homestay family and I offered to take the lot all around the lanes etc. I asked one if she would like to come shopping with us and she said "No". The other one did not speak, but came with us. In the end I had 9 girls, three Norwegians, Hannah and two classmates and Em and a classmate and her sister. It was hard going with no one wanting to sit near each other at lunch. I would not allow it. I pointed out to the English hosts that it was their responsibility to look after their guests and when I got a moan about them not being sociable, I pointed out firmly that it didn't give the hosts the right to behave the same way!!!
After lunch I let them break off into 3 groups and then all of us could potter around at leisure.
The day ended with a fun bus ride home and I think everyone had a good time in the end.

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