Relato de viagem - England

Texto elaborado pela recantista para ser apresentado oralmente, no CELIN (Centro de Línguas e Interculturalidade - da UFPR) como uma das exigências do curso de Inglês.

TRIP TO ENGLAND

My brother-in-law, my sisters and I, traveled to England, in May, last year.

I have a nephew living therein Bournemouth city. He is married with an England woman.

We went to visit them because my nephew´s daughter was born and my older sister wanted to know her new grandaughter. My nephew is a guide for students who go from Brazil to England. His job includes preparing trips and finding schools, homes and jobs for students.

Before the trip, we arranged the official documentation as passport and a justification letter for the trip, signed by my nephew, with his address, in England. It made easier our entrance in England

We trade our currency, bought the tickets, a health plan and winter clothes. We studied English – a litlle - and prepared the bags.

We traveled by Gol Company from Curitiba to Sao Paulo during forty minutes and by British Airwais from São Paulo to London during eleven hours. We met a Brazilian friend in SP. He speaks English very well and helped us very much.

This was an exausting trip because we went by economic class during a long time and we had jet lag. The time zone is different four hours.

When we arrived at theLondon airport we needed to show the passport and to answer a lot of questions about our origin, destination, how long we would stay there, reason of the trip and other questions. My sister Regina entered easily, without problems, because she has a red passport from European Comunity. She has this kind of passport because she married an Italian man. And finaly we passed in front of many dangerous dogs to check drugs and explosives.

We took a big car from London to Bournemouth, because we had many bags and packs.

In Bournemouth we stayed in an English typical house of my nephew´s friends, Dennis and Julie, during one month. We became good friends too.

There we noticed a lot of differences between Brazilian and English cultures.

It´s very safe there. No thieves. The cars are parked on the streets with their doors open. The houses have little walls and no gates at all.

There are only three or four kinds of house to avoid visual pollution so there are a lot of similar houses, including new houses, all the same and it isn’t permited to make houses with five floors or more in this city. The people think it´s very important to preserve the life quality.

In the houses there is one wash basin in each bedroom. There is heathing in all rooms of the house, because the climate is very cold. The bathroom is used only to take shower or to wash hands. The toilete is in another room – and the toilete paper is put in the toilet and there isn’t a waste basket.

During the spring the nights last only for seven hours: From about 9 o´clock p.m. to 4 o´clock a.m.

The main meal is dinner. At midday the people take only a ight lunch because their breakfast is plentiful. They usually drink tea in the morning and in the afternoon, no coffee. The main kind of meat is sheep.

The city is by the seaand the people enter in the cold water with much pleasure. At night the teenagers and thr youngers go to the pubs. Around Bournemouth there are wonderful and historical places. The people visit them a lot. Bournemouth is a very sporty city with many competitions. It is famous in England because its colorful gardens. There we saw the black tulip. It’s wonderful! We visited museuns, parks, stores, place of sports, the piers and restaurants. There are many Italian restaurants in Bournemouth and many interesting places around the city. We walked every morning to know the city the houses architeture and the people front there. It was an enjoyable time...

The people are polite, always sayng: “I’m sorry”..., “Please”. Thank you” Can I help you? about everything.

The schools are very traditional includinguniforms that have been worm for a hundred years. The girls wear skirts and the boys wear suits. The discipline is very strict.

People buy clothes in mega stores and they try them inside the store without shame. No privacy. They have a dressing room but most of them don’t go inside it.

The population is very old and the elders don’t stay alone. When someone get widow or widower he/she marriees in a hurry and the couple live togheter.

Almost all people have dogs and they take them for a walk everyday.

There are few professionals like construction workers, gardeners, electricians and dentists... Many people have broken teeth because there are few dentists and they are expensive

In this city there are many Brazilian students working in the stores and restaurants. We met and talked a lot with them.

From Bournemouth we traveled to London by train. We saw there: Buckinghan Palace and the change guarding ceremony; the Big-Ben, the “London Eyes”, the Thames river, a lot of bridges, the National Museum, stores, squares, parks as St. James , Royal and Hide Park etc. We took a sightseeng bus to visit the city. It was a two floor bus. We met many Brazilan people in London.

We visited places around Bournemouth in Dorset State, as Lulfwort Cave, Purbeck Cost where a 007 movie was filmed, Christchurch, Old Harry Rocks, Coiffe Castle, etc.

We also visited Milano, Seregno, Firenze and Pisa in Italy, Barcelona in Spain and Paris in France. From Paris we went back to Bournemouth by train through the European Tunnel. It was exciting!

This was a great time! I intent to go back there...

THE END

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About our trip to England and other countries, I learned many things as:

It’s necessary:

to know how better the local language because, it was difficult to comunicate.

to know about the culture and behaviors and habits of the inhabitants, their foods, drinks, etc.

to have an international card and travel check, apart from passport..