Lucia Tysserand's Testimonial (Italiano)

I’m sitting on a sofa, in a pretty room, looking outside of the window, at an abundant, verdant and rolling countryside, in the middle of nowhere. It’s beautiful here, but I feel like a fish out of water. I can’t see the harbour of Stornoway from the window, nor the canal. I can’t see the people I was used to see until a few hours ago. So, all I can do is remember the holiday I spent in the Outer Hebrides, together with my husband and the people I met there.

I enjoyed it very much, mainly for three reasons:

• Stornoway itself, the main town of the Hebrides and, the wild Isle of Lewis, whose pace of life is very relaxing
• The kindness of the teachers
• The friends we met there

The teacher

Let’s start with Gordon, my teacher who’s also the director of the school. He’s always been kind and thoughtful with us and this made me feel I wasn’t alone. This is particularly important when you are far from home. He’s always been helpful with me and the other students, and even if he says it’s part of the service, I think his kindness went much further beyond his duty!

This was evident from the very beginning, when we first arrived to Lewis. He showed us the way to reach the accommodation, the accommodation itself and our huge flat. Then he went with us to the nearest supermarket so that we could buy something to eat (and it was 10pm). We appreciated it a lot.

The day after he showed my husband and me around Stornoway, the biggest town of the isle, which isn’t actually that big!!! He showed us its main attractions and he gave us a very useful “welcoming pack”, full of brochures, leaflets and maps of the Isle of Lewis, which helped us to have an idea of what we could have done or seen in the isle.

He also showed us the way to go to school. The school is located in the peaceful College of Lews, surrounded by woods and a golf course. This turned out to be very useful on our first day of school. Because of the fact that we had already seen the way to the college, we weren’t worried of arriving late and we didn’t have to struggle to find the way to reach it.

To sum up, we were given a very warm welcome and we were helped in our first steps in the Isle of Lewis. It was a very positive beginning.

The school

The classrooms of MiLC were set in the College of Lews, surrounded by woods and a huge golf course. This means it was quiet all around and the lessons were not disturbed by noises coming from the outside. The college itself was very welcoming and I liked its corridors, its rooms and its big lounge provided with coffee machines and snacks machines, particularly useful at the break if you had had a late night!!!

I had classes from Tuesday to Friday, from 10 to 11,30, a quarter of an hour break and then from 11,45 to 1 o’clock. Again, from 2 to 4 o’clock.

I was given a textbook, a workbook and a lot of photocopies aiming at making me understand better the structures seen during the lesson. My class was big enough, airy and quiet. I was the only student for the first week and I must confess I had felt a bit worried about that. But after my first day of school I discovered I was wrong, because I enjoyed the lesson and time passed very quickly: all of a sudden it was time to go home! The real reason why I enjoyed my lessons was that the teacher and I spoke a lot about different topics, and often enough these topics were related to our lives. This means I enjoyed the conversations because they were connected with my personal experience and sometimes the teacher told me very funny anecdotes about his life, contributing to make me feel at my ease and to fell relaxed for the most part of the lesson.

In the second week arrived a German boy with whom I built up a good relationship and with whom I worked together during the lessons. Pair work was helpful as it allowed us to share our points of view not only about the structures of the English language, but also about our lives.

Lessons were interesting and even if they were sometimes a reinforcement of what I had already acquired, I really enjoyed them. I owe this, mainly to my teacher who’s always been clear, enjoyable and ready to explain the rules of grammar clearly and to support them with examples. He was so clear when he explained! I wish I was as clear as him when I have to explain something to my pupils. I’ll ask Gordon for the magic formula!

The only negative point about school is that I stayed in Stornoway for only two weeks. It’s wasn’t enough and I had to leave when I was still feeling so enthusiastic for the new experience…If only could I go back, I would decide to stay there, at least one month!

The accommodation

My husband and I were given a flat in a comfortable accommodation called The Bridge centre. Our flat was enormous and we had a huge kitchen - living room, all for the two of us: we got lost a couple of times there!

We enjoyed the Bridge accommodation for many reasons:

• It was only 5-7 minutes far from the college
• It was a few minutes from the town centre and
• There were other students

This allowed us to meet new friends coming from all over the world. We met two Scottish guys, two French and another one coming from Bhutan. We enjoyed ourselves, eating international food during our international dinners. Each of us cooked something typical of his/her own country. We also enjoyed our Hebridean nights in the many pubs of Stornoway. We went to the pub almost every night and we appreciated the delicious local beer: Celtic black.

Stornoway

The town was big enough to make us enjoy our staying there and small enough to make us feel relaxed. There was everything we needed without the pressure of the big cities. There were different kinds of shops: clothes, souvenirs, sport, take-away, supermarkets, etc.

There was a big sport centre where you could practice many different sports and a lovely library with free Internet access. There were many restaurants and many pubs where you could enjoy several kinds of beers, of whisky, if you wanted to appreciate a taste of Scotland, or an orange juice if you didn’t feel like drinking alcohol.

From time to time there was live music in the pubs. Particularly stunning was the concert of the Trail West, an Hebridean band playing Celtic music. I danced, or rather, I attempted to dance at the rhythm of that marvellous music. It was fantastic when there was an as solo of bagpipes. I’ll never forget that moment which made me feel happy and enjoy my life and made me fell lucky to be there.

Because of the fact that the community of Stornoway is small, people are kind and welcoming and this helped me to feel at my ease. My teacher and my husband’s teacher, Alex, in the first front.

The Isle of Lewis

Last, but not least, the rugged, wild and dramatic Isle of Lewis. It’s a terrific island where rhythms of life are still relaxed and where I started to recover from the anxiety of my busy life. I’m so happy to have been there that I’m about to cry because I’m far away now. I wish I was there. Two weeks weren’t enough!!!

I love Scotland, I have always loved that country, even when I had never visited it. Lewis is a part of that marvellous and magic land and I enjoyed It, of course! In Lewis I didn’t see a lush rolling countryside, picturesque villages, sparkling and winding rivers running through glens or enchanting lochs, as I could see in the mainland. What amazed me about Lewis was its wilderness, its rough countryside, its smell of peat and the spoilt soil. All this reminded me of a primordial world and transmitted me a strong internal energy which, I hope, will give me enough strength to deal with my busy and overwhelming rhythms of life during the winter.

Anyway Lewis has much more to show than peat or rain-soaked soil! For example thousands of sheep, which I particularly love, tremendous beaches and historic sites, as the most famous circle of stones: Callanish. We were very lucky because we went to Lewis by car and we had the chance to drive all around the isle whenever we wanted, at our pace.

To sum up, I really enjoyed my holiday in the Hebrides, first of all because my teacher was very thoughtful and this really helped me to deal with the new situation, especially at the beginning of my staying in Stornoway. I’d really like to find the right words to express my gratitude to him, but maybe this piece of written paper will express what I feel better than any other word! I learnt a lot from him not only English…and some chunks of Gaelic, but also something more important. Something concerning the relationship between people. He made me reflect on the importance of trusting the others and …this is another subject which is going apart from this piece of writing.

Secondly I enjoyed my holiday in Lewis because i had the chance to see impressive places and because I practised the language I love: English…oh sorry! Scottish!

Thirdly, I enjoyed the atmosphere of my classes, of Stornoway and the people I met.

Finally, I would like to thank the teachers for what they’ve given us: it will contribute to make us remember our holiday and the Hebridean hospitality.

Lucia