Pizza!

Yukihiro and Ryo enjoyed pizza from the real pizza oven built in their family's garden. Yum! They also played board games with their host siblings. It's a great way to communicate in English.

Hayami and Yuya's Fish and Chip Dinner

Hayami and Yuya were treated to a dinner of fish and chips in a traditional English pub by their host families. They also visited historic Salisbury Cathedral where they witnessed traditional Morris dancing.

A Day Out At Stonehenge

Taiki enjoyed a lovely day out on Saturday. Many thanks to the whole Oades family for making him so welcome in their home and for arranging such a fun time. And, of course, thank you so much for these great photos of the day.

Teenage Outdoors

A new group are doing Teenage Outdoors this week. Today was their first day. They had a great time working on team-building activities.

Rainy London Town

The boys trip to London started out as a very rainy occasion. Luckily everybody had remembered to bring their raincoats and umbrellas.The bus dropped them off at Greenwich where they walked through the park to the Observatory and the National Maritime Museum. The boys were very interested in the wide range of things to see, which included the spectacular 'Painted Hall’, one of the oldest speed boats and the Cutty Sark.

The boys then took a boat down the Thames, from where they saw lots of different London landmarks, including Tower Bridge, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the HMS Belfast, the London Eye and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. They then walked to Horseguard’s Parade where they were able to take some pictures with the guards on duty there and finally we ended up in Parliament Square. Here they boys saw Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey and were able to buy lots of souvenirs to bring back to Japan. Luckily the rain eased up in the afternoon so the boys didn’t get too wet! After a long and tiring day the boys arrived back in Marlborough with their homestay families for some supper.

Playing With The Kids

Playing with young children is great fun for our boys and a lovely way to practice English. Here are some nice pictures of Takayuki sent to us by the O'Reilly family.

Wheels!

I think Takatomo and Shun would have liked a ride in this car parked in Marlborough. Thanks to Tom Nicholls for the picture.

A Blog Post from Sena and Koji's Family Day

Thanks so much to John for this blog post about Sena and Koji's great day out. It is the kindness of our families that makes this such a special experience for the boys. Thank you to them all.

Comfortable start this morning into Marlborough for a bit of shopping - postcards and special edition One Direction DVDs and vinyl. Then on along the A4 to Silbury Hill and the climb up to the West Kennet Long Barrow, then back and up the Avenue past the active archaeological dig to Avebury. But only a quick drive through and back today, we'll save a longer visit for one evening in the week.

Back onto the A4 through Calne - where there were THOUSANDS of motor bikes everywhere and even more bikers (I was driving, so Sena has the photos of this) - & Chippenham and up to the M4 for the drive to Bristol where we met up with my son Nick and his girlfriend, Laura. Laura has a certain cachet since she appears in two of the Harry Potter movies!

After a quick snack for lunch we walked along the harbour to the Brunel's ship the SS Great Britain.

 Laura decided to climb the rigging and Sena was very keen, but we didn't feel we had the authority to allow him to go, so we had to disappoint him.

Then a riverside pub for supper and a walk back too the car past the studios of Aardman Animations, the home of Shawn the Sheep where they made the acquaintance of an oriental Shawn.

Standing Stones at Avebury

On their family day, Takahiko and Yitian also visited the standing stones at Avebury, an ancient spot near Marlborough. Thanks to their homestay mum, Karen for this picture.

Bushcraft

 Yesterday was a family day and Hikaru's family organised a bushcraft lesson in the forest. Takatomo, Takahiko, Yitian and Shun came along too. It was a great day and they learned a lot.