conference in london

4 june 2011

today i went to london with rahmah, a course peer, to attend the '4th bloomsbury student conference in applied linguistics' at the birkbeck university of london.

we left southampton quite early, in the 7.30am train. we got the tube to the conference, got off at goodge station and walked to birkbeck college, where we arrived there on time for everything: coffee, keynote speaker, and all the other presentations, including mine, which was a poster presentation titled 'esl teaching in brazil's municipal schools: contextualized writing?'.

we attend four presentations plus the poster session, which took place at the same room and time of the lunch they served us. very handy. the conference was interesting and i liked very much two of the presentations we attend. people seemed interested in my research and came to ask me questions about it. it felt nice. after i attend many talks i get easily distracted and unfocused. it is terrible, but i can't help it.

we left the conference before it ended because we had plans to go wildly shopping on oxford street. it was a hot day, i mean, fine for me, but very hot for rahmah. i was carrying all the time my immense a1 poster folded in the tube with me, and that is not something you would dream of doing often.

we walked for a while browsing around, window shopping. . . and my conclusion is that i, kalina, will not go again shopping on oxford street. what is the point? the very same - the very same - standard shops they have we do have here: m&s, gap, bhs, next, just to name same. ah, the perfume shop as well. for me it doesn't make any sense to go shopping when in that crowded and busy street when i can do the same here, far more comfortably.

after walking up to bond street we decided we'd had enough and were ready to head back home. we got the tube at bond street station and had a perfect timing to get the 3.35pm train back to southampton. it was a smooth and tranquil journey, just the way there in the morning had been. there only a few people in the train and i could be quiet for a while, appreciating the landscape.

before we got back in the train i was feeling exhausted. i wanted to stop and be quiet, not say a single word. these days it has happened to me that i get very tired of speaking english for many days in a row, many hours in a day, and that it has been enough.

we got to the station here in about 1.15hr. i took the usual u1a bus home and am now resting a little bit. i will later on meet with mike and johnny at the giddy bridge, a very noisy pub on london road. he is now at a music festival to which he invited me, but no, thanks. i can barely stand up. i need a rest from the world for at least two hours. then, i will be ready to go out again, renovated. i'll walk to the giddy bridge to meet up with them.