2 weeks in Southampton

Yesterday was the big day of travelling!
Kathleen was the first, who left Southampton in the morning. She took a plane to Munich. Simone took a plane to Salzburg and last but not least, Lisi and I took a plane to Bratislava. Unfortunately, our flight was delayded about 90 minutes. But in the end we arrived well back home in Austria.

All in all, we enjoyed our stay in Southampton. We saw many interesting institutions and learned a lot about the National Health System in Great Britain....improved or refreshed our English knowledge.... had a great time with our colleagues......
To shut a long story short, it can be said, that it was a great experience to be in Southampton at the Solent University.

And now it is time to say good bye! I hope you liked our blog and enjoyed reading some of our stories.

As I promised, we want to show you some fotos of the beautiful cathedral of Salisbury:

This is probably the oldest clock of the world

Yuppie! Yeah!! Our project is finally over!!

In the morning we talked about the pros and cons of doing voluntary work during a gap-year. It was quite interesting because I didn't think of so many disadvantages of doing this before. But probably it's kind of true, if people don't take the work seriously, they do more harm than be helpful. I think it's always important to be aware of the different cultures and show respect for other people.

In the afternoon we did our presentation!!! It was quite ok, we felt very important because we were reported with a video camera ;)

In the evening we went to a nice place by a ferry to have a drink and ate something!

Now we will put our things together so we can go back to Austria tommorow morning!!

So your lovely stay in Southampton is almost over ;(

Today we were quit busy to finish our project. At the moment my team members we are doing the last rehearsal. It is good that we will have some time tomorrow morning. The most interesting thing we learnt today, were the cultural differences in Kevin's lesson. It was great fun listening to Lisi who was playing an Italian businessman.

In the first lesson with Carolyn we talked about cause related marketing. We mentioned the "tickled pink" campain of ASDA and Breast Cancer Care in the UK. This evening we were quite astohished when we saw at the website of the "Austrian Cancer Aid" that they also have a campaign which is called "Pink Ribbon" and has nearly the same logo (the ribbon) as the British organisation:



In this lesson we also thought about a fictive cause related marketing campaign and we (St. John Ambulance) decided to organise summer camps for children whose parents can not afford holidays. For this purpose we wanted to cooperate with Toys R'us. On the fotos you can see Babsi writing the flipchart about or concept and Lisi and me during the presentation.

At the afternoon we visited the Brendoncare Knightwood Care Home. This disposition combines different areas of care. On the one hand they have the opportunity for rehabilitation and on the other hand they provide assisted living for seniors. But therefore the seniors must be older than 65 years, buy an apartment and be in the position to pay extra for care.
Beside the normal offers, the organisation has extraordinary offers. For examlpe a hairdresser, restaurant, aromatherapy, massage or a shop.
While we had tea and cookies the manager explained us structure and financing of the organisation.
After some little problems on the return we arrived the accommodation hale and hearty. Now we will work at our presentations, again.

waiting for the bus... ---------------------------- waiting for the bus again... --------------and finally - waiting for the train!
(still motivated) --------------------------------------(taking a rest)--------------------------- (exhausted and tired) ;-)

Yesterday afternoon, I joined the Austrian event, which was organised by Ulli, Mathias and Carina.
My job was helping with the picking up the elderly people. This event was in cooperation with the St. John Ambulance, which offers the service to go on journeys with older people, who can't go out on their own.
The picking up took us about 2 hours, but it was very interesting to see how or where these people live. Unfortunately, I was a bit shocked about some housing situations.
Back on University, we created a traditional "Reifpuschn" with the clients and had tea and coffee.
I really liked the afternoon, because the people were very happy and lovely. We all were exited about the oldest lady with the age of 100 years, with whom we had great fun...
Futhermore, it was interesting for our project to see how the St. John Ambulance practises their services - they do a great job!

Today we already have had quite an interesting morning. In the beginning we had Academic English classes where we asked a lot of questions about citing as we wondered a lot about the rules yesterday evening. Now we are content that we did most of the things correctly. Afterwards we talked about presentations and how to prepare for them.

Now we have lunch break and afterwards we will got to Brendoncare Knightwood Care Home.

The day started with the topic "Healthcare Management in England - An Acute Care Perspective". Ms. Julia Barton gave a lecture on this topic. By the way she is head of learning and development. The class discussed different perspectives with her, for example about older people's purposes or for people who suffer from cancer. It existed the possibillity to ask questions. Our referee gave us more insights about trust funding, responsibility, health and social care relationship, conflicts and partners.
In the afternoon we were splitted. A couple of the group were on different excursions and all the rest of us had lessons at university.
The rest of the day we used to work at the project.

I or we really enjoyed the stay in Salisbury today. It is a very nice town with tiny shops and small streets which we really liked.


Babsi, Lisi and me decided to visit the cathedral which is for my taste quite beautiful. We wondered how people could construct such buildings centuries ago, it is really impressive. Another thing we saw is the "Magna Carta" a document which is part of the constituion in many countries and a basis for the rights of citiziens. When I manage to get a cable for my camera we will post some fotos of the cathedral as well.