It is so interesting to observe how we are so different. For today's lunch I joined some younger course mates. We bought a packet lunch at a sushi bar, returned to the hotel lobby (not a real lobby), sat down on the sofas and had our lunches there. One of us was sitting even cross-legged. I enjoyed it but I would have never dared to do such thing on my own.

Another issue is that the hotel runs an environment project so if you do not ask for daily cleaning, you get a Ł5 voucher you can use in the hotel restaurant. And there are several dishes like Ceasar salad for this amount which can serve as a lunch on a day. Most of us used this opportunity but there is one lady who said that she liked her room cleaned every day.

Our group is also interesting. We are 30 of us, divided into 3 groups for workshops: primary, secondary and vocational. I am in the secondary group, however, some members teach in vocational schools but their main preference is general secondary, too. I think, more than half of the group is German, and the half of the rest is French. And, nearly half of the German teachers come from the same school! There are 4 other countries represented: Lichtenstein, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary. Since we represented the international nature of the group, we were appreciated greatly.

Today we did several activities that can be used with students of different abilities or at least of different level. There was one I liked the most.

It's called "Wall Crawl" (after pub crawl :) ). The teacher puts several posters, leaflets, newspaper cuttings on the wall - all authentic materials - and gives each student a handout with as many questions as many displays are there on the wall. So there is one question for one display but it is not indicated which one. Students work in pairs, and preferably a weaker and a higher level student work together. The task is simple: answer the questions. The first pair with the correct answers is the winner. Of course, both students must write all the answers on their own sheets.

I liked this activity because it involves moving around, agreeing on a strategy, cooperating, chance for weaker students to contribute and win, authentic materials, improving scanning skills that is needed in and language tests.

The Old and New Towns of Edinburgh are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. So it is not my judgement that the city is extremely interesting from architecture point of view.

I find it absolutely thrilling that our hotel is on a bridge! So the street level is level 4 and if you live on the 5th floor you can take the stairs because you have to climb only one floor!

Anyway, the castle and the old town are built on a volcanic rock. So, it was impossible to build downwards only upwards. Therefore, there have always been very high buildings in Edinburgh. It also meant that it was densely populated and when people used coal and wood to heat their houses the air was extremely polluted. So polluted that it coloured the lime stones of the buildings black. At that time Edinburgh also had a nickname: the reeky town because of the smell.