Brazilian exchange students embrace Scottish culture during three-month stay at Edinburgh College
In September, twenty students from the Brazilian-based Bridges to the World programme stepped off a plane at Glasgow airport and set foot on foreign soil for the first time, exhausted but excited to discover the adventures awaiting them in Scotland. Then, in what seemed like the blink of an eye, it was December, and we waved goodbye as the Bridgers began the reverse of that journey to make their way back home to Brasília again. Time flies when you're having fun, and there was certainly no shortage of fun to be had with this vibrant group.
The students enjoyed an array of social programmes offered by Edinburgh College, the first being a trip to Edinburgh Castle, where they got to take in both the history and the view of the city that would become their home over the next 3 months. One of our social programme trips saw them take on the Highlands where they befriended some Highland cows, enjoyed the wild beauty of Glencoe, and kept an eye out for the elusive Nessie in Loch Ness. They very quickly got used to Scotland's rugged landscape and conquered as many of Edinburgh's hills as they could, with students often coming back into the College on a Monday morning telling us that they had spent the weekend climbing Arthur's Seat soaking up the natural beauty of Holyrood Park, or even, after a particularly cold spell, hiking the Pentlands just so that they could touch snow for the very first time.
The students embraced local festivals such as Guy Fawkes night, with some trekking up Calton Hill to get the best view of the fireworks. As Halloween fell on a Friday this year, we marked this with a party, with plenty of prizes to go along with party games such as pass the parcel, bingo and a how-well-do-you-know-Scotland quiz (during which we most definitely got to see the students' competitive sides). As December drew closer, we went on a walking tour of the city which was bedecked in twinkling Christmas lights, and afterwards the students wandered around the world-renowned Edinburgh Christmas markets, where we heard great reports about the rides there, the crepes and the hot chocolates.
Along with all of this, the Bridgers proved their dedication to their studies and we watched as their level of English, like their confidence, went from strength-to-strength. On their first social programme outing they stuck together, mostly just speaking to one another. This was a stark difference to their last social programme where we attended a traditional Scottish cèilidh at Bonnie & Wild. Here, we witnessed the students talking, laughing and dancing the evening away with total strangers - visitors and locals alike. This growth in confidence when communicating with others through English was in no small part with thanks to those who work with Edinburgh College, in particular the College's homestay hosts and teachers. Many of the students formed such close bonds with their hosts that they told us it was like having a family away from home, with one student saying that she felt as though she was also living with the best cook in Scotland!
Among the students' teachers were Wendy Sandeman and Gill Ritchie, who did their best to make English lessons as interesting and engaging as possible for the students, and Andrew Maudsley, their maths teacher, who spent a lot of time ensuring students understood the concepts which may have differed a lot from those they knew in Brazil. By their reviews, their attempts definitely paid off with praise for them cropping up again and again in the feedback given to us by students. Rafael called them "amazing teachers" while Eduardo told us that their classes were always "creative and interesting". The feeling was most definitely mutual with Wendy describing the students as "polite, funny, full of energy… they brought their youthful exuberance to the college" and said they were a joy to teach. We would also like to thank Lynn Loudon, Head of Enterprise and Commerce, for her involvement in ensuring the students got the highest quality of education possible, and for playing a huge part in organising industry visits for our students who studied vocationally, as well as the vocational lecturers, who gave the students joining their classes a warm welcome and put them at ease right away.
In her graduation speech, Bianca, one of the Bridgers, quoted Brazilian actress and writer, Fernanda Torres: "the beauty of life lies in the impermanence of everything that exists", and wished that we could all use that sentiment as a reminder "to always pour ourselves fully on every day". From what we saw, our Bridges to the World students most definitely poured all of themselves into their short, but intense, Scottish experience, and we can only hope that they learned as much from their time here as we did from them.