Day Trip - Blair Drummond Safari Park

Another great day out - this time to Blair Drummond Safari Park.

Here are some of us taking the boat to Monkey Island ...

Derek, Alison & Amy

Lynne, Chang & Tobi
Jessica, Sarah, Sugu & Fu Yu

Here are just some of the animals we saw ...

Lilias Day

Lilias Day is a festival said to be named after Lilias Cuninghame, daughter of an 18th century laird. In the past, Lilias Day was celebrated with a cattle market and races, and then with a procession of men from different trades banging drums and waving flags. Nowadays there is a fancy dress parade through the village ending at the local park, where there will be a host of different stalls & events. This has become one of our annual events for international students

Chang, Ania, Sarah & Jessica wait for the parade which is led by the town crier ...

As always, we are grateful to Neil & Anne Pitcher for their generous hospitality, a scrumptious BBQ and some great games.

Trip to Sma' Shott Cottages, Paisley

Paisley is steeped in history, mostly especially in relations to the textile & weaving industry. What better place to learn more about this than at Sma' Shott Cottages close to the centre of the town.

Our tour gide for the day was Eric Garner - he made the tour so interesting with great answers to our many, many questions

Here Eric demonstrates a whale oil lamp ...

We all very much doubt that Emmanuel would've fitted in this bed!

Our few hours ended with some refreshments in the wee coffee shop

Gloria, Emmanuel & Eric
Titi, Cindy, Lynne, Ania & Patricia

Polish Night

One of the joys of hanging out with international students is the pleasure of trying new foods ... and many thanks go to Magda & Ania for hosting this fabulous Polish Night. They cooked enough food for an army!!!

This was some of the best soup I've ever tasted and virtually a meal in itself.

All who came had a great time and ate far too much ...

Misha & Lena

Alison, Derek, Ania, Sugu, Magda & Fu Yu
... I (Lynne) was there too but don't seem to have got in on any of the photos.

Progressive Meal

Once every few years I organise a PROGRESSIVE MEAL at Hopehall and, in recent years, we've been able to invite a number of international students along.

It's quite a mammoth task with seven starter hosts and six main course hosts and 56 people going in different directions to different locations to enjoy different courses with a different group of people - which is why it only happens once every few years!

Then everyone comes back together at the church for some wonderful desserts and a spot of entertainment.

Our enteratinment slot included music from Hollie & Barry ...

A song Chinese song from Sarah, Jessica & Fu Yu ...

A sketch from Eric entitled 'My word, you do look queer (ill)' ...

A sketch entitled 'The Law' from Eric & Lynne ...

Plus songs from Misha and music from Jack

- if anyone has photos of these do please email them to me.

TABLEtalk - International Night

Everyone looks forward to our annual INTERNATIONAL NIGHT at TABLEtalk ... and what a feast we had this year with dishes from China, Taiwan, Poland, Russia, Ghana, England, Wales and Scotland.

We don't have a set programme for the evening ... people eat and chat and eat some more!!
HOWEVER, we did have some entertainment from ...

Eric who, being from the far off land of Yorkshire, taught us some Yorkshire phrases and read a poem about Yorkshire Pudding.

Cindy sang us a popular Taiwanese song

Misha & Lena sang us a Russian and English song

We ended the evening with a few manic games to burn off some calories, including my favourite hula-hoop game :-)

Day Trip to Troon

Day Trip to Troon

- a very windy day ...

I came home with half a kilo of sand in my handbag (not intentionally!!)

(left to right) ERIK (Sweden), FU YU (China), LENA (Russia), EMMANUEL (Nigeria), RAZVAN (Romania), PATRICIA (Germany), GLORIA (Ghana), JOEY & LIMING (China).

Day Trip to the LOGOS HOPE

The LOGOS HOPE

- bringing 'knowledge, help and hope' to many around the world

Another great day out - 12 students joined several friends from Hopehall Church to visit the OM (Operation Mobilisation) ship Logos Hope which was docked in Edinburgh.

One group was given a tour of the ship by the tallest man onboard (6' 8")!

(from left to right) Gloria, Theo, Lynne, Wendy, Cherry, Liang, Alistair & Julia
(from left to right) Titi, tour guide, Patricia, Aileen, David, Liz, Cindy & Abiola

Easter Sunrise Service

Several students were brave enough to rise early and join our inter-church Easter Sunrise service up Gleniffer Braes. It was a great time to come together and celebrate the significance of Easter.

Afterwards it was back to Lynne's flat for a cooked breakfast!