Tuesday 22 May 2012

Continental travels

Well, a busy day ahead...students all day-some of whom are almost finished and then a meeting re future students. Quick dash back home to pick up case and off to airport hotel for an early start-7-30am flight to Marco Polo airport Venice! Hopefully my cousin Lidia will meet me and then off to Vas. Friday is the big day...being interviewed by students who have read Out of Time. And this is where I am embarrassed...they will be interviewing me in English...while I have no Italian to speak of! We are so lazy as linguist in the UK and I feel ashamed that my linguistic knowledge won't stretch beyond Ciao and grazie.I am always embarrassed to speak in a foreign language..even French which I seem to understand reasonably well. I remember when we were trying to find the Pas de Calais cemetery sending Harry into a garage with a note to read out and was mortified when he came back and said they didn't know what I was on about!



By the way we did very well at the Tea Party on Saturday...serving about 60 afternoon teas and making about £400...not bad for two hours.

20 comments:

  1. Hi Mrs. Jepson,
    we'd like to tell you "thank you" for coming here in Italy and spending a day with us. It was a very interesting meeting and fortunately our English skills were enough to understand each other, we hope we'll meet again.
    Best wishes

    Sara & Marika (2Eli A. Veronese)

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    1. Hi Sara and Marika
      I was thrilled to be asked to visit you. I am in love with Italy even more than before! Your English skills were fantastic and I will endeavor to learn some Italian for my next visit!
      best wishes
      Gill

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  2. Hello! We are two girls from Italy and we want to thank you for your visit in our school! We are happy to have met you last week, becouse it has been also a great oppurtunity to practise our english. Your book was very interesting and nice.
    thank you for everything!

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    1. Good afternoon girl
      It was a pleasure to visit you all-I certainly enjoyed myself. I am glad you found it useful and I hope you continue to improve your English-which have to say is already very good
      best wishes
      Gill

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  3. Hi Mrs Jepson,
    we are two students of "Liceo Veronese ". We are glad you came to Italy to talk with us about your book. First of all you are very funny and not boring. The couriosities were very interesting and we understood the sense of your book in a different way. Now we're only waiting for the movie! The place you showed us is so fascinating! And we're are sure that the film will be fantastic. We hope you'll become a known writer all over the world, best wishes and enjoy your life!
    Martina & Arianna

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    1. Hello Martina and Arianna
      I thank you for your kind words! It would be wonderful for the book to be made into a film-I agree! I will let you know if I have any offers from Mr Spielberg! I hope you enjoy your lives too-and maybe you will visit my country one day too!
      Good wishes
      Gill

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  4. Hi ms. Jepson!
    We are two italian students from Liceo Veronese which took part in the meeting with you last week. It was very interesting and we were happy because we could understand the main part of your speech. How was our English? Have we got a so bad pronunciation? :P
    We hope that your work at the next book will be all right! We're waiting for the next story, we think that it will be even better than the other.
    Did you have a good time in Italy? We hope so :)
    We would come in Furness to see the set of "Out of time".
    Write us soon,
    Best wishes, Giada and Chiara

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    1. Hi Giada and Chiara
      You need not worry about your pronunciation-I though your English was excellent! I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Italy...I almost did not want to return to England. The next book is out in November
      i migliori auguri
      Gill

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  5. Good morning Gill! We are Sara and Giulia, two italian students from Liceo Veronese. We would like to thank you for your visit and for answering all our questions. We enjoyed your presentation, even if we didn't understand everything you said. In particular we appreciated the photos you have showed us! We have realized better the place where the book is set. We hope you have enjoyed the interview and above all Italy!
    Best wishes :)

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    1. Good afternoon Sara and Giulia
      I enjoyed answering your interesting questions. I am glad the presentation gave you a clearer picture of the setting of the book. I enjoyed every aspect of the visit and I love Italy even more than before
      best wishes
      Gill

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  6. Hi,Ms Jepson! We liked a lot your presentation of the book at Veronese School(Montebelluna). The story is very fascinating. We spent last summer to read it, it was so interesting meeting you and speaking about your life.
    You're a nice lady! We want to see you again and we will wait for you next year :D We want also to read the sequel to "out of time". In our opinion it will be amazing like the first.
    Bye bye :)
    Giulia & Marta <3 <3

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    1. Buon giorno Giulia and Marta

      I am delighted that you enjoyed my talk and liked Out of Time as well. Out of Time 2 will be out on 1 November. Thank you for welcoming me to your country and your school
      Ciao
      Gill

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  7. Hi Gill! we're two girls from liceo Veronese from Montebelluna! First of all,we would thank you for your visit and for the time that you had spent with us. You're book is wonderful and we had really enjoyed it!
    one day we will come to see places where the book is setting because the pictures that you had shown us had catched our attention.
    We hope to see you soon,and we're attending Out of Time Two!
    Best wishes, bye :D

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    1. Hello girls
      I am so glad you enjoyed the book and that you enjoyed it. I have started working on the 3 rd book since returned to England. I am glad you appreciated the pictures...the places are even better when you visit them and I would love to show you all the locations in the book. Out of Time 2 Raven's Hoard is out on 1 November
      hope to see you again
      love Gill

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  8. Hi Mrs. Jepson,
    we are two italian students from Liceo Veronese.
    It was great to meet you and we hope that you are happy to have been in Italy.
    Your lesson was interesting and amazing and now we know new things of your book that we didn't know before. We are waiting for your next book but we are sure that it will be great too and then Mrs. Garbin will ask you to come to Italy to tell us about it, maybe... so you will able to come back to Italy and eat italian food! We could understand most of your words and if you will come to Italy another time, we will able to understand more because our english is getting better ( perhaps ;) )! :D
    When we come to England we will tell you but we know that England is very very very nice even if the food is better in Italy!! ;)
    Best wishes,

    Serena and Caterina :D (two of the girls that the day of the lesson forgot their books ;))

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    1. Buona sera Serena and Caterina,
      Your comments are very kind and I have to say I was very impressed with your English! I would love to return to Italy and meet you all again. I certainly enjoyed the good weather and the good food-as well as the excellent company
      Ciao Gill

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  9. Hi Gill, how was your journey back to the UK?
    How are you? We're fine and at the moment we are posting you a comment during the English lesson with Mrs Garbin.
    Did you enjoy our meeting in Montebelluna?
    In our opinion it was brilliant above all our interview,it was very interesting too.
    We hope that you have enjoyed our questions!
    We hope also that this project with our school will be repeated. :)
    Gloria & Benedetta

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    1. Hello Gloria and Benedetta, I adored my trip to Montebelluna, I enjoyed the interview immensely-your questions were very searching and well thought out! I would love to visit again-you all made me feel very welcome
      regards
      Gill

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  10. Good morning, Ms Jepson!
    We are your Italian interviewers!First, how are you? :) Was your return to England good?
    We would like to thank you once more for the present you gave us, being here to talk about your life and your book; it's been a wonderful opportunity for us to improve our English and above all, to know something more about a culture which can't be learnt through school books. ...and now we look forward to reading the second book! We hope that you enjoyed your time here in Italy, maybe we'll be able to repeat this activity in the future!
    Thank you, best wishes :)
    Francesca & Moira

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  11. Hi Francesca and Moira-I am fine thank you and missing Italy-I found it an incredible experience. You were very good interviewers and your English is excellent. I would love to return...maybe with the next book
    Ciao...Gill

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