A course page describes a term. It is much worse at describing a month, which is made of arrivals and evenings rather than curriculum.
So here is August as it actually happened, in photographs: a new group landing on the third, a welcome party on the seventh, and a bowling alley on the eighth. In between were the ordinary days that nobody photographs and everybody remembers, which is most of what studying here is.
A new group arrives
A new group landed on the third, most of them straight off a long flight. Arrival day is the one day of a term that is all logistics and almost no English: bags, a room key, a look around the campus, and a first meal with people whose names nobody has learned yet. It is also the day that decides how the first week feels, which is why the photographs from it are mostly of people being handed things.
18 more from this day are in the photo gallery.
Welcome party for the second batch
The second batch had arrived, so the campus threw the party it throws every time: food, music, and a slightly awkward first half hour in which everybody stands with the people who share their first language. The second half hour is the point of the evening. Nobody decides to switch to English at a party, and then the only word everyone at the table has in common turns out to be an English one.
15 more from this day are in the photo gallery.
Bowling and billiards
The day after the welcome party, the junior group took over a bowling alley and the billiard tables beside it. They did the same thing in July and it works for the same reason: a game hands you something to talk about that is not yourself. A student who will not risk a sentence in class will happily shout an opinion about somebody else's technique, and an opinion is still a sentence.
20 more from this day are in the photo gallery.
And the rest of it
Three photographed days is not a month. The other twenty-eight were classes, meals, and the slow business of getting better at a language, none of which photographs well.
If you want the shape of an ordinary day rather than the highlights, a day in the life lays it out hour by hour. If you are trying to picture the third of August instead, the arrival guide covers what happens between the airport and the campus gate. And the gallery holds every set we have, filterable by what you actually want to see.
Next month's photos could have you in them
Tell us your level and roughly when you want to come, and we will tell you what a term here would look like for you.
Apply Now and Reserve Your RoomYou can also read last month's recap, the junior camp from a parent's point of view, or see what runs through a normal term.
