In 2015 I was in Broadstairs for one week with my school. It was the first time I had been to the seaside, and I took a picture, me in front of the sea. After school I hadn’t any connection to English at all. As it turned out that my Master studies would be in English again, I worried if my English was still good enough to handle my study. I went to Hilderstone College for three weeks, in 2023. I finally came back to Broadstairs, exactly 8 years later. I had a charming host mother and great teachers at Hilderstone College. I gained a lot of confidence in speaking English again. As we also just talked English outside the College, soon it was easy to speak English all the time. Then, one day at lunch, while we ate chips at the beach, I asked a girl of the group to take a picture of me in front of the sea. We tried to arrange everything to look like the picture eight years ago. Thus, I made myself a ponytail, to have the same look. Of course, my clothes were different. Finally, I stood in the same place, even the pier was at the exact same place in the picture as it was eight years ago.
For me, it was a wonderful experience, coming back after such a long time, learning English again and having some flashbacks.
Leonie Danninger, Germany
2015
2023