Report on the Annual Student Games in London

Introduction

The aim of this report is to describe my experience of attending the Annual Student Games in London, which took place in August of this year. This report will also give some recommendations for the organisation of next year´s event in Lima, Perú.

Accommodation, food and transport

Finding cheap accommodation in London was firmly easy. There were plenty of youth hostels and bed and breakfasts available, which offered incredible discounts to Latin American students. And, as breakfasts and dinners were included, I only had to worry about paying for lunch (8-10 dollars a day).

Travelling through London was not difficult. There were special buses which could take you for free to the venues of the sporting events.

The social programme

The event lasted a week and was packed with enthusiastic young people. Universities from all over the world sent their "champion Olympians" to participate in track and field, football, basketball and swimming competitions.

The highlight of the event was, of course, the closing ceremony, in which the winners were presented with a medal and a posy by no other than the Queen herself.

Communication

The organisers of the event had the innovative idea of announcing the schedule for the games via e-mail, as 99% of students use smart phones and iphones. However, there was a problem with the wifi signal in some parts of the city, which made internet connectivity slow and in some cases impossible.

Recommendations for next year´s games

I strongly recommend we follow in the London´s organising committee footsteps and offer accommodation, food and transport facilities to foreign students. I also believe we can adopt their communication-via-mobile-phone idea, but we have to make sure we will have a good wifi signal available in all the youth hostels and b&bs.

Finally I suggest we invite a huge celebrity or very important political figure to be present in the closing ceremony.

Gustavo Albarracín


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CPE Article: Life and the city

In some of the University of Cambrige ESOL Examinations (FCE, CAE, CPE) you are asked to write an Article. This is an example of a CPE Article. Click here for more on how to write an article. 

Life and the city

It is said that love is blind and it must be so. 
I have got a soft spot for cities, polluted or heavily congested as they might be. 
I would not like to live in the country at all !

There is something soothing about cobblestone roads and the reek of exhausted fumes. I can´t explain it, it just makes me feel at home. It may have something to do with having been born and raised in a city. One gets used to the odours and the noise, and the sight of the hoardings advertising beer and the queues at the bus stop.

It is not true what some anti-city people say, that they are difficult places to live in. On the contrary, more  and more people are choosing to live in them, as they have so much to offer, both socially and culturally.  There is the theatre, the malls, the 24/7 multiplex cinemas, the workshops, the concerts, and so on. In the city there is always somewhere to go, someone to meet and something to think of.

That is not the case of the country. I recently travelled to the hills, in the outskirts, to visit some friends of mine. What a nightmarish experience I had ! All that quiet and peace was nerve-racking. I was constantly, secretly, expecting something seriously bad to happen, just to escape from that silence and hear some noise!

Needless to say, I did not like it at all. I got bored to the bones and arrived at the conclusion I never want to return. So never mind how heavily country dwellers criticise cities, don´t believe them. It is true that in the cities we have  muggers and hooligans, but... we also have music, and people, and cosmopolitan bars and  ginger ale! and God, don´t we love ginger ale?

Gustavo Albarracín
words: 311

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