Over the past couple of months, one of our Russian agents - Liden & Denz, ran a competition for one lucky student to win a two-week English language course at Wimbledon School of English.  That competition winner was Nadya! Over the next couple of weeks, Nadya will be sharing all her experiences with us in a series of blogs. 

This is her first one and is all about expectations and how she prepared herself for coming to study in London. We're sure a lot of you will be able to relate:

Finally, day 'X' has arrived and at 13.55 Moscow time a plane departed from Sheremtyevo airport, taking me from Moscow to London. I am writing this text as I am flying towards my English adventures.

Drinking my tomato juice, I can't help but wonder what is awaiting me in the next two weeks? What should I expect from the school, from the city, from the host family I will stay with? Is London weather as bad as they say? Or will the weather be beautiful to me - someone who is used to rainy St.Petersburg?

I came back to reality and decided to rely on the facts. I had received an email from Wimbledon School of English, where I will be studying, with information about my study programme as well as a list of things I should take to London.  Every day I will have 4 hours of classes, various excursion programmes, entertainment for any taste and even sports activities, such as squash and badminton. The school recommended that I take activewear with me, including sports shoes with white soles. As I read this, I got some serious reservations about playing squash but I decided not to neglect the advice. Who knows, maybe I will discover a hidden talent?

Another 'must-have' was a photo camera. According to the email, it would be vital to capture all the happy moments throughout my trip. But in the competition for luggage space between the camera and white-sole shoes, the latter won. My phone camera can handle the happy moments! My umbrella was left behind as well – as we say in Russia,'I am not made of sugar'.

As far as I know, the entertainment programme is promising to be extensive, but I haven't received many details about this yet. By the way, talking of entertainment, yesterday as I was packing my luggage and thinking about the upcoming trip, I realised that I could fulfil a long-time dream of mine - to see the ‘Phantom of the Opera’.  Without much hesitation, I booked my ticket. 

I also know for a fact that I will live in a small house with a charming garden. The host lady's name is Veronica and she has dog called Mabel.  The next two weeks are promising to be very interesting!