PRAGUEE - Friday the 13th May

It was already time to go home :( Sad times. We had to get up pretty early, as we had to get everything packed as we had to check out by 10:00. Kaleigh was trying to get everyone to help clean and tidy up the room as i suppose we had to leave it pretty tidy. 10 girls in one room - It got fairly messy :D

The accommodation team collected our keys from everyone to give into as we checked out, whilst a few of us had to hand in our towels along with the receipts to get our 200 Coronas back. More money to spend! We then had to get another travel card to get back to the hostel, as the one from the day before covered 24hours, which was great! This was cheaper however we just got to mark it when we got back on the tram. We put all of our luggage in their luggage room which meant that we didn't have to take them with us. This was great as our flight wasn't until later on in the day.

We had to walk up a huge hill with loads of steps.. this was hard work as the weather was pretty nice! However everyone stayed with eachother working together. We then got right into where the castle was.. It was so so pretty! Definitely exceeded my own expectations! Myself and Kristy then set off and took Marcellos and Justines money to go and get our tickets as we all had to pay seperately. We found where to purchase them and we thought that you got headphones with them.. However we really didn't! So we got a short tour ticket, and did our tour on our own! This is where we really appreciated LIBOR :D. He was so cool! I did a little bit of commentary to try and keep the group motivated but it was definitely tough. It was fun too.

We then had a little bit of free time after this tour.. We went for something to eat together as a group were we were going to do the quiz that Steph and Gemma put together. The food was pretty nice and it was good to have the last meal all together. On the way back to the tram we then went into some shops and got some little gifts for parents.

We then got the tram back to the hostel and waited until the transfer minibus' came to pick us up and took us back to Prague airport. This was a very sad but hyperactive moment as it was such a good trip!

Back at the airport, there was lots of confusion!!! We didn't know if we had to check in, so Kristy and Megan had to try and get us sorted, which must of been hard in itself as we were in a pretty good mood constantly. However despite all of the frustration and confusion with everything, we got through passport control and through security. Just before security we found somewhere to go and do the quiz, where Steph was going to mark it and we would find the results on the minibus home.

The flight was absolutely fine! The cabin crew on their were so funny and definitely made it happen! Everyone was happy, i brought some perfume! Beautiful. It didn't take long to get through passport control and we got straight through. Steph DCs mum picked us up from the airport and dropped a few people in Braintree, but back to Colchester Institute we came. My lovely boyfriend was somehow persuaded to pick me up :)

Overall.... What a very successful trip and it was such a good laugh with everyone! Thanks guys! Love to you all... xx

PRAGUEE - Thursday 12th May

It's now day 3, and the day of fun and entertainment with exeperiencing their culture!

Again, everyone was up and ready however it was a little bit later on this day.. This was because we didn't have to be there until around 14:00 as this was when we had reserved our tent.

After a lovely shower and a great hair wash - it felt amazing! A few of us went to the shop to again buy some crossants and get something better than what was served at the hostel.. But unfortunately it was raining today! BOO! It was meant to rain yesterday but, now it was raining today! However we were not gonna make this ruin our day!

We took the tram to go and get the metro, which is when we got on the metro through to where the festival was held. We were meant to get a free bus, but the tents and festival were in sight so we just decided to walk there. When we got there, the people who was running the tents, didn't understand us at all. We asked around 5 different people and nobody could help us.. Until one guy come along and gave us our TOLLARS :) they are pretty cool! We could use the tollars to get food and drink along with spending them at the little shop. Not going to lie, it was an awesome day!

We experienced different food, where me and Kaleigh couldn't decide what we wanted so we decided to share a chicken, along with the hot dogs where we could have one each! The chicken i thought was lovely, and the hot dogs were pretty American but it was okay.. Pretty nice.

There was a little sweetie stall where they sold massive pencil sweets! WOW they were huge. Along with Steph and Blaise getting the guts and going on one of the rides that were there! Definitely not my cup of tea thanks! We changed tents to go to ones with different entertainment and food where we stayed and some went off to other tents.

After a great day of different culture, we had had a laugh along with so many jokes it was definitely worth it. We went back to the metro, to catch that and get the tram. Back to the hostel we again just chilled out downstairs together which was nice. Ready for the last day..

PRAGUEE - Wednesday 11th May

So, after about 3 maybe 4 hours sleep we were up and ready to get on with our first full day of Prague. Luckily and thankfully nobody was very moody!

Some of the girls went to the cellar of the hostel to go and get breakfast, however some people didn't want to spend the money that it is as it was not very clear how much it was meant to be. I went with 3 of the girls to the nearest supermarket where we got some water, some yummy crossants and some crisps.. We were ready for the start of the day.

By around 09:45 we were all pretty much ready to go so we all met at the hostel, where Kristy and Megan collected all the tram money and got us our passes for the day! We left for our first experience on a Prague tram..EXCITING!

We caught the tram into the city centre where we had to go and meet our tour guide who was giving us about a 3hour tour around the best areas of Prague centre.. It may sound boring to some of you but considering with what happened Friday.. I was then glad for a tour guide!! It was pretty interesting and as the weather was absolutely lovely, everyone seemed pretty happy! The tour guide showed us two very different nice places to eat, where the group seperated as some girls wanted to go to the Internet Cafe whereas others prefered to go to a restaurant and sit down properly. This was very yummy, I had some chicken soup which was definitely a winner!!!

After this, we visited some small souvenier shops on the way back to the tram and caught the tram back to the hostel... It was time to get ready for the dinner cruise.. We danced and sang are hearts out to Blaises and Megans ipod... It was fun :)

Then again.. We set off to go on our dinner cruise. We were welcomed on board by the waiters/waitresses who gave us a welcome drink! However, this looked more like a shot, and after a little sniff of the smell of it, I definitely passed it over the table for Steph DC to have a taster ;) She loves it! We were shown to our table, which was right down the end as we were the biggest group.. Oh yeh! After we set sail within about 10 minutes the food buffet was open.. Personally I wasn't a massive fan of the food but it was average, however some people were which was good. For the marjority of the time, a few of us sat upstairs of the boat which was really nice as it was a nice warm evening - with a few windy moments!

Everyone really enjoyed the dinner cruise with a bit of jazz music, so when we had finished we took a nice slow walk back to the hostel, where we sat downstairs in the cellar and had a good laugh with everyone.

After a longggg day with hardly any sleep, it was shortly time to hit the pillow ready for day 3....

PRAGUEE - Tuesday 10th May

First things first.. Prague was absolutely beautifully amazing! It was great, and such a beautiful city!

Tuesday 10th May

Unfortionately, most of the group still had to present a presentation for Marcello's unit, so we all arrived in college at around 10:00! It was very painful and no-body was that impressed about doing it, but we still did! We got ready to leave college at around 13:30, and met Denise Duff-Cole in the minibus by college. We probably left by the lastest of 14:00 and we were on our way to Stansted airport! WOOO!

Unfortionately there was a lot of problems at security with some people not having the right clear plastic bags for liquids or had too many, so it delayed us getting through abit.. However when we did we had the chance to have a look around duty free and other shops before boarding. Our plane was on time which was awesome, and the flight was perfectly fine with no problems. Once we landed it didnt take long for us to go through passport control, where Kristy and Megan sorted out the transport money.

We were met by the bus shuttle drivers just through arrivals in Prague! We had two minibus' which took us straight to Sir Toby's!

Once we got to the hostel, Kaleigh and Lorna checked us in, and everyone got their own key for their dorm or room. Once we had gone to our rooms, chosen our beds (this was hard!) however i definitely ran to get a lower bed bunk! We all settled in, which took around an hour or so and got ready to go find somewhere to eat. It had definitely been a long day, so somewhere close by was going to be perfect! We all set out and walked down the road, being very careful of the trams! scary! We found a very nice small restaurant which had a pretty cool man know as 'Charlie Sheen'. We had pizza and yummy beer very very cheaply so everyone was happy!

We headed back to the hostel after dinner, sat downstairs in the cellar pub for a while before heading up to bed ready for a nice busy Wednesday in PRAGUE! :)

3rd May - Parent Presentation Evening!

On 3rd May we all had to present our pre-departure presentation infront of everyones parents. The presentation started at around 18:00, where we were in the boardroom. This gave all parents the chance to sit together round tables whilst we performed it at the front of the class.
As it was Kristy's destination, she started the presentation, along with some others following speaking about the climate, the destination itself, history of Prague, the transport and the accommodation. I started with day 1 of the itinerary, along with Blaise, Hayley and Ross doing the other days. We ended on the budget table which gave everyone realise how much they had remaining to pay along with giving parents the change to know where the money was actually going.
All parents got a copy of our pre-departure booklet which gave all relevant information that our parents may be interested in or may need to know whilst we are away in Prague. All parents as well as students got given a copy of our passport and health insurance card photocopied incase of any problems that may occur whilst we are away.

Kristy and Megan need to print out our boarding passes from easyJet as we can check in online! Prague here we come!!!

8th April - Meeting 5!

We are so nearly there!
As everyone in the class didnt manage to raise enough to put half and half towards our fundraising and Justines charity, we have given other money of ours to the NSPCC, whilst Justine has helped us and matched the money we managed to raise we gave us a total of another £55.
Our next fundraising activity is the car wash which is coming up pretty quickly. The fundraising team are getting everything ready and have put down some rules including no jewelery to be worn!  They are making sure everyone has bucket, a shammy, shampoo and a sponge on the day to make sure everything goes smoothly. Steph Benson has put together an email to send to the head of centre who will hopefully forward it to all staff. This allows us to book in staff and then hopefully just grab the odd few people on the day that we may need. They will produce a booking form which will make it easier on the day to book other people in as well as make it easier to find everyones cars..


Luckily and thankfully we have finally found something to do on Thursday whilst we are in Prague! WOOOOO!
Megan found a traditional Czech food and drink festival! yummy... Everyone was very happy with the idea, along with it just costing £23 per person. In return of paying this money, everyone got 12 tollers! For these tollers, we get to spend them on food and drink at the festival! We reserved a big table in tent 2, to make sure we all managed to sit and eat together! We decided this would be a great idea for everyone to be together and do something a bit cultural for the day. We booked our arrival time for 14:00 and we can stay there up until midnight, depending what everyone wants to do!
As Justine was getting a bit annoyed with everyone paying back on time, I told her I would pay for it on my card whilst everyone just paid me back in cash. I couldn't do this over the internet, so I had to go into my bank and do a bank transfer for everyone.

During this meeting, we managed to finalise the itinerary which I wrote up on the computer, along with everyone looking and agreeing on the code of conduct which we will sign on our parents pre-departure meeting.

Prague Prague Pragueee!

I personally produced and put together the agreed itinerary for the 3days of Prague..

ITINERARY

Residential visit – Prague 10^th – 13^th May 2011

Tuesday 10^th May

13:30 – Meet outside college

13:45 – Collect the college minibus

14:00 – Group depart from Colchester Institute for Stansted airport (Denise Duff-Cole to drive minibus)

15:00 – Group arrive at Stansted airport

16:40 – Flight departs, easyJet reference EHF1H9B. Flight number 3065

19:30 – Arrive in Prague

20:00 – Take transfer to hostel. Tel: (+420) 774 413 347 – Bohemian shuttles

20:30 – Arrive at Sir Toby’s Hostel. Booking reference Kale35047

            Address: Sir Toby’s Hostel, Delnicka 24, Prague

            Tele: (+420) 246 032 610

21:30 – Group to go and get something to eat

Wednesday 11^th May

08:30 – Breakfast at Sir Toby’s Hostel

10:00 – Group to meet to depart the hostel for walking tour

10:45 – The walking tour starts. (Meet tour guide in the Old Town Square in front of Starbucks)

14:00 – The group to find somewhere to have some lunch

15:00 – Free time

18:00 – Meet at the hostel to depart for the River Cruise and meal.

19:00 – River Cruise departs. Booking reference: PE263896

22:00 – River Cruise finishes, return to the hostel

Thursday 12^th May

09:00 – Breakfast at Sir Toby’s Hostel

10:00 – Free time

13:00 – Group to meet at hostel to get the metro from Vltavska

13:30 – Catch the metro on red line at Vltavska going to Letnany. Then take the free bus 758 to the PVA Letnany exhibition centre

14:00 – Go to tent 2 for Traditional Czech Annual Festival (Group to experience and enjoy culture, food and music)

22:00 – Return to hostel

Friday 13^th May

09:00 – Breakfast at Sir Toby’s Hostel

11:00 – Check out & store bags in luggage room

11:15 – Depart for castle

12:00 – Arrive at castle for castle tour

13:30 – Lunch as a group and a group quiz to be conducted by Gemma and Steph

17:15 – Group to meet at the hostel ready to transfer to the airport

17:30 – Transfer to airport

18:00 – Arrive at Prague airport

20:00 – Flight departs, easyJet reference EHF1H9B. Flight number 3066

20:55 – Flight arrives at Stansted

21:30 – Transfer by minibus back to Colchester Institute. (Denise Duff-Cole is our minibus driver)

22:30 – Arrive at Colchester Institute, parents to collect

4th April - First Aid

Justine our lovely tutor decided how important it would be for everyone to have some kind of understanding of some first aid for our trip. As for being in a different country it is essential for everyone to help out as much as possible. This was arranged for everyone to do before the trip commences. However, I have already achieved and done this first aid certificate through my part time job so I didn't have to take part it in.

The certificate that everyone had lasts for 3 years and is great thing for everyone to put on their CV's in near future.

Now we will all be confident in helping in any first aids that may occur between all of us. :)

1st April - Cake Salee!

It was time for the cake sale! Everyone was designated a different type of cake or smaller cakes to make.. (a lot of everyone's mums stepped in to make them or even TESCO) very lame!

There was cupcakes, muffins, cookies, flap jacks, crispy cakes and big cakes which were cut into slices. Along with the prices of different cakes ranging from around 50p up to £1.50 for kaleighs mummys very yummy lookin cakes!!

The fundraising team which was Blaise, Steph and Hayley had to make sure everything was sorted and booked for the tables outside of the hub.. We wanted the best location or great competition! We all started going downstairs to set up for around 9:00.. We also wanted to start great and early.

We held the cake sale from 9:00 until 12:30 as this was when all of the cakes ran out.. We all took it in turns to speak to our customers, handing out cakes, handling money and of course having our own breaks too.

We managed to raise a massive £136.32 in total to go towards our trip to Prague. Kaleigh and Lorna had to put this in our finance bank through the college and in total we now have £206 to go towards our trip in Prague.

BRING ON PRAGUE.......

Getting the parents involved!

As everything is finally coming together, there is going to be one evening where everyone is to present everything or day to day itineraries of what we are actually doing in Prague to all of the parents. As students, if we are over 18, our parents do not have to come, however it would be great for them to know what we are actually doing. This presentation is being put together by Megan, but myself and Ross have already put together and signed the letter to go home to parents to invite them to this. It will be held on Tuesday 3rd May in the Board Room on the 1st floor of the main building of our college.

Also, Justine our tutor is doing a half marathon! WOO. Go Justine! However, she is raising money for help the heroes, and has put together a sponsor form, where as students we can raise some money and if we match the money she has already raised, she will put half of everything towards our trip, and the other half for Help The Heroes. Good Luck guys!

Another thing booked!!

After the idea of a river cruise with dinner was put across, everyone was really happy for it and finally we have booked it!

The river cruise is to take place on the Wednesday evening at 19:00 lasting around 3 hours, full of food, drink and music! Sounds really beautiful to be honest! The price of this is, £28.00 per person which is a good for value price, and a place where we can all have a really good evening together as a group!

We have also paid £4.65 which has been worked out as the petrol money that it will cost in getting to and from the airport. So all together, we were given a purple slip to pay at college a total of £32.65! :) We're finally getting there!

Risk Assessment!

So.. We had a piece of work to do to go towards our portfolio and final grade, and this was to do a risk assessment. This was produced as a booklet, and was pretty easy to put together.

It was a risk assessment of all the risks that could happen in getting to and from Prague and in and around Prague for the days that we plan to spend there. We had to identify what the risk actually was, along with then the level of the risk whether it was high, medium or low risk to people. It was then time to write who could be at risk which in most cases was everyone, and then we had to write what could be done to reduce the risk. For example, a risk could be getting lost, and everyone would be at risk for this with reducing it by everyone having a contact mobile with all emergency contact numbers as well as staying in groups of atleast 3! Sounds pretty good hey.. We are definitely on the way to getting to Prague!!!!

Friday 18th February! Meeting 4..

For starter's it's just 6 days until my lovely birthday, and well it's half term next week! WOO. So we had to get loads done!

Everyone has paid a total of £109.05 at long lasttttt.. This price is for our return flights to Prague, and 2/3rd's of our accommodtion. The other £20 for our accommodation is to be paid when we check in. This gives another responsibility to Kaleigh and Lorna for when we actually get to Sir Toby's.

Now that everything important has been done, it is time to start organising and producing the pre-departure booklet, the powerpoint presentation for the parents meeting as well as all the fundraising and activities we are going to do. Luckily Steph DC's mum has told us she will be able to take us to the airport as well as picking us all up with one of the college mini bus'. This has made everything a lot cheaper for getting to and from the airport! We just all need to know how much petrol we need to pay. When going to Stansted, everyone has agreed to meet at college at around 2 in the afternoon, to get us there in enough time!

As well as this, the transport has been sorted out in Prague to. We are taking the offer of the transfer service that the hostel have. This will be so much more direct as none of us really know where we are going in Prague.

Friday 21st January.. Sir Toby's! Meeting 3..

We had our 3rd meeting today, to get all of the purple slips ready for everyone to start paying, as the flights are booked and can be paid for. This was a chance for everyons passports, EU health insurance card and the EV4 forms were handed in. The college needs photocopies of these whilst we are on this trip in Prague.
Everyone then had to sign a table, of which I was the one who actually made this. This form is so that everyone signs and is aware of what their allocated roles and responsibilities are throughout the trip. Everyone will get a photocopy of this too, as they know exactly what they have signed for. All medical and contact numbes were given over to the college and to the tutors in case of any problems.


SIR TOBYS :)
Today, we have booked our hostel accommodation! WOW, everything is finally piecing together!

We will be staying at Sir Toby's hostel in Prague. The rooming arrangements have really fit in well with who and how many people with have going. There will be all of us 10 girls from our class in one dorm together, a twin room which is where Marcello and Ross will be staying, with Justine just having a single room. Us girls will have a shared shower, whereas Marcello, Ross and Justine get their own private showers. LUCKY THEM! The price of the hostel, is pretty good value which is great. All together with all 3 rooms, it works out at 837Euro, so after using XE.com this works out at just £713 for everyone to stay the 3 nights! So after spliting the value, it works out at £64 per person, however as we are students they have been so kind enough to give us a 10% discount so luckily its just £58.40 which is just £19.50 per person per night! BARGAIN!

The hostel seems like great value and is pretty in the Centre of Prague. If we need to, the hostel offers airport transfers, which really helps us as we don't need to worry about everyone getting to the hostel all together. This is just £8 per person to get there and back! again, it is a bargain!! As well as this, they have breakfast to offer us, starting from just £1 for the basics, ranging as it gets more expensive. They also have their own pub! Perfect! :D It's in their brick cellar and offers so much for everyone! Lots of entertainment, and that's what we want!

During this meeting, we booked the hostel, as everyone was happy and statisfied with what they had seen. Everyone still has their set assigned jobs to do, especially for the attractions team, as we now need some thing to do. Now me and Ross need to get a letter written to parents as the hostel is booked.

Friday 14th January!

After booking the flights.. everything is finally getting into place. The flights cost a total of £759.56 for everyone, and Justine very kindly paid for it on her Mastercard credit and we're paying her back through the college. This works out at just £69.05 per person, quite a cheap bargain!
Today, we didn't have a meeting, as me and Ross had a letter to send out to the parents from booking the flights, and telling them that the money needs to be paid ASAP!
But Kaleigh has just started to put together a pre-departure booklet, so everyone in the class was assigned a duty to find something out to make this booklet fit together. Some different things people had to find were the climate, emergency numbers, activities and all sorts of differnet things we may need to know whilst over there in Prague.

Booking the flights.....

Monday 10th January 2011
FLIGHTS ARE BOOKED!!!!!!!!!
As we wanted to get flights booked before christmas, but we ran out of time, we have booked the flights!! Kristy and Megan booked it all, with easyJet :) so, minimal leg room, with just hand luggage.. good job it's just a short flight.
We are departing Colchester outbound on Tuesday 10th May, in the afternoon. Coming back inbound on Friday 13th May in the evening.

Now that the flights our booked, it's getting even closer to going and so so exciting!!!!! Things are getting booked and everyone is coming along with great ideas.

Our first Fund-raising.....

17th December 2010
Our first fundraising went off pretty greatly considering it was the last day of term for the college! Everyone got into 3 different teams, with some part of clothing christmassy! Anything festive went a treat. Each team had a decorated shoe box.. All different teams went to particular parts of the college, to try and ask students or lecturers to donate some dollar! Considering college was pretty much shut for student, getting ... was a good and motive amount for following activities. The charity we chose for ... of our raised money to go to as a donation was NSPCC.

So.. all in all it went pretty well :)

Our first meeting......

10th December 2010
During our first meeting it was fun! Everyone made themselves familiar with who was in each team.. I'm with Ross, aren't I a lucky one? :)  These are our teams...

L.K and R.C – Admin and communications team including health and safety

M.L and K.T – Transport team

G.B and S.D/C – Attractions and entertainment team

K.P and L.E – Accommodation and finance team

S.B, B.A and H.C – Fundraising co-ordinators team

Everyone had their own research to come back with and during our first meeting we all spoke about the following....

Transport team had feedback on research flights, they suggested two dates of 9-12th May or 16-19th May too. This would be that our trip to PRAGUE would last 3nights.. so beautiful!

Admin which involves me! :) We have to introduce ourselves to Michael Mead in B209a, he is a lovely gentlemen! Plus because I haven't received no job specifications from anyone yet, as soon as possible I need all job specifications from everyone to put together a table for everyone to sign.

Accommodation team let us down by not having no set prices for their accommodation that they found. Poor effect really? Just joking, but we all decided on the room arrangements!

Attractions team suggested all the attractions other than the quad biking which is not suitable due to risk assessments - bit annoying, but we got to go by the lovely college rules.

Fundraising team brought the thoughts of different fundraising activities that we could all get involved in. they decided that some activities would be a car wash, cake sale and something for charity. To try and get as many fundraising activities in before we go, as we all have to pay for our two tutors that are coming, next friday of 17th Dec.

So.. it was a cool lessons finding everyones information! Not bag hey..

Everyone was given something to prepare for the following lesson.

Bring on the next friday.. Fund raising :)