photo from google

今天一整天都待在Heidington。
I stayed in Heidington all day long.

Sandy和Jay特別準備了火鍋、滷肉款待我。雖然我沒有吃早餐，但滷肉配飯就已經讓我“碗公“朝天，更何況，米還是Sandy千里迢迢從台灣運來。台灣米果然是香啊！
Sandy, Jay and I enjoyed hot pot. I had several bowls of rice!!!

吃飽後，Sandy的女兒Julia從boarding school回來。我馬上開始執行我的project：果然，問題多多：我的task設計漏洞百出。還好老闆有交代，要先試驗、分析看看，不然實際拿去用的話，我的Dissertation就Bye Bye了。
I waited for Julia, Sandy's daughter. She was my participant in my pilot study. Thanks for her, i found that there are so many drawbacks and problems with my task design.

Julia在寄宿學校適應良好，成績也表現優異，她告訴我，她打算念醫科（現在她才國二啊），雖然她的自然稍差，但她會迎頭趕上。為了考A level，十年級她會轉學到Heidington的私立女子中學，也就是哈利波特裡妙麗念的學校。但Sandy後來跟我說，這所升學率頗高的女子私校，早就滿額了（要提早兩年提出申請）。看來，為了學業而爭相擠破頭進入名門學校舉世皆然！
Julia performes well at school. She told me that she wants to be a doctor in the near future. Therefore, she has to study hard for the long-term goal.

我和Julia聊天，對英國的中學教育有更深一層了解。除了數學教育台灣遙遙領先外（英國的國中生還在學算面積、體積），其他類科其實教的內容不比台灣中學容易。此外，我深佩服英國教育重視個別差異：不同程度的學生，在校接受測驗的內容也都不同；此外，上課教的考試不一定會考，比較厲害的同學私下老師會印講義給你，你就自己回去算。所以英國不分班，只有考試分組。
Through chatting with Julia, I have more understandng with secondary education in the U.K. Generally spaeking, students from Taiwan are competitive in the area of math. With regard to other subjects, it can hardly tell the differences between courses in Taiwan and in the U.K. However, British education highlighs individual difference, and it can be telled from the way that school implement tests on students.

她們現在已經在上莎士比亞的課，考試雖然可以帶書、筆記，但考試的題目可不容易！專測學生的理解、分析、表達、鑑賞的能力。Julia剛考完，她說老師直指班上沒人真正了解題目，所以沒有人拿到很高分（包括英國人）。我笑稱，她現在對沙士比亞文學的賞析能力必定比台灣外文系的大一新鮮人好多了。
There is a course about Shakespeare. Students are required to understand the test title, to analyze characters, to express explicitly, and to evaluate the literature. I believe, when it comes to Shakespeare, Julia must be superer than the freshmen in Foreign Language Department in Taiwan.

有趣的一天，我也累了。
I feel fulfilled, but I am tired.