After a long journey on Monday morning the four of us made it to the hot and bustling city of Colombo.  Joe was taken to the male hostel and left under the supervision of Dean who seemed very eager to befriend us all.  We were driven to the female hostel on the other side of the city which is a modern building with approximately 500 first year university students.The hostel was basic but the girls were so accomodating, making us feel we were coming to stay at their house.  Many of the girls came to our room individually to introduce themselves and were so polite and eager to talk, for the first time, with English students.  This was particularly surprising because the girls are very shy and timid when speaking English.  We always reassured them that their English was far better than they thought which gave them a confidence boost.

Each evening of our stay we implemented a hour long discussion time in the hostel canteen where we held basic conversations in English on home life, families, work, university etc.  The girls all loved this session and we learnt so much about the lives of young Sri Lankan women in return.  As the girls were a similar age to ourselves we found the opportunity to speak and make direct comparisons with their lives and ours very interesting and eye-opening. 

During the week we attended various lectures that were spoken in English.  This gave us the chance to speak to some of the older students at the university as the first year students at the hostel are only taught in Sinhala.  We felt we made some great friends in Colombo and the students at the university were very mature and interested in our cultural background and life in England.

Whilst in the city we visited Victoria Park where we all saw a snake charmer for the first time!  After this, we went to the Sri Lanka National Art Gallery and saw a variety of spectacular paintings and sculptures.  Although we engaged with the cultural side of Colombo, we couldn’t resist nipping into Odel’s – a large department store which offered a little reminder of England in the form of fruit smoothies, doughnuts and burgers!

We thoroughly enjoyed our week in the capital and it was entirely different to life in the South.  On reflection, we feel very lucky to be at Durham and the facilities we have available as we did find it quite a shock that the girls have no set work area, often working on the stairways.  However, despite this the girls are so hard working and all relish the opportunity to be at the best university in the country.  We admired their determination and ambitions and feel we really offered them a glimpse of British life whilst we gained a deep insight into studying in Sri Lanka.  We have made some great friends along the way which has truly made this week an unforgettable experience.