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Although there was a long period of time when I wasn't travelling, recently I've been travelling quite a bit for my job. You may have heard of the expression "You wait for ages for a bus, and then three come along at once!" Maybe you've experienced that! It's also an expression that gets adapted to suit all kinds of situations. And, to some extent, it seems as if I've been waiting ages for a duty trip (that's what the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ calls a work trip - although more often than not it's as much of a pleasure as it is a duty!) and then three come along at once!

Not long ago, at the end of March, I was in Hong Kong for a few days. One of our online partners, Kealearning, organises an annual competition for schools in Hong Kong and Macau to produce a short radio play in English. There were over 200 entries. Along with my colleague, Feifei, I was asked to be one of the judges of the final 16 entries. The theme this year was Wow! We are one! I have to say that the standard of the plays - and the English - was very good. Each team, of a maximum of five students, had five minutes to perform their play live, with sound effects. The judges had several categories to score them on, from teamwork to script, from creativity to best performance. It was quite a demanding, but thoroughly enjoyable, job. The prize-giving ceremony at the end of a long judging session was also quite a performance! It was all worth it though, to see the delight of the students and the pride of the parents and teachers. Writing and performing a radio play is also a great way to practice and improve your English. Maybe you fancy giving it a go?!

The Hong Kong trip coincided with the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens. If you're not a rugby fan, and I have to admit I'm not, then this may be a mystery to you. It was to me! Basically, it's a knock-out competition with seven players a side. This year, England got to the final, but lost to New Zealand. I didn't get a chance to see any of the games, tickets were sold out well in advance, but I did see the celebrations of all the fans afterwards. That was quite amazing. It was kind of surreal to be in Hong Kong and to hear everyone speaking English in so many different accents. There were fans from Australia, Wales, South Africa, New Zealand, all having a great time! If you heard them speaking English, do you think you could tell which was Australian, Welsh, South African or from New Zealand?!

The River Nile

And where am I now? I'm in Cairo! I haven't been to Egypt for a very long time and it's good to be back. I'm here because we have a partnership with Egypt Radio and Television Union. ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½e! - E for English, E for Egypt, E for Entertainment! - is an FM radio co-production with a website and a Facebook page set up by the fans themselves. This week, it's the fifth anniversary of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½e! So on Thursday, we have a special live programme when Abeer, our colleague based in Cairo, and I - along with friends and colleagues from Egypt Radio - will be linking up with the team in London and hearing from listeners in Egypt. The whole programme is about learning English and exchanging views, whilst enjoying music, quizzes and chat. This year is also special because ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½e! won an ELTon. That's the British Council's Award for Innovation. So, we will be celebrating with all our friends, colleagues and listeners!

Egypt and China are of course very different countries. That said, they both have amazing cultures and ancient civilisations. Although on these two trips I've been working in the cities, on previous trips to China I, of course, visited the Great Wall - along with Will, another colleague, I climbed quite a way! And with several colleagues, I have visited the Pyramids and greeted the Sphinx before.

"But that's only two trips!" I hear you say! Ah well, yes. You see, I couldn't do the third one because of a clash of in scheduling. So, Andrew, who's my boss, has gone to Shenzhen to judge a competition organised by another one of our partners, 21st Century.

Talking about the 21st Century: what do you prefer doing when you travel? Visiting ancient monuments and museums or enjoying the delights of modern cities? I have to say I enjoy both, and one of the delights of modern cities is the fabulous food you can find! I love Chinese food, especially the flavours from Szechuan and I have to admit that last night I enjoyed several Egyptian dishes which were delicious. I love mezze and had a beautiful kofta.

Most of all, though, I enjoy meeting the people and learning every day about different experiences and cultural attitudes. Now that is what broadens the mind.

Looking forward to reading your comments.
All the best
Sean

Some useful vocabulary and expressions:

travel broadens the mind
visiting different places and meeting different people makes you more open-minded, less narrow in your thinking

broad-minded
open to different experiences, different people; open-minded

quite a bit
quite a lot

duty trip
travel for work purposes

Wow! We are one!
That's amazing! We're united! We're together!

sound effects
sounds or noises in a play

creativity
being creative

quite a performance!
a big deal; something involving a lot of effort or time

fancy giving it a go?
do you want to try?

knock-out competition
a competition where each team gets one chance to go through to the next round. Teams that do not get through to the next round are knocked out or eliminated.

well in advance
a long time before

surreal
strange; weird; different

partnership
working together with another organisation

linking up with
connecting with

innovation
a new creative work

amazing cultures and ancient civilisations
impressive ways of life and historical societies

a clash
when two events happen at the same time so that you cannot go to or see both

cultural attitudes
what people think or feel because of their culture