Gillian King: 2 week Greek Standard Course

My teacher, Lena, was excellent. Lessons were well presented and systematic. I helped a lot by going back to basics a lot at times and filling in early grammar I should have known. The staff were approachable and willing to help. The best part of the course was the excellent lessons with Lena, we were very lucky. I liked my fellow students a lot, all four of us were of different nationalities but this worked very well.

I loved Chania; the food was very reasonable and very good. Local people were delightful and very responsive when we spoke to them in Greek. I used Greek in nearly all my circumstances. I felt very safe in town, whether I was with a friend or two or on my own.

There are one or two nice bars in Chania; there is an ethnic bar that is very good. My fellow student (Swiss lady) who was staying in the same accommodation as me and I ate out three times a week, otherwise we ate in with our hostess. We became very good friends.

After lessons we mainly went to the nearest beach to swim, sleep a little or do our homework. It was a nice walk back to our accommodation too, which we enjoyed. We would go via the huge and delightful harbour, when we didn’t get lost!

My hostess Niki Sanadiki was a very friendly lady. I had a very nice room with a shower and toilet. I was very lucky; she lived in a top floor flat with a large balcony. My hostess drove us out to see a couple of local monasteries on the Sunday, it was a lovely trip. She was an excellent cook, good Greek food.

CESA were very good, I would definitely go again and would want the same teacher. I would go for 4 weeks this time I could have benefited from the extra two weeks there.