• sundance

    Visiting San Francisco’s best movie theater: Sundance Cinema Kabuki

    It’s movie time! Find your assigned seat, order your cocktail, enjoy your Shrimp Ceviche Salad and your Chocolate Ganache Cheesecake, and enjoy! If this does not sound like the typical movie experience, that is because it isn’t: you aren’t watching a movie in a run-of-the-mill movie theater, you are experiencing a movie at Sundance Cinema [...]

  • San Francisco Food Truck

    San Francisco Food Truck Adventure

      San Francisco has so many different restaurants that a person could eat at a different restaurant every day for a year, and still not even scratch the surface of the diversity of restaurants available. Now this list of eateries has gotten even longer because of the delicious food available on wheels. That’s right, FOOD [...]

  • CFF

    International English student activity: Carlsbad flower fields!

    How do San Diegans know when spring has arrived? When the weather is so beautiful in February and March, it can actually be quite difficult to tell! For many, the opening of the Carlsbad Flower Fields signifies the beginning of spring. Each year in March, the Flower Fields open and thousands of visitors come to [...]

  • ChineseNewYear

    International student activity in SF: Chinese New Year festival, February 23, 2013

    When living in San Francisco, the influence of Asian culture cannot be denied: from the Japanese Gardens to Chinatown, Asian cultures are definitely an important part of San Francisco’s mosaic. With such a strong influence from Eastern cultures,  it is no surprise that San Francisco’s Chinese New Year festival has been rated one of the [...]

  • Activities-for-ESL-Students-SanDiego

    Upcoming events for students at CISL San Diego

    CISL students are in the middle of a three-day weekend thanks to the President’s Day holiday, but just because school starts back up on Tuesday doesn’t mean that the weekend fun has to end! CISL has many fun activities planned for students during the next few weeks. Check them out!   Upcoming events at CISL [...]

  • Lakers

    Go Lakers! Fun basketball trivia after a recent CISL trip to a Lakers game

    The colors yellow and purple are just two beautiful hues . . . until you put them together and they become the official colors of the most loved basketball team on the West Coast: the Lakers! CISL students recently took a trip to see a Lakers game through a tour company called Expedition America. From [...]

  • Museummonth

    February is San Diego Museum Month!

    Every Tuesday, two of the museums in Balboa Park are free to San Diego residents. But this February, tickets to over 40 San Diego museums are half off! Thanks to Macy’s, the store that is presenting this event, residents can pick up a free pass to San Diego’s museums. The pass is good from February [...]

  • whalewatching3

    Favorite International Student Activity: Whale Watching in San Diego

    It is whale watching season in San Diego! Each year from December through April, 20,000 gray whales pass through San Diego while on their 10,000 mile journey from chilly Alaska to temperate Baja, California. They migrate the same path every year in order for the mothers to give birth to their calves in a warmer [...]

Welcome to the CISL Blog

Use the blog to find out what is going on at CISL and things to do in San Francisco and San Diego. You can also read about some of our students and get English practice material. Return to the CISL Homepage

Inocente

San Diego film wins an OSCAR!

The Academy Awards (also known as “The Oscars”) were held on Sunday night. Celebrities dressed in their best and walked the red carpet, and many Americans excitedly watched as awards were given to filmmakers, actors, and actresses. Many San Diegans were watching for another reason: to see if a local film, Inocente, would win the [...]

Synonyms-for-say-said

Vocabulary building for English students: great words to substitute for “say”

Increasing your vocabulary will allow you more flexibility in your speaking. But where to begin? We suggest starting with a word that you probably use all the time: say. How many times do we use the word “say” in one day? Who knows! Between the times we recount stories, write about authors, books, or articles [...]

cislsd

Interesting facts about San Diego and San Francisco for international students

CISL students call San Diego and San Francisco “home” during their time as an international English student. But how much do these students know about the cities that they live in? CISL compiled a few interesting facts about San Diego and San Francisco that even most residents of these two cities do not know. Stump [...]