It was in a small bookshop in Manchester where I noticed a book which immediately caught my eye: I Didn't Do My Homework Because by Davide Cali and illustrated by Benjamin Chaud. The book is basically a list of perfectly illustrated, funny, weird, amazingly impossible excuses a student could use... but they usually don't. Unless I, as a teacher, make them to :)

Surprisingly, I've happened to use my projects in the classroom — it's quite attractive for the students to see some actual real-life materials along with the "been there, done that" stories as an addition to the book material and better than checking things on their own on the Internet. So from students' perspective this sole reason is enough for you, as a teacher, to collect some souvenirs from the countries you've been to.

The reason why I love "Mystery of the Abbey" as the beginning of the course is that it helps students to start speaking the language from the first moment and, unlike usual introductory activities, it makes them see that they can actually communicate well enough to achieve something: in this case to solve the mystery.