mardi 23 décembre 2014

About our city...


Downtown of Stoke-on-Trent

First of all, a little presentation about our city. Stoke-on-Trent, often abbreviated to Stoke also called the Potteries, is a city in Staffordshire, England. Its population is about 250,000 people. The Staffordshire University, which hosts about 15,000 students is one of the best universities in England. There are two main campuses in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire, with other campuses in Lichfield and Shrewbury. 

There are many restaurants, pubs and tea shops in Stoke. In fact, there are some fantastic real-ale pubs to be discovered in Stoke like the Burslem, home of the Titanic Brewery.
Also, Stoke has an unrivalled heritage of Potteries and is officially recognized as the World Capital of Ceramics. There are Pottery attractions, factory shops and also factory tours where you can create your own masterpiece.  Then, there are so many things to do in Stoke, like visit the Monkey Forest or the Staffordshire Hoard exhibition and of course coming to watch a game football at the Britannia Stadium.

About travelling in and around Stoke-on-Trent has a great network of public transport for us to get around once we arrive. In fact, you can go:

  • by bus, the National Express connects Stoke with hundreds of towns and cities all over the UK
  • by rail with the Stoke-on-Trent Railway Station with regular direct high speed trains from London Euston, Birmingham and Manchester
  • by bicycle, Stoke-on-Trent has over 150km of cycle routes including off-road routes such as canal towpaths, river paths and greenways where you can explore the hidden, green areas of the city.
  • by taxi, in fact, there are taxi ranks outside Stoke-on-Trent Railway Station and in the City Centre on Stafford Street
  • Also by plane, way we’ll take from France to Liverpool airport

Then about the accommodations, some students will stay in the campus which offer cheap rooms with common facilities, the others have chosen colocation with foreigners, English people or Erasmus people! Ultimately, the goal is staying with people who speak English to improve it during the 3 months of studies.

Stoke Campus


Finally, about the student life, there are some pubs, nightclubs in Stoke but the biggest concentration of nightlife is at Hanley, the liveliest of the six towns that make up Stoke-on-Trent. Monday and Tuesday are the main student nights. There is also a Campus life on the campus of Stoke which has two large projection screens showing the major sporting fixtures, and a packed calendar of events including karaoke and quiz nights. It has also a place for food or drink.
 
After this little presentation, we look forward to arriving on site the 23th of January and hope to spend good time with english people.

lundi 22 décembre 2014

Little presentation

Hello everyone ! 

We are three students of the engineering school in Grasse (ESAIP) where we study the following subjects : Safety, Environment and Risk prevention.

In this school, we have the opportunity of going 3 months in a foreign University in an other country. We chose among several destinations and we finally chose the England destination and more exactly Stoke-on-Trent city. We didn't know this town before so we look forward to exploring this city !



A little presentation about us : 

  • Céline de La Bunelaye : I'm 20 years old, I'm living in Mandelieu and before going to the engineering school I did a DUT in Quality and Logistics in Sophia-Antipolis. I love swimming, it's my favorite sport, then I love seeing my friends and discover new persons. 
  • Sophien Mohamed : I'm 23 years old, I'm living near Marseille in south of France and before going to the engineering school, I did a BTS in Chemistry in Marseille. During my spare time, I practice basketball which is for me the best team sport. I like reading and discovering other cultures
  • Imad Moussa-Benyassine : I'm 23 years old. I'm from Marseille a southern french city but currently I'm living in Grasse, 200 km distance from Marseille. I study security and environment at ESAIP an engineering school. I like practice like football or running, go out with my friends. I wish thse 3 months will enable me to improve my english.
So, we hope this 3 months abroad will help us to improve our english level to get the TOEIC when we will come back in France. We also hope to discover a new culture, new people and hope to have good time with the ESAIP people and foreign people as well !
We have planned to visit museums, parks, tea shops, real-ale pubs which are very traditionnal but also participate to the student life and discover to way of think of english people.

In this blog we'll tell you what happened in our new english life twice a month. We hope you'll enjoy this visit.