It's a girl !!

The Big Ben behind me

  London is a huge and bright city. Londoners seem governed only by time. Everything goes too fast, everything is in motion. Despite this, Londoners are polite, friendly and very welcoming. With friends we visited the famous places of the capital like the Big Ben, the Science Museum, the Camden district, M & M's store, or the offices of the BBC news channel.

One of the roads dedicated to the Queen's parades

  We stayed three days in London. If we loved the city, we found that life is very expensive especially the underground tickets. You  should take a ticket for the day which cost about 8 pounds.

The BT Tower  where was displayed : it's a girl!

  During our visit we were intrigued by a sentence displayed on the many screens that animate London. It's a girl! Later in the day we will understand that it means the long-awaited birth of the second child of Kate and Prince William, called Charlotte.

In London a map is as useful as an umbrella

  That day, the streets were crowded with French tourists attending the Rugby European Cup final between two French teams Clermont against Toulon (winner).

  In London we have also looked for work by giving our Cv in restaurants and bars. We did not know it would be so easy to find work. Because some of us have received a call a few minutes after submitting their CV for an interview the next day. We plan to return a few days in London to look for work this summer.

Visit of BBC offices in London

We have decided to make our first video at the heart of the world famous news channel : BBC. In these videos you will see how we managed to cope with an impediment for visiting the BBC offices. You will find some advices to get more chance than us.

Trailer of our video :

Part 1 :

Part 2 :

Part 3 :

Part 4 :

Part 5 :

Part 6 :

We hope you enjoyed our video !!

Trip in Cardiff

A few weeks ago all the International students decided to visit Cardiff, the capital and the largest city in Wales and the tenth largest city in the United Kingdom. So we booked a coach for all of us, we were around 30 people, and we went to spend one Saturday in this beautiful city.

 The trip was around 3 hours, but we spent one more hour because there has been an incident , but we arrived at the right time because we left at 7 o’clock in the morning from the Campus. All we had to pay for this trip it was 20 pound for the coach, go and back.

It was a really sunny day, we got ready with our clothes because people told us Cardiff is a very cold city, but we were lucky.

When we arrived, we decided to visit the castle first, and then have lunch. We saw the castle, it is a really nice place, with green fields, but we did not visit the castle as the price for entrance was expensive. 

After the castle, we walked through the city, where we found a medieval market, and we decided to have our lunch there. When we finished, we went to visit the entire city, we found a lot of young and old people singing in the streets, and we decided to get into a free museum of the city. We learnt a lot of things about it, and at the end of the day we had to go back home. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time  to visit all the touristic places in Cardiff.

                                                                Museum of Cardiff

                                                   

Park in Cardiff

Before to go back, we walked through a beautiful park. I loved these places in England; they have really good parks where you can walk all the day peacefully.

It was time to get the coach back home, we were too tired. We arrived on Campus at 12:00 pm, and we decided to order Chinese food to finish our amazing day together.

If you are thinking to visit Cardiff, just do it, you will enjoy it.

The monkey forest

A week ago, I went to the Monkey Forest, the only place in the UK where you can walk through the green England and enjoy the company of 140 Barbary macaques roaming free in 60 acres of this amazing Forest.

We went by taxi, it takes 10 -15 minutes from campus and if you decide to go with your friends it can cost 2 pounds each one for an incredible and different day.

We were lucky because we know England it is not a sunny country, but it didn't rain, so we could have a quiet walk. I was really excited to see and touch all the Monkeys.

                                                      The entrance of the monkey forest

Just arrived we went to the entrance to buy our ticket. In my opinion it is a bit expensive even we had special price because we are students but I am still thinking that 7,50 pounds are too. If you are not a student you will have to pay 8 pounds.

Before we went inside the park, a guide talked us about the rules, all we could and we couldn't do. If you are interested to visit it, you have to know you are not be able to touching and feeding the Monkeys. It is strictly prohibited.

It is fast to visit it, it takes like 30 minutes to do it. Then you can spend your time breathing clean air or just enjoying the nature.  It was quite interesting to have explanatory panels around all the park telling you about monkeys’ life and a regular presence of the guides to tell you all about information you can need.

I asked a guide why we could not touch or feeding monkeys, he told us that the monkeys would be returned to their natural environment and the proximity with humans it is not beneficial in their natural environment. The park is an observatory for scientists who study the behaviour and the way of life about these mammals. Despite the disappointment of not being able to touch the monkeys we could be close to them. They were walking and playing a few meters from us.

As I have already mentioned in my "Hanley park" article about a child on a leash, I'm starting to get used to seeing this around all this places.

We spent a full day with a lot of adventures and laughs, and we are looking forward to the next one.

So I just came back with full of memories in my mind and I just thought to relax after the amazing day I spent with the Monkeys and my old and new friends. I will miss all this when we go back at home, but I will be happy to know I am going back with new good friends.

A trip in Chester part 2 : Grosvenor Museum

The Silver Gallery :
 

Silver trophies awarded to the winners of horse races

   On the first floor it is possible to visit a large gallery dedicated to silverware. During the Georgian era, Chester's economy was sustained by the trade of silver objects. Most silver objects handcrafted in Liverpool, Manchester or Birmingham were sent to Chester to be hallmarked with the seal of Chester.







The Natural History Gallery :

The golden eagle, there are only 450
breeding pairs in Britain. 

Dog ? Fox ? or FoxDog ? 

  The museum exhibits also the natural history gallery. We can see the evolution of animals through time : fossils and current animals . Most species are exposed stuffed . Among these species there are some quite rare animals like the  golden eagle or the  hybrid animal who looks like a mix between fox and dog.

A large sight of the Art Gallery

The Art Gallery :

The art gallery contains paintings and sculptures dating from the Victorian era. We can admire a large collection of paintings made ​​by local celebrity Louise Rayner who lived ten years in Chester.

Grosvenor The museum in the city of Chester trough three important periods in British history. The Roman period, the Georgian period ending with the loss of the American colonies and the expansion of the French revolution , leading to the Victorian period marked by the industrial revolution.

Birmingham : an economic asset

   I wanted to visit a big city and after some internet research I discovered that Birmingham was the second most populous city after London. I learned that the main interest of the city is its large shopping center , not very exciting. I traveled with a friend by bus , departing at 8 am back the next day at 3 am.

The Bullring mall by night

   The mall is called BullRing . It is distinguished by an unusual design: a huge capsule with wave-shaped curves covered with circles that light up in blue at night. Inside, the shops are spread over three floors. The Bullring is simply the largest shopping center in Europe . It boosts the city and enable to create a multitude of jobs especially in the service sector, which represents a very large share of economic activity of Birmingham.

Some french student from Monaco

The canal which crosses Birmingham

   In one day , I wasn't able to visit the town center. Everything seems new, the many construction sites dotting the city reveal a renewal of the urbanization. Everything is beautiful, everything is high. The library built in the city center is huge with an innovative and futuristic design. Not far away , a canal crosses the city . It is highlighted by restaurants accessible by small bridges that give it a Venetian look. The streets are populated , and occasionally French sounds catch our attention.

In the evening we ate in a restaurant and bar which broadcasted the match France - Brazil. After the match the atmosphere became more festive with a DJ and musicians.

The big library of Birmingham

In the Indi Lounge Bar

I liked Birmingham, and I plan to look for an internship here for the summer. I write my article at the station waiting for my bus, before  that my emotion evaporates, before I forget my best human encounter. That of Andy a Nigerian who lives in Birmingham for 16 years and working in the bar toilet.

Easter Holidays

Hi all!

   The first week of holidays, a friend who lives in the same city as me in France came to visit me in Stoke. I was really happy to see her because I didn't come back in France during the holidays. She arrived on the Thursday, she took a hotel so we stayed in Stoke from Thursday to Saturday morning. I showed her the city centre of Stoke and also our huge campus, she was really impressed by this considerable campus.

Then, the Saturday morning, we left the city to go to Liverpool by train. We visited the city centre of Liverpool which is really interesting because there are a lot of shops and restaurants. After, we visited few museums, I saw the sea, I was really happy because I used to see the sea every day in my city in France and I miss it!

In the evening, we went to a restaurant that we chose on a website because it looked really nice. Indeed, when we arrived at the restaurant we were really surprised of it because we had the impression of being in a French restaurant! It was a really good meal and we enjoyed it! Then, we visited the different place where you can find bars and clubs and actually, there is a street which gather most of the clubs and bars of Liverpool. We were really tired and we finally found a quiet Irish bar a bit more far away from this street where we could enjoy our beer without noisy music.

She came back to France the tomorrow really early in the morning and I came back to Stoke. I passed my two weeks of holidays in Stoke, working my assessments because we have a lot of work to do and I visited some friends who live in Manchester on a Friday night, I was happy to see them because there was nobody on the campus during the holidays! I finally found again my French friends who came back from France and we all hope to pass a last good month in Stoke-on-Trent.

Welcome to London

Hi every one! 

This week-end I went to London with the other French guys. We left Stoke at 12:50 by taking the bus to go to London, it took such a long time because the bus to go to London takes 5 hours! Finally, when we arrived in London, we discovered our hostel and we went to the Piccadilly centre to eat something because we were so hungry after this long journey! We ate in a Chinese restaurant and after we went around Piccadilly. It was so nice, lights everywhere, bars, restaurants. I also discovered the famous red buses and the English taxis because I’ve never been to London before.

The next day...

 

Blue zone

Green zone

The next day I went to the Natural History museum which is free. There were several zones and I saw a lot of beautiful things like the dinosaur skeletons in the Blue zone, the minerals in the Green zone …etc. It was really interesting.

On the afternoon, I went to the Buckingham palace which is the official residence of British sovereigns. It was really nice! I couldn’t imagine how big it was and how beautiful it was.

 

Finally I went to the famous Big Ben which is situated at the north end of the Palace of Westminster. It was really impressive because the clock is huge! 

 

For the last day, we went to the parade in Trafalgar square for the St Patrick’s Day which is an Irish celebration.

The trip in London was really cool, I discovered a lot of things and I hope I’ll come back in soon because there are a lot of things to do in London and I think that a week-end is too short to do everything. 

See you later !