The regent theatre: a multi-award winning musical

Regent Theater in Hanley

The Regent Theatre is located in the centre of Hanley, more precisely in Piccadilly, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire ST1 1AP. It is a theatre with an enthralling ambiance which reminds me the 60's.
 I went to see a very well-known musical called Anything Goes directed by Cole Porter. It was played for the first time in Broadway in 1934. This musical  was rewarded several times and was adapted three times to the cinema.  It is a two-act musical  which lasts for about one hour each.

Inside the theater 

During the show 

Anything Goes takes place on a ship in which Billy is a stowaway who wants to win the heart of the beautiful Hope and prevent her from getting  married to the powerful Sir Evelyn, while Hope’s mother wants to see her daughter getting married to him to become rich. Billy was the wanted man on that ship but he was friendly surrounded by everybody when the crew discovered that he was the public enemy number one. After that crew member put him in jail along with his friend Moonface. Finally the wedding between Hope and Sir Evelyn is cancelled, and then he got married to Reno the singer while on the other hand Billy finds Hope.

Prices range from 12.5 to 40 pounds. Even though  I had the least expensive seat I found myself well placed. The sound was astonishing, the lights was varied and with very high quality. I did not understand all the dialogues but the movements of comedians allowed me to understand almost all scenes.

 The orchestra and the voices of comedians especially of Reno were amazing. It is a musical  that I will recommend to all with a blend of rhythm and energy throughout the two hours. I was so excited that almost I was about to jump on the stage to sing and dance with them. All in all it was one of my best moments in Stoke. 

NB : it was prohibited to take pictures during the show but the staff enabled to me to take few pictures and a short video.

The Potteries Museum

Hello everyone! 

 

With some of my friends, we went at one of the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, because there is another one named Gladstone Potteries Museum. So this museum is located in Hanley, the centre of Stoke-on-Trent and is about 20 min by walk from the University. 

 

The entrance of the museum

There are several floors, the lower ground floor is the Temporary Exhibition Gallery and it shows a series of changing exhibitions. We saw the first pharmacies, the first breweries and also the old fire trucks, it was really interesting and I took a lot of pictures.

Old pharmacy

Old fire truck

After, on the ground floor, it’s about the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia and we saw how local Anglo-Saxons lived and admired their greatest treasure, the Staffordshire Hoard which is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork yet found. At this floor you can also dress like an Anglo-Saxon, indeed, there are typical clothes hanged on the wall and you can try the clothes and take a picture if you want to keep a souvenir. On the same floor there are also the Natural History where you can see local wildfire, plants, geology and the Local History. Finally on the same floor there is the Spitfire Gallery featuring Reginald Mitchell’s MK 16 Spitfire (fighter plane).

Finally, on the first floor, there are the Art Gallery, the Craft Gallery and the Ceramics.

The spitfire

Ceramics

So we enjoyed visiting this museum and we’re looking forward to visiting another one.

Céline de La Bunelaye

A warm welcome

Hello everyone ! 

Picture of all the international students

I’m going to write an article about a very good surprise we had one week ago.
Indeed, we’ve been invited by the University to a dinner for international students. So the dinner started at 6:00 pm, we were at a table where there were different international students and in the room there were so many nationalities! India, Pakistan, Germany, Norway…etc. It was great because we could talk a little with these people to improve our English.

Then, about the food, there was such different food. French food for example (it was the typical beef bourguignon), rice (Chinese food), spicy food (Indian food), and other kind of food. For the dessert it was two types of cake. It was a really good meal!
After the dinner, we took good time talking with people, they’re really pleasant and really understanding, they help me to feel in confidence and so I can speak English with them, even if I have some difficulties to speak. We’ve met also people coming from the ESAIP Angers at this party. 

Dining room

All these parties can help our circle of friends to grow and we thank the University for this great party, it’s really a good idea, it allowed us to met the other people of different nationalities living on the Campus. 

See you !

The UK is not France

The UK is not France 

We were surprised to see so many differences between these two countries while only tens of kilometres separate them. Firstly the language but we already knew it. In the UK, people drive on the right-hand side of the road and we also know this habit. But we ignored that it will be troublesome to cross roads because we have to forget our habits and look before on the left side then the right. During one of the first days, we were astonished to see a child driving a big car, before understanding he was on the passenger seat.

At home, the differences still are visible. The switches fall from the ceiling whereas in France are fixed on the wall. The first day I used the toilet in the dark. It’s all about the bathroom. There are two taps on each sink, one for hot water and the other for the cold. So to use it we open both taps and we try to get water from the both to get lukewarm water , no jealous !! The flush is different but is easy to use. Moreover the sockets are different from ours. To use it, it's not finger in the nose like french say because there are three metal rods. To load our laptop or our mobiles we use an adapter which enables us to plug our appliances directly in the socket.  

At the Uni, it was funny to call our teachers by their forename. In France it's just impossible. Our timetable is very light compare to our in France. We learned that in the UK, the students spend a lot of time in the library and they can get access to their lectures from the Uni website and from what they call BLACKBOARD. The library closes at 02 am !! It’s great for a student like me who likes to study during the night. 

The fist day in Stoke !

Hello everyone ! 

 

At the Liverpool airport

We arrived in Stoke on the 23th at noon, it was a bit complicated because we took a bus and then 2 different trains with all our luggage !

The first contact is very cold but it's not snowing yet ! We went to the reception of the Campus to get our keys and we discovered our accommodation which is not the same one for each person of ESAIP school.

After that, we met three Indian people who helped us to discover the campus which is huge ! There is a night club, a bar, a dispenser and also a gym ! At the evening we ate in a restaurant and after we stayed with indian people and chinese people for practise our english, they're very comprehensive and they always try to make us understand what they say.

it was a very good first day in fact. People on the campus are very kind and friendly.

Stoke is really a nice town and we are eager to find out more !


Following in the next article !

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.

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.