Holà Madrid

I have been in Madrid for more than a month now, working at Turner and exploring the Spanish way of life. My post today is to explain more about what is my life during my internship.

It is not only a rumour: Spanish way of life is very different from the French one. At the start of my life here, I was not very used to start working at 10 am and to finish my day at 8 or 9pm. Dinner is taken around 10 or 11 pm and it is very common to go out for parties at around 2 am ! Such a way of life is though easy to adapt thanks to the climate. The past days have been very warm.

I had enough time during my week-ends to visit some cultural things of the city.

El Palacio Real

This palace is the place where is nowadays living the King of Spain. Also called “Palacio del Oriente”, this monument is one of the most popular of the city. The surface of this building is 135 000 m² which means that the “Palacio Real” is the biggest of Europe. The royal family, composed of the King Juan Carlos, his wife Sofia of Greece and the prince Felipe and his family, is not actually living in it every day, it is only a place for protocol ceremonies. They are actually living in Zarzuela’s Palace.

Here is a picture of the front face of the “Palacio Real”

Palacio Real

Plaza del Toro (corrida)

This place is maybe the most impressive thing I visited here in Madrid. This arena is were the corridas (bullfights?) are set and I went to see one of them. It is amazing even if I am not found of this type of “art” because I am not sure it is useful to kill animal just for the show. But, without these considerations, it is a part of the Spanish culture and I cannot deny it. What was the most impressive during the show was how fanatic are the Spanish concerning this “art” and they follow the game as if it is a football game. Speaking about Football, I also visited the Barnabeu stadium, but I do not have an emotional memory of this ! J

This picture is to illustrate the architecture of the building, inside are set the famous ‘corridas’ (yes, looks like Nimes arenas!).

Arena of Plaza del Toro

Plaza Puerta del Sol

 It is situated in the perfect center of the city and it symbolizes the heart of the country/city. It is also the zero kilometric point of the distances to Madrid: it is in the geometrical center of the country. It is from that kilometer zero that is beginning all the streets of the city.

Plaza Puerta del Sol by night

 

A time to say goodbye

I handed out my assessments last weeks and I officially can say that my semester here is done. Concerning my life in Cambridge, this article will be the last (but not the least).

Let's focus on what I will never forget and what I would rather forget.

The Unforgettable :

- Student life: this is the main thing that I enjoyed in Cambridge because the city is only made of students which means a lot of fun and parties and student life. I really enjoyed living at the YMCA because I was living with a lot of student from all over the world (especially from Germany, BTW). It is reassuring to always meet someone in the corridor, H24, and live in a good ambiance. My roommates who I was sharing my kitchen and bathroom were very nice, fun, respectful and it was a real pleasure to live with them. I think that this experience will always be a bonus on my life because I learned to live with "strangers", in a un common accomodation for me, and I loved it! I realize that it was the real start of MY life! Also concerning student life, I enjoyed the night life in Cambridge and the every day life, the food shops are open late, a lot of shops are doing student discounts... Even if life is expensive here, it is adapted for students.

Louise and me

- Anglia Ruskin University : this University is not wonderful, is not incredible and high-level, but it is so different from what I am used to. At the start of my semester I did not realize the point of having 8h class per week, nothing to do home and only 4 assessments to hand out of 3 000 words. But, doing my essays, I realize that this solution was a pretty good one because I surprise myself being really focused on my subject. Actually, I already think that it is a good way of working because the student, to succeed, has to learn about its subject and to interest himself. I finally learned a lot without following a lot of classes. Moreover, I managed to like University student life but I still prefer the school athmosphere.

- Travels : I am completely keen on United Kingdom and I love travel in London, visit the Capital, Oxford and Edinburgh ! I am not sure that a lot of people take time to visit England, but because I was in Cambridge, I decided to know more about this country. I can say that Oxford and Cambridge are must-to-see cities, really, because it is a huge part of the history of England and a landmark over the World. The city of Edinburgh is also impressive and opened me concerning Scottish cultures. I understand the difference with England and Ireland. As a contrary as a lot of people can say, I think that the United Kingdom is very culturally rich.

- Cambridge University and its colleges : Of course, I cannot speak about unforgettable things without speaking about what fascinated me most during the last 4 months. This University is far enough the most beautiful and impressive I have ever seen. I did not know at all its story before coming here and be sure that I would have tried to study here if I had. The organisation of colleges, the athmosphere and the reputation of this University makes it a "out-of-time" world. Students there are smart, polite, well-educated and open-minded even if they know that their University is a very closed world.

A formal Dinner in Girton College

What I would rather forget :

- Weather : I was sure that in England, it is always raining but it is false : it never rains but it is never sunny. There are always clouds which makes our life very grey. We are in May and the temperatures are not exceeding 15 degres and the rumour says that in June : IT IS ALWAYS RAINING. What a wonderful country !

- Food: Of course, I am exagerating this point because even if I do not like English food, I feed myself during this semester and I manage to keep my french habits. What I would rather forget is that English are frying everything! And I am not keen on...

- English times: The English are eating their dinner at 6 pm and every restaurant closed around 10 pm. What a joke for us, french people ? The first time we wanted to have dinner at a regular hour (21h), a lot of restaurant were almost closing or were not serving anymore. Same thing, English student are going out around 10.30 pm because every nightclubs is closing at 3.00am. Same thing also for the pubs which are closing at midnight MAX.

The oldest and most famous Pub in Cambs - The Eagle

But, as you can read (and see), there are only a few forgettable things and of course, I do not really want to forget them because it was a huge part of my experience and I enjoyed my life here even these details. I can say that I really loved my stay here and I will miss this country and its students.

An hour on the river Cam

It is fairly true: we were here for 4 months but we never did the most touristic attraction of the city : punting on the river Cam. In fact, the city is built around this river and most of the world famous colleges have a side on the river. When we are on these little boats, we can admire the hidden side of these colleges listening to the stories the boatman is telling. The rumour says that each boatman has to say 3 lies minimum to the tourists so I do not really know if what he told us is true... But I hope!

Cambridge's library

The library of Cambridge would have been flooded one century ago further to an overflowing of the river. Henceforth all the books are placed in the floor of the building and includes the thesis of Keynes, Friedman or Darwin, students of the University.

Bridge of Sights 

The Bridge of Sights is a property of St John's College and refers to Venice's famous bridge. A commom myth states tgat it was the students who named this bridge "Bridge of the Sight" because it is situated inside the college grounds and goes to the exam rooms and library. The "sights" are those of pre-exam students. It is one of the famous bridge of the city with the Matematical Bridge.

King's Chapel and Clare College

This is a view of Kings chapel (left) and the main building (oldest one) of Clare College (right). We can see the oldest building of the college: Clare Old's Court. The story of this college is particular because Elizabeth de Clare was on of the granddaughter of Edward I. She divorced from all its husbands and because she has no children, she decided to give its heritage to the University of Cambridge funding one of the most famous college.


I did not take any picture of the Matematical Bridge but I have to speak about this bridge because it is the most famous. It is a part of Queen's College. A popular fable is that the bridge was designed and built by Sir Isaac Newton (graduated in Queen's college) without the use of nuts and bolts. Various stories relates how at some point in the past, either students or fellows of the University attempted to take the Bridge apart and put it back together, but were unable to work out how to hold the structure together, and were obliged to resort to adding nuts and bolts.

Matematical Bridge

During the visit, we also went next to the famous tree from which the Newton's apple fell.


This makes me remind that Cambridge is a world famous center for Sciences researches. Mathematics, astronomy and life sciences are the University specialities. Until now, graduates of the University have won a total of 61 Nobel Prizes, the most of any university in the World.

Edinburgh

Last week, I went to Edinburgh with Thomas to discover this famous city and enjoy Scottish country.
Let's go back onto this 3-days trip.

Border of Old Town

Edinburgh's Castle

1st day:


Edinburgh Castel: We visited the Edinburgh Castel in this afternoon.The castel of Edinburgh is an impressive monument. When we arrive in the city, we can see this chateau, perched on a hill of cliffs which served as ramparts in the medieval time. We when entered this monument, we were able to visit a little gallery dedicated to the place of Scotland during wars. It was very interesting to concentrate on the evolution of clothes and weapons.


After that, we visited the wars prisons where enemies were kept. This place is dirty and still smell death.
It was shocking to see the horrible conditions they were living in.
Another thing concerning the castel is the beautiful view that we had on all the city.

View of the Castle

Thomas in the war jails of the Castle

Old Town: After this visit, we went to the Old Town and we had a drink in a pub. The ciry of Edinburgh is built of two "towns" New town (the more recent one) and Old Town, a medieval area were streets are small and not very bright... It is such a beautiful place, you can see very small streets, dark and dead were you can imagine how was the medieval life.

Royal Mile - Old Town

Border of New town

2nd day:


New Town: During the 2nd day, we went to New town, to have shopping and to walk on the new streets. We walked on Princes Street and George Street, the two biggest streets.

National Galleries of Scotland

National Galleries of Scotland: We visited also the National Galleries of Scotland where we were able to admire beautiful scottish painters, retracing all the paint story of Scotland. On the first floor, there was an exhibition of french impressionistes. Van Gogh, Manet, Monet, Seurat and others famous french painters were exposed. This gallery is such a beautiful and culturally rich one. We had a very good time there.





Le Petit Paris: To have dinner, we went to a french restaurant which was quite "cliché". Called "le Petit Paris", this restaurant offers only 10 meals and very very french meals as Burguignon Beef. We tasted it, it was delicious but the atmosphere there was very special and stressful. The prices were very expensive and I am not sure it gives a good image of french cuisine.

3rd day:

Arthur's Seat: In the morning, we did some sport because we went to Arthur's Seat. The city of Edinburgh have two particularities: it has a castel and a volcano! Arthur's Seat is the summit of the old volcano that erupted 365 billion years later. We had a walk just to admire the wonderful view we had of all the city. We walked half an hour and we seated to take photos of the Queen Palace, situated just under the mountain, and of the city.

View of the City

Holyrood Palace

Meadow Park

After that, we had lunch in a typical pub and we bought some whisky because it is a Scottish's speciality.

Meadow Park: The afternoon, we had a rest on a park much more beautiful that Cambridge's ones, well flowered and full of students.




To sum up, these 3 days were exciting and we discovered an uncommon city where I really wish to live if I had to choose another Erasmus place to do my semester (even if I loooove Cambridge very much).

26th March, London, "Hello Chaos"

It was one of the biggest demonstration seen for years. Hundreds of thousands united in protest against the coalition government's swinging cuts. Trafalgar Square was in chaos the night of 26th March as protesters clashed with police following one of the biggest demonstrations in British political history.

"Keep Calm and Carry on": the famous doctrine of the British had not been very respected the last 26th march in London. In fact, 250 000 people protested for the first time against the Austerity Politcy launched by the Government to fight the economic and financial crisis. The United Kingdom known for its economic power and resistance suffered a lot from this crisis and it is time for them to regulate. 

It is sure that for a french as I am, this number seemed derisory but, for the country I am in, it is such a big number of protestants! The power of British results in the fact that they normally know that these drastic cuts are the only rational solution to avoid the medium-term bankruptcy and return to public deficit. 

About the Austerity policy: 90 billion euro of budget cuts, a half-million jobs  deleted in the public sector, the retirement age carried in 66 years before 2020, the whole matched by an increase of taxes. 

Without these changes : the GPB would fall from 14% to 2,1%... Critical figure.

Anglia Ruskin University

Anglia Ruskin University, the university were I spent the last four months, is composed of two different campuses: Cambridge & Chelmsford.

I studied there since the 19th January, the day of presentation of the Univ to the exchange students.

Our semester ends friday 15th so I am able to do now a real feedback of my experience.

Welcoming

Firstly, concerning the way we were welcomed, I enjoyed the fact that exchange students and British were mixed during the lessons. We were very considered as students and, for us, it is a good way to be implicated in our classes. The first week of classes, the Exchange Student adviser presented us the University and more generally the English way of life. They organized travels for us to know the country and they were very present during all the semester, thing that I enjoyed.

Classes

The first week, we had to chose our subjects and schedules. This task was quite hard because we all wanted to have our week ends free to be able to go home! I changed all my classes and I took a lot of business subjects (which was not a good idea when I consider now the hard work I have to do...). I chose to study marketing and economics. I had B to B marketing, Marketing communications, Business Economics and an English class to help me improve my language. I enjoyed these courses except Business Economics because I do not fancy economics so it was quite difficult for me to follow. But I did! I noticed a real difference between french and English system of teaching. Here, we just have 8 hours classes a week, 1 hour seminar and 1 hour lecture per class. This looks like very lazy schedule but we also have to do a loooot of homework. Right now, we are almost in "vacations" but we have to do our assessments, 3000 words essays about a subject given by the teacher. In these papers, we have to include around 15 references (which means we have to read and summarize books) and it is not an easy task at all (the contrary...). Teachers do not really care if you attend or not the classes but they are nicer to help us if we have any problems with our assessments. In Business Economics, for example, the teacher helped me find my contents and target what I had to say in my paper.

Campus Life

Anglia Ruskin is a big university but unfortunately, Chelmsford campus is much bigger and impressive than Cambridge one. Every building is alone and not related to another which is quite boring when you have 5 minutes to go on the opposite side of the campus. There are 2 cafeterias where you can eat healthy and well for a very cheap price : a burger with fries (not a very good example for healthy food, I know...) is around 3£ and you have a fuuuull plate! For the country, it appears very cheap! And it is eatable!

Concerning student life, there is a famous association presents in every university in the UK : the Student Union. There are here to help if you have any problem, they organize parties, conferences, meetings. They have an important goal and members of the SU are paid for their job. It is very different from a french BDE because they do not just organize event but they are a part of the administration and related to the wellness of students. SU website : http://angliastudent.com/

What did I learn being a student in ARU ?

English! it was maybe one of the only places I hear and spoke English because I met a lot of french student during my every day life. I learn also, thanks to my English course, to understand that other origins may have not the same way of doing business. I finally knew what was university life, where you are on your own, and without a 'promotion sense'. I will always love ESDES because of the "promotion sense", we are all very close to each other, because we are 2A ! Here, nobody knows each other, you just know persons who are in the same classes as you. It is necessary to say, by the way, that the erasmus community is very cool and it is very easy to meet exchange student, not only at school by during parties and in our accommodation, dedicated to exchange students.

It is a sad goodbye I am giving to ARU, not extraordinary university, but, for me, full of memories.

Day trip to Oxford

 Last week I had the chance to travel a bit around the English country. I decided to visit Oxford because I wanted to compare Oxford University with the now familiar Cambridge University. We took the bus during almost 4 hours but the result was quite impressive. 

As you have to know, the city of Oxford is composed of 153,900 habitants with more than 30,000 students which makes the student life there quite fun, I think. Compared to Cambridge, Oxford is more a city (Cambridge is smaller than Oxford) with a lot of colleges all situated in the city center. As you can see on this picture taken from the air, colleges are a part of the city center (you can recognize colleges because of the square architecture). 

Matthew Arnold, a very famous english poet, said that Oxford was the « city of dreaming spires » because of the beauty of the architecture of these colleges and the harmony with the city. In Cambridge, colleges are often situated far from the city center and are not next to each other for the most part. 

Otherwise, the city of Oxford is one of the oldest city in Great Britain and is a pride for all the country. 

I enjoyed spending the day here, there are not a lot of things to see but it is a wonderful place, especially because of colleges and architecture.