Mercredi 4 juin 2008 à 10:57

Etant donné que cela fait 3ans que je n'ai pas pris de vacances, cette année j'ai décidée, mon bac plus 3 en poche, de partir quelques jours en vacances.
10 jours de vacances avec mes congruentes, dont une anciennement ma colloc, nous (re)partons à l'aventure à Swansea, pour 10jours de folies. Le summer ball étant en effet le bal qui cloture l'année universitaire en Grande Bretagne, nous allons gouter aux joies méconnues en France de ces grands bals (baux?) avec robes chicos et concerts de groupes connus (ou pas, d'ailleurs!), des soirées sur 5 jours, tous les soirs, se terminant par le fameux bal où robe de princesses et smoking sont de rigueur.
Tout ca pour dire que je ne serai pas la pendant 10 jours: du 4 au 14, et qu'il me faudra bien 10 jours de récupération après ca! Ensuite, je me remet à mon aigreur habituelle, mais pour l'instant laisser moi savourer mes petites vacances.

Je vous laisse sur une minute fashon victime avec les photos de la robe que j'ai choisie et de mes (futures?) chaussures :)





By princessvalium

Life in SWANSEA

Jeudi 29 novembre 2007 à 1:23

[The Amazing Smiley party Article]


    Hi cows (and in English I suddenly realised how much this name appears to be unfitted). Better late than never, a new article in the category "Life in Swansea", a bit special though, since this time it's not going to deal with a tale of Princess's Adventures in Abertawe but with my week end in Nottingham.
Instead of writing this, I should be reading my book about the killing factories in Chicago and the immigrants' hard life conditions, but I'm getting bored by the muckracker naturalism... So I'm doing something else (this is the only (pathetic) excuse I found not to work)


View of the city from the tramway quay. I love railways, so I chose to take this pic from this point of view :)

    So Camille and I were going to see our two friends in Nottingham, in the middle of England, 300km away from Swansea. To go there we had to take the train and had changings, but we each took a different one, so I dare say that it was a great deal of  stress for us. But I'm glad we did it, because it is a good experience that proves we are able to be completely on our own here, something that is not very axiomatic at first sight. What I really feared was to get blocked in a station in a town I didn't even know and to have none to call in that case. But thank you that did not happen!


The uni! Quite impressive huh? I like this, the old English style etc...

    I plainly realised how much I had missed my friends during this week end. I needed some congruence and I got it, which really makes me feel better, even now :) That was a real pleasure to meet them again, more enjoyable in that environment we tried to discover in these few days. Nottingham is a very big city (more than 2millions of inhabitants) so obviously we only saw a tiny little part of it during the week end. The weather was very cold, and I realised that we are lucky to be on the coast because we have relatively mild temperatures. What pleased me the most in the city scape was the red bricks houses that are so typical of that part of England (hey I'm a tourist I have tourist's reflections)

The city center was very lively, especially in this period of the year, everywhere we saw people runing to buy christmas presents etc...  But, for once, and I supposed it is due to my  tourist situation, I was almost pleased by all this agitation that usely gets on my nerves. For once I felt a little of the so called Christmas magic. (some egologists bent upon the problem and came to the conclusion that the congruence sphere tends to speed up the ice melting). We spend a very good week end, even if we could not visit evrything we planed to (especially Nottingham Castle) the Pizza Hut was a good consolation, even if our stomachs did not manage to Releeeeaaaaase the cheeeese.


 
I'm leaving you with some photos.














 
    I thought my week would be a horrible one, but actually, except from a monday not so good (figure out: wake up at 4am, waiting for a taxi that was waiting for me in another street ><, taking 3 different trains in the cold and dark morning, with only 2 hours of sleep in the baba, having left my friends and bearing in mind the perspective of a horrible week of work, walking down 50 minutes from  the station to home with 2 bags of a ton each under an icy rain, and the head in the ass... (Yeah, I have a gift for dramatization :).
But But But, finally, this week is going on perfectly well, with a very good news coming on monday, and 2 others on tuesday, a positive one concerning my couple life and the other the bigest nose in Pau (hahaha!!), and a good mark today that I didn't expected at all, feeling that I had laid a very big and smelly shit for my American Studies essay but I had the very surprising surprise to discover that it seems that it was not that bad or, at least, that the teachers' capacity of admiration was very developped here for I had a very nice and encouraging commentary on this essay. And of course! last but not least, the better thing's to come: another congruente coming up for this week end !!
I can't tell you what we are going to do because this is a surprise and I don't want her to find out what the program's going to be! But it'll be cool and I'll write an article about it.
I'm taking advantage of this category to talk a little about my life as it's been a long time since I last did it, letting my "autobiography" category rotting in decay. It is also a very good exercise for me to write it in English, I'm only translated it from English into French and not on the other way round :p.

            I'm now confronted to the case that I don't know how to finish my article on something intelligent to say... Well, as usual you'd say, except from the fact that usually, I may not manage to do so, but at least I'm trying :D
Let's shut up and watch me goign away in a typical English taxi, the perfect farewell pic :x

 

By princessvalium

Life in SWANSEA

Dimanche 18 novembre 2007 à 3:18

    As everyone may not know yet, I'm in Swansea, Wales since the 6th of September to study as an Erasmus student. Since this day, I have noticed that the way of life here is very different from France. So I will talk about it and the main events which occur here, in this new category: Life in Swansea. I've also decided to wrote it in English. But, in an altruistic spring for the English non speakers I'll also write  it in French so that I can improve my English and permit to my foreign friends who have troubles to read English to understand what is written here.

 

    What I'd like to talk about today is an event which took place this Wednesday: the Beer Race. This is one of the main student events of the year and I dare say I'm glad to have been part of it.
What is it?
    Participants get in teams. The aim is to go in the 8 bars participating, to drink one pint of beer in each and finish the night in the Play (this is the club at the end of Wind street, aka Wine street where all the pubs are). All gains are for a charity.
What are the numbers?
    More than 1,600 participants, hundreds of inventive costumes, 16,000£ of benefits, litres of beer spilt in a complete debauchery, hours of having fun, 15£ for each participants.
How did I take part in it?
    I was a Steward! I was in a bar to say people where was the exit or to help them if they had any problems. In return, I could take a lot of pics, free drinks, free entry in the Play and access to the V.I.P. part, the official shirt of the Beer Race and an after party in the pub of the uni, where we will have free drinks too.
    The only little problem was the date. In fact, this party was at the end of an exhaustive week of work, which I spent nose on my laptop screen to do my fucking American history essay. Knowing that the system here is not the same than in France I spent almost 2weeks to do it when in France I'd have had enough with 2days of intense reflexion. In short, with 4hours of sleep in nights for two weeks, i was completely stoned, but not enough to prevent me from having fun in this crazy event.

        I let you watch some photos Marie Laure and I took, some are good, but we missed some very good costumes as the Titanic (people were in cardboxes embodying the funnels of the boat) or the ones who won: the transformers. Hoping I can get more from others.


 

    Comme tout le monde ne le sait peut-être pas encore, je suis actuellement en Erasmus à Swansea, Pays de Galles, et ce depuis le 6septembre. Depuis mon arrivée j'ai pu constater de nombreuses différences entre le style de vie ici et en France. J'ai donc décidé d'en parler dans cette nouvelle catégorie, où de citer les évènements principaux qui s'y déroulent. J'ai aussi décider d'écrire cette catégorie en anglais, mais pour les anglophobes je fais un geste altruiste et j'écrirai aussi en français. Ainsi ces articles serviront, si ce n'est à améliorer mon anglais, du moins à m'obliger à écrire dans la langue. Cela permettra aussi à mes amis Erasmus qui prennent la peine de passer ici de temps en temps de comprendre de quoi ça s'agit.

    Ce dont je voulais vous parler aujourd'hui est un événement qui s'est déroulé mercredi de cette semaine, la Beer Race. Il s'agit d'un des événement étudiants les plus importants de l'année et j'avoue être très contente d'y avoir participé.
En quoi ça consiste?
    Les participants se mettent par équipe, nombre au choix. Le but du jeu: boire une pinte dans chacun des 8 bars qui participent à cette course et arriver le 1er au Play, la boite au bout de Wind Street, renommée Wine Street car c'est la rue où il y a quasiment tous les bars. Les fonds sont reversé a une association caritative.

En chiffre, ça donne quoi?
    Plus de 1600 participants, des 100ines de costumes tous plus imaginatifs les uns que les autres, 16000£ de bénéfices, des litres de bières versés dans une débauche totale, des heure de fête, 15£ pour chaque participants.
Comment j'y ai participé?
    En étant Steward! C'est à dire que ma contribution s'est limité a dire aux gens « la sortie est par là » dans un des bars, à tourné pour voir si les gens avaient besoin d'aide et à les prendre en photo. En échange, boissons gratuites, entrée gratuite au Play, avec accès au carré VIP, un t-shirt officiel de Steward à la Beer Race offert et une after que je ferai lundi avec tous les autres Stewards dans le bar de la fac, avec la aussi, boissons offertes.
    Le seul hic? la date. En effet, cette soirée a clos plus d'une semaine de stress intense que j'ai passée le nez coller a l'ordi à ne faire quasiment que ma putain de dissert de civi américaine. Sachant qu'ici le système n'est pas du tout le même qu'en France, j'ai mis 2semaines a faire cette saloperie quand en France, 2ou 3 jours de concentration intense m'auraient suffit... Bref, à dormir 4h par nuit depuis un moment j'étais complètement défractée, mais cela ne m'empêcha en rien de profiter pleinement de la folie de cette évènement!!

Je vous laisse regarder les déguisements sur les photos que Marie Laure et moi avons pris, il en manque, mais j'espère pouvoir en avoir d'autres plus tard.

 

 

 


By princessvalium

Life in SWANSEA

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