Arrival to Cambridge
I arrived in Cambridge few days ago. Through this article, I will try to give a brief overview of my first experiences on the land of Beatles.
First of all, I have to admit that my travel journey was a mess and I will explain to you why in order that you do not make the same mistakes if any of you want to come to Cambridge.
To come here I took an esay jet plane from Lyon to Stansted airport which is located in South of London. But I had two suit cases and a handbag and as it is written in your print ticket that I had not read you CANNOT have 2 bags with you in cabin so I had to register a supplement luggage which cost me 50 pounds!
Then, thanks to a shuttle service it only takes me 45minutes to reach Cambridge city center.
Afterwards, I walked with my huge suitcase and handbag (at that particular point of time, I hated myself for wanting to take my house with me... to my final destination : the YMCA.
I must admit that I expected nothing about this accomodation but I was surprised in a good a way. It is situated in the city center which is perfect for us because we don't have to buy a bicycle. We are like 10 minutes walk from the city center (were there are shops) and 5 minutes walk from ARU our university. Indeed, my room is quite big, the common areas including the kitchen and the bathroom are clean. Then, the 4th and the 5th floor are occupied by other exchange students studying for one semester at Anglia Ruskin University.
Then, after a few days, I went to my university to start courses in English, which changes everything!
See you soon for other news from Cambridge (by the way, I came to know about the origin of the name of the city : Cambridge is the bridge of the Cam (the river that crosses the city)
Tourist stuffs to do in Cambridge
Today a friend of us comes to visit Cambridge. In order for him to have a good memories of this wonderful city we have take a walk on King’s Parade.
This week-end my parents, brother and sister came to visit me in London , which is only 50 minutes from Cambridge by train.
Unfortunately we started our day by fighting against the London underground. In fact, there were problems on the victoria line that was supose to bring us to our hotel, but because parents budget is not the same than mine, we took the cab and 10 minutes later we were in our wonderfull hotel in Green Park, with for neighbor not least than Buckingam Palace !
Because we were living at 5 minutes from Buckingam Palace that was our first visit. As it was around 11am we had the chance to be there just in time to see the changing of the guard.
- The first one is to win a golden ticket like in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory:
Around 100 lucky winners will get to rub shoulders with royals and heads of state at the historic Westminster Abbey service.
They will also be invited to raise a toast to the future king and his queen at the lavish reception, expected to be held at Buckingham Palace.
The exact method of picking which lucky members of the public are to join the Royal shindig has still to be worked out but it will be completely at random - just like Willy Wonka's Golden Ticket draw in Roald Dahl classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Any cases be careful! Over 600,000 people are expected in the streets for the royal wedding so you will have to be patient...
Anglia Ruskin University, is the university were I spent the last four months. It is composed of two differents campuses: Cambridge & Chelmsford.
I studied there since the 19th of January, the day of presentation of the University to exchange students who were for most of them German. Our semester ends friday 15th of may the date where we have to hand in our 4 assignments (5000 words reports).
The first week of classes, the Exchange Student adviser presented us the University and the English way of life. They organized travels for us to know the country which I enjoyed a lot (to know more about travels organized go to my reports page).
In the meantime 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! The university accepted all changes we wants and it was really easy for us to do so. 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 business english, system and operation management, environment management and sustainability and business economics.
Japan crisis seen by English media: the British Government had set up a plan to minimize the impact of Fukushima on the public opinion.
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Today a friend of us comes to visit Cambridge. In order for him to have a good memories of this wonderful city we have take a walk on King’s Parade.
King's Parade is a historical street in central Cambridge. This street is so big that she is known as Trinity street, St John's Street, and south as Trumpington street.
It is a major tourist area in Cambridge, commanding a central position in the University of Cambridge area.
King's College is located on the west side of the street, hence the name, and dominates the scene with the east end of its large Chapel on view. Also on the street, just to the north, is the University of Cambridge Senate House, mainly used for degree ceremonies. This area is known as Senate House Hill. Opposite the Senate House is Great St Mary's, the historic University Church.
The senate house
At the southern end on the corner of Corpus Christi College in Trumington Street is the Corpus Clock. On this famous clock there is a metal insect which moves its mouth, appearing to "eat up" the seconds as they pass, and occasionally it "blinks" in seeming satisfaction.
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The corpus christi clock
Note that punting along the Cam is also a nice way to visit Cambridge but because of the whether it was not possible on this afternoon.
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Week-end in London
Unfortunately we started our day by fighting against the London underground. In fact, there were problems on the victoria line that was supose to bring us to our hotel, but because parents budget is not the same than mine, we took the cab and 10 minutes later we were in our wonderfull hotel in Green Park, with for neighbor not least than Buckingam Palace !
Because we were living at 5 minutes from Buckingam Palace that was our first visit. As it was around 11am we had the chance to be there just in time to see the changing of the guard.
Then we have moved to the "must-see" in London meaning: Westminster abbey, Big Ben the parlement and the Thames.
We had lunch in Trafalgar area, not far from the national gallery, which is a very nice place to be.
After lunch we visited the museum and then to the delight of my litle sister we had shopping in Oxford Circus to see Topshop, Primark, Urban outfitter and last but not least Abercrombie&Fitch.
An hour spend in Abercrombie&Fitch looks like an experience you must achieve once in a life. Starting with the 30 minutes of queue behind the shop... Once inside the store, you will find 2 flours, ten rooms and everywhere nice people dancing on techno music asking you if everything is fine. The best memory of this A&F session is for sure the famous picture taken with the muscle men in front of the shop.
My brother, the saleman and I in Abercrombie entrance
We finished this first day wonderfully by the amazing music hall where we went for my sister birthday: Chicago!
On Sunday morning after bought our VERY EXPENSIVE underground tickets which are aruond 6 pound a day (be carefull if you take then around 9am they will cost you 2 pounds more) we went to visit Tower bridge and St Paul Cathedral to assist the mass.
We have eaten sandwiches on the front steps of the church and then we have finished our week-end visiting Camdem Town.
Finally I went back to Cambridge on sunday night head full of nice memories.
Finally I went back to Cambridge on sunday night head full of nice memories.
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The Royal wedding fever
As you all know Prince William and Kate Middleton will tie the knot on Friday 29 April, at Westminster Abbey. This is THE event in all Britain and 29th is already declared a Royal Bank Holiday.
Because it has great historic significance for the Royal Family: Westminster Abbey hosted the wedding of The Queen and Prince Philip in 1947; the wedding of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, in 1923; and the funeral of Princess Diana in 1997.
Why Westminster Abbey?
How to join the party?
The wedding ceremony will be held at 11am at Westminster Abbey. And if, as me, you are not on the guest list you have three options:
- The first one is to win a golden ticket like in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory:
Around 100 lucky winners will get to rub shoulders with royals and heads of state at the historic Westminster Abbey service.
They will also be invited to raise a toast to the future king and his queen at the lavish reception, expected to be held at Buckingham Palace.
The exact method of picking which lucky members of the public are to join the Royal shindig has still to be worked out but it will be completely at random - just like Willy Wonka's Golden Ticket draw in Roald Dahl classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
- The second option, if you are not on eof the lucky winners, is to wait on the journey that the royal couple will carry hopping to see them.
The route (and the best places to spot them) follow: Parliament Square, Whitehall, Horse Guards Parade,The Mall and the last public appearance of the day will definitely happen on the balcony of Buckingham Palace around 13:30, when the couple kissing in front of the cameras!
- Finally, if you don’t want to wait in crowded area to see the royal couple, celebrations will be held across London. Street fairs have become a traditional way of celebrating royal events in the UK.
The townspeople organize small parties in their street with various dishes, decorations (usually flags), music, games and activities for children.
Any cases be careful! Over 600,000 people are expected in the streets for the royal wedding so you will have to be patient...
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Anglia Ruskin University
Anglia Ruskin University, is the university were I spent the last four months. It is composed of two differents campuses: Cambridge & Chelmsford.
Chelmsford Campuse is newer and really more beautiful however I prefer Cambridge city which is as Barney Stinston have said: legen... wait for it... dary!
Cambridge campuse is very small, every building is separate and not related to others which is quite boring when you have to go on the opposite side of the campus. There are 2 cafeterias where you can eat well for cheap: a burger with fries is around 3£!
I studied there since the 19th of January, the day of presentation of the University to exchange students who were for most of them German. Our semester ends friday 15th of may the date where we have to hand in our 4 assignments (5000 words reports).
In the meantime 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! The university accepted all changes we wants and it was really easy for us to do so. 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 business english, system and operation management, environment management and sustainability and business economics.
I enjoyed all these courses and particulary my Environmental management and sustainability module because of the teacher Beatriz Alcevedo which is very nice.
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 module. This looks like very lazy schedule but we also have to do a lot of homework.
Right now, we are almost in "vacations" but we have to do our assessments, 3000 words reports about a subject given by the teacher. In these papers, we have to include around 15 references with the Harvard reference style, a very complex way of referencing sources.
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Japan crisis seen by English media: the British Government had set up a plan to minimize the impact of Fukushima on the public opinion.
The disaster of Fukushima, due to the earthquake in Japan and the tsunami of March 11th forced already more than 80 000 persons to leave their houses. The opinion polls suggest that these images have a strong impact on the support of the public opinion for the nuclear energy in Great Britain and also in the world, in particular in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Thailand and Malaysia with the planned cancellation of nuclear power plants.
The reactions
The conservative deputy Zac Goldsmith, who sits in the environmental audit committee of the House of Commons, condemned this affair of coordination and collusion between the government and the industrialists. "The government does not have to make public relations for the nuclear industry and it would be dreadful if its services minimized the impact of Fukushima” he said.
Louise Hutchins, a spokeswoman of Greenpeace, declared that these e-mails looked like "a scandalous collusion". "It brings to light the blind obsession of the government for nuclear power plants and shows that we can rely neither on them, nor on the industrialists when it is about nuclear power ", she said.
In England, it seems that the government launched a campaign of PR to make sure that the nuclear disaster of Fukushima in Japan will not impact on the future constructions of new nuclear power plants in the country.
Indeed, June 30th, 2011, Rob Edwards, journalist at the Guardian, revealed the internal exchanges of e-mails between the governmental authorities and the industrialists on an advertising campaign launched to protect the development and the construction of the new British nuclear power plants besides the disaster of Fukushima.
The revelation :
Apparently, some persons in the British Government talk to the nuclear power industrialists to conceive a strategy and coordinate theirs public relations to minimize the nuclear disaster of Fukushima this just two days after the earthquake and the tsunami in Japan and before is known the scale of the radioactive environmental pollution.
The Guardian got itself the exchanged internal e-mails which show how the industrialists of the multinationals of the nuclear energy, as EDF Energy, AREVA, Westinghouse, etc. worked behind the scenes in close collaboration with the department of the energy to try to make sure that the disaster of Fukushima does not impact their plans for the construction of the new generation of nuclear power plants planned in the United Kingdom.
"We owe on the return to the trust in the nuclear industry in the world" wrote a senior official of the department for the Business, the Innovation and the Skills (BIS). " We have to make sure that anti-nuclear powers people and that the public opinion do not gain ground on this point. We need to occupy the media space and to hold it. We really need to show that the safety of the nuclear installations is completed."
The senior official underlined the importance to prevent any incident which could undermine the support of the population for the nuclear energy.
The answer
The government confirmed last week the construction for eight new nuclear power plants in England and in Wales. « If acceptable proposals come forward in appropriate places, they will not face unnecessary holdups » declared the Minister of the energy, Charles Hendry.
The NIA, Nuclear industrialists Association, did not comment directly on the spread e-mails. "We are financed by industrialist members for whom we represent their commercial interests and the other convincing arguments for the construction of the new nuclear power plants in the United Kingdom ", declared the spokesman of the association. ”We congratulate ourselves on temporary conclusions of the independent regulation organization which concluded that the nuclear reactors of the United Kingdom are safe."
