It is indeed the end, the end of an amazing experience, a journey where I met great friends from all around the world (special thoughts for Alex the German and Santiago AKA Mauer). 

I finally could make my own opinion on what is living abroad, if I liked it, etc. I was amazing and now I can't wait to go to another country, to visit new places, to meet new people and other cultures. 

I understand something while being in England, I am french but before being french I am a citizen of the world and the world is my home. 

Why not going to Mexico or Canada, Australia, the US, everywhere ? 

I hope you enjoyed reading my articles through the term because I enjoyed writing them ! 

Until we meet again my friends ! 

Hey everyone !

Here we are sadly, the end of the semester hence the end of an wonderful experience. 

In this article I will tell you about the city of Cambridge. During my semester in London, one of my best friends in ESDES, (my home university) Valentin Bourgue, was studying in Cambridge.

To give you an idea it is more or less an hour from London by train. As you can see on the map London and Cambridge are quite close to one another.  I was really happy to visit Valentin and in matter of fact he visited me in London 2 weeks before I came to Cambridge. 

When I arrived in Cambridge, I was quite surprised because I had just left the biggest city in Europe (15,6 million inhabitants) for a city smaller than Lyon (the city were I live and study in France). Cambridge seemed like a small town, a "cosy town", with 110 000 inhabitant (more or less) the main attraction of this city is its famously worldwide known university, The University of Cambridge. 

We had time to catch up, tell each other about our respective semesters. We visited, he showed me around always on our bicycles. I realised there that the citizens of Cambridge are using mostly bicycles to move around and that I could see more of them in Cambridge than were I lived in London. Maybe because it is safer there with less cars, yet it is still dangerous to ride a bike in England, even more for a foreigner.

We tried many restaurants there (all you can eat sushis, burritos, chinese food, english food.) 

  Leicester to win the Premier League

Hey everyone ! I hope you are well, already the end of the semester ! 

It is indeed the end of the semester for us, students but also for others like football teams. Today we'll talk about the Premier League, won by Claudio Ranieri's Leicester. 

Leicester is an historic champion and what they accomplished this season is a true sport exploit. For a team which is not a Premier League regular, winning the league is almost a miracle. In matter of fact the english Premier League is for many the hardest championship because it has many great clubs. For instance, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool or even Tottenham.

They were crowned 2 days before the end of the season, they managed to realise this with a very low budget and the players they had at the beginning of the season were far from being the most valuable players in England. 

Yet with players who proved their astonishing potential, Leicester managed to keep the lead almost all year long. 

3 iconic players

When thinking of Leicester 3 players are normally coming up to our minds, Jamie Vardy the goalscorer, Riyad Mahrez and Ngolo Kanté. 

Jamie Vardy:       

 Jamie Vardy is the goalscorer of Leicester football club, this season he managed to score 24 times and he even outskilled the great Ruud van Nistelrooy by scoring for 10 games in a row ! 

According to Tranfermarkt, we can see that Jamie Vardy's value over the season skyrocketed.

He has been in touch with Arsenal, and has signed a new contract with the gunners, the transfer was estimated 20 million £. 

Riyad Mahrez:      

 Riyad Mahrez is with no doubts another protagonist of Leicester's amazing season.

The growth of his value is also astonishing, two famous clubs are interested by his profile, the first is Barcelona and the second is once again Arsenal, well decided to plunder the Champions' golden boys. 

Yet Leicester wants to keep his player, already searching an alternative to the departure of Vardy to Arsenal, another departure such as the one of Mahrez would be difficult for the club. 

Ngolo Kanté:        

He is the third iconic player of Leicester this season ! Through the season he has proved that he was a strong midfielder, hard to pass through with great skills. 

Many clubs in Europe want him in their team, yet in despite of the interest of great clubs it is more than likely that we will see him at Leicester next season. 

"I am happy to stay at Leicester." 

In my opinion Claudio Ranieri and his staff are going to have a very stressful summer with many offers for their greatest players. 

Will they be able to reiterate the exploit of winning the league twice in a row ? The last club that has made it was Manchester united 8 years ago. 

As everybody knows, our school has suffered a loss, and I wanted to dedicate this article to Marie Pruvost, it's not much but still.I wish all the best to her familly and close friends whom are doubtlessly suffering due to the recent events. 

Hey everybody it has been a while since my second article on social rituals ! 

Actually I was pretty busy with the first courseworks to hand in but here we are ! 

In this article we will have a look at the UK's politics & geopolitics.

Presentation of the country's government

This is the structure of the english government. The current Monarch is her majesty the Queen Elizabeth II, the Prime Minister is David Cameron.

The Queen:

The Queen is the official Head of State. yet the fact that Britain has a constitutional monarchy only gives the Queen symbolical power. Actually, the power belongs to Parliament.  

The Parliament:

The Parliament is where politicians (MPs) meet to make decisions for the United Kingdom. It is not the same as the Government (which runs the country). The main task the Parliament has is to make sure that the Government is running the country properly but its main functions are: 

• to vote laws
• to provide, by voting for taxation
• to check on the country's policy and admisnistration 
• to debate the current major issues 

Parliament is constituted three parts:

1. The Queen
2. The House of Lords
3. The House of Commons

The Government:

The Government and the Parliament are two different entities, with different functions. 

• The Parliament represents the British people
• Government runs the country and is elected by the people
• Being a Member of the Parliament (MP) is not the same as being in Government. The political party that has more seats has more power than the others and therefore rules. 

· 

Hi everyone ! 

I hope you're all well since my previous article ! 

Today I will tell you about the social rituals in the UK to do so I will use sometime the Kwintessential website to add some extra information. 

Here is a quick layout of the article: 

1. Customs & Cultural habits
2. Symbols
3. National celebrations
4. Events

Now that you know what I will present you in this article lets kick it off ! 

I. Customs & Cultural habits

As I said previously, I will give you some information from my personal experience and some I found on Kwintessential. I think that a little clip about what defines British people & Britain might please some of you.       If you have ever been to the UK leave a comment  about the video. Enjoy ! 

I hope you enjoyed the video, it is really all about stereotypes and etiquettes however stereotypes aren't always false. 

In England, the breakfast is the most important meal of the day. If you have a breakfast in England, in a restaurant, snack or hotel you will normally find the same kind of food. In an English breakfast as it is  called you usually find mushrooms, rumbled eggs, baked beans, muffins, jam, sausages, bacon, tea, coffee, etc ...

Here is a pic to show you that this kind of breakfast is not human ... it's English.

As living in London for the past month, I can tell you that the weather is a true discussion topic, it is almost always raining and the tiniest ray of sunshine is a true gift in your whole week ! (Just kidding but almost true ...)    In my opinion, as a Londoner there are more cabs in London than private cars so I guess it makes the use of cabs a true custom in the UK. We could keep talking about English customs and habits for hours, but as a last "fact" we can say that the red colour is more than dominant in London for example. Red telephone boxes, white and red flag, red buses, baked beans and here again we could go on for hours. Moreover everybody knows that Brits do not tan they turn red. 

Here is a proof ! 

II. Symbols

What are the greatest symbols in the UK ? I won't surprise you if a tell you that in my opinion the Queen Elizabeth II is the greatest symbol in the UK, but not only for Britain but in matter of fact for all the common wealth. Actually just for the record her reign is the longest in History (63 years and not over yet). 

What a lovely monarch !

Then I am actually lucky enough to live in an outstanding location, I get to live right next to Baker street (Sherlock holmes' street). I also passed by the worlds most famous clock, Big Ben. 

 With Sherlock Holmes   Big Ben 

Actually these symbols are only a few of them because while spending some time and walking in the streets of London you see symbols everywhere ! 

III. National celebrations

There isn't any particular "national day" in England. However they do have many national traditions/festivals, for instance : 

St George's day:

On April 23 is celebrated the St George's day. The legend tells us that St George was a Roman soldier that killed a dragon to save a princess. Thus he remains patron of England and St George's day can or may be considered as a major national event. St George is a most important character in the English History, he is represented by the Red cross on the white  background (England's national flag). However most people don't celebrate it. 

The Boxing day: 

I assume everybody knows the boxing day. The boxing day is the day after Christmas (26th of December). The boxing day is a bank day and most people spend the day with their families.

IV. Events

How lucky could we say I am  to be in London during the Six Nations Championship ? I call myself very lucky ! 

The Six nations championship is an annual competition between England, Ireland, Wales, Italy, France and Scotland. It is a major event for these 6 nations but is a particular occasion for the English. Posters everywhere, advertisements in the pubs, certain hotels that offer you to watch the competition in there bar, special menus in restaurants. 

Then there is the Notting Hill Carnival on the 27th & 28th of August. Notting Hill is a lovely place in London, lovely for sure yet quite atypical. Each house has a particular colour which makes this place a unique place in London, even if we can say that in London each neighbourhood is a unique place with it's own identity.

If you think that Notting Hill is already a colourful place then how could we qualify the Notting Hill carnival ? This carnival is the biggest street festival in Europe, around 1 million people make the trip to London so as to see the colourful floats and dancers in costumes, hear the multicultural music , etc. 

I hope you enjoyed reading this article because I truly enjoyed writing it !  

See you in my next article ! 

Bibliography : 

Kwintessential 

British Council