Monthly Archives: October 2016

Farewell Dinner

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Exams being coming, the Farewell Dinner of the fall semester 2016 took place the last week-end. The dinner was organized by the International Committee of the NHH, the association in charge of the exchange students’ events.

This event got us together, nice moment to come back to the highlights of this semester. An Erasmus semester is not only lots of fun, many trips and a great deal of English mistakes: It is a lot of meetings!

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To put in the honour the big personalities of this semester, they organized an award ceremony at the end of this dinner:  The Legend, Mr and Ms. Norway, the party Queen and King, the Athlete, the strongest accent and many more. What a pride that the winner of the strongest accent was…. A Frenchman!

Other activities were organized: a video with the souvenir photos, a small concert, funny speeches, …

It was also one of the first time that everyone took off their plastic boots and  waterproof… Dress-up was the prerequisite!

This party was an opportune moment for the revelations. Indeed, the students could write an anonymous message addressed to someone else in the room.  Was there a better moment to declare your love? Hoping your suitor identified you…

Trip in Nordkapp

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In 1664, the first space tourist was Francesco Negri, an Italian priest. Since, many people travelled to the North Cape to experience Europe’s northernmost point. Last week, it was my turn. From the top of the cliff, the view is fantastic. Nordkapphallen is a visitor center which propose different activities: The Nordkapp Panoramafilm presenting the Nordkapp region in four seasons, souvenirs shop and restaurant.

The six-hour hike to the Cape Knivskjellodden is one of my best experiences. The beauty of the landscape, cliff and the sight are largely worth to fair a turning there. Upon arriving on the Cap, we signed our names in the log book and took pictures. We did it, looking straight at the north pole!

Nordkapp is also one of the best place in the world to see Northern Light. One night, we took the car, and the sky was filled with stars and northern light. My head is full of memories.

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Glenturret Distillery

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This year Abertay University proposed a student trip to the Glenturret Distillery. The trip costs £19 per person and it includes the bus, the visit of the distillery and a tasting session. You can also take a picture of the World’s largest Whisky bottle!

The World’s largest Whisky bottle !

The Glenturret Distillery is located on the banks of the Turret River in Crieff. It was established in 1775 by John and Hugh Drummond and was originally called Hosh. At that time it was a single malt distillery, and it was the first to use the pure waters of Turret Burn. It adopts the name of Glenturret in 1875.

Since 1993, the distillery belongs to Highlands Distillers which was bought by Edrington Group in 1999. Neil Cameron is the distillery Manager since 1997.

The Glenturret Distillery with its 240 years of experience is the Scotland’s oldest distillery.

It’s the most visited whisky distillery with 80 000 visitors each year.

Glenturret Distillery

The 5 steps of the fabrication of the whisky:

At Glenturret Distillery, the whisky is still made by hand, it’s the only Scottish distillery where traditional methods of whisky production are still used.

  • The Milling

The Glenturret Distillery buys its malt at the company Simpsons Malt and take its pure water in the Loch Turret not far from the distillery.

The malt is ground in the grist mill until it resembles coarse flour.

  • The Mashing

The mashing is done by hand, in a hand-operated mash tun, with a wooden rouser. The Glenturret hand-operated mash tun is the last remaining in Scotland.

This method enables a better control of the mash which enables to have more sugars and so more alcohol.

  • The Fermentation

For the fermentation, the Glenturret Distillery uses wash backs made from wood.

The distillery have a long fermentation time of up 100 hours which enables to have particular fruity characteristics.

  • The Distillation

For the distillation, the Glenturret Distillery uses traditional copper stills.

The particularity of the Glenturret distillation processs is that they run their stills very slowly which it allows to make spirit sweeter and lighter.

  • The Casks

To finish, the Glenturret distillery adds some water from Loch Turret to reduce the strength of the new make spirit, and the spirit is put into oak casks. The casks are stocked in warehouses and are left undisturbed until the whisky is matured as they wish.

About 70% of the production sold is single malt, the rest is Glenturret, Malt Liqueur, Fairlie Liqueur and Famous Grouse.

Stonehaven – Arbroath Cliffs

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Stonehaven

There are 2 different districts: the Old town around the harbour and the New town on the hill with the beach. A walk connects the two districts.

Historically the principal activity of Stonehaven is fishing. Now, The harbour has become a yacht harbour.

Dunnottar Castle, perched on a rock, was home to the Keith family, and during the Scottish Wars of independence, the Scottish Crown Jewels were hidden there.

The castle dates back to the 9th century, but a part of the castle was restored in 1926.

Nowadays the primary industries are marine services and tourism, with Dunnottar Castle, a local landmark, bringing in a large number of tourists every year. Dunnottar Castle is regularly used in advertising by the Scottish tourism industry. It was used in the 1990 movie Hamlet, and appeared as a featured desktop background in the UK edition of Microsoft Windows 7.

 

Arbroath Cliffs

Arbroath is situated right on the North-East coast of Scotland, by the North Sea. You have to visit this place to breathe in some fresh air and the walk is beautiful along the cliff trail from Arbroath. Arbroath cliffs are unusual rock formations made from red sandstone, and they are quite unique and special. It’s a great walk!

When I walked on the cliffs I saw a lot of flowers on benches in homage to dead people (because there are often suicides).

 

The Arbroath Cliffs rock formations each have their own name such as Needle’s E’e, Seaman’s Grave, Mermaid’s Kirk and Deil’s Heid. The Arbroath Cliffs are known as the Seaton Cliffs, and as you walk along the cliff path you will go through the Seaton Wildlife Reserve.

The Arbroath Cliff Walk starts at the east end of Victoria Park.Hebergeur d'image

After the cliffs I went to Arbroath centre and walked in the city where I had the opportunity to see The Arbroath Abbey.

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El Corte Inglés

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Today I will introduce you an economic aspect of Spain. Specifically, I want to talk about a famous industry which hold an important impact in the Spanish economic fabric: the EL CORTE INGLES.photo 4

El Corte Inglés it’s the biggest department store group in Europe and ranks fourth worldwide. It is also the largest department store chain in Spain. Its corporation’s registered office is situated in Madrid. It is present in the majority of big cities in Spain and Portugal. We can compare it with Galeries Lafayettes in France.

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El Corte Inglés of Castellana in Madrid

History

Ramón Areces Rodríguez purchased a tailor’s shop in 1934 in Madrid that was bearing the name El Corte Inglés (“The English Cut”) and decided to keep it. In 1995, El Corte Inglés bought out its only serious competitor, Galerías Preciados, which had entered bankruptcy. In 2001, it started its international expansion in Portugal.

Key figures

The El Corte Inglés Group ended 2015 with a consolidated turnover of € 15,219,84 million.   The three activities which have made the greatest contribution to this result are the department stores, hypermarkets and travel agencies. 

Gross operating profit was 912.51 million euros and consolidated net profit was 158.13 million euros.  

 

El Corte Inglés is Spain’s only remaining department store chain, as well as owner of several associated businesses.

Its main original feature is that it provides everything you need to live: foods, clothes, cars, trips, electronics and much more. For example, you also may find hair salons, insurance and estate agencies. Its retail stores are always situated in city centres and in huge buildings with underground car parks. El Corte Inglés offers goods and services with medium to high quality. Prices are generally high but it focuses on relationships with customers.

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El Corte Inglés’s terrace and its rooftop’s view

 

In fact, one of the reasons for its success is that it offers a « satisfied or your money back » warranty. Clients can return their defective item

or inappropriate purchases against refund. El Corte Inglés was the first warehouse doing that in Spain, today all high consumption stores are doing this.

In Madrid, I usually go there for shopping because it’s really easy to find everything you need and it’s close to my flat. You should test the Gourmet Experience. It’s a huge food hall with stunning views of Madrid’s Gran Vía and the emblematic Shweppes sign. There is a variety of food stalls serving anything you want: sushi, pizza, hamburguesas, quesadillas,… all in the same place. On the same floor, there’s also a supermarket specializing in international gourmet products, like sauces, jams and olive oïl!

Have a nice week!

Scottish Government

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Scotland has its own government since 1999. The government is led by a first minister, who is Nicola Sturgeon at the moment, she is also the leader of the Scottish National Party. She is the first woman to hold that position.

The headquarters of the government are in Edinburgh as well as the Scottish parliament. The parliament counts 129 members elected called the MSPs which stands for Members of Scottish Parliament.

The original Scottish parliament existed from the 13th century until Scotland merged with England.

At the present time the Scottish National Party is the party who have the most MSPs at the parliament, indeed they have 63 seats over 129.

SNP is the largest party of Scotland in term of membership, it is a pro european party.

 

See you next week

Ice Hockey game

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One of the most popular sport in Oulu is the ice hockey. The Kärpät Oulu (Oulu Stoats) is a Professional ice hockey club based in Oulu, Finland. The club was founded in 1946. Indeed, in the first annual meeting in January 1947, an ice hockey section was established. At the beginning of the new decade, Kärpät was somewhat successful in ice hockey and it became the main sport of the club.

The club has won so far the league five times, in 1981, 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2008. Kärpät have claimed the Finnish championship title seven times, and have been the most successful Finnish ice hockey team in the 2000s and 2010s.

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I went on the Oulun Energia Areena to see a game of the champions hockey league with others Erasmus students. This areena can welcome more than 6500 peoples and the show was good. The game was the team of Oulu (Kärpät) vs Germany (Krefeld Pinguine). It was the first time for me, and I almost understood the rules. The ice hockey take place in 3 rounds. The teams can change players without stopping game and it’s made in an impressive speed. What it suprised me on this game, is the violence that players made against an other player on the plexiglas. A match lasts three periods of 20 minutes each, the clock being stopped in every stoppage time. Between two periods, a break takes place and one or several surfacers smooth the ice.

After this game, Oulun won the game with 5 points while the german team had only 3 points.

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Norwegian gastronomy: The “Rømmegraut”

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 I am delighted to meet you again this week with… A FOOD-ARTICLE!

We speak highly of French food…

…That is why today, I wish to put in the honour: THE NORWEGIAN GASTRONOMY!

First of all, let me present you the context of my amazing cooking experience. In the dormitory where I am living in, we are lucky to share our kitchen with other exchange or Norwegian students. In my case, we are ten exchange students and only one Norwegian. Since the beginning of this semester we have organized a “Kitchen Dinner” every week. Thus, a duo cooks one of their culinary speciality every week.

Last week, we discovered one of the most famous traditional meals in Norway : The “Rømmegraut” or “Rømmegrøt“.

porridgehttp://petterskinstad.blogg.no/1323380386_rmmegrt_og_styrketren.html

          This kind of porridge is a mixture of sour cream, milk and a little bit of flour. The yellow liquid on it, as you can see on the picture, is the fat of the cream and the milk which is released by itself during the preparation. The Norwegians have the habit of adding some raisins, cinnamon and sugar to it and as a drink they serve raspberry juice.
The side dish was some meat. Most common used is “spekeflesk” but this Saturday we had “morrpølse” (salted and dry sausage). And with it, we had some bread: “flatbrød” directly translated to “flat bread”.
This dish is so filling that we only ate a tiny portion of it. For me, this was definitely enough… I think that this meat is too creamy and fat. However, I appreciated having this surprising experience. Although I am enamour with this country for many reasons, I still need some more time to accustom my palate…
The Norwegian student, as for him, is in love with this porridge. He controlled himself not to take another serving of it…

If I wheted your appetite, I am waiting for you in Norway because you will probably only find it here!

Courses in Keele

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It has been 4 weeks since I’ve been here and it still feels good. School is going by so fast.

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Westminster theatre

This week, I will talk to you about my courses here. Back in Nantes I work in accounting and finance so it was compulsory to choose some equivalent subjects here at Keele University. In England you choose your courses by yourself and it is required to take at least 4 per semester. If there is a clash on your timetable with two classes, you should switch it with another one. If you want to take more than 4 courses you have to pay more. It is like 100£ more per course. As I said in my first article, there are not lot of hours per week but it really depends on which subject you are taking. Usually there is 2 hours of lectures and one tutorial hour per course per week. Since there are few hours in the lecture, most of the spare time should be spent studying by yourself.

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My timetable

 

The big difference it’s about the assessment. Here at Keele, we write a lot more essays than back at Nantes. It’s really different than I’m used to in France. In France we have to reproduce the professor’s work. However, it is the similar in the sense that we have to work and think by yourself. I like it, I find it is good to reflect on the stuff that I’ve learned. The buildings in which we study are all really good, from the small classes to the big amphitheater. You can find all your course on an electronic online platform. Each course has recording so you can listen to after your course to hear what the professor taught.

See you next week, enjoy your life.

Romain

Around Dundee

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St Andrews

This city is situated on the East coast of the North Sea.

The place is centred on the tourism, and exploits its beaches, its cliffs, but also all its historic monuments.

It is at fifteen minutes of Dundee by bus. This city is famous thanks to these golfs because they are old and very beautiful.

The university of St. Andrews is renowned and it is the oldest university in Scotland.

The most beautiful place is St. Andrews Castle and the Cathedral (£8 to see both monuments).

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St Andrews Castle

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St Andrews Castle

The remains of St Andrews Cathedral, which was Scotland’s largest cathedral and most magnificent church, show how impressive it used to be. The ruins indicate that the building was approximately 119m long, and is the largest church to have been built in Scotland.

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St Andrews Cathedral

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The view from above the cathedral

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

♥ BONUS : Kate and William met at St Andrew's university, that they both
joined into 2001 and where they were studying the art history.

Broughty Ferry

Broughty Ferry is a pleasant suburb four miles east of Dundee with a good selection of pubs and restaurants. Its harbour is pretty and calm. This city is relaxing.
The Broughty Castle and Museum, right by the seashore are beautiful. Built in the 15th century to protect the city, its four floors show the history of Broughty Ferry (it’s mainly to show that Brought Ferry was a fishing village)

In 1495 Broughty Castle was built and remained in use as a major defensive structure until 1932. The castle stands alongside two beaches, one of sand, the other of pebbles.Hebergeur d'image

Glamis Castle

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Glamis Castle

The entrance with a tour guide is £10 (for the Castle and gardens).

Once inside, every room has its own story and your own enthusiastic tour guides bring the evolution of the castle and its legendary tales and secrets to life.

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Italian Garden

There are four wonderful gardens :

-The Italian Garden Walk

-The Nature Trail Walk

-The Pinetum Walk

-The River Dean Walk

 

 

 

Glamis today looks more like a French Castle than a medieval fortress, because it was extensively restored in the 17th and 18th centuries.

♠ Ghosts in the Castle : The family chapel is haunted by a Grey Lady, 
who is said to be the spirit of Lady Janet Douglas, burned at the 
stake as a witch on Castle Hill, Edinburgh in 1537, on charges of 
plotting to poison the King.