Black Friday

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On Black Friday, shops prices plummet for 24 hours. The goal is that people buy a lot of things before Christmas. . The day earned its name, as it’s often the day shops ‘move into the black’, meaning they have enough money to cover their costs.

But, frequently there are fights between people because they want to buy the same things. Indeed, people are crazy during this night.

The term originates from the U.S. The day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday, It officially marks the beginning of the holiday season as retailers prepare for Christmas trade. Although in the past it has traditionally occurred within the U.S., now British retailers want to offer similar deals for UK customers.

Black Friday

 

This year, Black Friday will fall on Friday 25 November.

All stores, online and offline, offer big promotions on products. Larger retailers such as Amazon and Argos offer up to 75% off. It’s a big day for the purchase of electrical goods, mobiles and tablets (such as HD TVs, phones, beauty products, home accessories, fashion and toys)

Moreover, some retailers begin before such as “Amazon” who launched his Black Friday 12 days early.

 

But, be careful, unfortunately we can’t expect too many laptop bargains. Because Both Apple and Microsoft say they will raise prices in the UK by about 20 per cent due to the fall in the pound’s value since the UK voted to leave the EU.

 

A lot of shops are doing the Black Friday, even the most famous supermarket in UK : “Tesco”.

The nightclubs also do the Black Friday, such as “The Union”. We can have the enter at 99p (instead of £5) on 25th November but also one week before (18th November)

The real question is, at what time does it start?

In the US, traditionally stores opened at 6am. However more recently retailers want to open at midnight.

In Scotland, it will start at 6am and end at 8pm.

 

Husky safari

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Last week, I went to Lapland with ESN. It is a wonderful experience, and I think it is one of the best times of my life. There, the days are short and snow covers the ground but do not worried you have enough time to do many activities. My favorite experience was the visit of the husky farm. Dogs are of rare beauty, with their blue eyes and their fur. We did have the opportunity to see some puppies, I wanted to adopt them! It was a truly experience, and I had a chance to be a musher. In pairs we rode a sled drawn by a dog team. It had no words to express my happiness.

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husky 1

Highland Games

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Highland Games are a huge event in Scotland. Highland Games take place in more of 80 cities, villages, islands or castles in Scotland from May to September and it is governed by the Scottish Highland Games Association (SHGA). It combines sports, fun and Scottish culture.

Highland Games combine heavy athletic events like Caber Toss, Tug-o-War and Scottish Hammer Throw, and light events like piping, dance, running, cycling… And it all takes place in a Scottish staging, for example all competitors in heavy events must wear a kilt when they compete.

What about the Caber Toss and the Piping, two of the more famous events in Highland Games?

The Caber Toss

A long wooden pole is stood upright, the competitor takes it, runs and throws it vertically holding the smaller end in his hands. The larger end has to touch the ground first and then the smaller end has to touch the ground in the 12 o’clock position measured relative to the direction of the run. The winner is the one whose the throw is the closest than the 12 o’clock position.

Caber Toss

The Piping

There are two types of piping: the solo piping competitions where competitors play in a range of styles and the group competitions. You can see hundreds of pipers and drummers from different groups playing together and walking in unison.

Piping

Secondary events and attractions

Highland Games are not just sport events, there are also lots of other activities.

We can see principally the clan tents and lots of vendors of Scottish related goods. Visitors can have information about the Scottish roots and can join a clan if they want.

Moreover, armouries exhibit their collections of swords and armours, and they stage mock battles.

You can also see exhibitions and trials of herding dogs which highlight the breeder’s and trainer’s skills. There may be other types of Highland animals too.

In addition, various traditional and modern Celtic arts are shown like Harper’s circle, Scottish country dancing, traditional music, song and others entertainments.

To finish, if you are hungry, some food vendors are here to offer you various types of traditional Scottish foods and refreshments.

A lunch at the NHH !

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Hi ! Today I would like to present you the canteen of the NHH!

There are three main buffets at the NHH’ s canteen : a salad buffet and two buffets with different hot dishes. However at midday the main buffet is closed during two hours! Surprising ?! Not really..The Norwegians have a different pace of life than us. They eat only some snacks at around 11 AM and they eat their bigger dish of the day at 4 or 5 PM. This explains why the buffet is closed at midday.

One of the Norwegians’ favourite course is a kind of porridge with rice, cream, milk, cinnamon, grape and sugar. You can savor it  every Friday !

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The prices are pretty expensive (Of course we are in Norway..). You decide which quantity you want and then it is 15 NOK for 100 g so between 1.5 and 2 euros for 100g !

canteen 1

What will I miss  ? For sure not the cinnamon that they put in all the deserts ! But probably drinking as much coffee and tea as I want ! Indeed at the beginning of the semestre you can get a flask for 300 NOK (around 33 euros). And then you can come when you want to fill up the flask “for free”. Perfect for enduring winter !

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Cultural aspect of Spain : its 4 languages!

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Over 25% of Spaniards uses other languages other than Spanish as their mother tongue! In fact, besides the main language, Spanish or Castellano, there are a series of dialects and languages spoken in various corners of the country, out of which three are considered official languages. These are an important part of the Spanish cultural patrimony.

Spanish or Castilian

Castilian language is official throughout the country and is one of the most spoken languages in the world. Besides Spain, it is also used in Gibraltar, Andorra, Latin America and North America. The Spanish language as compared to other European languages is relatively easy to learn, especially for English native speakers.

Catalan

Almost 4 million people speak Catalan as their first language. This major language is spoken by in the Catalonia region, Arragon and Balearic islands of Spain, as well as parts of Andorra, France and Italy. If you speak Spanish, it is not difficult to understand Catalan. A mix between French and Spanish, Catalan is quite an interesting language to learn and use.

Today, it is the second most spoken language in Spain, next to Castilian.map

Galician

Galician is spoken mainly in Galicia, as well as Asturias and Castilla y Leon in Northern Spain. Out of the 4 million people who speak Galician, 3 million are in Spain, with the rest in Portugal and parts of Latin America. Resembling Portugese, Galician is similar in terms of pronunciation and usage.

Basque language or Eureska

Spoken by 600,000 people in the Basque Country, Northern Spain, Euskara or Basque is an intriguing language that does not belong to any group of languages.

Basque is distinctive with verbs and phrases of its own. Even Spaniards from other regions of Spain cannot understand the language.

 

In Madrid, there is no dialect, people speak only Castilian. If you are planning to go to Valencia, Barcelona or north of Spain people will be able to speak Spanish. So don’t worry!

See you next weeeeek

Exam at NHH

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Hi folks,

Today was my first exam day and here are few funny facts about exams in Norway.

#1: Norwegians are so conscious of environment, property and rules. First of all, for the exam, they gave us carbon copies with gather the original sheet, the duplicata for them and the third one for us, in case we want to check our work later. That’s pretty smart actually! Than, regarding the number of people passing the exams, we were placed into the gym building, on the basketball field, and since they don’t want any dirt, we had to wear plastic bags over on our shoes… Super weird…

#2: No watch, no suspected things, it is like you enter naked into the room 😮

#3: Norwegians tend to bring as many Redbull cans as they can, like it would change anything…

#4: When it isn’t special rooms like the gymnasium, Norwegians feel the need to take off their shoes to be like, more comfy… Even at the gym or at the library actually. It’s pretty weird the first time you witness that, but I’ll confess I tried it once and I like it! 😀

Well, this pretty much I noticed today, maybe I’m going to see more in a few…

 

See ya!

Breaking It Down / Brexit

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NEW!

Breaking a UK topic down!

Follow the Erasmus’ adventure in Southampton of the students from the IEMN-IAE, Nantes, France. Every other week, “Breaking it down” tries to make things as clear as possible about a tricky UK topic!

Summary Episode:
Brexit. People are claiming they want their country back: it happened to the UK, could it happen elsewhere?

See you the other week for breaking a topic down! Rdv: 1st December, 9am (Nantes hour) <3

Continue reading »

Enjoy your holidays

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There is an advantage with the University of Oulu… we have holidays in October.  For me, the period A ends on the middle of octobre and period B begins the 1st november. So, it gave me time to visit the north of Norway.
We booked a car for 5 days and we driven during all the night to go to Nordkapp at 900 kms. After 12 hours, we arrived at the time of daybreak. In nordkapp there is a center with a variety of facilities like the Nordkapp panoramafilm whose presenting the Nordkapp region in four seasons, historical exhibitions, St.Johannes Chapel, the Cave of Light (explain the appearance of the Northern Lights), souvenir shop, the world northermost post office, restaurant and cafes. But you have to pay for the entrance. The steep mountain cliff rises 307 meters above the Arctic Ocean, and marks the end point of the European continent.
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The second steps was Alta. Alta is the largest city in the county of Finnmark and is famous to be the city of Northern Lights. In this city we visited the Northern lights Cathedral built in 2012-2013 and during the night we show lot of northern lights on the road.
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Then, we went to Tromso located at 350 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle and is the largest city in Northern Norway. During one day, we appreciate discover the charm of the city center with the typical Norwegian architecture. We enjoy it to visit the Perspektivet Museum, and the Artic Cathedral. At the end of the afternoon we took the cable car.  It’s Tromso’s most popular tourist destination. This cable car runs from Solliveien in Tromsdalen up to the mountain ledge Storsteinen (421 meters above sea level). From the viewing platform at the upper station, you can enjoy spectacular panoramic views of Tromsø and the surrounding islands, mountains and fjords. It was a wonderful landscape!
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For the 4th day, we drove to Svolvaer (Lofoten Islands). It’s in this small city where we hike during 5 hours to admire the Fjords from the top of the mountain. It was necessary to wear shoes adapted because the trails were very slippery and sometimes not very suitable (so dangerous!). We knew that the sun was setting at around 5pm, we had to be careful to go back down before the night comes.
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Last steps was Reine, at 125 kms from Svolvaer.  The breathtaking village of Reine is located on the island of Moskenesøya on northern Norway’s Lofoten archipelago. The village has earned a reputation as “the most beautiful place in the world.” On the middle of fjords, there is a a quite village with red and white fishermen’s huts at the edge of the shoreline. A picture of this village appears on the front page of all the tourist brochures of Norway. Reine is our favorite destination on the Lofoten Islands. It’s possible to hiking there and many of the best hikes on the Lofoten Islands begin in Reine.

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At the end, we made more than 3500 kms.

National Museum of Scotland

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If you ask me for a museum recommendation in Scotland, I would suggest you to go to the National Scottish museum in Edinburgh.

This museum is one of the most interactive I have ever visited.

The museum offers a lot of different exhibitions, so no matter what you are interested in from transport to fashion or animals, there is something for everyone.

If you are in Edinburgh and you don’t want to go and visit a museum it still worth to go in and climb to the 7th floor to enjoy a breathtaking scenery of the city and especially the castle.

The museum is free for everybody.

 

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Religion in Keele

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This week I want to talk about religion in England. Today there are numerous religions practiced within the United Kingdom. However, the predominate religion is the Church of England.

The Church of England is also known as the Anglican Church. It is a Christian religion between Catholics and protestants. For example, followers of the Church of England do not recognize the authority of the Pope. The break with the Catholics occurred in the middle ages because King Henry VIII wanted to divorce his wife. However, the pope did not allow King Henry VIII to separate from his wife. This objection led King Henry VIII to start the Church of England.

Religion has a fairly large presence at Keele University. In the middle of campus there is a chapel for Christian students. There is also a small mosque for Muslim students. What is very striking is that the Christian union here is an institution and everyone respects what they say. I think it’s more open than in France where we do not dare to speak of God. Usually the Church is open after huge events. They offer tea and toast to the students coming out of the evening. I found it very strange at the beginning, but it is finally fine to be able to sit in a quiet place and talk a little after a long night out. Christian Union organises many events. Most of these events are spiritual, but they have sporting and cultural events as well. For my part I’m going to mass every Sunday. There’s a great choir so I like going !

See you next time, enjoy your life !

Romain

Within the Keele Church before catholic mass

Within the Keele Church before catholic mass