An English adventure : A few things I forgot to mention

Because I have the brain of a goldfish, I always forget a few things : 

* The party we had with all the students from the exchange on friday night : 
Okay, you probably can't see a thing on this picture but my phone hasn't got any flash, I'm sorry.

* The plane journey : it was my very first time on a plane, and Juliette, one of my best friends, was sitting next to me when we left France for England. Well, she laughed a lot : I kept shouting "We're leaving the ground ! That is not a normal thing to do !" or "Why the hell are things on the ground getting smaller and smaller ?! OHMYGODOHMYGOD" and things like that.

______________________________________________

My dear friends, this will be the last post about my trip to England. And, quite frankly, I am a little emotional to write this ending because it means the exchange is oficially over. And I don't like that idea. 

Dear Paddy : I'd just like to thank you for being so kind and nice to me. To you and your family : I'd like to thank you for being so welcoming and kind (and a special thanks for the recipes book !)  

I felt really good in England, even safe (don't ask me why, I don't have an answer) and really did not want to go back to France because that is where all my problems I didn't want to deal with were. With the end of this experience, I fear one thing in particular : losing contact with the new friends I met. I got quite emotional when we said goodbye to everybody (as always) (sorry again about that) because who knew if we would see each others again ? Goodbyes are painful almost only when you know it might be the last time you see somebody. And I guess this has to do with my main fear in life : being rejected by others. But that's a whole other story, and too much information in one post :)

GOODBYE ENGLAND <3

An English adventure : Oxford

Helloooooo there
Have you ever been to Oxford ? If no, you definitely should because it's a beautiful city where even strangers on the streets seem nice. If yes, why aren't you already packing your suitcase to go back ?!

Paddy and I met two friends from the exchange, Nathan and Maëva, and wandered around the city centre for the day. A very bright day, but not too warm (England would fall) : we first went to a buritto restaurant, where I was tricked into eating a mexican crisp with hot sauce coming directly from hell to burn your mouth for the next 30 minutes. I totally didn't cry.

                      I'll admit a tiny tear showed up in my left eye. 

But the burittos were great, and after that we went to the Oxford University official shop. I was worried about breaking something in the shop because everything was quite expensive, but really cool. We also went to a sweets shop, the kind of vintage shop in where you could stay for several hours and not get bored. I bought some Harry Potter sweets because who wouldn't ? (aaaand that's where the non-HP fans will stop reading the blog :P Please don't !) 
We then wandered again, saw weird japanese "actors" running in the street, ate very spicy sweets (it's strange how these turn very good after 5 good minutes of spicy feeling)...

On the evening, I returned to Oxford centre with Paddy's family to celebrate his brother's birthday at a restaurant, and then for his school celebration evening at the Sheldonian Theatre (a great building that I found very fancy). 

An English adventure : The Jazz concert

On Thursday evening, I went to a Jazz concert in a restaurant called Joe's (Click on the link to access their website) in Oxford, very close to where my exchange partner is living. The inside of the building was really nice and harmonious, and the seats very comfy :)
I had a fish and chips, something I had missed from my first trip in England : a delicious, crunchy meal, and some mushy peas that I actually tasted for the first time. I also ate some "tartare sauce" but didn't really like it.
The concert was given by a Jazz band with a bass player, a drummer, a guitarist and two trumpet/shiny thing players : they played really nice songs that seemed to delight everybody in the room (including me !) I had never really listened to jazz music before that, and quite frankly I should have because I felt like dancing in the restaurant (feeling that led to awkward and unconcious head dance-moves, and staring at people around me without paying attention...) 

Just one thing, to you English people : What is wrong with your bathroom sinks ?! Sincerely, having one cold-as-a-polar-bear-on-a-freezer water tap and one boiling-water-from-the-centre-of-the-earth water tap isn't a good idea. At all. Who even thought about that ?! 
I personally found a solution to all your problems on this magical world that is the Internet : 

An English adventure : Things I've tasted

Sorry for the delay, I was sick so I couldn't post this before... Enjoy ! ;)

An English adventure : Kettlebells

Have you ever watched a football game with an English supporter ? Don't. Just don't. I think I had a heart attack each time the Liverpool team scored, while my exchange partner would get up and yell "YEEEEES !"
(I think it's this one  I saw but I am not sure : http://www.sportinglife.com/football/live/match-report/287508/liverpool-4-everton-0)

But let's get back to business : kettlebells ! I had the chance to enjoy a 30 minutes kettlebells lesson with Rebecca, my exhange partner's mother, and it was really cool !

If you don't know what a kettlebell is, here you go --> 

These are wheight that you use to work on your balance, cardio and muscles by throwing them in the air (I wouldn't reccomend dropping them, it might be slightly dangerous) and doing squats, push ups and sporty things.

Believe me, you feel sooo good right after the lesson. Although I couldn't feel my legs for the next two days (I'm not kidding).

An English adventure : The Job

So I worked as a trainee for a week in this store, which sells books and stationary, ans some DVD's as well. 
It was pretty cool, even if a bit frightening at first but the employees were very nice to me.

I tidied the shelves a lot, and put price stickers on items most of the time. I also helped with the delivery : basically, what we did was take all the stuff from the stock room and put it on the store at the right place (it took A LOT of double-checking) until nothing fits anymore.

I also dealed with the customers, some were very kind and funny, others were... Well, they were customers ;) I had some trouble understanding the "old" people though.


I reckon I might have a small obsession with notebooks, so when I discovered all the notebooks they had in the store I felt stars and sprinkles in my eyes :D But the moment I saw this....

I just stared at the shelf for approximately 3 minutes. And...I bought series 3, because it won't be out untill a long time here in France, I had to do it. :)
Sherlock is my LIIIIIIFE. If you don't know it yet, it's a BBC series created by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat and it's bloody brilliant. Go watch it. NOW.


The two employees with who I spoke the most were really kind, they even gave me gifts when I left ! How sweet is that ? :3

Feeling like a business girl ;)
(that's me by the way. Hiiii.

An English adventure : 9 things that scared me

Hi folks !
Today's post is a video ! *yaay* Sorry for all the hesitations, I'll try to do better next time.
Let me know if you like it in the comments ! 

An English adventure : London baby !

Hello everyone ! 

So I went to London with some friends when we were in England and it was pretty awesome.

First, I had to travel from Oxford to London (in train) with Paddy (aka #the exchange partner if you havn't read the previous things I posted) and then we went to the London Eye with the others ! It was cool seeing the city from above.

I'm the one with the crazy hair on the right :)

After that we went eating in a very good Italian restaurant, and then we took the Underground to go to Harrod's : everything is freaking expensive here :O 

I found some tea though, and brought it back to my mother and it's almost over now (too bad, we'll have to go back to buy some more...)

Here we are in Harrod's --> 

After that Paddy and I went back for 2 hours of train to go back to Oxford.

An English adventure : The rugby match

LONDON WASPS VS LONDON IRISH

On Saturday 26th January, we went to a rugby match in High Wycombe ! I thought it was a good game, although one of the London Irish player injuried himself pretty badly and had to be evacuated.

All the students from the exchange were here so it was pretty cool to see everybody. At the end it was freakin' coooold (not as cold as when we went to the rugby match in Toulouse but almost). I had never seen so much rain in all my life, seriously the rugby field looked like a giant swimming pool.

An English adventure : The Family

   So I was living in Oxford, in an area called Summertown (very close to the centre). The house was lovely (more than french houses in my opinion) .
   My exchange partner, Paddy, is normally a boarder at the RGS (Royal Grammar School) in High Wycombe so basically what he does is he leaves Oxford on Sunday evening and comes back on Friday evening, but for the week when I was here he came back everyday instead of sleeping at school. I felt a bit guilty about this because we had to do quite a lot of travelling everyday and he would fall asleep every time we'd get in the car... Plus I was using his room so he couldn't even sleep in his own bed ! *guiltguiltguilt* 
He has a brother, William, who turned 12 on the second saturday I was with them (yaay !). The parents, Rebecca and David, are originally from Yorkshire so I had to get used to the little accent. She is an accounter (and very sweet) and he works in London but I can't remember what his job is (sorry :/ ).
   And let's not forget Angel ! A cute little pug that seemed to like me... She would cuddle me almost everytime I sat on the couch ^-^ 

Here she is, right after jumping on me  

I am bad at making promises

'Kay, so a while ago I said I would update this blog every week, but my laziness and lack of time/organisation decided to just f*ck things up :)
I'll be back on the tracks on TUESDAY with a full review of my stay in the UK in january.
Sorry for the lateness, I may or may not add some videos to the review ;)