The come back (to France)

This is my last post on this blog. I am back in France for a month now and as far as I was extremely happy to get back home. Sometimes in my down days I wish I could go back to my British home. 

I often have dreams in English, I can see my roomies and people I miss and could not pay any visit before leaving. I am living the home sick story again!! 

Well, no worries as they say, you never know when you'll be back to the UK. Once you've been there, you've got to go back all the time in a lifetime! I might even be living there in 15/20 years, who knows!

Till the next time I go back to the UK, mind the gap and enjoy the country if you are in there! 

Lots of love xxxx

"Maybe" final post

Been a while I did not write on this blog. I will be leaving soon and I would like to confide myself. I will give you a couple of example of things I am really going to miss once back to France.

• ·         Cool music in the shops: British music is definitely the best in the world and nothing will ever be able to replace it!! I will be missing singing along my favourite songs in the supermarket while doing the groceries. Back to France and lovely “Matt Pokora&co”

• ·         Lovely cupcakes from the Hummingbird backery. There are in my opinion no better cupcakes in the world than those coming from the Hummingbird. Ever tried the carrot cake cupcake with cinnamon icing on the top? Now you’ve heard of it go and get one! It will change your life forever!

• ·         Clean and calm London transports. London transports are really good, I also very much like the fact that British keep their right on escalators and do not prevent you from going up if you ever run late to the office. Not like messy France!

• ·         The ice cream man and his lorry before 6pm. This is something we do not have in France I find it actually really sad that we don’t, children would be so happy to get ice cream in summer directly from the lorry in their street. It always comes with this little music which I must admit sounds like a horror movie one and does not make you feel quite comfortable but well, it’s great!

• ·         Any pastry and cake sweet or savoury, scones, hot cross buns, Toffee pie, cheesecake, chicken pies, Cornish pasty… You will all be very much missed!

• ·         Being called darling. I used to hate it months ago when people called me that at the post office or at supermarkets but now I think I like it, it’s actually very friendly and warm to be called once in your day “have a lovely day darling”.

• ·         English. This will forever be my favourite language. German and Italian won’t ever make it. I will miss speaking this language every day and listen to it as well.

• ·         Being in London for its cultural aspects and parks. But not so much as I am not with my half, tip: never travel “alone”.

I love the UK and I feel sorry for myself that sometimes it was not as fantastic and amazing as I wished it could have been. I sincerely hope that one day I can live in this country for more than 6 months. Next time I will travel, I want my one to be part of it, I want a better job and I want to enjoy every corner of this beautiful country!

Long live the UK, the Queen, the Rain and all its People!

Goodbye and remember mind the gap, anywhere you go in this country!

London - third month -

This is about time to sum up the last past months spent in the Queen’s kingdom. A long time has passed since I last wrote and many things happened, either personal or just public.

I spent most of January, February and March looking for a job, posting or handing CV’s by thousands. And after a long and tiring investigation, I finally got something. An internship in a movie distribution company as a Manager assistant. This is interesting and at least I can just enjoy living in London, I go out three days a week all day long and do something of my life instead of just staying at home all day and just procrastinate.

Work is in central London, quite ideal if you love this city and God knows I do. I can make my way through Soho, from Picadilly Circus to Hyde Park and so many other ways. The cool thing about being in London that often is that you are not a tourist anymore, you are on the other side of London’s world and somehow you feel like you are a part of it, that you belong to it! Pretty exciting!

Now, after almost three months in the British capital. I feel that time to go home is getting closer and closer, I rejoice to the idea of going back home, I feel slightly homesick since some important people came to visit me in London. Though I feel sad too, sad that I could not enjoy it the way I wish I could have. Some parts of this trip are really tough and I wish I were home for so many reasons.

I will certainly write posts before I leave this great country, till the next post, Keep calm and do mind the gap (because falling in between hurts)!

Marmite

Love it or hate it but most of all TRY IT!!

Some of you may frown at the idea of even trying this brown-ish paste.

But let's see what it really is!

What is it really?

It is a made from yeast extract, this kind of thing they use for beer.

What does it taste like?

Closest taste would be Knor stock cubes, much stronger and really salty.

How do you eat it?

NOMNOM!

Toast some bread, put loads of butter on it and spread just a little amount of the strange mixture on the top. Have a bite, two and three because as a foreign you are likely not “to love it at the first bite”… Best is to have it for breakfast or if it is just too much for you, as afternoon snack with a nice “cuppa” tea.

This is a very traditional product in Great-Britain. Some are so fond of it they can eat it out of the jar with their finger, which is crazy I think!

Who had this crazy idea to invent this?

A German dude: Justus von Liebig, he thought that instead of throwing the beer yeast away, he could actually keep it in a jar and eat it. This was in the 19^th century

Why is it called “Marmite”?

It is called “Marmite” thanks to the French recipient used to cook huge quantity of food and that you can cover. It used to be contained in tiny “marmite” called earthenware, but took its almost unchanged shape in the 20s

Quite a nice mix of nationalities in this produce, German idea, English production and French name, who said it could not make some hated or loved food? It is actually the proof that those three countries are working really well when they want to! English should not forget they are part of this continent, part of Europe, get my hint? 

Oh! And by the way, you can get the smallest jar at the supermarket, at least if you do not like it, it is actually a good trick to play to your friends or family once you are back to your country... Make them believe it is delicious and watch their face ;)

Keep up and mind the Marmite!

London - Week 2 -

Ten days have passed since I last posted something on this page. A lot and not a lot has been on and this is the reason why I did not keep my promise to write something every day, but I am back!

In the last past ten days I have been looking through pretty much everything to find a job. I came to the conclusion that now I will have to apply to second choice jobs… Stiff upper lip as they say. It became pretty urgent to find something in order to just be able to concentrate on other rather more important things like writing my essay for university.

Other than that, nothing really stroked my mind. I just need to seriously talk about supermarket in the UK. I go to one of the biggest food provider in the country, Tesco, and I have been to others as well but it is always quite fun to see the difference between the French ones… Bread: being French surely will bias my opinion on British bread. Can we really call it bread? I mean; this is the equivalent of soft bread for sandwich in France… They have a thousand brands and pretty much the same amount of bread in the whole bread area… I was going to be mean concerning their cheese area, but then I found Camembert and other kind of French cheeses. It made my day to find Reblochon in the middle of a thousand Cheddars!

I also have to talk about the dodgy “cleanness” of London. When walking around it often stinks like bin, you can see garbage pretty much everywhere on the street and no one cleans. No wonder there are foxes in London, it’s like a giant free food area for foxes…

We had snow this week. London under the snow: even though I did not really put the tip of my nose outside because I did not want to be cold. I saw enough to say it is pretty, but everything under snow looks pretty! I was quite amazed to see that British do not remove the snow from the sidewalk, so they leave it, it gets worse, icy and it is extremely complicated to walk. You really need to be careful not to fall because every step is sport and risky… so British and snow is definitely not a good mix!

On a more funny note. I noticed for a while already, that in England people are not too keen on dogs, or pets in general. They almost run away from them and go crazy and shout. Funny... My room mate had to put this at the entrance door so people don't freak out too much when seeing Fry!

They are... of anything! :)

When I said they are scared ...

That was my weekly report of my second week. Nothing really fancy and crunchy so to say for the moment but I hope things will move a little more this week! I hope I did not hurt any feelings in this report, if so keep calm and mind the gap, the cultural gap… Write to you next week!

Keep up.

London - week 2 -

Did not forget about you! 

Next report to be commung up soon! 

till then, yeah you know...

London - day 4 -

As you can imagine and because it has not really been a week I am there, my life is not as busy as I would like it to be. It is busy in its own way, I am waiting for answers, trying to build up my life here and take some habbits…

On my day 4, I went out to give some CVs in the area I am living in. It will hopefully be successful. People are nice; they always have a kind word to keep you up. I have been kind of optimistic about all of this; I gave one of my CV to a café called Horizon, just like my blog. That got me thinking that maybe it was life’s hint to say, go on, don’t give up and just go on because what you are doing is worth it! So I am now basically just waiting for answers, and if answers do not come then I will go and pick them. Sometimes life needs a good push in its back so that it goes on.

As you can guess, it is all quite stressful and I must admit I am happy I have been living this kind of situation in the past. Germany was a really good exercise. I remember how last year was difficult because of the language. I made it through and being in Great-Britain is not as hard as it has been back then when I was 19. Getting old is definitely something positive somehow. I must also talk about those people supporting me in my country. God bless them for what they bring me, I know those five months will be easier thanks to all those people who love me and I am grateful they are in my life. It is definitely the best feeling in the world, to be abroad and know that you are loved; it gives you little wings in your back. It also pushes you on bad days, and makes you move forward and hope for better days.

Note to myself though, I had forgotten how spicy food is actually NOT my favourite, I need to remember I like it mild. I almost chocked on my tomato sauce pasta, seriously, never again!

And it’s on that rather useless word that I will leave you and as usual, keep up and mind the bloody gap!

London - Day 3 -

I do not really hate Mondays. I must say this one has been half as productive as I wanted it to be. I guess things cannot always go the way we wish they did, but well in a few weeks, I guess I will be missing those long and eventless days.

It was not so eventless to be honest. Finally got a phone number and got to visit one of the biggest malls in Europe: Westfield Stratford. It is nothing like the one I have in Lyon. This one is opened and you have got space to walk, it does not feel too small and there is enough space to breathe. It actually looks like a tiny city inside. It was worth going there!

For those of you who are still skeptical about British gastronomy. Then you should know that nowadays British can cook. Yes, it is pretty shocking, I know it but it is. I discovered not so long ago that they appeared to have more and more chiefs and more cooking books than in France. This is a miracle… Well this is probably very French to look down on their gastronomy… Anyway, my point is, that yesterday evening, I have had a sweet surprise while eating, and I thank Tony for the great food, you really put the level high on that one!

Something I found really interesting to mention as well is their TV show. I watched this on the TV yesterday about mum giving birth… Well I will certainly not describe the scenes but I can tell you that it was gross and that French TV really has its way of protecting our poor little eyes and feelings.

On a more serious note.  British accent is really tough to understand; I heard this northern accent and thought to myself that it was really tough and disgusting… Though, it was really interesting to hear the difference from the south. When they pronounce baby it actually sounds like the French pronunciation “baybay”.

Another interessant day in the UK. I’ll write to you again later for the sum up of my fourth day in the land of Queen Elisabeth II. Till then, keep up and mind the gap!

London - Day 2 -

There is nothing more tiring than a second day and more exciting either. It has this sweet taste of freedom tainted with nostalgy and the fear not to deal with the things we are supposed to accomplish while being there. Today was one of those days, when fear and freedom meet and make a not so nice mix.

Fried Oreo, in Camden Market. Next step, try it !

Today was my first time in Camden Market. I had not expected anything really even though everybody came back from this place saying that it probably is one of the coolest place you can go to in London. And indeed, it is! There is only so much you can see, try and taste that one day there is not enough. My friend Julie was amazed to see so many nationalities gathered in just one place. 

Something else caught my attention, I am used to living in London but I had forgotten the fact that in this city, you are always surrounded by French. Wherever you go, it always feels like home but to be quite honest, feel like home when you are abroad, it really does not feel exotic at all! Well I guess we all have to live with this fact!

I am in this country for a long stay for the second time, but this time really feels different than any other trip I have done before. The importance of being abroad with people that you see everyday at uni is probably doing something. Not that I dislike it, it is just an awkward feeling. I am happy to be with those people I know in this very unique experience and I hope we will all make it through. 

I guess that is all I had to say to you today. I am tired because strangely even just an hour difference is enough to make me tired. Tomorrow will be a different and exciting day as it will be Monday!

Till then, keep up and mind the gap!

London - Day 1 -

London, what a beautiful city, there is nothing like London in the whole world. Though yet I am too tired to even realise I am in one of the biggest city in the world, I feel pretty amused of what this stay is going to offer me.

So first impressions of Great-Britain. I will always be amazed of the size of their underground and how efficient and organised it is. Though I almost died inside this tiny tube, there are so many people in those tiny trains, you would think you are about to die when seated, you cannot see anything but people, the air is smelly and hot and the atmosphere is kind of stressfull and noisy. I am not clostrophobic but once I was in, there was only one thing I wanted the most, get out! 

Of course comming to London for a five-months-stay requires to take lots of luggages with you. As you can imagine, this has been a real pain in the arse to travel from London Heathrow to Leytonstone. If there is one thing we could reproach the British is the lack of elevators and lifts at some underground stop. My 25 kg luggage was just impossible to carry and I am very thankful and grateful to those unknown people who helped me carrying up and down the stairs those heavy luggages! 

The weather. I guess you cannot possibly write about London without mentionning the weather. Well to be quite honnest, there is nothing to say, it is just like anywhere else in Europe at the moment: BLOODY COLD!

Final point of this one day journey across London, a nice cup of tea always cheers you up, so people staying in the UK, do not forget, you cannot stay in this country and not drink tea at least twice or once a day, that would be very unbritish so to say.

Now all I am looking for is a good night of sleep so I can be prepared for the very first Sunday in this country. 

I will keep you updated, for now I shall stay on my bed like a dead oyster.

Keep up and mind the gap!