• Hi everybody!

    Today, I will talk about geopolitics in the United Kingdom.

    GeopoliticsThe United Kingdom Government is led by the Prime Minister. It is him who chooses the other members who will compose the government. He is the country's political leader and he holds the executive power. Since May, 11th of 2010, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party. He was invested by the Queen Elizabeth II.

    The ministers are all members of Parliament, in general, most of the ministers are elected at the House of Commons. The British Parliament is a parliamentary democracy (Westminster system). The parliament is composed of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The first is the House to which the Government is responsible, it is composed of 650 Members of Parliament. The second can exercise veto rights of twelve months on projects proposed by the House of Commons. Only budgetary and electoral laws can't be affixed by a veto.

    There are three levels of local authorities: districts, counties and parishes. Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales each have a parliament and a government that refer to the government and the British Parliament.

    Geopolitics

    In my next article I will talk about the regional geopolitical political context in Lancashire (county where is located Lancaster) and the external regional conflicts or tensions in which the United Kingdom is involved.

    Thanks for reading me, see you in my next article!

    Emilie 

    Pictures sources:

    http://img0.cfstatic.com/wallpapers/afdcfd9a67dd17778835d2ab261b3d91_large.jpeg
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  • Hi everybody!

    It's been a long time since I have written my last article. Today, I will tell you about customs, symbols, national celebrations, cultural habits and events that exist in England.

    Social rituals

     First of all, there are many stereotypes that we know about english people as the fact that they drink a lot of tea and beer, that the weather is always rainy and cold, that they really love their Queen and the monarchy, that they always eat some fat dishes as fish and chips, and that they are really excentric. As all stereotypes, some are right, and some can be nuanced. Moreover about the rain, in Lancaster there have not been so much rain as I was thinking there would be before leaving France. The weather is often cloudy, but I didn't have so much rain, but when it is raining it is not a joke, you don't go out, the wind is so strong that it returns umbrellas and you end up rapidly soaked! They eat fat dishes, it is true but many of them don't eat a lot at midday. Just a big breakfast and a big dinner. Therefore, the rest of the day, they nibble sweet or fatty foods (energy bars, candy, chips, macdonald's ...).

    Social rituals

     

     

    In terms of symbols, we can say England have many of them. The first one in its flag, named the St George's Flag which is white and red. Then, we have the Three Lions Emblem (we can see it on cricket and football teams of England). There is also the Red Rose which is the national flower and is on the badge of the national rugby team. We can also notice: the oak (national tree), black cabs, red telephone boxes, red post boxes, red or not double decker buses... 

     



    Part of the symbols too, are the national Motto : "God and my right" and the national Anthem : "God Saves The Queen"

     The main National Celebrations are :

    • New Year's Day (January, 1st).
    • Pancakes Day also called Shrove Tuesday, (February, 17th), and I did it with some friends of the church I go. They were really yummy!
    • St Patrick's Day, (March, 17th). Originally this celebration is an Irish one, but it is also celebrated in England where some parades are organised.
    • Social ritualsEaster Sunday,(April, 5th). This day a lot of people go to Church to remember the resurrection of Christ. The Friday before (called the Good Friday), the British tradition is to eat some Hot Cross Buns.
    • The National Day is the 23th of April. It is called St George's Day, celebrating the Patron Saint of England.
    • In October, (31st) there is Halloween.
    • In November (5th) there is the Bonfire Night which celebrate, by fireworks, the failed gunpower against the House of Parliament in 1605.
    • The 11th of November, there is the Remembrance Day for the end of the First World War. People wear for the occasion a poppy on their jacket.
    • Finally, the 25th of December is Christmas Day. Many people go to Church for this occasion to remember and celebrate the birth of Christ.

     

    To finish with all these social rituals, I will talk about the habits. As I said in the beginning for culinary habits, people don't eat really healthy here. There are a lot of fast food and it seems that people don't really care about what they are eating (too much, too fat, too salty or too sweet), the essential thing for them seem just to be : eat. It also don't seems that they like cooking. All these things make a real difference from what we know in France. 
    Apart from traditional fish & chips, there is an English chocolate dessert, which is very good and I recommend it to you, it is the chocolate fudge cake.
    In terms of religious habits, the main religions are Anglicanism and Catholicism.

     

    This article about social rituals in England is now completed! I hope that it had helped you to see more how the country is and all this habits!

    Thanks for reading me!

     

    See you soon for my next article !

     

    Emilie

     

     

    Pictures Sources :

    https://lifequeen888.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/b100v011.jpg
    http://cdn.cnwimg.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/1333686817_7581_queen-elizabeth-ii.jpg
    http://www.brake.co.uk/_assets/720xn/FishChips_Poster_720x430px_1.jpg
    http://ufvcascade.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/beer-on-tap.jpg
    http://www.h3dwallpapers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/England_flag-6.jpg
    http://image.rakuten.co.jp/fanshop/cabinet/st/st086.jpg
    http://www.sportsister.com/wp-content/uploads2/england-rugby-rose-300x300.jpg
    http://www.davidsanger.com/images/england/4-900-2176.tree.m.jpg
    http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/12/london-cab-driver-flickr-jtbarrett.jpg
    http://images.travelpod.com/tripwow/photos/ta-00b0-b94c-7c39/phone-booth-london-united-kingdom+1152_12892554031-tpfil02aw-15611.jpg
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN9EC3Gy6Nk
    http://i0.wp.com/www.townfish.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/FireworksLondon.jpg
    http://sjchristianevents.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/shrovetuesday.jpg
    http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/food/ic/food_16x9_608/recipes/hotcrossbuns_397_16x9.jpg
    http://www.briggmarkettown.co.uk/uploads/events/temp_file_poppy_-_25.jpg
    http://www.christmas.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/shutterstock_848451911.jpg


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  • The University of Cumbria

    I study for this semester at the University of Cumbria, located in Lancaster. There are five other campus in England.

    The University is quite young because it was created by the union of St Martin’s College, the Cumbria Institute of the Arts and the University of Central Lancashire’s in 2007.

    The University of Cumbria gathers the Business School, the Institute of Arts, courses of law and social sciences, sport…

    The Business School of the University of Cumbria exist since 2013.

     

     

    Here is a timeline of the history of the University :

     

    The University of Cumbria

    I came for the first time at the University of Cumbria to register the 16th of January. I met there for the first time the other Erasmus students. We had a visit of the University and some explanations about the computer system of the school. The University is very large with many buildings and it is difficult at the beginning to not get lost. Finally, the University has its own library which is really big with a lot of work spaces and a lot of resources. It has also a coffee shop and a snack zone.

    The University of Cumbria

     

    I have three courses : International Economics (Tuesday, from 10 to 13), Human Resource Management and Development (Thursday, from 17 to 20) and Web Development (Friday, from 10 to 13).

    The University of Cumbria

    We began courses one month ago and I can say that these courses are very interesting because even if, for the two first of them, they are a little bit similar of these we had in France, they are made differently. So we can learn these topics on an other way with some details that we didn't knew before. The course of Web Development is really interesting because it is something that I have never done before. In there, we learn how to build a website with specific programs as the HTML language, the CSS one,... all of this to know how to put the contents that we want where we want on a page, with the colors and background that we chose ; as if we were a kind of real web developers.

    The University of Cumbria

     

    If the courses, in the way there are made, are quite similar than these in France, there are many things which are very opposite in terms of way of being in the classrooms during the courses. First of all, all the courses are done on PowerPoint presentations that the professors send to us before or after the class. In term of composition, there are no minimum and maximum of pupils per class. We are, for example, about twelve in International Economics, fifteen in Human Resources, and 4 in Web Development. In fact, we are not to many per class as in France where we can be thirty. Furthermore, another difference compared to France is that if someone arrive after the beginning of the course (no matter for how much time he is late) he can enter the class and follow the course. We can also : use our phones, tablets, computers during the course and also drink and eat without any problem ; which is very astonishing for us because the French system is a little bit more strict.

    In terms of social life, the University doesn't plan anything for students in term of social life, but there are a lot of sports that we can practise if we join the sport association of the school.

    The University of Cumbria

    Many thanks for having read me, and see you soon for an upcoming article about the trips that I have already done this month in England !

     

    Emilie

     

    Photos sources :
    http://www.cumbria.ac.uk/AboutUs/ContactInformation/Maps/Home.aspx
    http://www.cumbria.ac.uk/Public/ER/Images/BuildingsPlaces/UoCHistory.jpg
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