A French Swan's Adventures... in Scotland

Highlands in the sun (hip hip) - Part I

2010-06-08T12:55:00.014+01:00

When you're ooon a hooooolidayyyyyyy.....

Hi guys! Wow, I haven't posted in more than 6 months... a bad girl I am indeed :( The reason, you might have guessed, is that I have been sooo busy with the second semester of my master's course (but I won't bore you with studies in this blog update) and I only finished my exams a couple of weeks ago =)

So, in order to celebrate a well-deserved 2-week break before the start of my summer project (which I should actually be working on now, instead of posting here), I ventured away from the safe streets of the Glasgow West End and went to the Highlands (or kinda). Twice.

The first time was with 3 friends from uni (from left to right, Clare, Amanda and Daryl), who introduced me with Loch Lomond and typically Scottish picnics (sun -> wind -> food -> rain -> hail ("grêle") -> dessert-in-the-car -> sun). I think Scottish weather deserves a post of its own, so I will spare you more remarks on that topic for now ;)

The second time was with friends from London town (I still don't get where this expression comes from or what nuances it brings, but I like it ;-)). Well, actually they're friends from Paris, but they moved to London when I was in Slough (London suburbs) and 2 out of 3 are still there.

Let us introduce them :

- Sabrina (aka Sab), one of my best friends and whom I've known since high school, currently finishing her master's in European law at prestigious College d'Europe in Bruges (Dutch-speaking part of Belgium). She wasn't meant to join us at first, as she had an oral presentation on the Monday, but it was cancelled at the very last minute (on the Friday), so she went on a Eurostar to London and went with the guys. And also doomed us for the whole week-end as we had to squeeze in a tiny car ^_^

- Alexis (aka Al), Sab's boyfriend, who has a secret passion for plages arrières (rear board thingy that you put on top of your junk in a car boot), also a computer programmer for Customs and Revenues during the day.

- David (aka Moumou), Al's other secret lover and our lovely driver (the only one with a driving licence), who does not wish me to reveal his employer's name, for fear readers might want to kill him, but the gist of it is that he does super-smart things related to software and finance.

- and, last but not least, Nils (aka many things), my lovely boyfriend, and who helped a lot with the choice of locations (since he'd already been in the Highlands) and, more importantly, replaced Al as the front seat owner for our own safety and to accommodate Al's love affair with his beloved plage arrière. Oh, and he's an associate researcher in the computing science department at Glasgow Uni and the reason why I moved to Glasgow in the first place :).

David rented a (tiny ;)) car and left London with Al and Sab on the Friday night, they stayed in a hotel in Manchester, woke up far too late on the Saturday and finally arrived at our place in Glasgow around 5pm. There, it was discussed to go camping that very night, but every single site in the area was fully booked, so Nils and I cooked them the traditional Scottish dish 'haggis, neeps and tatties' (aka haggis, nipples and titties) and showed them around Glasgow West End and my university instead. I think they loved it ;)

Ashton Lane, the streets with all the pubs next to the uni (and a cool Guiness façade)

The tower of the University of Glasgow, which looks more like a cathedral than a university (but I have my lectures in the ugly modern buildins anyway :D)

The view of the city and the Kelvingrove Museum from the top of the hill (where the university is)

That's it for now... I will tell you more about it later, or this post will be far too big ^_^ (that, and I don't remember all the names of the places we went to)

A Whole New World (... a fantastic new point of view!)

2010-01-31T18:10:00.005Z

Hi guys! Haven't blogged for a while, so I hope you've had time to recover from last note :)

First of all, I'd like to wish all of you a Happy New Year! I probably have already done it, though.

Since the STaG nights theatre festival finished, I've actually had only little free time: deadlines for my course started piling up, and the pace was just crazy, up until the last minute of the term. Fortunately, we didn't have any exams in the first semester (which means we'll have them all after the second semester), but instead we had thousands of assignments. The lecturers always say that you "should not spend too much time on them", but obviously every one does, and I'm happy to announce that we've all passed or geekiness test with awards :) Spending the night in the lab or planning a sleepness night or which lectures are the most worth skipping to finish an assignment is now part of our daily routine :o).

However, I had a very good Christmas break: went back to France and saw most of my friends there (I had 3 weeks off, which was great, although I was supposed to be studying for yet other assignments, which would have spared me 2 unnecessarily hectic weeks when I went back to Glasgow :)).

I hope you too had a great holiday period :o)

Now, I'm studying more, but it is still not exactly enough =). Anyway, I really enjoy (most of) what I am doing, and I'd actually like to do another master's in computing next year, when I go back to Paris.

Well, that's it, I believe :D I'll keep this one 'short', hoping that maybe you'll thank be for this effort by getting me a very nice present %D

PS: Most of you probably missed the previous note, as I didn't post it on facebook. Just look at the pictures, and read the paragraphs below the second picture (on the 'devise piece') if you're intrigued by them ;-))

'We were on a break!!!!'

2009-11-18T14:55:00.007Z

Now that the STaG nights festival is over (YES! at last! :D), I'm taking advantage of one of my now so much more frequent free moments to give you an update on my Glaswegian experience.

STaG nights went really well, and every single thing I did there was new, which I sometimes think to be my goal in life, so I was quite content :D.

-I was the stage manager for a play. Usually stage managers locate the set and props (ie. the objects used by the actors) but the director already knew what she was doing, so I mainly helped her to organise rehearsals and book rehearsal space, which is not very hard but quite time consuming and requires to be organised when you have to book rooms every other day :) I actually loved it, and you feel so useful doing that, as it helps the director focus on directing.

- For that same play, I operated the lights on the night. Basically, the lights are controled by a big console which looks a bit like a keyboard linked to a computer. What usually happens is that the lights are set up and pre-programmed during the tech setup and rehearsal, so that any one can operate them on the night, just by clicking on the 'GO' button when a different atmosphere needs to be used (there are cues in the script for you to know when to do it). However, it is still possible to go back to a previous control or to do it manually if necessary, obviously, but I didn't learn to do that as it wasn't necessary and there wasn't enough time for it.

- Another first was singing as part of a duet in an adaptation of Prokoviev's Peter and the Wolf. There are no singers in the original orchestra version, but a student (who I also happened to know through the musical theatre society) rearranged the score for a piano, a clarinet (played by Nils :)) And 2 singers. It was very interesting but quite stressful as the singing was acappella (ie without accompaniment), contained harmonies and had to be learned within 5 days, what with me not being able to read music unless I already know the notes of the melody. Besides, I had two assignment deadlines on the same day, so I couldn't work all the time on the music... But it went well in the end, and the bits of the play I managed to see from the corner of my eye were very entertaining (there was a story teller and people from the audience improvising the actions of the story - helped by 2 assistants - while we were doing the music :))

- The last one was a devise piece (see pictures above). What happened is that we used a space in the building (the bottom of a stairwell) and started devising the "play" from scratch. There was no script in the beginning, so we did a lot of brainstorming and experimented with sound, movement, tried to use the space differently from the way we would have used the more neutral and 'artificial' theatre stage. We tried to give meaning and life to what was previously a very empty space, and it was a very interesting process. It was theatre, but part of it was an installation (a visual and sound display that people could see when we were not performing). The audience was watching from the steps :). I believe it went very well in the end, although we hadn't had time to rehearse our play a lot, since we had to devise (=write) it first.
Oh, and most importantly, I met great people doing 'Stairwell' :)

- And, last but not least, it was the first time I went to a theatre festival! :D (or at least watched more than one play in one), and I really enjoyed watching all of the plays, especially as I had auditioned for most of them so I was quite eager to see what they would look like and how they would end :o)

Sadly enough, I was so tired with not having a real break since Freshers' week and having university work pile up that I didn't go to the after-show party, but for once I didn't really care :D

xxx

Let's talk about school, baby, let's talk about M-S-c

2009-11-04T11:51:00.008Z

(The table is a metaphor of my studies, the way towards which is full of obstacles I need to get past. The black and the white (and the plastic bag) foreshadow the fight of good against evil [studying vs not] that awaits me, as well as the practical needs (such as grocery shoppings) which accompany every member of the studentship of the Yin in their quest for a MASTER('s))

Hi, guys!

So I thought I needed to update my blog because I'm gonna be very busy for a while, but I didn't want to talk about the things I do outside of the lectures because

1) My previous note was about amdram (= amateur dramatics = theatre)

2) And basically that's all I do these days (and probably too much for my own good, actually :D)

3) There's gonna be a festival (called STaG nights) from Thursday 12th to Saturday 14th November (that's next week), so I'd rather talk about it when it's over (that is, when I'm not advertising for it ^_^)

So I thought I'd talk just a little bit ('... just a little bit...') about my studies here (I won't be too long, I promise):

I'm loving the masters at the moment (especially not having to take too many notes, as I'm terrible at that write in the messiest way that was ever seen). It is very interesting, and it is refreshing, for once to be able to CREATE things (because it's quite technical and usually to-the-point) that you can be satisfied with and not look at and think "oh dear, this is rubbish/useless" :).

It is quite hard, however, as it's a master's degree and also because we need to catch up with all the IT we've never done before. And because I'm keeping myself very busy with other stuff outside, I'm a bit behind on my schedule and am just starting to catch up. To top this up, we were given some of our coursework last week, and needless to say it's a lot of work (we even have to write a documented ESSAY (wth?! :P), but this we've known for weeks).

So until next week I'll try to

1) Prepare my assignments as well and as much as I can (since some of my deadlines are before or during the theatre festival next week, woopsey :D)

2) Read and learn an adaptation for singers of Peter and the Wolf (I need to learn it because I can gightread rhythm but not notes on sheet music XD)

3) Work on a devise piece (ie something that we create from scratch and is usually quite experimental :))

4) Do my stage manager's job for another play

5) Look for a shrink so I can get my over-busy-ness obsession sorted %D

Love to all,

Oops, I did it again...

2009-10-13T23:21:00.006+01:00

... I played with your heaaaaart, got lost in the gaaaaaaame! :_(

I thought I couldn't beat my previous ratio of 7 shows in 2 years, but with 2 shows performed already in only one month, I suppose I was just being too optimistic :D

Before I go into more specific details about those, there's a couple of thoughts I'd like to share with you :)

There's something very special about being in a show. At least for me. You don't start to realise until the performance starts, and then it becomes obvious once it's done. These magical pieces of human thing (do you like my writing? :D), it seems, tend to bring people together. Or maybe this is just me ^^. But anyway, it makes you feel like you're all siblings. I suppose you could call it love. And because every one tends to be happy, extatic (or crying, but usually both), you just feel happy for them, and happy to have shared this time, however short or long, with them. Of course, you don't know half of their real names and you haven't necessarily had the chance to actually talk to their real selves, but there's the after-show drinks and party for that, and, anyway, you still feel closer to them than to some people who sat in the same lecture theatre with you for a year or more :)

Of course, this feeling is bound to fade away, and you may or may not stay in touch, but there will always be the trace of what you achieved together, and the memory of the beauty of that piece of arty human thingy...

Well, now I've scared every one away, I'm gonna tell you about the 2 shows :)

First one was Bugsy Malone: musical, NYC, gangsters, dancers, boxers, 20s, shaving cream fights. Funny. Approx 800 people dancing on the stage. Was French reporter (and even wrote my own lines ;-)) and chorus. Show auditioned, rehearsed and performed in 3 days!

Second one was Rouge: short play, drag-queen dad, another boxer, funny unfunny comedian, horrible grandma. Sad and funny. Very silenty. No ending. Daddy Sam wore my red dress and long cream gloves. Was Rose. Burst out laughing in a sad scene. Because of 2 evil directors who wrote funny lines for a sad situation :p. Cried sad-happy tears in unison with Lily when it was just over.

Freshers' week

2009-09-19T21:00:00.006+01:00

Well, well, well... Where to begin???

What's a fresher?

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this word, a fresher is some one who is new (or 'fresh') to a university, here in the UK. Which I am.

What happens at a freshers' week?

And, so that every fresher can make the most of their year(s) at uni, but also to advertise for themselves, the various student bodies and clubs and societies, as well as quite a few companies that can be of relevance for our stay in Glasgow (night clubs, pizzerias, telephone companies, etc.) are here on campus for us and organise loads of events, give us freebies ranging from free pizza through sim cards to music compilations. There are also taster sessions for all sports available at the sports centres and special events only accessible to fresher's pass owners.

What is a fresher's pass?

Well, it is a laminated card with a picture of you and your name (preferably misspelt ;-)) which costs 35 pounds and enables you to attend a lot of events for free during freshers' week, most of them require that you make friends as more than half of them can be listed under 'club night' or 'ball', including the very first night. And it also enables you to queue for hours to said events, as ALL freshers want to attend the same events as you do, and there are a lot of them ^^. And even if only half of them (as there are usually 2 events each night) do, that's still a hell of a lot of people. So you get quite disappointed the first 2 days when you always end up sipping a drink in the unions' bars or going to the very same union club, which you could obviously do any time of the year, but then you get to meet loads of people (but let's face it, not at the paying events ;o)) who are in the same situation as you and just want to make friends. It would have been even better if more of my fellow freshers' had been as old or as mature as the ones I've befriended (I'm in no way making a criticism. I just mean that I didn't feel like it's harder to find 17-year-olds you can relate to when you're 'already' 21 and have lived and worked away from home in a foreign country for 2 years already. It is yet possible to find like-minded people in this bunch, even when you don't know a soul in the first place and don't stay in halls with 80% of the freshers :), and anyway you've got one year to make friends, but it's just this urge you feel to make the most of your 35 pounds that makes you even more anxious about making friends than you would have been in the first place, cause you don't want to go to this foam beach party on your own! (or at least I don't))

What were the highlights of my freshers' week? :)

1) All the people I've met and who, for some of them, will hopefully become or remain friends

2) The freshers' fair

It had all these stalls for clubs and societies, and I just had the time of my life (or at least a very good time) just chatting with nearly every single one of them and asking who they were (as well as signing up for their mailing lists :D). I'll tell you more about the clubs and societies in further blogging ;o)

3) The hypnotist

Oh my god, that was really impressive! After seeing that, I can confirm that at least some people can be hypnotised (or else the 10 or so students the hypnotist picked were the best actors I'd ever seen...)

4) The freshers' address

That's what's on the picture above. It was the start of fresher week, and we had various people welcoming you (including our very own rector, former leader of the LibDems and former president of the Glasgow University Union Charles Kennedy, who was elected by the students and whose main role is to give a speech at the freshers' address - no kidding ^_^').

The address was:

- given in a gorgeous-looking hall which looked even nicer than Hogwarts Great Hall as it was much more colourful ;-)

- signed for the deaf and hearing impaired

- filmed live by the student tv crew for the people who couldn't see the speakers from their seats

- full of freshers' helpers from the 4 student bodies who made it feel more like a rugby game than like a freshers' address and that's what I like about this university (I have no idea how it works in other UK universities): a combination of both high academic standards and a thriving student life the university pride themselves in instead of denying it ;-)

I hope this article wasn't too long for you to read and at least a bit interesting (do say so in the comments, if so!).

xxx

Wen two thRee, wen two thRee...

2009-09-13T22:46:00.009+01:00

Hi, guys! :)

Today was quite quiet (muahaha!). Nils's parents went back to France after spending a couple of days with us, and today we went to the Byres Road (the main road of the West End, which is the western part of Glasgow and has the University of Glasgow and our flat as well) so I could have my picture taken for the Freshers' Pass (and possibly for the student ID as well, but I haven't heard a lot about registration so far).

And then we went grocery shopping at TEEESSSSCOOO's (it's much smaller than the one in Slough, though, and you need to put one pound coins into the trolleys to be able to use them, just like in France :o)), and I used a shopping list application on my ipod for the first time (interesting, huh? :p)

Now, I suppose you'll be more interested in hearing about tonight's CEILIDH (pronounced 'ka-ee-leed, at least in the lovely Scottish accent) than about my exciting trip to Tesco's or my iPod's personal life ^_^

So, tonight was the welcome CEILIDH. It was organised by one of the 2 unions of the University of Glasgow (the Queen Margaret Union, which used to be only for women, which is why there are 2 of them). A ceilidh is a traditional Scottish ball, with couple and group dances. It's REAL fun and there's a lot of jumping and turning around, and after only 2 dances in a row I thought my heart was gonna explode! What's great with this type of dances is also that you don't need to know any one to join in and enjoy it :). Plus, the three musicians (a drummer, a bassist and an accordionist) and the QMU volunteers were being very helpful and showed us how to do the dances. Quite a few of the male volunteers were even wearing kilts! (the traditional 'skirt' for men) You can catch a glimpse of one coming from the left on the following video towards the end:

As you can (or rather cannot) see, the ceilidh took place in the QMU's very own 'night club' ^_^

Tomorrow [well, this morning, now, due to technical issues uploading the video :D] will be the start of Freshers' week, and I'll update you a bit later about that. There will be plenty of events organised by the 4 student organisations and also registration for my master's course on Wednesday.

Write to you soon :)

There at last!

2009-09-11T15:10:00.002+01:00

Hi, guys!

So, I arrived in Glasgow yesterday, and, as an international student, I was welcomed by students from all the Glaswegian universities and could get a free bus ride to the uni :) I knew it before, and I had registered, but you could also register when you arrived. These volunteers were usually foreigners as well, probably because they tended to be part of the international societies, and they've organised welcoming committees every day at the airport and central station for about 2 weeks from about 9am to 6pm! O_o

I thought that was a great idea, as many students have never been in Glasgow before, and some of them have never even been abroad (especially the non-European ones), so being welcomed by friendly students and driven straight to their accomodation is a big plus, as you can feel very lost and stressed out when you first arrive in a foreign country (the most stressful being public transport, especially buses, since with a cab you can still give them the address and just relax.

So after I got to the uni and chatted with very nice people from so many countries (mainly European, but a couple of Indians as well), they kindly called me a cab and it cost only £3 to get to the flat I'm gonna be sharing for a year with Nils (he's my boyfriend), who's live here for nearly 2 years now). I must say it was so good to not have to look for accommodation and roughly know where I was going this time, although there certainly was some kind of appeal to the feeling of 'lostness' I had 2 years ago when I moved to Slough in England (and even then I directly met with people who knew the place and were to share a house with me, but I knew nothing about transport, had to open a bank account and just get used to living somewhere else, 'on my own', which was the first time for me, who'd never left my hometown in France for more than 3 months in a row ^_^)

I should get going now, got loads of things to do, including getting myself a Freshers' Pass (I will tell you about freshers' week in my next note :o))

xxx

'Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome !'

2009-08-22T17:00:00.004+01:00

Hi, guys! Hope you're all doing fine :)

Okay, so I was looking for a way to stay in touch without spamming your mailboxes, and I thought starting a blog could be a good and fun way of doing it.

I'll post a few pictures, tell you about my experience in Glasgow (and probably what happens next as well ;-)), probably bore you at times when trying to teach you things I personally find soooo exciting :D (but what's good with a blog is that you don't have to read it all :D), provide you with some insight into the Scottish, British, French or some other culture, and maybe try to make you all find some beauty in the fair city of Glasgow (as I haven't met a soul, be it French, British or a bowl, who seemed enthused by this city ;o)).

My task will certainly be complex at times, as I'll be dealing with sensitivities from all over the globe, but please bear with me and pardon any comment you wouldn't like about your culture: they will never be meant to be mean, as I'm sure you'll know if you know me well. And also remember we French people are stupid and just like to criticise ;o). But enough of it for now ;-)

Now, before I finish this note, what's with the French Swan?

- Why 'French', M'am?

- Because I'm French.

- Oh, you are??!! O_o So that's why you speak French so well, then?

- ...

- Miz L, the Democratic Republic of Your New Readers would like to know what made you identify with a swan. Was it an intention on your government's part to show their intention of improving their relationship with the Ancient Kingdom of Fowls and Other Feathered Creatures?

- Er... Well... there are actually two reasons which made me go for a swan, but I'm sorry to tell you neither is political.

First, my English nickname on the web tends to be Swan as it both phonetically resembles my name and means something (and quite some thing!) in English :)

And second, I lived in Slough (between London and Windsor) for the last 2 years, and there were loads of the Queen's animals on the Thames in Windsor, so I thought it would be a perfect tribute to the time I spent there :)

Forgive my craziness ;-),

Love,

PS: If you found this page randomly, feel free to read it as well, as I hope you'll find some interesting things on Glasgow, student life in the UK or many other topics :)