Hi everyone! 

As I spent my semester abroad in Cambridge, my best friend at ESDES (my home university) Alexis Cohen spent his semester in London. So, I decided to spend one weekend at his place and to visit some places in London with him. 

As I arrived, I first visited Alexis' room and Westminster University, where he was studying during this semester. He lived in the centre of London, near Oxford Circus and I really liked this area as both living places for locals and touristic places are mixed in the same area. 

After visiting this part of the city, we decided to go to Chinatown in order to see the Chinese style buildings and to eat a typical Chinese meal. 

For our first night in London, we decided to walk down the streets and see Leicester square by night. As we were walking, we saw a casino. As neither of us has ever gone to a casino before, we decided to enter one for the very first time. We had an awesome time in here and we even won some money. 

Then, we decided to spend what we won by going to the restaurant, as a reward for our great performances in the casino! 

The following day, we went to Trafalgar Square and visited the National Gallery. As we went to Trafalgar Square, we saw a manifestation against war in the world. 

Then, by visiting the National Gallery, we discovered that we both like Impressionist and Pointillist paintings. As a matter of fact, our favourite painting in this section was one from George Seurat (see the picture below). 

Finally, we went to Harrods in order to buy some memories for me and my family as it is one of the most famous stores in the world. 

It was really nice to see Alexis in London. It has been a long time since we have not spoken so we had a lot to share and to discover here in London. We had an awesome time during this weekend there, and I thank him for that. 

Thank you everyone for reading this article. This was the last article of my blog! Thank you so much for reading me and for having followed me during my semester in Cambridge! 

As the Euro 2016 began in France, British people support their favourite team: England, Wales, North Ireland or Ireland. However, most people have been shoked hearing that some English and Russian fans have been fighting in the Marseille Fan zone. 

Dozens of extremist fans of England and Russia fought in the centre of Marseille. It appears that some Russian fans came to meet some England fans with explosives and started administrating random beatings. Those acts of hooliganism have been blamed by all football fans in Europe. As you can see in the pictures below, a huge violence has spread form this "meeting". 

Fighting became even more violent when police forces intervained by launching gas towards hooligans in order to stop the fightings. 

However, a football official in Moscow has praised the hooligans that were involved in violence. He argued that they were defending their country's honour. "I don't see anything wrong with the fans fighting. Quite the opposite, well done lads, keep it up!" he said. This sentence created huge reactions in the football world, blaming those violences between fans. 

Sanctions have been sent towards those hooligans, including prison for more than 10 of them. 

Moreover, while everyone thought that those fights would stop quickly, the opposite might happen. Indeed, both teams will meet again in the centre of Lille as they will play their next games in the same city. However, France authorities have decided to restrict the sale of alcohol in most shops and bars and to draft more than 4,000 extra police in order to bring safety and avoid any violence between hooligans and fans. 

Thank you for reading my article! I hope that you enjoyed it and that you will read my next one! 

Hey everyone! This is my third article. It will deal with the United Kingdom geopolitics. It will be divided into two parts: the first one will present the country's government and the second one will describe the biggest conflict nowadays in the UK. 

I- Presentation of the country's government

There are three major entities in UK's politics. 

The first one is the Queen. This year, Queen Elizabeth II turned her 90th birthday. Even though she does not have responsibilities in governing the country anymore, she still has several roles such as:

• - Head of the State: the Queen goes on official States visits and receives other Head of States visits in the UK. 
• - Head of the Armed Forces: she is the only person able to declare war and when it is over. 
• - Head of the Church of England: the Queen can appoint archbishops and bishops. 
• - Government duties: she receives documents and reports from ministers and officials that must be read and sometimes signed by herself. 
• - Represents the Nation: the Queen represents the Nation wherever she goes and during celebrations. 

The second one is the Government. 

It is led by the Prime Minister, David Cameron, who selects all the other ministers. The Prime Minister and some other senior ministers belong to the Cabinet: the decision-making committee. The main function of the Government is to represent the British people. Every five years, general elections are held in which British people elect a new House of Commons (entity responsible for the Government). After the election, the monarch chooses the Prime Minister. Usually, the monarch chooses the leader of the party which is most likely to lead in terms of number of members in the House of Commons. 

The third one is the Parliament. 

It is the supreme entity in the United Kingdom. It possesses on its own the legislative power over all the entities in the United Kingdom. The Parliament is divided into two parts: the upper house (House of Lords) and the lower house (House of Commons). 

In theory, the legislative power is vested in the Crown. Nevertheless, the crown and the monarch act with the advice of the the Prime Minister (who usually has the majority in the House of Commons. Indeed, the power is mostly vested in the House of Commons. 

II- The conflicts

As you may know, the major conflict currently in the United Kingdom is the Brexit. This word is a shorthand way of saying the UK leaving the EU, mixing Britain and exit. What is the Brexit? A referendum will be held on 23rd of June in order to decide whether Britain should leave or remain in the European Union. In conformity with Prime Minister David Cameron to hold one if he won the general elections, this referundum will be hekd in response to the growing calls from the Conservative politician members and the UK Independence Party. They argue that the EU gained a lot more control over British people everdyday life. Indeed, David Cameron decided to "settle this European question in British politics". 

People who want UK to leave the EU argue that too many rules on business and billions of pounds of charge for membership with little payback are imposed to the UK. In a few words, they believe that Britain is being held back by the European Union. The UK Independence Party is the leader of those wanting to leave the EU. 

In the other hand, people who want to stay believe that this membership brings a big boost such as an easier way of selling things in the Europe and the flow of immigrants that fuels the UK's economic growth. The Labour Party is the main party that wants to stay in the EU. 

Both ideas bring different good things and bad things to the UK, which is why there are so many debates on this crucial matter. 

Thank you guys for reading this article about Geopolitics in the UK. I hope that you enjoyed it and to see you for my next article. 

Hi there! This is my second article. It will deal with the social rituals that I experienced here in Cambridge. I will tell you the most important rituals that I experienced since my arrival.

First of all, when I arrived in Cambridge, one of the first things I did was to take an English breakfast. As you may know, British people are known for having huge breakfasts with lots and lots of food. As a matter of fact, it is not rare to find pubs or restaurants offering that kind of breakfast. 

As you can see on these photos, English breakfasts are usually served with eggs, bacon, sausages, baked beans or toasts for example. 

By walking in the streets, I realized that weather was a very important discussion topic! I often meet some British people. I like to talk to them, asking for a direction or an advice. When noticing that I am not British, they usually start talking about the weather, often apologising for the rain! However, I don’t think that there is so much rain in Cambridge (well, as I am writing this article it is actually raining outside but it is not always like that!).

http://www.weather-guide.com/city-weather-b/Cambridge-Weather.html

As you can see on this graph, there are not so many rainy days in Cambridge! At least less than in other coast cities… To be fair, most of the time, the weather is cloudy with some sunny moments.

After a few days here, I realized the importance of bikes! I think that there as many bikes as cars and taxis! Riding a bike is the easiest way to go to the city centre because buses have difficulties driving there and it is really hard to find a place where to park a car. Indeed, bikes are the only solution! 

In order to become real Cambridge inhabitants, Alicia, Ophélie and I decided to buy a bike. We bought second hand bikes, knowing that we would easily send them back before we leave England.

Here you can see us striking a pose in front of King’s College chapel.

What is the greatest symbol of the UK? Queen Elizabeth II, of course! She represents the UK across the world and has indeed, with all her family, a very special place in the UK people’s heart. By the way, she recently celebrated the 63^rd anniversary of her reign (the longest in history!) and her 90^th birthday.

There even is a website dedicated to the royal family! It is called www.royal.uk. If you have any query about the UK's Royal Family, this is the website to go! 

One other very important event in Cambridge is the end of exams, celebrated by the most famous colleges such as Trinity College and St John’s College. These two celebrations are the most famous because students organise a real show with fireworks every year. You can see the fireworks from the Cam river, it is a very special show. 

Here is a video showing the 2014 firework from Trinity College. Go check it out, even though the video is a bit long the show is awesome! 

Thank you for reading my article, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

See you in my next article! 

Anglia Ruskin University’s latin motto is : "Excellentia per Societatem" which is translated is English by : "Excellence through societies". 

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