#university of strasbourg

[theworldthroughmycamerassc]

University of Strasbourg - Strasbourg, France

[chachacorner]

Study in France: 2018 Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellowships at Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Strasbourg

Study in France: 2018 Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellowships at Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Strasbourg

2018 Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellowships Scholarship

Applications are invited for Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellowships at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Strasbourg in France. This action is for experienced researchers from across the world.

Strasbourg is the second most international university city in France (after Paris). Today, the University of Strasbourg counts 42000 students,…

[newsdock]

Volunteer hotline saves desperate migrants from the Med

From his office in Strasbourg in eastern France, Hatem Gheribi picks up the phone to a desperate woman who says she has washed up on a tiny Greek island. Looking over Gheribi's shoulder is Pavlos Antoniadis, a Greek musicologist from the University of Strasbourg, who is soon on the phone to the Greek police, passing on all the information they have. "This system saves lives," says Antoniadis. http://dlvr.it/C3d0Vb

[noelleleigh]

Familial (Strasbourg, France, January 2015)

Taken with an iPhone 5s, edited with Lightroom 5.

[ryersonlib]

Le Retour de la Colonne Durutti, the original broadside printed in 1966 by the Association fédérative générale des étudiants de Strasbourg.

The Student Union at the University of Strasbourg was infiltrated by Situationist-influenced students in late 1966.  They published a pamphlet on the meaninglessness of student life that was widely distributed and translated, and also published this broadside of a detourned comic by Andre Bertrand.  Throughout Western Europe, in Great Britain, and the US, The Return of the Durutti Columni was published either as a four-page foldout or a feature in underground newspapers (from the book Punk: An Aesthetic).

[a-chap-called-peter]

Strasblog Part Thirty Four: A Summary (2)

Sorry it’s a bit late; I’ve just spent the last week being rained on at Download Festival. Just in case you’re wondering: yes, it was bloody brilliant.

And then, as if reminding me of my time at Amitel, the internet broke in our house. We've only just got it back, so I'm only now able to put up this final part of the Strasblog! Enjoy!

What have I accomplished?

I think a pretty rounded Erasmus experience. My French has definitely improved since A-Level, I experienced life in another culture, and I made great friends from across Europe and even the world! I did a bit of traveling and I’ve done things I wouldn’t dream of doing in England. I cannot complain about what I’ve done this year, not one bit.

Munich Olympic Park from Part 25…

Have I missed out on anything?

Nothing major that I can think of. I never got round to visiting the towns of Colmar or Hagenau – two places that friends visited and recommended to me – but that isn’t the end of the world. If anything, this gives me an even greater excuse to return to Alsace in the future!

What have I learned?

A lot. Perhaps the most important thing that I’ve learned is that I can truly be independent and look after myself. We think going to university is the first step in independence, which in truth it is. BUT, I was always an hour away from home and the university spoke my native language…this time around I couldn’t go home for a weekend if I was bored and the university encouraged independence for more than in Leicester. I survived, so I know I can rise to the occasion.

Berlin Cathedral from Part 21…

Am I ready to go back to Leicester?

Definitely. I am actually incredibly excited about starting my dissertation, which will be on the subject of the African American experience during the Vietnam conflict. Nonetheless, I am a little concerned that my year spent doing very little will leave me at a disadvantage come the start of hard work in Leicester. But I’m sure that I’ll catch up pretty quickly…

Would I do it again?

Of course I would. I’d leave tomorrow if it was possible.

Finally, would I consider living in France/Europe?

I have to say, I had no intention living abroad before or during the first few months of the Erasmus experience. Now, I would definitely consider it. However, I feel that I would need to spend another year in Strasbourg – this time doing some sort of actual hard work – to get a better impression of French life. It would be silly to decide on living abroad based on a year of no pressure and constant fun.

Prague Castle from Part 20…

So, that’s that. The final entry of my Strasblog and with it I feel like I am saying my final farewells to Strasbourg. Thank you so much to all of you who have kept with me and read about my ups and downs in what has been a terrific year. I hope I have kept you thoroughly entertained with tales of stupidity, embarrassment and idiotic fun!

Stick around, I have a feeling the Strasblog may be re-moulded into some other stupid expression of my inner most feelings…

Until then, my friends!

[peanutbutterandtequila]

hazy view through the lab window after a surprise blizzard

[universitybeauty-blog]

University of Strasbourg. Strasbourg, Alsace, France.

[a-chap-called-peter]

Strasblog Part Thirty Three: A Summary

Hello all!

As you know I'm back in England, with the Erasmus experience now sadly in the past. With this in mind, it's time to begin a review of my year...so enjoy!

How does it feel to be back in England?

Good, mostly. I'm pretty sure I was ready to come home (it's only so long that you can stay in a place when you've got nothing to do)...It's nice to be back home for good and nice not having to rush around seeing people, knowing that I won't be taking a Eurostar next week! It's nice to be back home with British culture, British people and British food. 

Do I miss Strasbourg?

Most definitely. It was a beautiful place with a great multi-cultural and vibrant atmosphere. Moreover, I miss the people who made Strasbourg such a great place. 

Did I enjoy the experience?

Without a shadow of a doubt. This was a year unlike any other in my entire life. It was a year that opened my eyes to a whole new lifestyle and a whole new world of opportunities. The decision to take this year in France was one of the best I have ever made. Ever.

I think for the summaries I should show a collection of my favourite photos from the Strasblog. So here's a very 'French' street in Cognac.

What did I like about France/the experience?

The French are - in comparison to the hectic lifestyle of the British - very relaxed. It irritated me to death for the first few months of the experience, but I grew to love it. They will stop for two hours at lunch, they will take leisurely breaks whenever they please, and they will sit on a single cup of coffee for hours on end. It's a lifestyle you can get used to, especially when you don't have a lot of pressure on you anyway.

Furthermore, Strasbourg is a brilliant city. It boasts an eloquent mixture of old and new architecture, a full and exciting history, along with a promising future. The people are friendly, the city is safe and clean, plus it's hard to run out of places to wine, dine and visit.

We like to think of ourselves in the United Kingdom as pretty diverse, but this year is the only year I've felt truly part of a multi-national community. It would have been very easy to spend another year trapped in our - albeit lovely - British culture, but now I've had the chance to live with people from all over the globe. And that's pretty cool...

What did I dislike about France/the experience?

Funnily, the worst part of my year abroad was the reason for which I was able to go to France - The University of Strasbourg. The History department was bloody awful (open two days a week for two hours is unacceptable), the standard of teaching was weak in comparison to the United Kingdom (in general), and the level of organisation was pathetic.

The level of bureaucracy was incredible too. To get one simple thing sorted, such as the CAF, you would need to see at least four different people, complete at least four different sheets of information, and hand in at least six pieces of identification. What will it take for the French to stop using paperwork for a customer's details? It's almost as if the French have not discovered the internet yet... 

HAVING SAID THAT, once you've lived in France for a while...you seem to stop caring that everything seems so long-winded and overly complicated. Something makes you just accept that this is how France works, and it suddenly seems unimportant. I don't know what it is...

A view from the Vosges Mountains in Part 15.

Best moment?

It's a choice between two...Firstly, the Saturday on the weekend of St. Patrick's. If you remember, this was the day when we spent quite literally all day in our favourite bar - The Dubliners. I was drunk beyond belief, I spent far too much money and I most likely made a complete and utter fool of myself. Why was it a good day? Well, because of one simple fact. It was pure a good fun.

Secondly, the weekend when we went to The Black Forest. I was surrounded by beautiful scenery, passing the nights with hilarity and good humour, plus I was in the company of my best buds. What can be better than that? Oh yeh, we had 80 bottles of beer too...

Worst moment?

Also a choice between two. These aren't perhaps the worst moments...rather the most embarrassing.

Firstly, the day I got nut-megged (or in French, a petit pont) by one of the worst shots in history. I still don't know how it happened. It was terrible because it was the first game of five-a-side with the rest of the guys from Amitel...and I made a horrendous error. Way to make an impact hey?!

Secondly, we have the 'joyeux noel' incident. That's right, the day I said 'Merry Christmas' rather than 'Happy Birthday' to a good friend of mine. If you can't remember why this was so bad, go back to Part 24 of the Strasblog...I still cringe when I think about that day.

Oh yes, and for those wondering...it was the same friend that nut-megged me AND I said 'Merry Christmas' too. I wonder what she thinks of me...

That's all for now guys, come back for the second chapter of the summary next week!

Until then!

A stall on the Christmas Market, from Part 16.

[a-chap-called-peter]

Strasblog Part 32: Time to go!

Hello all!

I write this as I sit on my sofa back in Bourne Town, Lincolnshire. That's right, the Erasmus adventure has officially come to its conclusion. Roughly 37 weeks, 259 days and goodness knows how many hours after it jolted into action back in September 2012, my year abroad in Strasbourg finished last Friday, on the 31st May. 

But have no fear, I got up to some stuff before my depature! So sit back, relax, and enjoy the last Strasblog entry to have actual Strasbourg events detailed!

Celebrating Eurovision

Ah Eurovision, the annual celebration of terrible music in some (normally) former Soviet state. Ah Eurovision, the annual celebration the fact that Britain no longer has any friends left in Europe. We all do the same thing: we pretend we don't care, half-heartedly turn on the programme but then get completely trashed and overly competitive. This year however, was different. This year, I wasn't in the UK for Eurovision...

This year, we had a very 'European' party. There were Brits, Swedes and Germans amongst the nations represented at our party. The programme began, the music was naturally god awful, and for me it was slightly weird watching the programme without Graham Norton's excellent commentary. Nonetheless, it was a pleasant occasion and one that did not go without casual banter between different nations entries (everyone thought our entry was terrible...which to be honest, it was). 

One of the pictures taken on my first walk in The Vosges Mountains...

Friendly Visits

On the final two weekends of my time in Strasbourg, I had two different friends come and spend time in my wonderful French home. I have to say, it was nice having them here, firstly, for the fact that it was nice seeing friends who I had not spoken to or seen for a long time. Secondly, it was nice to have people who I knew from back in the UK share in the delights of a fantastic and often overlooked French city. Finally, it was nice being a tourist again...and to remember how amazing the city truly is.

For example, as I was going to the station to pick up one of my visitors I walked past the Cathedral. It's an impressive structure, but I walked past it without even thinking to tilt my head towards the towering features high above me...I had been spoilt by seeing the building every single day. Having my friends here allowed for one last trip around the touristy bits to get my fill of them before parting ways with the city.

Oh yeh, I also finally had an excuse to go to the restaurant in Petite France called Au Pont Saint Martin (go back to Part 27 for a photo...it's the one with the balcony on the river). If anyone wants a recomendation (all the food looked good to be fair), try the choucroute...it was AMAZING.

A bridge within Prague Castle...

The Day of Departure

It had to come at some point. Friday 31st May, 2013...my final day in Strasbourg. In the week before leaving I tried to get around as many friends possible and say my final farewells. Most were nice, some were sad, and only one of my goodbyes was a little disappointing - the receiver of the goodbye acted as if my departure didn't really bother her that much...which was nice. 

I then spent the last two days of my time in Strasbourg doing the necessary job of packing all my stuff away. And let me tell you, that was NOT easy. I'm not even too sure how it was difficult...I took a load of my stuff home at Easter so I wouldn't have the difficulties at the end of my stay! Nonetheless, it wasn't until a few HOURS before my train out of Stras that I finally managed to close the zip effectively. Perhaps I'm just the worst packer of stuff in the world...ever...

Overall the trip home was pretty uncomfortable. Whilst in Strasbourg it rained so much that all of my stuff became soaked within seconds. Not a good start. In Lille (I chose to go there rather than Paris because of the nightmare I had taking all my stuff to France in the first place), not only was the Eurostar late to depart...it was also late to ARRIVE in London. Not getting any better. THEN, in London, the train home to Peterborough was changed from one platform to another...two minutes before the train was set to leave. It resulted in a mad rush of about two hundred people from one side of Kings Cross to another. As you can imagine...this was not so cool for me with two backpacks and a gigantic suitcase.

Anyway, I'm home now...and ready for the summer! Come back for the final few Strasblogs in the next few weeks, that will try to summarise what has been an incredible year...

Until then chaps!

Some of the older buildings within Petite France...

[a-chap-called-peter]

Strasblog Part 31

Hello all!

Not long left until I'm back to the U.K. for good! Scary how time flies...

I'm a bit behind in terms of when all this stuff happened, but enjoy anyway!

Meeting the Strasbourg Strollers

As some of you may know, one of my favourite sporting activities is the typically British game of cricket. Unsurprisingly enough, France hasn't really caught on with this wonderful sport...probably for the fact that they (like many nations) don't have the patience for a game that can last for five days and STILL not have a winner at the end of it. Undeterred, an English mate and I have been heading to the parks and playing with the good old bat and ball that he brought over from England.

On one of our many cricketing sessions, a chap from the ex-pat team happened to walk past as I came charging in from the bowling end. He walked over, introduced himself as a member of the Strasbourg Strollers Cricket Club, and then asked if we would like to play for them in the time that we had left in this fantastic city. Naturally, our answer was yes!

To meet the rest of the team, the Stroller invited us along to an event where local kids can to try a few new sports ( for example baseball, american football, bmx...among others). Of course we replied with a yes, and overall the day wasn't too bad. The rest of the Strollers seemed like good guys - willing to play cricket just for a bit of a laugh, which is perfect - and teaching young French children how to hold a cricket bat was just hilarious. Few of the kids really seemed to know what was going on, but they seemed to thoroughly enjoy hitting tennis balls as hard as they could!

Going through some old photos of the year! So, here is a picture from my October trip to Cognac...

Twice to Schirmeck 

May in France is basically the month of the Bank Holiday. All in all I think there are about five or six of them, and on these days it is very hard to find anything open, or anyone doing anything. Essentially, France will simply stop on a Bank Holiday. 

To make use of one of these holidays a Finnish friend and I decided to visit the only concentration camp in France at a nearby town called Schirmeck. Unfortunately, it was not one of our more successful days. The bus from the town to the concentration camp (called Natzweiler Struthof) never arrived, leaving us stuck in a completely dead town (Bank Holidays doubly affect small French towns) for at least another three hours...

Hoping that the bus would be there this time, we returned to Schirmeck the following week. Guess what...the bus didn't show. Again. Turns out, the bus company was very kind in making it completely unobvious that the buses from Schirmeck to the camp only ran in July and August. Determined not to make this very wet SECOND trip another failure, we went to a nearby museum called le mémorial de l'alsace-moselle (also known as Lorraine, the French county or 'department' next to Alsace). Alsace has a massive history - which is one of the reasons why studying regional history this year has been terrific - and this museum covered the details from 1871 (the inclusion of the region into the German Empire) to today with extreme capability. It had its moments of oddity, for example one very dark room with ridiculously loud explosions, but for the most part it was interesting, interactive and worth the relatively cheap tariff of eight euro (student rate). 

Another oldie, Galeries Lafayette during the Christmas Market...

An actual Chronology Test

So readers of the previous entry into this blog will know that there was a slight mix-up when it came to the marking of my Medieval History course. Unbeknown to me, a chronology test had been arranged as part of the final module mark. Luckily for me the tutors had been very kind to arrange a retake of the test. Unbelievably, I almost missed that too...

After a weekend of countless hours of revision and preparation it came to Tuesday, the day before the test. Sensibly, I decided to remind myself of the email that gave details of the time and venue of the test. Upon reading this email, I noticed that the tutor had said Tuesday 15th May. For those who haven't worked this out yet, that date was wrong. Tuesday was the 14th. I had a note on my calendar saying 'Test on the 15th', but considering all my tutorials had been on a Tuesday I suddenly became extremely concerned. I turned up on that Wednesday morning expecting to find an empty room, but to my absolute joy I was greeted by my tutor! He had got the day wrong, and fortunately, not the date! 

Oh yeh, and the test didn't go too badly either...

That's all for now guys, until next time!

This one was taken on our brilliant trip to The Black Forest...

[a-chap-called-peter]

Strasblog Part 30: Catching Up (Part 3)

Hello all! Time for the final part of the catch up editions, and also time to celebrate the Strasblog's passing into the middle aged club. Wooooo!

Saying goodbye:

Sadly, all good things must come to an end. In this case, the first week of May would mean saying goodbye to some very good British friends that I had made over the year. To say goodbye to each other we did the only thing that would be sensible in this scenario, which was also a continuation of what we had been doing for most of the year anyway. We drank. A lot.

To put this into some sort of perspective, I had a decent amount of cash in my French bank account that I hoped would last the five or so weeks I had left in Strasbourg. Nonetheless, in the week before the guys left I managed to blow it all. Now, I have precisely three euros in that account...

On the Saturday we played the Gillette Soccer Saturday drinking game (which if you are unfamiliar with, search it on Facebook and see just how ridiculous the rules are), meaning that I woke up on Sunday so hungover that I was physically UNABLE to move from my bed. Undeterred, we still went drinking on the Sunday with some chaps from The Dubliners. Amazingly we were out again until ridiculous o'clock, meaning that on Monday I woke up even MORE hungover than the previous day! The final drinks at The Dubliners and in our residence were a bit more cultured! Eventually we came to the day(s) that they had to leave, a definitely sad occasion. However, the wonderful thing about them being British is that their leaving of France does not mean the end of our friendships...hopefully!

(Having said that, any French friendships can now be kept up by the introduction of a very cheap flight between London and Strasbourg...£40 return!? I could go to Strasbourg any weekend I want!!!) 

Another pretty shot from Château Haut-Koenigsbourg...

A slight mix up at the University:

Tuesday 30th April was meant to be a special day for me. It was meant to be the day on which I handed in my final essay of the term and therefore finished all my uni work for the year. As you probably guessed by the use of the word 'meant'...that didn't happen because, once again, the French understanding of organisation failed me.

I turned up to the office of Medieval History - essay in hand and feeling pretty contented with my efforts - and handed over the document that I had slaved over for the past few weeks. Rather than the expected response of 'thank you' from the professor, he asked me 'why aren't you at your chronology test?' This, as you may have imagined, took me rather by surprise. Consequently, my reply to his question was 'what chronology test? I didn't realise I had one.' After a quick conversation and a few emails it was concluded that, somewhere along the line, the fact that I needed to be told that I had an exam - so I could turn up to it - had been overlooked. This sort of thing happens so often that I'm no longer surprised by it. Anyway, I have another chance to take it in a couple of weeks...so let's hope for the best then!

Petite France...

Billy Talent:

On the 4th May I went to see one of my favourite groups of all time, Canadian punk rockers Billy Talent. When I say I went...I literally mean me. Just me. You see Billy Talent were actually meant to play in January when my friend Chris was able to come see them with me. Unfortunately he was back in England by the time their second performance was scheduled to start! I decided that I would ask someone (anyone, so I wasn't alone) from Amitel to come with me, but by the time I got round to asking it was too late. The show sold out. This meant, going to my first gig alone...wonderful.

Apart from the outrageous amount of time it took to get into the venue, I actually had a decent night. I got my spot nice and early, and settled in for a night of excellent live music...

The support act, an Irish group by the name of Wounds, actually went down a treat. There were points when they were lost in communication - for example when the front man moved his arm in a motion indicating 'jump', the crowd just copied the arm motion - but I had to hand it to the French for really getting involved with an act they had probably never heard of!

Billy Talent were sublime. I got into this group when I was 16 and as soon as they came onto the stage I felt like I was that age again, back in my room with tunes such as 'Red Flag' blaring out of the speakers. Their twenty years of experience in the business clearly showed as song after song was rattled off with absolute precision and to the complete satisfaction of a captivated audience. I soon forgot that I was at that show on my own!

The night was topped off when I got talking to the support act after the show. We talked about what I was doing in Stras and their trip here (they drove all the way from Dublin THAT day), among other stuff. Naturally, I recommended that they have a trip to the Dubliners if they had the time before leaving for the next show!

So that's all for now...until next time guys!

This is not France, these are the fields outside my house in England. I thought I'd put this photo up because it's not long until I'm back looking at these fields for good!

[a-chap-called-peter]

Strasblog Part 29: Catching up (Part 2)

Hello all! Time for Part Two of my Strasblog catch-ups! Have a read, and enjoy!

Going home, and Hit the Deck Festival:

The middle week of April was a university holiday, strangely named Vacances Pacques when considering that Easter was two weeks in the past. Anyway, I planned to return to England for that week because it had been quite a long time since I last saw my family and friends (as you may remember I have actually spent more days in Germany than in the United Kingdom, since September). With my bag filled to the brim – I thought it might be clever to bring back ALL the cds, books and DVDs that I wouldn’t need in my final month here – I took on the usual expedition from Stras, through Paris and into London. Once again the voyage was as smooth as can be, plus I had the added bonus of seeing Sansa from Game of Thrones on the same Eurostar carriage as me! The friends I texted told me to go and say something, but I thought best to leave her be on what was clearly a family holiday. Anyway, the dad looked really scary too…that was off-putting enough.

I had a lovely time back home, doing the usual of resting, recuperating and catching up on all the football/gossip/English television that I had missed. Moreover, I went to Hit the Deck Festival for the second year running! For those who don’t know, Hit the Deck is a one day indoor festival at the best live music venue in the U.K. (in my opinion), Rock City Nottingham. This year it was headlined by one of my favourite bands, Don Broco, and in general the day did not disappoint. What’s more, the standard of British Rock throughout the day was outstanding; Mallory Knox were phenomenal, We Are The Ocean packed their set with energy and emotion, Canterbury became one of my new favourite acts and of course, Donny B were their typical brash and swaggering self. It was a great day to end my week at home on…

Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg. It's bloody high up, which is why you get views like this...

Strasbourg's Alive!

I came back to Strasbourg on the 23rd (St. George’s day…how unpatriotic of me), just in time for the beginning of the Champions League semi-finals. What impressed me most about this night was not the full time result (4-0 to Bayern if anyone forgot), or my friend Ali’s attempt at playing pétanque (which he said was very good, but I’m pretty sure he was just making it up as he went along). It was, in fact, that people were FINALLY sitting outside bars and restaurants in decent numbers. Yes, Strasbourg had appeared to come into life during the period I had spent in England…and at last!

I also made a friend that night. Well I say friend, he was more a…parrot. I should probably explain myself shouldn't I? Well I decided that with Bayern playing, Tuesday would probably be a good opportunity to wear my Neuer t-shirt that I bought whilst in Munich. At half time, a chap came over to me and started speaking to me in German – which avid Strasblog readers will know that I'm not very good at speaking this language – about Bayern and how they were a good team. Or something like that. I explained to him the complex nature of my situation, that – despite wearing a Bayern shirt – I was actually an Englishman who could speak no German and a decent amount French. I think I confused him, because the conversation that took place over the next ten minutes was a mixture of French, English and German. When the conversation eventually came to a shuddering halt, rather than walk away like ANY normal person in the world, my ‘friend’ decided that he would stand DIRECTLY behind me for another ten minutes or so. What’s worse is that he said precisely nothing in those ten minutes. Not one word. Weird is not the word, but wait! This Strasblog is about to get even weirder…

A view from within Montagne des Singes. The Château is at the top of the hill in the background...

A Castle, and Montagne des Singes:

The day after my return from England we had planned a great trip to Sélestat, a town not too far from Strasbourg. We had the perfect weather for visiting Sélestat’s two incredible tourist attractions, the Chateau du Haut-Koenigsbourg and Montagne des Singes (which will now be referred to as Monkey Mountain). As suggested by the word ‘Haut’, this Chateau was pretty high up and thus dominated the Alsatian scenery for miles around. It’s a place well worth going to if you’re in Alsace any time: there are fantastic views from the tall towers, the buildings are extremely pretty and it’s simply full of history. From the Medieval Period, through the Thirty Years War and up to the early 1900s (when Kaiser Wilhelm II decided to restore the castle), this Chateau has always had its place in the Alsatian public eye.

Having said that, if you had to choose between outings to the Chateau or Monkey Mountain the obvious answer would have to be Monkey Mountain. Situated downhill from the Chateau, Monkey Mountain is a sanctuary for well…monkeys. It’s massive (I never saw a wall keeping the monkeys in), the monkeys looked in good health and every age group in the sanctuary seemed to be having a great time. How could you not, when you can personally feed monkeys who roam about the paths as they please?! 

Now comes the point where I have to tell one of the more ‘interesting’ tales of my entire experience in France. Excuse me for finding this difficult, because in truth this is a very difficult subject to write about…with subtlety. So, let’s begin with the five of us on the Monkey Mountain trip taking a break on some rocks. A monkey comes towards us (surprise surprise in a monkey sanctuary) and takes a seat up against a nearby tree. He doesn’t have the best look on his face and it’s almost as if he’s trying to tell us to ‘go away’. This stand-off goes on for about five minutes, with the humans making no effort to do as the monkey wishes. So, in response, the said monkey begins…playing with himself. Yes, in that sort of sense…This is funny to us, but only for about a minute. The monkey continues playing with himself, and this is when it becomes a bit weird. He doesn’t move, we don’t move…and the playing continues. Eventually, as nature intends, the monkey had to finish. Yes, in that sort of sense…Believe me, it gets worse. Not only does the monkey finish playing with himself in front of us, but he also decides to consume the products of his playtime. In front of us. There isn’t much more I can say, except that I’m still visibly shaken…

And on that wonderful note, it’s time to bring the second chapter of my summary blogs to a close. In the third and final catch up blog, I will mention my final week with the British chaps, a mistake in the history department and adventure at a gig flying solo!

Until then chaps and chapettes!

This is me and my monkey friend Jeff. Don't worry, this isn't our playful monkey I talked about above... 

[a-chap-called-peter]

Strasblog Part 28: Catching Up (Part One)

Hello friends! I admit it’s been a long time since we spoke. Far too long in fact!

I hope you’re all well, and enjoying the first glimpses of the summer sun before the actual summer comes along, and disappoints us with the usual dosage of dismal rain and mediocre temperatures! It’s been a while since I last contributed to this page, mainly because April was the only month I truly had to work whilst I’ve been here in Strasbourg. As some of you may remember, back sometime in November (I think) my home University gave me permission to ask to do essays, rather than the standard exams in the middle of May. My tutors here in Strasbourg were very considerate, and gave me permission to do so. However, that did mean a lot of work to get the essays done before their deadlines…which all seemed to fall at the end of April. Anyway, with them out the way, I can finally write a couple of catch-up blogs to tell you about exciting days that I had within this busy busy month! Here we go with Part One!

Amitel House-party, a Day Trip to Saverne and Easter Sunday:

Right at the end of March (now this seems a while ago), we had the Easter holiday weekend. On the Thursday night myself and the two other chaps from Amitel had one of the best nights since we got here, and we didn’t even mean to! From a quiet game of poker, the night escalated into a somewhat drunken affair with the French/German and American groups that also lived in our residence. It proved the old fact that the best nights are always unplanned…

On Friday, universities and schools closed down to begin the festivities and allow for students to return home to their families for the celebrations. Of course, that wasn’t possible for a foreign student like me. Instead, we took the opportunity of a day off to go explore a town nearby to Strasbourg by the name of Saverne. We didn’t really know what was there, but from spending a number of hours working on the history of the town (we’ll come back to that later) I was sure something interesting had to be present within the town. It was a cheap and easy train ride to the town, which we found in a state almost as dead as the proverbial dodo. It was a pleasant enough day with pleasant enough buildings to attract our attention (I advise checking out the Palais Rohan…that’s something special), but the fact that not a single shop was open - or a single person was around to give of the sense of a vibrant town - meant that we didn’t feel it necessary to spend too much time here. We went back to Strasbourg and had a McDonalds. Cultural indeed…

On Sunday those left in Strasbourg for the holiday went to our friend Maeve’s apartment for a lovely Easter Sunday Roast. It was a lovely way to top off the weekend, and forget about the fact that this was the first Easter I had spent away from my family…

Palais Rohan at Saverne...it's MASSIVE!

Racing Strasbourg contre FC Mulhouse:

One Saturday, the English guys decided to go watch the local football team take on their Alsatian rivals from the nearby town of Mulhouse. Now for context, Racing Strasbourg is not a very good team and an English equivalent I suppose would be a team from League Two. As such, we were going more for the experience rather than a game of quality football. We arrived at our seats just in time for the teams to enter the stadium (with Three Lions blaring in the background…not entirely sure why) to a pretty big audience. It’s a nice stadium that for most games is probably filled by about ten people and a dog. Today however, over 20,000 people turned up to watch…20,000 for team in the equivalent of League Two?!?! The atmosphere was insane, particularly from what appeared to be a bunch of crazy, die-hard Strasbourg fans in the corner of the stadium. The game finished 0-0, not a lot happened apart from a red card in the first half, but I still had an absolute blast!

Pont Couverts, Strasbourg. Sorry about the yellow digger on the left...

An Exposé in Regional History:

In the week before the April holiday I had my first piece of marked work to present, a presentation on The Saverne Affair of 1913 (told you Saverne would come up again). Go look it up if you’re intrigued as to what happened. Anyway, I had spent a lot of time and effort getting this presentation – once again twenty minutes of speaking in front of natives – and thus felt pretty positive going into the presentation. Overall I think it went a lot better than the one I did in December, and there was the added bonus of no one laughing at me for getting anything wrong or saying something stupid! I got a lovely fifteen out of twenty for it, which no one can complain about really! The best part of that day though was being able to take a walk with the lecturer in that course, Monsieur Muller. In all my time at university, I think I can safely say that the Regional History courses I did with him before and after Christmas were by far the most interesting subjects I have ever studied. It was nice to be able to tell him what I thought and thank him for imparting so much wisdom to me (so much so that I think I actually know more about Alsace than I do Lincolnshire now), as well as wish him the best for the future. I shook his hand, and left for home in a pleasant mood…

Anyway, that’s all for the first catch-up edition of the Strasblog. Come back soon for Part Two which will include my return to England, making a ‘friend’ at football and some ‘interesting’ events at Monkey Mountain!

Until then chaps! 

The Guys, in a photo which I think makes them look like a boy band...maybe 'Wrong Direction'?

[a-chap-called-peter]

Strasblog Part 27: Naked guy on the Boulevard (yup, naked)

Hello all, time again for another Strasblog!

So the first week I’m going to describe is essentially summarised by the word alcohol. And lots and lots of it too. Wednesday saw the English guys visit a local bar to watch the final leg of Bayern Munich versus Arsenal. As you may have read I recently visited Munich, and whilst there I bought myself a very nice replica of Manuel Neuer’s (Bayern’s goalkeeper…he’s a beast) home jersey. Being a Bayern match, I decided this would be a perfect time to get out my new top. However, being English I believe it necessary to support any English team within Europe (except for Man City, they can go to hell…). So as you can guess, the people in the bar were extremely confused by me. Here was a chap wearing a Bayern shirt, cheering when Arsenal did something good and speaking English. I enjoyed my moment of causing utter confusion among drunken Frenchmen…

I woke up on Thursday feeling like utter poop. And I don’t even know why, because I didn’t drink too much! It was enough however, to make my eyes ache throughout the afternoon. That’s a new hangover experience…That should have been my reason not to go out on Friday. But I did. The same process of feeling like utter poop occurred on Saturday morning as well…

That should have been my reason to spend Saturday crawled up in bed. But I didn’t. Nope, instead I spent a whole twelve hours (you read it right…half a day) within the keep of our favourite Irish bar, the Dubliners. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever drunk that much in my life…EVER. I also don’t think I’ve ever been that drunk in my life…Sunday was the biggest struggle since an early days Gareth Gates interview! I had a great night though, drinking plenty of Guinness (O yeh, it was a St. Patrick’s Day party…another reason why we were so drunk), singing outrageously loud and having fierce debates about Scottish independence whilst under far too much influence of the old drink! Apparently, we were very near buying a caravan to travel the South of France in!? I say apparently, mainly because I don’t remember that at all…

Petite France, Strasbourg

Last week was a bit on the more ‘controlled’ side after our exploits last week. I had spent rather a lot of money, and also wished to stem the flow of alcohol into my blood stream!

On Thursday I went to my first Pub Quiz in Strasbourg…and came 9th out of 12. Not bad you may say…well let’s consider some facts. Firstly, we cheated. Secondly, the quiz was in English and the majority of the teams were French. Ok, we sucked…

On Friday I saw perhaps the most shocking thing I will ever see in Strasbourg…potentially in my life! There I was, casually walking down Boulevard de la Victoire (where the university is), past a busy restaurant that was bustling with customers sitting outside and enjoying the wonderful sunshine. A bit further on, I noticed a range of clothing garments scattered all over the pavement. ‘That’s odd’, I thought, and carried on walking towards this strangely placed attire. What awaited me as I reached the clothes was something I will never unsee. There, in the enclave of a front door, was a man sat on the ground. He was completely naked, except for one remaining shoe which he was in the midst of removing. Scared for my sanity, I picked up the pace and got as far away from this clearly bizarre man. For as long as I will live, I think it’s going to be almost impossible to find a reason as to why this man was sat on a busy street in the middle of a busy city, in his birthday suit.

That’s all for now my friends…until next time!

[a-chap-called-peter]

Strasblog Part 26: The Black Forest

Hello all!

I’ll start this week by saying that – amazingly –  we’ve finally started to have good weather in Strasbourg! It was funny really, because February 28th was a typical winter’s day in this city: Cold, dark, wet and pretty damn miserable. As the clock struck twelve to welcome in the new month, everything seemed to change. This Monday the sun actually came out, for what has to be the first time since October! On Tuesday there was blue sky and on Wednesday I didn’t even need a jacket when we went to the park for a relaxing break in the afternoon…of course it still wasn’t warm enough for shorts and t-shirt, as one of my friends was wearing. Typical Brit…

Also typically British, on Monday I went to watch some Shakespeare. On arrival, we noted that rather than being just one play, the night would be a collection of scenes from most of his famous works...set to orchestral music. In all honesty I thought this was going to be a bit too high brow for me, but in truth it was perhaps the...campest thing I've ever been witness too. Whilst those who don't know Shakespeare as well as I do may have struggled at times (it was mainly sung in French...so knowing the story of the play already was helpful), it was still a pleasant evening.

So some of you who read the last part of this blog may recall that I said the internet had been fixed…well this week that was proven a complete lie. Stunningly, during the middle of the week, Amitel’s internet connection was down for THREE STRAIGHT DAYS! THREE STRAIGHT DAYS!? How can that even possibly happen?! It was at this point that I wished I was fluent in French, because I really really wanted to complain. Let me tell you, arguing in a foreign language (especially against the Royalty of arguers) is not easy at all…so I had to put up with it and just cry as I watched my Inbetweeners DVDs over and over again. Bad Times…

But have no fear, because it all got fixed (hopefully)…and the week picked up even further when I went on a lovely weekend trip to The Black Forest! The passing of this weekend in Germany confirmed that, since September, I have spent more days in this country than my very own! In truth, this fact really does not bother me…as you can probably tell by the number of times I have visited!

The gang, next to a hilarious town sign...

The chosen place of rest for this weekend was a tiny town called Schluchsee, right by a lake and near to the utterly hilarious town names of Aha (where we sang Take on Me…obviously) and Titisee (yes, minds of twelve year olds). We arrived on Friday night, and began immediately to consume a good portion of the 80 bottles of beer which the four chaps (including myself) had brought on this trip. To answer your question, yes…our bags were very, very heavy…

Saturday, our only full day, was taken up by a wonderful walk around the lake named after the town. It wasn’t too strenuous, it didn’t need a quick march to get it done within daylight hours, and the views all around stunning. Snow, forest, ice and mountains entwined together to make The Black Forest a real treat on the eye, and a dream for photographers! We also made one friend (a cat called römpsä…don’t ask), and two enemies (in two very protective donkeys…again don’t ask), so all in all it was a pretty nice day.

Waking up on Sunday was a lot less than easy…considering we were now down to just twelve beers, and only three guys had been drinking that night. Eugh. The weather returned to its normal state of been pretty shocking, as the rain pelted down during our ascent up to a nearby lookout tower.

Overall, I had a great weekend. I hadn’t really known what to expect (mainly because I hadn’t bothered checking where we were going or what we were doing…I sort of just turned up), but it was still fun! The more time I spend in Germany, the more I am growing to love the place. Yes there is the stereotype of everything being clean and efficient (which is true), but everyone I’ve met so far has been very kind, everything’s cheap and the countryside is beautiful. No offense France…but you’ve got a long way to go before you’re as good as your Eastern neighbours! Maybe I should learn German… (even though they ALL speak perfect English)

Anyway, that’s all for now…until next time!

Ducks on Lake Schluchsee...