Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Experiencing Portugal....Live

Itinerary: Porto (24 Oct)











On the river above you can see boats that carry barrels of wine up and down the river. And near the river there is a furnicular that will take you up-up to breathtaking views.

Today I had the chance to taste the first traditional Portugese dishes: sardines and codfish and to try Porto wine. Also today I fell in love hopelessly with Portugese pastry, especially PastelNata...:P

Things that hit me today: the palmtrees, the hills you can find in most of Portugese cities I've seen and that make them more special, the sea air, the old preserved buildings, the atmosphere, Portugese flags on many windows, blue tiles in many monuments and the fact that Portugese people kiss when meeting a person for the first time, instead of shaking hands.

The day ended with the first Antonio cooking experience. Which was surprisingly mmmm...mmm.

Friday, October 20, 2006

The Legend of Robin Hood

"attend and listen gentlemen
that be of freeborn blood
I shall tell you of a good yeman
His name was Robyn Hode"

Was he historical fact or simply a medieval fiction? Why has the Robin Hood Legend become so loved and well known across the world and through the generations?Most of our knowledge about the Robin Hood legend derives from the earliest ballads and tales (written down before 1550) which have passed through the centuries. Despite Robin's "legend" status, there are many reasons to believe that Robin Hood could well have been a real historical figure. Researchers into the legend have uncovered compelling evidence about this historical period here in Nottingham that points to an underlying reality for our favourite Outlaw.
Who Was Robin Hood?
Robin is famous for his gallantry, robbing the rich to feed the poor and fighting against injustice and tyranny. Anyone who knows of Robin has also heard the stories of his outlaw band. The names of Little John, Friar Tuck, Maid Marion, Allan a Dale, Will Scarlet, Much the Miller and the evil Sheriff of Nottingham are as much a part of the legend as Robin Hood himself.The stories of Robin portray him as a fearless outlaw leading his band of "merry men" (and women) against the tyranny of Prince John, The Sheriff of Nottingham and Sir Guy of Gisbourne. A brilliant archer, Robin lived a life of adventure - poaching the King's deer from the outlaws' retreat in Sherwood Forest.Stories about the adventures of Robin have been told and retold for over six hundred years. In Robin's time, few people could read or write and consequently little was written down about the exploits of our hero. Instead, people learnt about Robin and his band through the ballad and song of wandering minstrels who weaved a patchwork of fact and fiction into the contemporary culture of the time.
When did Robin Live?
Historians and researchers have a range of views but generally believe thatRobin Hood was alive around the thirteenth century.The earliest reference to Robin Hood is in William Langland's poem"The vision of William concerning Piers Plowman" which was written in 1377.
Where did Robin live?
No story of Robin Hood is complete without its setting, Sherwood Forest which inRobin's time covered about 100,000 acres. At the heart of the Greenwood encampment liesthe famous Major Oak, the "council tree" of the outlaw band.Sherwood Forest was of course home for the Kings deer which the outlawshunted for their illegal feasts. People in Robin's time saw the forestas a dangerous place and travelled mostly in large groupsfor fear of ambush and robbery. To Robin and the outlaws Sherwood Forest was aplace of safety from the Sheriff's, men.Today, Sherwood Forest Country Park covers about 450 acres and attractsaround 3/4 million visitors a year who flock to see the Major Oak and the Visitor Centre.Each year in August the Forest plays host to the Robin Hood Festivalwhere enthusiasts can recapture the spirit of Robin Hood in thebeautiful surroundings of the Greenwood.

Where is Robin Buried?
According to the legend, Robin journeyed to Kirklees Priory where he was eventually killed by his cousinthe prioress and Sir Roger of Doncaster.It is at Kirklees Priory that the supposed grave of Robin Hood can still be seen to this day.Sadly, much of Kirklees Priory is now ruined but roughly 600 metres from the gatehousea medieval gravestone was found bearing a partial inscription "here lies Robard Hude..."
Who was really Robin Hood?
Whilst the spirit of Robin Hood lives on, the hard historical evidence is somewhat more elusive.
Candidates to be the real Robin Hood are:


Robert fitz Ooth - Earl of Huntingdon, Born 1160 - Died 1247
Robert de Kyme, Born c1210 - Died c1285
Robin Hood of the Wakefield Rolls, Born 1290 - Died 1347
Sir Robert Foliot and descendents, Born 1110 - died 1165
Robert Hod - Hobbehod, Birth and death unknown

Certainly, there are many who state clearly that they have discovered his true identity and others who with equal vigour will dispute these claims and continue to search for a definitive answer. To a certain extent, this is what keeps the Legend so alive to this day.The wonderful thing about the Robin Hood story is that it means so many things to so many people. The triumph of good over evil. The robbing of the rich to give to the poor. The romance of Robin and Marian. The very image of outlaws pursuing their lifestyle in defiance of authority. The kinship of the outlaw band. The paganistic references to the Green Man and the connections with nature and the outdoor life. The medieval imagery of longbows, castles and Kings. The ballads, court rolls and faded manuscripts that feed the dedicated researchers and academics in their quest to find the truth. The magical landscapes, woodlands and places that bring the tales to life for any visitor to Nottingham.All these and more are weaved into the rich tapestry that is Robin Hood








Saturday, October 14, 2006

Short history of Notts: Part 1










Saxon Nottingham

Nottingham began in the 6th century as a small Saxon settlement called Snotta ing ham. The Saxon word ham meant village. The word ing meant 'belonging to' and Snotta was a man. So it was the village owned by Snotta. It was inevitable that sooner of later Nottingham would grow into a town as it is the first point where the Trent can be forded but the river is also navigable this far inland.

In the late 9th century the Danes conquered North East and Eastern England. They turned Nottingham into a fortified settlement or burgh. Nottingham had a ditch around it and an earth rampart with a wooden palisade on top.

In 920 the English king recaptured Nottingham and he built a bridge across the Trent. By the 10th century Nottingham was a busy little town though with a population of only several hundred.

Interesting factfiles about Nottingham Today:

- It has a population of 621.000 and 3 million people live within an hour's drive time;
- Over 2 mill. people regularly shop in
Nottingham, placing it in Uk's top five retail centers;
- Under the streets of
Nottingham there are over 400 man-made caves dating back to the 13th Century.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Today is the day.....

...I got in line with the rest of the world. Today I started to play grown-up:P.

First of all the good news of the day is that I got two jobs. Not big deal ones, but ones that will put food on my table and make me stop worrying about paying the rent. And the good thing is that they are both part time and flexible. Tomorrow I'm expecting the third job interview to be announced. :) You start paying those taxes...next thing you know..you have to retire...:P

I also payed my first rent, opened a bank account, enrolled for German, went to an advanced street-kind-of-dance lesson, a job interview and a job training AND cooked my first real meal...(beef and cauliflower)...and it was good too :P.

So now, thanks to the job training...I know how to properly serve food AND take a drinks order (advanced :P). The people in the company that gave me the training are real proffesionals...the company has catering staff for all of the biggest sporting events in UK and concerts, so they wouldn't stop talking about how they served a lot of stars from Robbie Williams to Ronan Keating.

Gotta love this life...except...my first deadline for school is coming on Monday...
Brrrrrrrrrr!!!

Sunday, October 08, 2006

SUNDAY FUNDAY :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! I had a lot of fun today! :)










Saturday, October 07, 2006

Din tag in tag: Nottingham

La invitatia lui Lucii: www.lucianilica.ro , dupa o saptamana si putin, nu prea sunt sigura de ce spun :) dar here goes:

3 locuri care-mi plac in Nottingham:
- Castelul din Nottingham si gradinile;
- Zona comerciala intre Victoria Center si Broadmarsh cu cladiri vechi;
- Parcul Arboretum;

3 locuri care nu-mi plac:
- Old Market square: e urata :P;
- majoritatea pub-urilor pe care le-am vazut pana acum;
- cartierul in care locuieste proprietarul casei mele (si care e plin de business-uri ciudate);

3 lucruri pe care un Roman cu greu le intelege aici:
- mizeria din magazinele mari engleze si din cafenelele din mall-uri: englezii arunca cu haine in toate partile cand fac cumparaturi, iar in mall-uri, in cafenele e plin de tutun pe jos, mesele sunt lipicioase, etc. La fel si in pub-uri...La nivelul lor de viata ai zice ca sunt mai civilizati...
- felul in care englezii trec strada: inca nu stiu in ce parte sa ma uit si daca conteaza ca e rosu sau nu;
- vremea: de 2 ori pe zi ploua, de 2 ori e soare, dimineata e cald, seara e frig, cum doamne sa te imbraci? La patinaj la pantofii lasati in garderoba puteai vedea de la sandale, la balerini, pana la bocanci. It's all about personal choice. In plus e amuzant ca indiferent de vreme, toate fetele din Anglia poarta fuste scurte si maieuri seara la disco, pe orice vreme, pentru ca e prea scump sa-ti iei haina si s-o lasi la garderoba.

Cel mai de fitze cartier: jur ca nu stiu inca..:(

Cele mai urate cartiere: din cate mi s-a spus, sa nu cumva sa calc in: St. Anne's, Radfort (unde sta proprietarul) si Lenton.

Mai departe invit singurul blogger pe care-l mai stiu: SebishOr sa ne povesteasca despre Oradea . :)
http://sebastian-adel.blogspot.com/

Meet the people and the house :)

Yesterday...we had the first meeting with the Erasmus coordinator and our disertation coordinator...both of them like to talk a lot and have quite a british humour only they can understand...good thing was that now we know who the other Erasmus students are...bad thing is that the things they said about the disertation are quite scary. Now I have to pick an ECONOMIC topic by the 16th of October...so help me God :)

The rest of the day was sports fun...had a swiss ball class (where you execrcise your muscles on those huge plastic balls) and had my very first two hours of ice skating ever in my life. :) That was very much fun until some guy hit me from the back and made me fall flat on my ass :P Therefore I have a 5 cm bruise and buba :P on my elbow...but that's how children grow, right? :)

This morning we had the very first house meeting with all 12 of us. So now is the time when I'll be introducing the house and the people. Bear in mind that it was morning so we all have our morning faces :).

The hallway :)

The Kitchen:


Girl's bathroom:
And now the PEOPLE :)

Up to down: Ellen (Hong Kong), Giedre (Lithuania), Joyce (Hong Kong), Marius (Romania);

Left to right: Mel (Brunei), Radu (Ro), Dan (Ro), Marc (France);

Radu and Mel with Zorana (Hong Kong);

Me with Scarlet and Wing (Hong Kong);

Giedre and Marius again :)

Radu and silly Marc :)

Friday, October 06, 2006

The Nottingham Adventure













Today was a looong day :) filled with adventure and a topping of plenty of rain on my cake.
I had to blow dry two pairs of shoes at the end of the day again...

Today was fun...Nawaf came over...he is one of the guys I went to Poland with. He lives in Sheffield, 50 minutes away from me...so one of these days I'll return the visit.
We had plenty of fun in the rain...and then here...eating pizza and remembering IC, looking at pictures and talking about our lives..:)



Next came the laser arena, where I had a blast: for 50 minutes we were in a dark place going up and down ramps and in basemets, hiding behind walls to dodge the blue lasers. My red team won twice and I made it in 2nd and 3rd place out of 12 people in the two games...who's good?



The day ended in an incident with a drunk guy in the waiting room in the laser arena. Poor guy just wanted our phone number. After calling me a Polish* B*tch, the guys there called the police. He wasn't violent or anything..just talking turkish crap. I have never seen police coming fatser or any guy flying out the door with more speed and into the police car. Sweet dreams kind turk ....poor guy..:P

* Appartently the brits have a thing for Polish people: turns out that when they entered the EU they came here in large numbers. So for now...Romanian name is safe...but wait till next year...oh just wait...:)

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

The biggest challenge: time

I can't believe I've been here for a week...It seems so little and yet so much for me..time seems to play tricks on me just like it did during IC...because everything is very intense.

Warning:
the next things should be excused on account of my freshness here :)
With 358 events in just one week: "Fresher's week", Nottingham Trent officially has the biggest welcome week for fresh students. What are the events? Fairs for jobs, volunteer opportunities, life style; concerts; city tours; sports and foreign languages tasters for free; skating, laser arena, trips outside town, trips to Ikea, unorthodox trips inside Notts (like a ghost walk by night at the castle and caves); movies, quizzez, markets just for studentsetc.

I am incredibly impressed with my university and with the british education system. You can see the years of experince they have in education:
- they can surely market their university: I attended one of the most efficient and fun academic year openings, where they told us in short all we needed to know about the city, the benefits of studying there and all the volunteering work we can do;
- they have incredible student services: library open almost all the time, on-line resources, career center, student advice center for almost any problem, AND sports facilities for around 40 sports and foreign languages you can take up for free. We even have access to the doctor for free and the firemen and police are coming to our house to make sure all is safe. The police even have this thing called "Smart water" which they put on your door in order to record somehow any fingerprints left there.
- you can see that
volunteering has tradition by the way the students get involved and recruit you in their organizations: I saw at least 30 opportunities to get involved in at the Volunteer fair, from Green Peace to raising money for charity.

I feel like I can truely live a healthy student life here and strech my wings kind of- in the sense that if I can ballance time in: school, job, sports, reading and having fun I will be a fulfilled student in every way.


Things I did
starting Monday:
- apply to a lot of jobs- to support myself: I will need at least 20 pounds/week for food only...
- went to recruitment/lifestyle/volunteer fairs and a market;
- went to the AIESEC in Nottingham Big Picture: they keep calling me an alumnus...which I am not! The big picture was short...about 20 minutes speeches and the rest filling in application forms. There will be one tomorrow too. Efficinecy..

- had a cool talk and dinner/movie with Adi Boruz (AIESEC Tm Alumnus) and friends;
- had a spanish class (I'm thinking of joining Spanish and German this year if I can) and an aerobics class
- I went to the movies and in a very sad pub (someone said to me that she loves Notts till 7 pm- that's when they all turn drunk and loud). The girls here...you should see them :)...the have the shortest skirts and go out at night in a T-shirt when it's only 12 degrees outside or less. Today I found out why: if you are going to a club and want to leave your jacket there it costs over one pound!!!


Next for me
: Besides a lot of fun I will tell you about in the next days:
Short term:
NAWAF IS COMING over tomorrow :) for a few hours :) He was one of the guys I organized IC in Poland with! :)
Long term:
I got invitations to visit Sheffield- where Nawaf is (CC at IC); London (Mrs. Shirley, a friend of my mom's) and Liverpool (where Claire is- a CEEDer that came to AIESEC Timisoara over a summer). I feel exhausted :) Don't you? I leave you with the wisdom of a pub poster :)

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Today...the last day of September

Every journey starts with this door.


Big culture shock today: the brits shop like pigs. Honestly, I have never seen such shopping behaviour...ALL the shops in the center were full...but FULL and people were buying things continuously. It was a mess...you should have seen all the stuff thrown on the floor everyhere...poor shop keepers were on their knees trying to keep up with the rhythm people were searching through clothes. "Next please"..."Next please"..


Other than that today was a lovely walking day..I had a proper guide this time..Giedre..the lithuanian girl who lived here last year as well...Now I know where the beeds shop is, the second hand shop, another one pound land, but also The Body Shop, the biggest designer in UK shop....and...the Hard Rock Caffee. :) Impressive, isn't it?



I now got the freshers brochure. Till the 9th of October, when school starts, we will be having fuuuun. The school prepaired for us loads of stuff to do every day...from trips to IKEA to recruitment fairs, games, parties, teas, city center tours, etc. I understood that we will be getting a bracelet on Monday which will allow us to do stuff...because we are freshers..like cut queues...and others :))).

Fun thing is that there are a lot of clubs and societies you can join...listen to this: pole dancing, belly dancing, capoiera, trampoline club (?!), Korfball (?!)...and many other societies..like the pirates, international students society, conservation, rock and alternative music...and other such weird gatherings...

Today's highlights:





Today we were supposed to go out, but because Giedre had to go work and only returned at 00:00, we had our own indoor party: watched Miss World 2006 (Romania came in second :p) then"MR.&MRS. Smith"(Angelina...uuuu...and Brad tooooo), found out we had a playstation and played Grand Turismo..me and the boys, of course, side to side :P

Tomorrow there'll be yet another party...truth is that it's a 4 pounds entrance...so ouch to the budget...:P

Anyways..till then I leave you with the wisdom of the trash bin we have outside the house :)