Visits - La famille :)

Hello people who are still coming here every other month to check my updates!
Sorry for the lack of news, but as I expected February was a very busy month and March is not much more quiet! Why, are you asking me? Well, because I had lots of people visiting, and it was great :-)
First my parents and sister, for 10 days in February. It was a real pleasure to have them here during my school holidays and show them where I live! Plus we got to do a lot of day trips thanks to the car. So quick summary in pictures:

More of london, including a trip to see the brilliant musical Chicago


We took this picture because of the photo with Obama as Superman on the wall
The face of the woman in this image cracks me up^^


Cheeeeeeese!


Second visit to Oxford




Twentieth (actually I stopped counting :-p) visit of Windsor



A lovely way to spend Valentine's day: visiting Stratford-upon-Avon with my family and housemates :)
Posing in front of Shakespeare's birthplace




Shakespeare's grave



Stopping in Canterbury...
Zombie Jesus

A poem about one of England's most famous supermarkets (Woolworth's) going bankrupt...


We also went to Rochester to visit my great-aunt and great-uncle but I don't have any photos of it :-(
So those were 10 full days, with plenty of great memories! Thanks again for coming! xx

What killed the dinosaurs?

This weekend was quite full, with 2 days spent walking around in London with my cousin, his friends, and my housemates. I went to quite a few museums and galleries, such as the Tate Modern Art Gallery (with a gorgeous view on London from the 7th floor), the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery.
One of the places I hadn't been to yet in London was the Natural History Museum:

It was quite an interesting visit, very interactive and full of humour. As an example, here are some of the reasons for the extinction of dinosaurs, according to the museum:

- Because mammals ate their eggs...
- Hunted for food by aliens...
- a worrying skin complaint...
- Boredom... (Click on the image to enlarge it, it's worth it!)

- Cataracts...

- Overwhelmed by their own dung...
- Mass suicide...
- Slipped discs...

I saw the last T-Rex alive in this same museum:


One of the ugliest bridge in London in my opinion:



And to finish, a building that I liked, with a nice message:

Snowed in... and other wintery adventures

Here is something interesting about England: snow means chaos. Well at least for London and its suburbs. It started snowing on Sunday night and kept on snowing until Monday afternoon.

The view from my window on Monday morning

There were about 5 cms of snow in my garden at 8am on Monday when I got a phone call from my colleague who informed me that the school was closed! I thought it was a joke! But no. Apparently it hadn't snowed like this since 1991 and as a result people were not equipped to deal with it. And since lots of people (teachers and kids alike) have to come a long way to go to school/work, it is easier to just give a day off to everyone^^

So, I had Monday AND Tuesday off. I found out that not only schools were closed, but buses, trams, trains and even the Tube stopped running or ran only on a very restricted service. Hilarious. Which means I was able to sleep until midday, then braved the "snow storm" to go get some food, watched my housemates built a snowman in our front garden, and mainly just chilled at home and watched series and films.

Our snowman, who had a sad short life, shot by snowballs in the prime of life by mischievous neighbours. RIP.

Last weekend I went to Plymouth as a last-minute decision to go see my friend F. It was great (despite the cold weather), we did some shopping, saw a (very depressing) exhibition on modern slavery, danced on 90s songs and practised our Spanish at a house party with lots of foreign assistants and students... We also went to see a basketball game and were a bit disturbed by the young underdressed cheerleaders but very entertained by Foxy! And the Plymouth raiders won so everyone was happy :)


A player from the "Plymouth Raiders" team whose name I forgot^^

Foxy! A real entertainer! So cute :)


Overall the weekend flew by, so did January! For the first time in my life I celebrated Chinese New Year, which was on the 26th of January, and Australia Day, which was on the same day :) I had a lovely Chinese dinner(a "steam boat") and yummy aussie desserts!

Fish balls, prawns, bean curds, baby corn, spinach... Preparing the Chinese steam boat :)

Home-made Pavlova, a delicious Australian/New-Zealandish dessert

This weekend my cousin S. is coming to visit me. I can’t wait! Then on the 11th my parents and my sister are coming for 10 days, yessss. After that a friend of mine from Lyon is coming for 4 days. And finally, the last weekend of February I will be in the Netherlands to visit two friends. So it will be a busy month! Hehehe...

Feel free to come visit! Or to give me some of your news! I have to try and send more postcards, I am terrible at keeping in touch through "snail mail" (^^), sorry!