Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween people!

The German assistant, one of her friends and I went to a Halloween party at The Ship, one of Soham's pubs. I dressed up as a witch. Well, I just bought a 74p hat and wore black clothes really. Still.

We went down to the pub, ordered a cider and found a seat. It was quite packed and the atmosphere was nice and cosy!

We started taking pictures, and there was this guy who kept looking at us. After a while, he just came to us and introduced himself, while apologizing for being drunk. Funny. Well after that, him and his friend kept hitting on us for the whole night. That was actually kinda funny, because we made fun of them. And we got free Baileys too! Yummy. Anyway, those guys were too old and a bit sultry, but I genuinely enjoyed myself, and I think the girls did too.

Here are some pictures of our Halloween night out!

Day Out in Norwich

To finish half-term, I decided to go to Norwich. I went by myself; planned an itinerary, took the train and had a lot of fun, even on my own!

Norwich is really popular for shopping, but it's also a lovely city! Many people had told me it was nice, and gosh, they were right! I really enjoyed my day out there!

I started with the Cow Tower, which used to be part of the fortifications of the city of Norwich.



After that, I went to see the cathedral. It's a really beautiful building, really impressive. Not as impressive as Ely's cathedral though. But that's just my opinion.



I went inside, and believe it or not, it was free!



And one more for the road!


Then I walked along Elm Hill, a historic cobbled street, which is really famous for its old buildings, dating from the Tudor period. It's said to be one of the finest streets in the UK.


I then headed to Norwich Castle, which sits on a hill, thus overhanging the whole city. I was quite impressed by this unusual, cubic castle!


It is a museum now. I visited it. There was art, history, natural history, decorative arts; a lot of different things! That was quite nice, especially seeing the castle's interior! I didn't take any pictures though, as I don't really like taking pictures inside buildings...

After that, I went into Norwich's streets. It was really crowded and noisy. I liked that. People shopping, chatting! I walked along a covered street. There I found Colman's Mustard Shop & Museum (the museum was closed though). It was really nice!!




You could even taste mustard! And I did. Haha it was quite nice. But the mustard biscuits were really strange... And there was some mustard chocolate, but I was not brave enough to taste that...

Then, I walked through the market to see the Forum, which is a community building. The BBC is there, I think... That's a really modern building. I'm not sure I like it, but here is a picture anyway:


And then, I just walked around, did a bit of shopping, and enjoyed the glorious weather! For your information, and as you've probably noticed on almost all of my pictures, the weather has been really good lately. So don't trust people who say it's always raining in England! Thing is, the weather is moody; it can be really sunny one minute, and rainy the other. If you don't like the weather in England, just wait a minute!

And here are two last pictures!

Day Out in Bury St. Edmunds

On Thursday, I went to Bury St. Edumunds with Kathy and Scarlett, my host family. It was really nice! Kathy was raised there so she knows the place really well!

Bury St. Edmunds is lovely! Its Abbey Gardens are famous and I really enjoyed visiting them. People can sit on and play around the abbey's ruins. I think that's quite unusual, but nice!

On our way to the Abbey Gardens, we passed the smallest pub in England!


Here is the Gardens' gate!


Isn't it nice? Anyway, then we went inside and I took quite a lot of pictures of the ruins. In my opinion, they look a bit like termite nests don't you think?






I hope you enjoyed those! Well I like Bury, even though I still prefer Cambridge.

In the evening, we went to Kathy's sister to have a traditional roast dinner! That was yummy yummy! So I had a proper English day! =D

Day Out in Nottingham

Hello people!

On Wednesday, I went to Nottingham to see my friend Victor, who studies there. We had a lovely day in Robin Hood's town!


We first visited the castle. I have to say I was a bit disappointed, because it looks nothing like a medieval castle. There was a weird exhibition inside and we got to see the new Robin Hood film's costumes. That was quite cool =P


Here is me, as Robina Hood:


Then we had a pint at the oldest pub in the UK. It was fun hehe


I had a cider because I utterly hate beer. But cider is ok =) And tea, of course. But drinking tea in the oldest pub is too posh isn't it?

After that we just walked around and looked for all the churches in the city haha. Nottingham is a nice city and I like the feel and atmosphere of it! It's quite big too and there are a lot of shops hehe.

Of course, it was nice to see Victor again! It'd been two years! We hope we can go and see Harry Potter together in Cambridge in November =)

To finish with, here are a couple of other pictures! Enjoy!









That's it! I have many more pictures but I don't think you want to see all of them. And to be honest, I don't feel like uploading all of them either =P

NIN Appointment in Kings Lynn

Today, I had my appointment for my NIN. I had to go to Kings Lynn, in Norfolk.

So I decided to take the train at 7:51, which should have arrived at 8:23 in Kings Lynn, leaving me more than 30 minutes to find the Jobcentre Plus office, where my appointment took place. The problem is that my train was awfully late. In fact, it was SO late that when it eventually arrived, the loudspeaker announced it wouldn't go to Kings Lynn any more, and that we'd have to take the next train. Which, of course, was late too! 8:36 instead of 8:21..

I started panicking. So I phoned Jobcentre Plus, to tell them I'd be late. But it wasn't the right number, so the "nice" lady gave me another number, which I called immediately. Guess what. The office was STILL closed! It only opened at 9:00. So I phoned the other lady again. It wasn't the same lady. That other lady told me I should wait until 9 o'clock and book another appointment, because they would probably not wait for me. Gosh. That's when I started panicking more. I had to wait three weeks to get this appointment. I sure didn't want to wait three more weeks!

I was about to leave the train station, hoping I'd get my ticket money back... when the train arrived. So I thought, well, let's go and see what happens. I might be lucky. I hopped on the train, not happy at all.

I tried phoning Kings Lynn 3-4 times while I was in the train. At 8:55, they eventually answered. The train had arrived. I had my phone, my bag, and my documents in my hands, I was almost running. I tried to explain my problem to the nice guy who answered, while calling a taxi. Epic. The guy on the phone said "oh don't worry, come here please!".

I told the taxi driver: "I need to go to Jobcentre Plus, as quickly as possible please". He told me the price in advance, which was nice. After three minutes, I arrived. I gave the money to the taxi driver, plus a tip, and ran to the office.

When I got there, someone asked for my name and then said: "are you here for the NIN?". I said yes. And he said: "ok, have a seat, and please wait until someone asks for you". Ok. Great. I had to wait for five minutes, and it was 9:10 when I arrived. All this stress for nothing!! I sat down, and waited. A woman came and photocopied my passport, pay slip and contract. After that, a really nice man (the one I got on the phone I reckon) said I could come. He asked two questions. Filled in a form. And gave me a document with a reference number, and a phone number I should contact if I don't get my NIN within six weeks. It lasted not more than five minutes. Gosh, I couldn't believe it!! All this fuss for nothing!

Anyway, in two or three weeks, I should get a letter with my NIN. I hope I won't have to wait too long; I'm fed up with this NIN crap!

At least, I could visit a town in Norfolk! Kings Lynn is not a really pretty town, but the shops are great, and the atmosphere is nice. I made some shopping. I needed it! And I found really nice things, and on sale at that! I'm happy now =D

I also took some pictures. You might be interested!

Ely & Newmarket

I went to Ely and Newmarket today, to take some pictures. I had already been to Ely, obviously, but I hadn't seen the riverside at all!

Here are some pictures. I guess they are better than words!


Ely:

Newmarket:




There is not much to see in Newmarket, but it's cute, and the shops are nice! What's more, every summer, there are horse races, which are really famous! Kathy will take me this year! I'm really looking forward to it!