Lidwine the brave...

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My trip up to Scotland in the coach from London was awful. My phone had no battery and because it was dark I couldn’t read or look at the landscape, and I couldn’t move my seat so it was really uncomfortable. And the driver wasn’t friendly at all.

When I arrived in Edinburgh it was raining. Welcome to Scotland… I was already missing London! I have to say though that Edinburgh’s architecture was most impressive.

I took the train from Waverley Station. In my carriage there were kids making lots of noise. People started to move to another carriage. I couldn’t rest, so I decided to start a conversation with a girl near me. “Where are you going?” I asked. “Sorry, I’m French” she answered. It’s funny because, in London, when I didn’t understand something, I said the same thing all the time, as if it was shameful to be French. This girl came from Tours. She was staying with a Scottish family for two weeks. Her host family was very kind, but she didn’t like Scotland. Too cold, she said, and she understood nothing when Scottish people spoke. She didn’t reassure me at all…

When I arrived, Ronnie was waiting for me. His house isn’t far from the station. Kinghorn is a small granite village. He was most welcoming and talkative. His house is really nice and comfortable with a wonderful view on the Firth of Forth and of Edinburgh on the other side of the estuary. I just had enough time to throw my luggage down, and we were off to the Ecology Center.

The Ecology Centre is situated in stunning grounds by Kinghorn, and offers direct experience of the natural environment to improve peoples’ quality of life and encourage responsible citizenship. I found this place wonderful: there is a large lake, a big garden which produces vegetables, lots of birds, butterflies, bats, and other animals. There are also cherry trees! Everybody is welcome at the Ecology Center and it works with many organizations, like the St Clair Centre in Kirkcaldy which helps people with learning disabilities. I talked with some of the volunteers; they were really nice and helpful. They gave me some vegetables from the garden to cook. There were teenagers there too; volunteering gives them a sense of responsibility. They were really involved in their work and they undoubtedly gain much self-esteem from their activities.

My job was to help Claire. She’s a 19 year old volunteer studying Geography at St Andrews University. We prepared children’s Nature activities, like kite-flying. The idea was to show them the powers of Nature, like wind power. We kept the kids for a whole day. According to Ronnie, everything we explained had to be “brilliant and simple at the same time”.

I loved to work in this center, and thanks to Ronnie I rapidly forgot my initial impressions, and learnt that every cloud has a silver lining. The dreadful weather is a small price to pay for the wonderful landscapes, fauna and flora. Scotsmen, despite their reputation, are in fact very generous. The Ecology Center is proof of this! There, I learnt to open my eyes but also my heart…

http://www.theecologycentre.org/

I visited lots of museums and places like St Andrews (its University is 600 years old this year!), Edinburgh (with the biggest Arts festival in the world), and Kirkcaldy. Kirkcaldy is not that attractive, but it is interesting, with really nice gardens. When the coal mines closed, most of the population became impoverished and many fell into drugs and alcohol…

I went on a fishing trip out to sea with Ronnie on his boat, the Celtic. I loved it, because we approached Inchkeith, an island with a lighthouse (built by Stevenson), and because I saw seals and birds and fish.

One day, in Edinburgh, I was watching a man doing a magic trick in the street (it was Festival time). He wasn’t really very funny. I was at the back of the crowd, but the magician went through the crowd and came up to me and asked me my name. Everyone looked at me, so I was a bit anxious. Finally, I was very proud because I understood everything he told me, and I had a really good time.

Another day, I almost died… I was in Aberdour, a small village with an old half-ruined castle with lovely gardens all around. It was raining so there was a strange atmosphere, but not unpleasant. Then, the sun having returned, I decided to go for a walk. I wanted to get near the sea so I decided to cross the golf course. This was a bad idea: I don’t remember how many golf balls shot passed my head!

This is an extract of Lidwine S.'s travel diary (on sale at all good book stores!)

My trip to London by Lidwine S

Last summer I went to London for two weeks, staying with friends. During my trip, I took note of the differences between England and my own country.

I was really impressed, on arriving in the British capital, at the sheer scale of it all: huge monuments, endless traffic jams, etc. It made a radical change from Aurillac!

On my first full day, I took the Tube to go to the British Museum. On the underground, everybody seemed to be either reading a newspaper or eating. In London, taxis and public transport are used a lot because it’s difficult to drive around and to find a place to park but also because it’s really expensive to get to the center of London in your own vehicle (an £8 ‘entrance fee’!). I chose to mostly walk because I think that it is the best way to see everything and to take good photos. I found that it was easy to get around (I did not get lost!), and when I asked my way, people always answered with a smile.

My first day, like the rest of my holiday in fact, was really good. But the London experience isn’t the same for everybody of course. I met a French couple in a park. Their daughter had offered them a journey to London for two days. It was the first time that they had been to London so they wanted to visit all the monuments. Of course, that was impossible, so they were exhausted. Moreover, they described Londoners as strange people: “They are always eating, none of them speaks French, and they are so aggressive!” From my experience, that’s just not true. For me, London is a city where there is always something to do and to see. I felt really free there: I did what I wanted when I wanted to…

London is an ideal city to spend your holidays, but living there is another kettle of fish apparently… One afternoon, reading the Evening Standard like most people stuck in the underground, I learned from an article that thousands of Londoners, though they work full time, still struggle to keep a roof over their heads… Maybe that’s the reason there are so many charity workers on the streets who try to explain to passers-by the difficulties of poorer Londoners and who shake money boxes under your nose. There are also lots of shops where you can buy cheap food staples or second-hand clothes, and the profits are given to a charity that fights poverty, etc…

Something that displeased me during my trip was the behavior of a lot of tourists in the museums: they did not bother to read anything about the objects they took so many pictures of! The museums in London are most impressive: the collections are huge and so amazingly varied. I learned lots of new words, like ‘mummies’ and ‘dolls’, in the V&A, the British Museum, etc.

In the afternoons and in the evenings, it was really pleasant to walk along the Thames because there are lots of artists (who painted on the ground), musicians and magicians there. London by night is as interesting as during the day: lots of people, much noise and fun things to see.

On another day, Clive and Christine, my friends, took me to Hampstead Park, where there are ponds to swim in, and to a farm, where people can work as volunteers to “forget” the city for a moment. I think it’s a great idea, especially for children; they get to see other things than buildings…

During my second week in London, I worked at Usborne’s, a publishing house. People were very kind there. I had to translate several Spanish book titles into English and vice-versa (it was difficult because my Spanish isn’t really very good!). I also had to file away various documents for Sharon (Christine’s colleague) and that was a lot of work! I had thought that Christine and the others worked more on the actual books but in fact most of the time they seem to just type away at their computers… boring, or what?!

One evening, we went to the Royal Albert Hall to listen to a Proms concert of music from the famous British TV series Doctor Who. It was magical and during the musical performance various vampires and assorted monsters invaded the auditorium. There were also several actors from the series present. The fans were delighted as you can imagine. I have never seen anything quite like it before: very weird, but good fun!

The street markets are one of my favorite things in London. There are lots of trendy hats and clothes to buy, and old postcards and knickknacks too… Portobello in Nothing Hill is the best.

On the last day I met a friend of Clive’s, a history teacher. He said to me that his pupils are really influenced by MTV. The girls in his class say “Oh my god!” all the time and chew gum, and aren’t really very serious… For him, this is a problem in all English schools. Not like in France, where we are serious, respectful and so hard-working…

If you’ve not been to London yet, what are you waiting for?! OK, it’s not cheap, but it’s a trip worth saving up for… Go!

Article by Lidwine Spire

Taizé-vous!

The History of Taizé

It all started in 1940 when Brother Roger left his country of birth, Switzerland, to live in France. During the Second World War he was immediately certain that he had to help people in difficulty.

The small village of Taizé, where he settled, was close to the demarcation line which cut France in two: it was well situated to take in refugees fleeing the war. His friends began to give the address of Taizé to those who needed a refuge.

Many other brothers joined Brother Roger over the years. The Taizé community has steadily grown. Today, it has become perhaps the most important Christian centre in Europe…

Where is this wonderful place?

The community of Taizé is in the town of the same name in the Saone et Loire region of central eastern France.

What do we do in Taizé?

The church is a central feature of Taizé; people are always singing there. The Saint-Etienne source is a place of peace. Taizé is primarily a place of prayer. It is mostly visited by people aged 10 to 30. It is also a meeting place, a place of exchange. Each day is punctuated by special moments. Each day of the week, the bells call to prayer at 8am, 12am and 7pm.

Between two prayer sessions, young people are divided into little groups to speak about general topics and about our way of life… And these meetings are really beneficial for everybody.

Why do I go to Taizé?

I go to meet people from other cultures.

It teaches me to live in a society with people I have never met before.

It is a way to get to know different ways of life and reflect on my own culture.

To gain a greater awareness of my own personality.

It is also a means to discuss European or even global events.

Who can go to join the community?

Whatever you nationality, whatever your religion, whatever your age, you can go to Taizé… During the holidays, more than 3000 teenagers and 200 adults go there for the best days of their lives!

Article by Sylvain Cayron