My brother is back from a 3-month internship in UK, North-East, Middlesbrough. The cliches I had regarding that region were quite negative ones : rainy, all gray, and cluttered with industrial wrecks. Therefore, and thanks to the video my brother recorded during the time he spent there, I was quite pleased to discover that the reality was quite different from what I expected.

The campus and town look quite cute (more than Villeurbanne, or INSA), apparently thanks to EU funds granted to reconverting regions. And the weather seems quite nice, at least in summertime. Plus the "native" students with whom he used to live there were quite spicy. Seems like they turn on the PlayStation every evening. Or some stupid game where you have to jump on a carpet in specific areas at specific times while some bad Japanese anime OST is played on the computer (that stuff has a name, but I keep forgetting it). They sometimes go to university at night to watch Japanese animes. They can write reports with loud techno music on, and it's not unusual to see some of them having a nap in the middle of the afternoon on a sofa they moved out the house. Other occupations the video shows include (but are not limited to) typing half-naked in a room full of boxes which pile up to the shoulders of a standing man, playing with "billy guns" (?) and water guns, going out to the pub, getting drunk, eating in a chinese restaurant before getting drunk, smoking weed even the day before exams, showing their butt to the cam without being asked for it, and studying majors such as "Desasters" which I didn't even know they existed. In a word, those guys looked cool. I was told that this was typical of 1st year students (that they were). After the 1st year, things may be different for some of them. To conclude, I'll just quote an NHS ad I found on a rock festival program. I didn't manage to understand what the purpose of NHS was, though I'm quite sure it's not an insurance company. But is has something to do with the healthcare field. That accounts for their focusing on that topic at the end of the text.

This is the North East. We're a unique area populated by the most distincitve people in England. We're famous for our history, culture, football but above all our passion. Tolerant, resilient and creative, we've welcomed pilgrins for over 900 years. Long known for our openness and freedom of expression. We celebrate diversity and laugh at the face of adversity. All this makes us a place where new ideas come alive. After all, this is where George Stephenson first powered up his Rocket. And our Trusts are progressing full steam ahead too, setting new standards in modern UK healthcare. What else would you expect from the birthplace of the industrial world ?