 |
 |
| Sun |
Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
Sat |
| |
|
|
|
|
1 |
2 |
| 3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
| 10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
| 17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
| 24 |
25 |
26 |
27 |
28 |
29 |
30 |
| 31 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Archives:
January - 2007
|
1/24/2007
One day before we come back to the United States, we visited Oxford University and stayed there for several hours. However, another important thing about this day is that it snowed in Wrtoxton and the Collge looked even prettier. I have to say at the end of my journey that this trip was definetely memorable and I will miss being in Medieval England.
Cheer!
~Soso
Permanent Link
1/23/2007
The third and the last industrial tour was at Campden and Chorleywood Food
Research Association, which is the largest food and drink research centre in
the world. They help businesses improve the quality of their food and even help
them to package it, which assists with marketing.
The neat thing I noticed about
this centre was the food tasting, where they have several specialists tasting
the food, as well as sensors evaluating it too.
Permanent Link
1/22/2007
Today, we had our second industrial tour and we visited the Decoma Exterior Services,
which is the exterior supplier for numbers of brands around the world, including Toyota,
Honda, BMW, etc. We examined how the industry actually works and saw a powerpoint
presentation about the structure and history of the company.
Having discussed the
European economy, I think Decoma International is an excellent example of the globalized economy,
because it is a company in England, which provides services for the brands around the world
and employees from all over Europe.
~Soso
Permanent Link
1/21/2007
After the trip to Parliament on January 18th, we had three days
break to see London
before we got back to Wroxton. Being from Tbilisi,
the capital of Georgia, I
love city and I really enjoyed London, which is
economically one of the biggest transactional city after New York.
Finally we figured out the Underground and that made us available
to move effectively from one part of the city to another. We saw as much as tourist
could possibly see in three days.
There are some things that I could not see, but that just
means that I have to come back.
Cheers!
~Soso
Permanent Link
1/19/2007
Yesterday we listened to some quite important speakers
discussing the issue of European integration and the pros and cons of it.
I found Lord Grenfell, the first speaker extremely dynamic, who has a lot
of experience in the world politics. He offered a pro-Euro point of view and
subscribed to David Ricardo's point of view of free trade and advocated the
single currency. He admired the entrepreneurial spirit of the Europeans, who
recently joined the EU and thriving to join the single currency in the future
and mentioned Georgia
with an admiration among them. Note, that Lord was a hereditary peer.
Second speaker was Lord Taverne and he told a little about the history of the
European economy and expressed his opinion that Britain made a right decision to
stay out of the Euro at first, because that might be the cause of problems in
the short-run.
The third speaker, John Redwood MP, was from the house of Commons and discussed
more local issues regarding the integration. He addressed the problems of
migration of people from and to Eastern
Europe as a result of the open borders and the impact
that might have in the future.
The last speaker, David Curry MP, presented his power-point point presentations
to us, which was based on an extensive research, showing the advantages of the
globalization and the incredible GDP growth rates of the Eastern European
countries. In addition, he offered a totally skeptic point of view towards the
EURO and made prognosis that the currency would fail in the future, because of
the differentiated integration and the best option of Britain to completely
stay out of the EURO currency.
As I discussed above we had an opportunity to listen to the people the opposite
sides of the spectrum and I realized that the pros and cons of the
Globalization. I am an advocate of David Ricardo’s ideas, but I also think that
totally free market and complete democracy has never been achieved and probably
will never be achieved, but this must be the intention of people and governments
across the world as the world moves forward. Economics as a science will help
us to see whether the decision is right, if we carefully examine it and like
Einstein would say "the whole of science is nothing more than a refinement
of everyday thinking" (Einstein, Albert).
Permanent Link
1/18/2007
In addition to studying the European economy and its impact on Britain,
we are also tourists. On Jnauary 16 after the industrial tour to Hook
Norton Brewery, we had an opportunity to visit Stratford-upon-Avon, the
birthplace of William Shakespeare. It was quite impressive to see that
one of the biggest man in the history of England was born in a small
house in Stratford.
The fact that the Shakespeare's family was
not aristocratic could be explained by the height of the ceiling.
According to the tour guide, the height of the ceiling was the
indication of the class, because poorer classes of society could not
afford the high ceilings.
In addition, I found out why the beds used to be very short in size for
that time in England. I have heard some trying to prove that people
used to be shorter, because of their poor diet, but archaeologists, on
the other side, prove that the hypotheses that people used to short is
based on a false assumption. As I found out, people in England used to
be very superstitious about sleeping and they did not lay down to
sleep, because it was associated with death and therefore they used to
sleep half seated.
After visiting the birthplace, we attended The Merry Wives of Windsor in Royal Shakespeare Theatre, which was quite modernized and was an spectacular performance.
Permanent Link
1/17/2007
Yesterday we visited Hook Norton Brewery Co, Ltd., which is a British beer company started 150 years ago. Unfortunately, their product does not get exported to the United States as much, but Hook Norton Beer is very famous locally. The trip was exciting, because we got to see the industry at work and listen to the history of the company.
We also had an opportunity to participate in beer tasting at Hook Norton Brewery. Note, that the official drinking age in United Kingdom and in the most countries in the world is 18, except of the United States, which is 21.
Regards,
~Soso
Permanent Link
1/15/2007
Before discussing the course, I would like to say something
about the British culture and history. I would totally subscribe to the point
of view that England
is a quite unique nation of Europe, which has a long and distinct history as a
nation-state and this is similar to Georgia, my home country.
First of all, I am a fan of medieval castle-style of
architecture, which can be found a lot in the Unite Kingdom.
On January 13th we visited the Warwick Castle, which must be admired
because it is close to eleven hundred years old, given the fact that the original
wooden castle was built in the 900s. Right now, it is very well-kept and the
Castle in full of madam Trousseau’s figures and they almost look human.
Before visiting the Castle, we saw the one of the most
mystifying landmarks of England, the Stonehenge, a prehistoric stone building, which causes controversies in modern historians, because the history of it is so unclear and the building could be used for many
different things, such as astronomy and etc.
We also got to see the Roman Baths in Bath,
England. I thought
that Bath
itself was great town and a famous British celebrity, Sting, also has a house there. Of
course, the architecture of building was very Roman and the buildings were
reconstructed and rebuilt several times later on in history.
Outside of the Baths,
visitors could enjoy the public striptease, which is kind of unusual, but hey,
even Queen Elizabeth II attended one of those.:)
Cheers!
Soso
P.S. I am getting ready and excited about the day we
will spend in the Parliament and preparing my questions for the British legislators.
Permanent Link
1/12/2007
At last we arrived at Wroxton College in Oxfordshire, England. The weather is typical British.
I am exhausted, but I have to work on the paper, which is due on Monday. I find this assignment very interesting, because Professor Pfitzner asked us to do a report on one of the EU member countries. Choosing the country was not an easy thing, because by looking at the organization, like the European Union, can be complicated. Perhaps most people would agree that the biggest economic powers in the EU are Germany and France and logically it would be a smart decision to do a research on those nation, but I chose to do a report about Czech Republic, which is a smaller nation in Central Europe and has a reputation of a stable economy, despite her struggle over the last several decades.
Truth Prevails!:)
~Soso
Permanent Link
1/7/2007
Four days before the trip I would like to use the
opportunity and wish you a Merry Christmas, which comes on January 7 according to the Classical Julian Calendar, which was used in the
Mediæval times and is still used by some Orthodox Churches around the world.
Georgia Orthodox and Apostolic Church still follows this tradition due to the twenty
centuries of Christianity in Georgia1
and generally the Christmas is celebrated on January 7th.
So, Merry the Real Christmas!
~Soso
1. Alasania, g. Twenty centuries of Christianity in Georgia. Library of Congress. Washington, DC *Please note that the photograph above is a copyrighted photo by Paata Vardanashvili
Permanent Link
1/1/2007
Hello and Happy New Year,
I wish 2007 will bring everything good to R-MC community,
Ten days are left before the trip to England and I am getting very excited due
to my interest in the course, which teaches the impact of the integration of
the European economy to the United Kingdom. It would be very interesting to see
the challenges and advantages of the free European market from the British
prospective, given the fact that the British Pound is one of the strongest
currencies in the world.
In addition to studying at medieval, Jacobean Wroxton Abbey, we will get a
chance to visit other cultural sites of England, including the Houses of
Parliament, where we will have an opportunity to tour and attend the
legislature of the British economy.
Cheers! ~Soso
Permanent Link
|
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)