UEA International Student Ambassadors

Time flies and we are coming to the end of the first semester already. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! Josh. Taiwanese Student Ambassador

           University life is great, asides all the assignments, course tests, exams, written course works and presentations, university life is really good :-). Living on your own, making new friends and learning new things, it can all be so overwhelming. With nine am starts and making it from one end of campus to the extreme corner of campus in five minutes for a seminar, it's no wonder that the holidays always seem to far away and never come quick enough. But at last, their here. The first holiday of the semester, Christmas.           With three weeks off uni. there's plenty that can be done in this time. Some may choose to go travelling Europe with their friends, others might get Christmas jobs and stay in Norwich, whilst others might decide to visit friends during the break, but some of us are looking forward to going home. Wherever, home may be. Whether it's London, Scotland, Sweden or Ipswich, for me home is on the West African coast of Africa, Ghana.            

Meh, Sunday's at one point in my life were the best day of the week - I would refuse to work, and would spend the day @ home with my family. I loved it. The day would usually consist of waking up early, to the smell of my Mum cooking a Sunday roast! (YUM). I'd go downstairs to a cooked breakfast (scrambed egg on toast or sth ) and soon after, my Nanna would pop up, and my aunty would come round, and the conversation would flow. We'd have a gay old time! My sisters would have an argument, and I'd have to shout over them to calm everything down. It was just...so. Everything seemed like normality, and I loved them. We'd then sit down for our Sunday roast together, at around 1. Unlike most other families I know, my Mum cooks her Sunday dinner early to get it out of the way. And free herself up for the rest of the day, to watch films or catch up with the soaps, and spend some time with my sisters. It was the one day of the week where we'd all be in the house @ the sa

There's apparently going to be a predicted severe weather forecast for most parts of the UK including Norwich. But there's no stopping us for a great night of wine and cheese tasting! Especially when its the start of the month of December and 3 weeks and counting till Christmas!! :)) ISS is holding an ISS Wine and Cheese Night this evening at Kafe Karma at 6.30pm! It's a great event, not only to meet other people but relieve yourself from a stressful and cold day at UEA! You can select and taste your own wine from a selection of 3-5 different types of wine and Of course, an unlimited amounts of local cheese, bread, chutney, crackers and grapes! All of these for just £10 or £15! However, tickets went on sale last week at the Hive. But you can still pop into Kafe Karma and get yourself a ticket. Depending on whether or not you wine taster or wine tasting is a hobby of yours, there are two types of tickets you can buy: 1) Ticket for 3 glasses of wine and all you can eat b

Would you like to spend a Christmas in a real English estate? I guess, the answer is ‘Yes’. When and where else would you be able to taste, smell and admire a real English Christmas especially a couple of weeks before the real one? Blicking Hall Christmas Event Trip organised by Dean of Students’ Office is a perfect opportunity for the exhausted students to get a piece of holiday in their overloaded with the assignments and tests lives. A mansion situated away from the bustle of city life keeping the secrets of its long history is waiting for those willing to escape to a holiday. Everyone will get their own piece of fairy-tale. For the gourmets there will be traditional festive dishes, a hog roast for example. Picturesque landsacpes covered with deep snow won’t leave anyone indifferent to such beauty! Those who like history and aesthetics of old houses will be able to enjoy the interior of the house. Aren’t these arguments enough to convince you? What could be better than rambling in

I know, I know, I'm about four days late in saying it, but Happy Thanksgiving everybody! Ever since I moved to the UK, I've forced my housemates and flatmates to celebrate this all-American holiday with me every fourth Thursday of November. It wasn't until I came to England two years ago that I realized nobody outside of America really knows what Thanksgiving is all about, so I thought I'd go ahead and share! Originally - and I'm talking back in 1621 - Thanksgiving was a three-day feast celebrating both the successful harvest of some of America's earliest English settlers and their friendship with the local Native Americans, without the help of whom the settlers would certainly not have survived their first winter. The holiday was traitionally celebrated by Americans and was officially declared a holiday by Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. Essentially, Thanksgiving has become a day to simply give thanks for what we've been blessed with, and I

Snow’s here!! No wonder why I’m excited; 2nd and 3rd year students definitely remember the lovely winter Norwich experienced last year! Everything was covered in white, fluffy snow and the campus looked more impressive than ever. It’s just the right atmosphere to take a break and go out with your friends and be silly; snowfights, sliding down small hills on handmade boards, snowfights again and much more take place when the fed-up-with-coursework students see a snowy scenery such as the campus right now! Others, more artistic, take advantage of this endless amount of raw materials to be creative. Last year I saw some pretty cool stuff being made. Starting from snowmen and little castles, to igloos and proper statues (!), some people actually put a great amount of good-will to add their little detail in the nice atmosphere out there! It’s just the best thing to wake up in the morning and open your curtains to witness a snowy sight outside. Whatever your personality is and whatever

As a student here some of the best memories are carved in the LCR. It is situated in the Union House on campus. Even though it was built over 30 years ago it still is the place to be if you want to party. It hosts a lot of gigs and parties. Acts like Duran Duran, Coldplay, Iron Maiden, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Stereophonics, my all time favourites Eurythmics and many more have graced the stage here. This year we have had an amazing time too, although being a third year student is sometimes difficult to attend all the parties, I tried to go to as many as possible. If you are a first year you should aim not to miss even one :p. Trust me! You won't regret it. This Tuesday we have the Disney LCR and on Thursday the Silent disco and I bought my tickets, so I hope I see you all here. I even got a new party hat. All the best, UEA International Ambassador

Hi! Today I would like to talk about our trip to Paris. This year we arranged time in Easter break to go to Paris. As you know, Paris is one of the biggest cultural centre of the world and we wanted to see that beauty visually :) We have firstly been at Eiffel Tower and it was very exciting to see the flag of my country (Azerbaijan) inside the tower. If you are in Paris you should definitely go to the Louvre Museum. Half of your day will be spent in that museum and you will get an amazing impression from that! And the other place that should be traveled in Paris is famous Sacré-Coeur. From their you can see whole Paris. Finally, the most memorable and interesting thing that we enjoyed in Paris was cycling :) You just pay 4 euro by card machine and you can use it all the day. But dont forget to bring it back on time, as will be charged for that :) There are a lot of bike stops over Paris, so you dont need to go back for that. Have a nice trip in advance :)

Recently there were news flooding all over the world about a couple from the UK who were aptured by the Somalian Pirates and held hostage for over 13 months! They were beaten and abused by the pirates and were almost seperated. Death could have been their only way out as a result but luckily they were saved! Earlier this year their captors threatened to kill the couple if their demands for £4.4m were not met. A payment of about $430,000 (£267,000) was made to the pirates in June, but did not result in the release of the Chandlers. A fund-raising campaign had been going on in order to raise money to pay the ransom. Media speculation was thought to have influenced the pirates, and so the family opted for a super-injunction banning media coverage of the kidnap. BBC security correspondent said the ransom paid for their eventual release had been "the best part of $1 million". A time line of the events happening from the time they were captured to the time they were rescued: http:/

There are loads of definiton worldwide of what a hero is or should be like. Whether or not your ideal hero is spriderman or batman; here is the hero from the real world! Anuradha Koirala , the founder of Maiti Nepal, dedicated herself to helping victims of sex trafficking. Maiti Nepal operates rehabilitation home, transit homes as well as preventive homes in Kathmanfu. The organisation rescued women from brothels in India. The women can stay in the homes run by Maiti Nepal until they are able to go back home or if not accepted by their family they may also stay until they are able to live on their own. More than that, the organisation also provide free medical, psychological assistance as well as legal advice to the victims. How to help ? For people who are in the US, they can join the Friends of Maiti Nepal : Friends of Maiti Nepal is the official US representative of Maiti Nepal. It is a non-profit all-volunteer organization dedicated to addressing the human rights crisis of girl sex

I've been at UEA for nearly two and a half years now, and to my own shame, last Monday night was the first time I went to an actual gig at the LCR. Don't get me wrong - I've spent plenty a Tuesday and Saturday night either in fancy dress or rocking out to Club Retro, but Monday was the first time I saw a live band play here and I'm pretty sure it was well worth the wait. The LCR has seen many world-famous acts, including Jimmy Eat World, Reel Big Fish, KT Tunstall, and the Fratellis to name a few. I myself had the pleasure of seeing the Goo Goo Dolls. The GOO GOO DOLLS. Forgive the enthusiasm, but I am absolutely in LOVE with them and it was literally amazing to not only see such great band live, but to do so in a venue that I myself have partied at before and that's small enough tha t most any seat in the house is a great one. Doors opened at 7.30 with the opening act (UK band Unkle Bob) coming on around 8.15, and by 9.15, the headliners were on stage rocking the c

Hi UEA and DEV students, Indonesian society in UEA cordially invites all UEA students to a charitymovie evening event for helping the victims of INDONESIAN TSUNAMI, VOLCANICERUPTION and EARTH QUAKE. Indonesian society in UEA does not charge and does not oblige the participants to contribute certain amount should be given. The participants freely decide how much they want to contribute. In this event, we will present an Indonesian based on true-story movie that is believed has tripled budget allocation for education in 2009. The title: “RAINBOW SQUAD” (with English subtitle) Duration: 2 hours and 30 minutes. The synopsis: It shows a real condition of education reality in a remoteisland in Indonesia. The director brings up an inspiring story that tellsa journey of ten elementary students and a teacher who struggle for theirdream to protect their school from being closed down. The trailer with English subtitle, please visit this site: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W__0xKZyLI&playnex

Hello again, I know the weather is not as sunny nor as warm as before as winter has arrived at our doorsteps BUT it's not an excuse to keep yourself warm and comfortable in your rooms or house! It's already mid-November and X'mas is getting nearer and nearer by the day! It's not long before everyone just rush out to any shopping malls to buy all their x'mas gifts on their shopping lists! AND SO, to prevent any overcrowding We should get ourselves together and shop till we drop! There are lots of places now in Norwich giving out very good deals for the perfect x'mas gifts for your beloved ones! :)) Here are a list of a few and get more details by clicking on the websites accordingly: 1) Buy 3 for 2 on 'Perfect Gift Items' in Boots! http://www.boots.com/en/Christmas/ 2) Get up to 25% sales on Items in Debenhams! http://www.debenhams.com/christmas?CMP=KNC-GoogleAd&tmcampid=7&tmad=c&_$ja=kw:sale+christmascgn:Christmascgid:1346888678tsid:16252cn

Bonjour! Since I have a reading week in week 7, me and my friend went to Belgium to enjoy the last bit of freedom before those courseworks drive us nuts! We went to London King Cross on Monday and decided to stay overnight as our train was in the very early next day morning. Grand Place is the center of Brussels which is surrounded by lots of good restaurants, beer and chocolate shops. You can find a lot of chocolate shop (really A LOT !)here ; and even smell chocolate between streets. Apart from chocolate, Belgium is also very famous with its beers and mussels. We tried the very famous cherry beer as well as Mussels with cream n wine. Both of them taste Yummmy :P Then we went to see the very famous Manneken Pis as well as the Belgium Comics Museum. Two of the famous characters that I knew they are from Belgium are Tintin and the Smurfs !! Venus Yu Hong Kong Ambassador

If you haven't already been to Norwich Castle Museum, now is a great time to go! There is a great exhibition on at the moment called the "Art of Faith" which will run till 23 January 2011. There are more than a hundred awesome artefacts to look at, including a mummified cat, textiles and a couple of torcs. The exhibition displays the history of the diversity of faiths in Norfolk, stretching back to three millenia ago. Don't forget to bring your student ID! It's worth your time signing up for a daily tour of the battlements or the dungeons and you can get discounted entry with it. There are also other galleries with permanent displays: - The Anglo Saxon and Viking Gallery - The Boudica Gallery - The Egyptian Gallery - The Natural History Gallery (I like the birds twittering away) - The Twining Teapot Gallery There's also a nice little cafe if you feel peckish after your little jaunt around the Castle Keep :) Check out the museum's website for more informati

It was not until this year that I realised that weather is a great topic for discussion. Here, in England, it changes almost every 5 minutes and the only way to predict what will come next is to name something completely opposite to what you can see from your window! However, during the last couple of days it was surprisingly logical in its changes. Someone up there realised that it is November and it is time to switch on North wind, icy rain and to shut the sky with clouds. It is already the third day running that everyone is talking about the upcoming winter, Christmas holidays and the cold breath of winter behind their shoulders. The picture is completed with the short days, lack of sunshine and the abundance of electric lights in our lives. As for me everything is not so depressing. I look forward to the Christmas celebration, fairy-tale-like decorated shop windows and the abundance of the garland lights. Such an early festive mood is complemented by the feeling of freedom and exc

Last summer, I start realising there are so many people handing these hilarious cameras around their necks. LOMO! And I do believe it is an on going trend. Lomography produces its very own style of lomo camera having the base from a small enigmatic Russian camera . E ach camera has its own specific effect like fisheye (which I am now having), the coloursplash, horizons, etc. Lomo is a very magical type of camera. It is not about how expensive the lomo or the film can be; All that matters is how you determine the flash, the presentation of the photo and the explosures. For more details about the camera or the photos, please refer to the following website: http://uk.shop.lomography.com/ I hope you like it ! Venus Yu

Brace yourselves! Here comes Mister Frost... For those of you living on campus, skip to the bottom of this post as you're probably snug and warm in halls. For those of you living in rented accommodation throughout Norwich, you must already have had to deal with the evils that are condensation, cold rooms and spiders. A further evil: heating bills. Here are some sensible tips to keeping warm: 1. Drink hot drinks regularly such as tea, coffee and soup. Some of you may prefer spirits such as vodka and whiskey. 2. Keep moving - a little exercise will help keep you well even it it's indoors. Hoover or do the dishes. 3. Wrap up warmly whenever you go outside and always dress warmly for bed. 4. Wearing several layers of clothing keeps you warmer than one thick layer. 5. Keeping warm at home is vital. Your home should be heated to a temperature of about 21°C. 6. Close bedroom windows at night to keep the warmth in and the cold air out. 7. Light a reasonable amount of candles. (Don'

Hello there, it's again the time of the year where people dress up and celebrate Halloween! Halloween, in England, falls on every 31st October! On this day, people dress up as scary as possible to mark the presence of ghosts, fairies, vampires, etc! It was said to be that all these different types of creatures existed on this day! More details of what and how people celebrate this day is explained in this website: http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/uk/halloween Well, at UEA, we are definitely celebrating Halloween as meery and as grand as possible. Of which, there are a couple of events that is just round the corner, in conjunction with the halloween festival! There are three main events, and that all of them are organised by the university itself and different societies from UEA. The first on the list is the International Student Society who is going to host an ISS Halloween Party TONIGHT at Karma, starting from 9pm onwards! Details of the event can be found here: http://www.face

I really love Halloween!! The story in England goes that on the 31st of October, Halloween night, ghosts, fairies and witches are particularly active! No one is really sure of the exact origin of this festival, but what we do know is that Halloween falls on the eve of the Catholic feast of All Saints (1st of November) and on the eve of the pagan Celtic festival called Samhain! How spooky?! Students at UEA dress up in scary costumes, face masks and just generally scary clothes. Some students go out trick-a- treating (going to collect sweets from neighbours), whilst others dress up and go for Halloween parties. This year the International Student Society is having one of the biggest Halloween parties in Norwich city centre. I am really excited and am trying to decide on a scary but equally attractive outfit! I was thinking about dressing up like a ‘dead doll’ perhaps? I have seen another guy do it last year and thought it was a really cool and also really scary outfit. The picture below

The Northern Lights, a blaze of coloured patterns in the northern skies... According to the Finnish Meteorological Institute, it is the very first time that they feel like the solar cycle is badly interrupted. Like many other vistors, I am going to Finland with the hopes of seeing the Finland northern lights in this Decemeber. You always need to get to somewhere away from the city lights and this is why I am going to Lapland because it sees some 200 nightly occurrences every year! Besides, you can also throw in a visit to the REAL SANTA CLAUS in the Santa Claus Village, do some ski, snowmobile safaris, bla bla blaaaa...... Well...I know It is sort of early to talk about the Christmas trip really , but then it is your turn to think about the trip to Lapland, as the flight ticket is getting expensive! For further flight information, please visit the following website: http://www.easyjet.com/asp/en/book/index.asp?lang=en Venus Hong Kong Ambassador

I really, really, really dislike banks. Regardless of country, time of day, or branch, I generally have no good feelings towards such institutions. In my experience, banks are far too happy to take away your money rather than help you save it, and I continually fear I will give up with banks entirely and turn into a Great Depression-era saver, stashing all of my cash underneath my matress and between the pages of my favorite book. That said, when I stopped by the on-campus branch of Natwest this morning to sort out yet another superfluous fee, I was incredibly surprised when the trip turned out to be very useful, and that I actually ended up saving money. I was so impressed, in fact, that I thought I'd share with you guys what it was they helped me with! Upon arriving in the UK two years ago I had three main things on my to-do list: 1. Find out where my housing was. 2. Get a phone. 3. Get a bank account. When it came to #3, turns out the process was quite simple. I chose one of the

We spent a lovely Sunday at Holkham beach with the dog yesterday :) It's nicer than the pictures I saw in a brochure over the summer, I'm pleased to say. Here are some of the photos I took, hope they convince you to go on a nice day. I'm definitely going back! Autumn is turning colder by the day. I like walking along the Avenues because it's fun to step on as many crunchy leaves as possible and kick them high into the air. Wet days are different though. Soggy leaves are no fun. Come the winter, there will be less sunshine :( and some people suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder including yours truly. So I'll be stocking up on tealights and treats to make merry with my new friends in the midst of the onslaught that is Christmas commerce. The lights at Chapelfield get turned on pretty soon, November 4th, see you there my pretties :) Cheers, UEA Malaysian Ambassador

The weeks just seem to be flying by and there's always so much work to do. It's almost difficult keeping up with socials, relaxing and just finding some "me" time. However, time isn't going to stop and life must go on, so.... Thursday night was made great by the re-launch of the Afrobeat live session on the university radio station ( www.livewire1350.com ) from 10:30-midnight. If Afrobeats rock your boat then that's the best place to be on thursday nights. It's always great having a piece of home away from home in anyway possible or discovering a new culture, and what better way to discover than through music. Personally, the weekends going to be a quiet one for me but you can put up comments of what you're going to be doing over the weekend, might give me some ideas :-p. However, it seems Monday is going to be a fun packed start to the week. The ACS (African Caribbean Society) are having a Caribbean night in the Blue bar from 8pm, which should be load

Today is a day for us to give our love to the World Food Programme! Today the UEA World Food Programme Society is holding a Meet and Greet Session at CHall 0.17 from 5-6.30pm.. There will be food available for you to try and it only costs you £2!!! Soo get yourselves ready to try food from different countries. All the money raised will be donated to the World Food Programme!! Details of this charity event can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=157365277627817&index=1 If you need more information on the World Food Programme then look at this website: http://www.wfp.org/ http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=157365277627817&index=1#!/group.php?gid=154351417929938 Well, that'll probably get your tummies started and the next event will be for you to try out a famous Japanese dish, SUSHI.. The Sushi Night is hosted by the International Student Society (ISS) and the Japan Society.. However, tickets are sold out already!! If you have tickets to Sushi Night, then

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2010/oct/05/kuala-lumpur-restaurants-top-10 When I saw this article on the Guardian website, I experienced a supreme moment of "RINDU GILA". How many happy times I'd spent with family and friends at some of these awesome foodie places! All those glorious spring rolls, dumplings, nasi lemak, roti canai, char kuay teow, fish curry, dim sum, prawn crackers, clay-pot chicken, char siu fan, crispy chicken wings, tau foo fah, steamboat dinners, lala chao fan, lamb kurma, murtabak, Hokkien black mee, chapati, pineapple jam tarts, egg tarts, red bean pau, mango pudding, chee cheong fan, bak kut teh, wan tan meen, oh the list goes on but my desk at the International Office is already covered in homesick Malaysian dribble. Somebody give this hungry girl a ticket home for Christmas. In the meantime, I return to the library with my shackles.

It's the time of the year where many new films are coming out now. Today is the premiere of a new movie titled 'Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps'. This is a re-make of the 1987 hit Wall Street. The main characters of this movie are Even Steven's Shia La Beouf and Michael Douglas! The story revovles around Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) who re-enters the financial world amd Shia La Beouf plays a young, idealistic investment banker. Douglas had to catch up with the new and harsh financial world and Shia La Beouf feels that Douglas is still a major manipulator to the financial world. Wall Street is a place where you can redefine yourself, of which is what Douglas needs to do! Visit: http://www.wallstreetmoneyneversleeps.com/ for more information and photos of the movie here! Watch the trailer at: http://www.ents24.com/web/film/29275/Wall-Street-Money-Never-Sleeps-near-Norwich.html?venueid=55977 # You can find showing times of this film at you nearest cinema as it STARTS S

It's interesting how quickly the weeks go by! This week was a particularly busy one on campus. Remaining freshers moved into halls, there's been a pot and pan sale, SocMart was very busy, SportsMart was even more busy, Fresher's fair had lots of freebies to offer and all this happened in this wet weather :-p. Not that the week is over though, Book sale today in the LCR and a second pots and pans sale. With so many things that have gone on this week perhaps some people would be tired, drained, looking forward to a long lay in this weekend..... However, there are some freshers who are looking to explore Norwich night life and other returners who have missed what the good city of Norwich has to offer at night. So, for all those who didn't know, the weekend starts on Thursday! Thursday night is always great at Mercy's because it's a student night. And it's free entry before eleven! There are three separate parts to the club and that allows for everyone to have

Its the start of a new semester and academic year! And I started my lectures last Monday 27th September 2010. When I got back to Norwich, the weather was very dull and gloomy and guess what NORWICH WAS POURING!! :( I thought 'Oh! what a nice rainy weather to welcome me back to the UK and Norwich!' and sadly it was raining everyday since I arrived into Norwich. It didn't feel like a new semester/academic year has started and there was no motivation from me to feel it. >.< But luckily the warmth and the fabulous welcome from all my friends around the world and those from UEA had made me feel at home! Hopefully this new semester and academic year brings everyone luck and prosperity to everyone! From, Sam International Ambassador Brunei

One of my favourite summer pastimes? Having a picnic by Norwich castle! As these picnics are often spontaneous (depending on the weather), we like to go to Loving Hut to take away some yummy vegan food! It is run by a friendly family from Guangzhou and located close to Norwich castle grounds. When people think of vegan food, they sometimes think it might be boring but Loving Hut has definitely proved me, a carnivore, wrong. For about the same price as a pint, you can tuck into a buffet of spring rolls, noodles, fried rice, vegetables with tofu, curry, vegan sushi, fruit, sweetcorn and fairycakes. And now it's offically Autumn and starting to get a little too wet and windy...but I reckon I'll still be getting my spring rolls and curry here :) For a map of how to get to Loving Hut, click here http://www.lovinghut.co.uk/norwich.html

Fresher's Week is coming up soon! There will be loads of events to attend for both new students and returning ones, take a look at the list below :) SATURDAY 25TH SEPTEMBER Bar Event: The Weekend Warm-Up [Blue Bar 8pm-11pm Free] Waterfront Club Night: Meltdown + Wraith [The Waterfront 10pm-2am £3.50nus] ====== Club Night: Now 90s====== LCR 10pm £4.50adv It’s your first night at UEA for many of you so this is your first ever taste of the LCR! Now 90s is one of our regular club nights, with all the biggest 90s hits, from Britney to Blur. With r’n’b & dance in the Hive. SUNDAY 26TH SEPTEMBER Bar Event: The Weekend Warm-Up [Blue Bar 8pm-11pm Free] ====== Club Night: The Freshers Icebreaker ====== This is exclusively for Freshers! MONDAY 27TH SEPTEMBER Poster Sale [Marquee 10am-5pm Free entry] Plant Sale [The Street 10am-5pm] Freshers Fair [LCR 11am-3pm Free] Listen & Lunch [Bars & Square 1pm-2pm Free] Waterfront Gig: The Magic Numbers [The Waterfront 7.30pm £14adv] Bar Even

I'm a bit of a nerd, both here and in America. One of my favorite manifestations of my nerdiness is my love of Renaissance Faires - and if you'd been to one, I think y ou'd have to agree. Picture this: a bunch of Americans, all dressed in historically accurate Renaissance costumes, drinking and jousting (not at the same time) and dancing and selling and, essentially, pretending they're in a typical (though definitely ridiculously cheerful) Elizabethan town. Down to the play-actors hired on to play Elizabeth's royal court and the trading guilds that line the market, Renaissance Fairs take the past seriously, but in the most fun way possible. Having been in England for the past two years, I missed my local Renaissance Fair back at home - the Folsom Renaissance Faire - and I've really mourned the loss. It was to my endless excitement, then, that I found out about the Templar's Fayre near Colchester, going on this weekend! There will be an open market f illed wi