Incoming links: Coventry
Ciro Santilli's 10 month stay in Coventry, United Kingdom, in the year 2000 Updated 2024-12-15 +Created 1970-01-01
In the year 2000, Ciro lived with his parents for 10 months in the Coventry because his father took some courses at the University of Warwick. This was Ciro's most important educational experience, more so than any other inCiro Santilli's formal education, because it taught him the Holy Language of English, which infinitely expanded Ciro's Internet horizons, and shaped Ciro's having more than one natural language is bad for the world philosophy. When he came back to Brazil, Ciro skipped dozens of levels in his English school in Santos, São Paulo, Brazil, a Brazilian chain called Cultura Inglesa, and was put to study with much older teenagers who marveled at Ciro's incredibly cute, but since lost, British accent.
Another huge advantage of Coventry is that the Hearsall Community Primary School where Ciro studied was a regular British primary school but with two classes dedicated to foreign students to learn English before integrating with the British students. There were a several kids from Kosovo there due to the Kosovo War which was just ending, and it was there that Ciro made his first Chinese friend, yet unaware of course of the role the country would later play in his life. One particularly fun memory was that of playing soccer on the school playground with a sponge ball to avoid breaking the windows. Then one day it was raining, british weather of course, but Ciro still went for a header, and the soaked sponge ball was soaked and splashed Ciro with dirty water all over. Good days.
Ciro also played a bit of Rugby in those days in a local club.
Some other good memories are of reading the first two Harry Potters, playing and mostly watching other kids play Pokemon on their Game Boys and Pokemon trading cards, and going to a nearby commons playing field and woods, as it typical throughout the UK. Ciro also played some rugby with a local boys team TODO name? but for some reason his team was always crushed when they went to nearby towns to play against other teams. And Ciro also went with his family or with school to some nearby attractions, like Stratford-Upon-Avon (Shakespeare's hometown), and some castles.
When Ali G met the Beckhams by Comic Relief (2001)
Source. Ciro's father really liked Ali G. when they were in the UK in the year 2000, and Ciro would watch along, not fully getting all jokes, but still amused by his irreverence. This interview with David and Victoria Beckham is perhaps one of Ali's best performances.Wicked wicked jungle is massive song from Ali G Indahouse (2002)
Source. OK, the last Ali G video, I promise. Maybe. This video illustrate well the main point of Ali G's humour: his cultural appropriation of American black rap/crime culture, despite it being entirely incongruence with his British background.The city clearly exists because it is in the confluence of the river Thames and the River Cherwell. In such confluences, terrain tends to be flat, and fords are also common, with crossings wide and shallow, and so it was an important crossing place.
Notably, the River Cherwell is a natural link between London and the North towards Coventry, and then Birmingham, as it, and then the Thames in which it goes into, puncture through both the Chilterns, then North Essex Downs and the Cotswolds hills. The M40.