I LOVE ENGLAND

When I first started this blog, I was worried about not knowing what to write about. After just a few days, I’ve realized the hard part is going to be knowing what NOT to write about! There’s just too much. I hardly know where to start…

I LOVE ENGLAND!

The past several days we have had various lectures and meetings and tours to get us more oriented to the city and university of Oxford. Lectures included topics like “British Manners” and “Anti-Americanism” which gave us fascinating perspective on the fundamental differences between the way the English and Americans think.

One of the primary cultural differences is that the British tend to be more reserved. It is their way of respecting for each other’s privacy. Walking around the neighborhoods, you will rarely see a front porch. Instead, homes have backyard patios and gardens where they will not have the obligation to greet everyone passing by. We were also told that in addition to this tendency to be reserved, they have an incredible talent for understatement. So if a student were to ask a tutor (professor) how he or she is doing in a subject (and that would never happen here, by the way), and the tutor replied “Not bad,” that would mean the student was actually doing pretty well. Needless to say, I took notes on that little piece of information. 

Another point the professor made regarding differences between the two cultures struck me: “Europeans are more pessimistic, whereas Americans believe death is optional.” In his opinion, this largely contributes to some of the anti-Americanism that exists in the world. We don’t “know our place.” According to his lecture, “Europeans have what Americans lack: a sense of the tragedy of life. Americans have what Europeans lack: a sense of the infinite possibilities of life.” 

Perhaps the most striking difference between the two nations was their approach to education. But that’s an entire blog post in itself.

A little more about my program! There are eight students total that are doing my particular program with Summit: four lads and four ladies. I live in a flat with the three other girls about a 20-minute walk away from the city centre (and up 5 flights of stairs, so we certainly get our exercise!) Apart from a few quirks—having our washing machine/dryer unit under the kitchen sink, no hot water in one of the bathrooms, and blown-out light bulbs in half the sockets—it’s rather quaint.

Jessie, Melissa, Yours Truly, and Meggie! 

Even though I don’t normally eat seafood, I DID have a plate of fish and chips at one of the local pubs for tradition’s sake. 

Which leads me to another topic: vocabulary! As they say, England and America are “two nations divided by the same language.” One word here can mean something totally different back home. Here “pub” is short for “public house” and basically just means restaurant (not like the American bar I first pictured when they announced at church on Sunday that the men’s meeting would be at the pub promptly after service!)  When I went to purchase a British phone, I was standing at the counter and the young gent working there came over and asked, “You alright?”  I looked up, surprised, and said “Oh yeah, I’m fine! Just trying to pick a phone...” And wondered if the jetlag was really making me look sick or something. When I went to a second store to compare prices, the guy working there came up to me and asked the same thing! After wondering what on earth must be wrong with me, I remembered a friend telling me before I left the States that that just means “How are you?”

More vocabulary just for fun:

Foot path = side walk

Lift = elevator

Bathroom = where you bathe. Restroom = where you rest. (You must ask for the “toilet,” as odd as that sounds to us)

Specks = glasses

Another part of life in England that has taken some time to get used to is the traffic! Though it should be so simple, I cannot seem to get used to the fact that they drive on the opposite side of the road! Apparently, that is the leading cause of death for tourists in England, so they’ve been kind enough to paint at their crosswalks “LOOK RIGHT” in big bold white letters. Not only do they drive on the opposite side, they BIKE on the opposite side too, and I barely escaped getting hit by a biker…twice. They also walk on the opposite side of the “footpath” which has led to a couple awkward but funny encounters already.

Saturday we took a fieldtrip to Bath and Stonehenge along with other students studying abroad at Oxford. Both sites were incredible. In this case, pictures will do more justice than words, so I will post them below.

English countryside on the way to Bath

View of Bath from the top of the Abbey

Some of my group! They're great :)

From inside the Bath Abbey clock tower. Climbed 212 steps to get there!

The famous Roman Baths

Stonehenge! I felt like I was in a movie or something.

Below are a few more pictures from my time so far. More to come! 

Chapel at New College, Oxford

The daily walk into town

Evensong at New College

Evensong at Christ Church tonight

Miss you, friends! Please update me on your lives!

Cheerio!