The End of England and Reflections on Being Back

The start of term two brought new people into the mix of our experience. There were more students from Europe and other parts of the world for this semester than the last. We made friends with people from Italy, Belgium, Germany, Spain and France just to name a few. They were here to study English and were willing to talk to us where as I practiced my elementary Italian to their surprise. It was interesting to see their view of America and American culture. They found it strange that we were not able to drink until we were 21 where as in their cultures drinking was something done with their families ever since they were little. Something that Americans take for grant it is that everyone knows the jargon that we do. One day we were watching Crash and a scene came up where someone called another person a "redneck" two of my friends from Japan and Spain did not know what a "redneck" was and Brian and I tried to explain since to us and everyone in America a "redneck" is a generally known term. They also were very interested in American politics and knew a lot about them more than probably some Americans. A cultural difference was the fact that politicians paid citizens to come and hear them speak where as in America people pay thousands of dollars to hear a politician speak. Everyone that I came across that lived in Europe was hoping and wanting Obama to win the nomination. A couple of times I experienced people generalizing Americans beliefs especially in one instance where one Royal Marine got into an argument with us about the war in Iraq and figured that everyone in America must have been for it.

The last two weeks flew by and it would have been nice to have had more time with the second term people. It was fun to be able to do the orientation to Cambridge with another set of people, such as exploring town and going punting. This time with punting we decided to try it ourselves and seemed to do a pretty good job and got far down the Cam. My second group of classes was challenging and fun especially History of Museums and Art Collecting. We visited two separate museums in Cambridge and it challenged our preception of what art is. My second class was Introduction of Ancient Egyptian Religion which is something that I have always been interested in and it was great to be able to reach out to a different segment of history besides American. Our last dinner came quickly and it came time to say good bye. Most people left and went home that day however I had a few more days in England with my Dad. Hopefully all of us will keep in touch and now I have fun and exciting places to go and visit. Who wouldn't like to go to Sicily?

Now that I have been back in the United States for almost a month I have adjusted back to life in Boston. It was awesome to see all of my friends again and get that burrito and Dunkin Donuts coffee that I was craving. There are definitely somethings I miss about England. I miss the availability of other countries. It was extremely easy to just hop on a train and go to see another country I wish I had more time to explore the rest of Europe. I miss constantly meeting new people and having people around to hang out with and explore new places. It was a lot of fun to have the dorm experience again after a few years of living off campus. One thing that I definitely do not miss is the conversion rate it is nice to be able to buy something again and it only costing $3. Overall I had a wonderful experience I made a lot of good friends that I hopefully will keep in touch with I took a lot of fun and challenging classes and I learned to be a little more independent. Studying abroad helped me to challenge my perceptions of things as well as want to travel to see other places.

Bitter Sweet Ending Number 1

The first part of my program ended on Friday which means most of the friend that I had made left as well and a whole new group of people would be starting here on Sunday for two weeks. When I came to the summer school I thought that most people would be staying for the whole six weeks and not just doing the first program. What makes it kinda hard is that you got the point where you really started to make friendships with people and then they left. Also everyone was starting to reach out to other people and hang out with a different group. Now we have a whole new group of people that we need to get to know in just two weeks along with write two more papers in half the time. But more about the end of the first term...
The last week most people finished their papers early and we were able to hang out during the day and do some fun things. On Tuesday we went bowling in a place very similar to malls in America with restaurants, bowling alley and even a movie theater. Vic and I tried to go and see The Dark Knight this was our fourth attempt but it was sold out yet again. When we were bowling it was hard to believe that I was in a different country 6 hours from my home. Everything seemed very American from the cosmic bowling, the music and even the hamburgers though they were not as good as at home. It was fun to be able to do the things that you would normally do on your last week earlier. We got a big group of people together and went punting down the river Cam. We were going to go punting ourselves but because of all the boats in the water we decided that might not be a good idea. Our guide was great, he came from France to work for the punting company because his uncle owned it. The fun fact that I learned from the punting trip was when the city was first built they needed a connect the two sides so they built a bridge over the river Cam hence the name Cambridge. Which doesn’t make sense with the name of Cambridge in Massachusetts though I suppose it is one of those things that we just like borrowing names from England. On the last night there was a formal dinner that everyone got dressed up for. The food was actually good and we got served Harry Potter style in the Grand Hall. After dinner everyone in Newnham hung out together and enjoyed their last night there. The next day we decided to go into London with everyone before their flights left. We went to the Tate Modern and spent around four hours there looking at all the art. One of the great things about museums in England is that for the most part they are free, we decided to splurge and get the 1 pound headset which was worth the money and gave great background stories on the art work. After the Tate we bid farewell to everyone as they made their way to the airport. We were sad to see everyone go since we were under the impression that everyone was staying for the full six weeks and we had just gotten to the point where everyone was hanging out with one another and friendships were really forming. We are excited about meeting the term two people and taking new classes even though we have half as much time to do the essays.

British Law and Now I Know Why American Law is the Way it is

My second class for the first summer school was British Law and Legal processes. I originally had picked this class so that I could fulfill a political science requirement but I ended up learning a lot not only about the British legal system but also America's and other people's countries. One of the great things about the Cambridge program is that you meet people from all over the world as well as have classes with me and learn different perspectives. My class had people from Germany, India, Mexico, China and Holland as well as from all over America. The first part of the class was just teaching the basic principles of law and justice, the second part of the class went into the basic components of the English law system. Some of the ways that the English law system works is very different from our own and some are a little shocking. Here they have magistrate courts which means that instead of having a jury trial you go in front of three unpaid lay people who decide your fate. Magistrate cases are usually the smaller offense but they can still levy fines and sentences without really knowing the law all that well. One of the only good things that I can see about this is that the court system does not get back logged like a lot do in the United States. Another surprising part about the English legal system is that the Queen is above the law whatever she does she can get away with there is no way to prosecute her. in America there are people that can seem like they are above the law politicians or celebrities but they still cannot get away with anything. The teacher put it like this if the people did not like something the Queen did then there would need to be a revolution for anything to change. The British also do not have a written constitution or document that is above law such as a bill of rights. I found this confusing since the government in the US is constantly in check by what the Constitution says or the Bill of Rights. England has a general bill of rights, but nothing that if a person wanted to challenge what Parliament passed they would have nothing to go to, to point out their rights. The class was definitely an eye opener in that two countries so similar in culture and a lot of things could be so different in their legal systems. It also helped me to realize that the American legal system was set up the way it was in order to go against some of the things that they saw as unjust in the English legal system.

One thing that surprised me a lot about the English and Europeans as a whole was their fascination with the Presidential election. The first night I was here a lady from Denmark asked who I was going to vote for at dinner which took me by surprise since in the US you never really go up to someone and ask them straight out who they would vote for. You might talk about politics not normally at the dinner table though it has become less taboo. I was able to turn the question around and ask her who she would vote for if she could and she said Obama. Which is another thing they love over here is Obama (if you couldn't tell by his trip over here). They definitely want him to win and one kind from the Netherlands asked me where he could get an Obama shirt. Europeans cannot understand why people pay to go see a politician speak where over here the politicians pay them to come and see them speak.


More later about the end of term 1 and the beginning of term 2

KP

Allons-y!

Long weekends in Boston normally consist of grand ideas and end up being us sleeping in late and actually making breakfast. Long weekends in England are something slightly different. Last weekend we packed up our bags and left the bad food and the cold weather for Paris.

We left on Friday on the Eurostar train from London on a two hour journey under the chunnel to Paris. In the United States the concept of riding a train to get to a destination two hours is practically unheard of. One of the largest differences I have seen in Europe compared to that of the US is large availability of public transportation which allows for easy travel anywhere without worrying about cars or gas prices. Being a city girl at heart and never really fond of driving makes me wish that they had this type of easy public transportation in the US. Not to mention the metro in Paris comes every five minutes and tells you when the next train comes something that I will surely miss when I go to ride the T again.

After arriving in Paris around 9:00am, we were going non-stop for the next three days. The first day we did a four and a half hour walking tour in which our comical tour guide basically showed us all of the downtown Paris. We saw everything from the Arc de Triomphe, Grand Ballet, Peite Ballet, Eiffel Tower and the Opera House. Along the way the tour guide gave us the stories behind the places (people at home be prepared for useless Kathleen stories). After a long day of walking we ate on the Champs Elysees at a cafe on the sidewalk and had a delicious meal of strictly non-English foods of pasta and crepes. We went on our way to separate hostels and got settled and then decided to meet at the Eiffel Tower. We met under the blue and yellow lights of the Eiffel Tower illuminated for the Tour de France. We took a bunch of pictures got chocolate crepes and then decided to call it an early night since we were exhausted.

The next day we decided to be absolutes tourists and do all the major sites. After moving our luggage to the other hostel we met up with everyone at the Louvre. We decided to all go and see the Mona Lisa and then split up from there. The Mona Lisa is one of the most poorly placed paintings I have ever seen. Here is this great work of art that millions of people come to see a year and it is completely dwarfed by the largest painting the Louvre has the covers the whole wall from pretty much the bottom to the top of the cathedral ceiling. Despite the minor detail I still thought the Mona Lisa was pretty cool and definitely a thing you must see. From there I went to see the French Art, I saw The Coronation of Napoleon and Liberty Leading the People(aka the Coldplay album cover). From there I went to see a bunch of the Ancient Egyptian artifacts, which I found the British Museum to have a more impressive collection. I went into the British art hall and found a bunch of the paintings that I had been learning about in class. I really liked being able to go around by myself and see that things that I wanted to see since no one else wanted to spend two hours in the Egyptian wing. After that we met up and went to go get lunch which took two hours (got to love group traveling). We went to the Notre Dame after that and sat down for a bit. There I talked to a family from San Diego that was traveling around Europe. I gave them suggestions about where to go in Barcelona and to make sure that they check out the chocolate con churros. We split up from there and decided to get changed and go to the grocery store to get food for the picnic at the Eiffel Tower. Baguettes, prosciutto and brie cheese is what we nibbled on as we watched the sun set and the Eiffel Tower light up blue. We took some jumping pictures had some more crepes and then headed back to the hostel for the 2:00am curfew.

The next day Vic, Brian and I were the only ones that had some time before our train so we decided to go exploring for a bit. On Amanda's suggestion we made our way to the Marais which is the Jewish section of Paris. Where all the streets were deserted on our walk there as soon as we turned the corner we found tons of restaurants that had bagels, falafel and shwarma. We got some bagels and frozen yogurt and ate outside enjoying the warm weather. We unfortunately didn't have time to go and see the Statue of Liberty. May be next time...

That's all for now

Au Revoir

KP

Summer Views of Cambridge

Culture Shock?

I'm writing this after the fourth dinner in a row which consisted of some sort of left overs and something inedible. If this is what culture shock is than I guess I have it. The food the first couple of days was fine a mix of pasta and chicken even the dessert was good with tiramisu. It was all downhill from there. Every night there is a vegetarian dish with some sort of "meat" dish. These "meat" dishes normally consist of fish, which don't get me wrong I love fried fish and salmon which they had two nights. This fish is a fish of a different kind there are silvery scales and I'm pretty sure I saw and eye. There is always potatoes and sometimes chips (French fries for our French fan or Freedom fries for the American ones) carrots and rolls. The past couple of days all I have been eating is carbs which makes me a very tired and energy less person. All I want right now is a Boloco burrito, Terriyaki House orange chicken bowl or Pad Thai. I also miss being able to eat when I want with a set time of 6:30 you pretty much have to get there around then and be done eating by 7:30 or you start to get nasty looks from the wait staff.

One thing that I don't really miss from home is having the internet everywhere. It is nice sometimes to be able to not have to worry about my email or who has a new Facebook picture I happily check that once a day now. What is not the best feature of the internet here is the fact that I'm not allowed to go on my instant massager or skype especially since I put money on skype to use to call people at home.

I wish the time difference was a little better or I had at least the ability to call my best friends. It's hard to coordinate a time when we are all free to talk especially with the five hour time difference. And sometimes all you need is just to talk to your best friend.

With all this I guess I will just have to settle for burritos in my dreams and Paris this weekend.

Just Like Home But With Funnier Accents

After four days and much traveling, rain and drama I have made it to Cambridge. I left on Sunday evening after a day filled with repacking and breakfast with Brianne. I had some last minute packing to do (surprise surprise). After much sweat and tears I was able to pack all my things into two checked bags and one very stuffed carry on. After a meal of mac and cheese (I was trying to think of something very American) and a few text message good byes my parents and I made our way to the airport. The plan was to meet Brian and Vicktor at the terminal before we checked our luggage in. Anyone who has ever been to Logan or has tried to get to an airport can figure that this did not go to plan. After my Mom and I walked the length of the terminal a few times trying to find the tiny red Virgin Atlantic sign we ended up back where we started. After waiting for a while for Brian and Vicktor I decided to just get my ticket and check my bags. That is when the real fun started. My carry on bag (or hand bag as the Brits say) was overweight by a lot and was told that I would have to check it along with my child aka Macbook. As I had a mini panic attack with the guy at the check in my parents tried to help me repack. As that was being sorted out Brian and Vicktor arrived by way of the T which explains the lateness. After minimal incidents going through security (my bag needed to be searched because I didn’t put my shaving cream in the quart size bag) we made it on our Virgin Atlantic flight. Virgin Atlantic reminded me of Jet Blue with the individual TV screens on the back of the chairs you could even text message someone sitting in another seat. The meal was tasty for airplane food and we got wine with it. Another perk was our overnight pack with all the essentials toothbrush, toothpaste, earplugs and socks. After watching 27 Dresses I was able to sleep for a couple of hours and woke up looked out the window and the London Eye was in view.
We had finally made it! After going through customs and picking up my very heavy luggage we met up with two other Northeastern students and made our way to the coach that would bring us to the University of Cambridge. I was able to fall asleep on the drive to Cambridge which was for the better since the driver was insane. Luckily we made it safe and sound to our respective colleges (one going to Sewlyn and the rest of us at Newnham) we received our keys to our home for the next six weeks. I walked into my room on the third floor (or in England the second floor) and found four tables, three chairs, a bed, chest, and desk. Every room is different here with Vicktor’s having a balcony and chaise (be jealous Brianne) and Brian’s is slightly smaller. At Northeastern I’m use to everything being uniform if not in size like Light Hall then at least with the same furniture or something close to it. After some rearranging my room is a little less like a restaurant and more like a dorm room. After taking a nap I went out exploring with Melissa another student at Northeastern. One thing that I learned early on is that pedestrians have no rights at all here and got splashed by a car driving right into a puddle. We found some Borders as well as the University book store, a shopping mall and a grocery store. I stocked up on water and postcards (everyone check their mailboxes). The real disappointment and problem was that I was not able to find any of the other books that I need. Which makes me concerned since apparently I was suppose to read them before class started. The directions that I had received on my syllabus were vague and I’m not use to having to prepare that much for a course especially at Northeastern. We made it back in time for dinner which was not bad pasta and chicken and dessert (not quite Boloco ). After orientation Brian, Vicktor and I decided to walk around Cambridge and found a cool lounge with couches a juke box and black and white photos of old American movie stars and toasted to our successful arrival to England.

More on classes, British internet and my first week in Cambridge

Cheerio!

12 more days...

Twelve more days until I get on a plane and leave New England for something a little older. There is still a lot I have left to do, I move out this weekend and the process of packing up everything (not to mention all those shoes) can be slightly overwhelming. Anyone who knows me will know that packing light is not a strong point for me. There is also still a lot of good byes to do. I said good bye to coop and the State House on Friday, all in all a good coop that taught me a lot and gave me some direction but it will be good to move on. Not to mention gave me a great Facebook picture. There are still a lot of other people I want to see and spend time with before I leave. I know I'm only going to be there for six weeks but once I get back things will become much different than what they are now. Some of the difference will be for the better but I can't help to feel like I might not like some of them. Taking a break from Boston and going out and meeting new people, visiting new places will help me become less dependent on things that I have become to take for grant it.

Now if only I didn't have to take classes...