Saturday, January 21, 2012

Keeping My Promise!

Longest Sushi Conveyor Belt!


My sketchy/lovely bus stop for 40 min.

Countdown to London Olympics 2012!

Buckingham Palace
Miss Charlotte and I at Westminster Abbey!

I promised I would blog today, and I'd like to keep that promise!
So...London was amazing! We were doing a lot of walking, so it was pretty exhausting, but it's LONDON, so it was definitely worth it. Simon, one of the faculty of our program, led us on a tour through some of the sights, which was fantastic. As you'll see in the pictures, we went to Buckingham Palace, Parliament, Downing Street where the Prime Minister resides, Trafalgar Square, and Westminster Abbey. I did get a picture with a guard, but some of the pictures are on my friend's camera, so I'll get those up when I can!

School's been great! I love the tutorial system so much better than the education system in the US (so far), but that seems to be the consensus of most of the other American students with me as well. What happens is that every day, I have a lecture to go to, which involves all of the English Department students from all of the colleges at Oxford. Therefore, I am essentially taking classes as an Oxford student, which is incredible. It's so different - they have about an hour to lecture us, so they jump right into it. No introduction of themselves or the course...they just start talking about the subject...which makes a lot of sense considering we're there to learn about the subject rather than getting charmed by our professor. Although, it is appealing that the classes are way more relational in the US too. Anyway, so so far, I have gone to lectures entitled: The Culture Debate (context of culture during literature in history), American Modernist Poetry, and Literature and the Mind. They're all pretty interesting...what makes it even better is that neither I nor the other students are getting tested on the material or have to write papers; we just go and listen. Their system is interesting, actually; they go to one-on-one tutorials and lectures for 3 years, and at the end of the 3 year period, they take cumulative examinations that determine whether they graduate or not. Scary in one sense, but good in the other because they actually have to retain the information. THEN, I have about 3 books to read and a 2,000 word paper to write each week for my tutorials, which are one-on-one. My first tutorial was yesterday, and I wrote a paper on Phantastes after reading it and Lilith, both by George MacDonald who was, C.S. Lewis states, his greatest inspiration. This week, I'm reading The Great Divorce and some of William Blake's poetry to supplement it. It's a lot of work, but I've enjoyed it so far immensely. My days mostly consist of waking up, riding my bike (which is getting less scary!) into town, running errands, and then going to the library all day until my food group has family dinner at 6:00 pm when we all eat a homemade meal together. I try to get lots of reading and writing done during the day so that by the time dinner rolls around, I've called it a day :) We'll see how well I'll stick to that! I am determined!

Funny story of the week (perhaps the whole time that I've been here):
Yesterday, I was invited over for a game/pudding night at my church small group leader's house, but to get there, I decided to take the bus since it was further away. Getting there worked out ok...I was stuck at one of the stops for 40 minutes, but I found entertainment in studying the ground, checking my watch, and eavesdropping. On the way BACK, however, I got on a bus and heard an immense amount of loud singing. As I turned to walk into the bus, I was greeted with a loud "HULLO!" from a group of about 30 drunk college kids in Halloween costumes. ?? I'm talkin corsets, glitter, fairy wings, rag dolls, dyed hair, makeup, heels, and...a kid in a cowboy hat. That began talking to me.
"Hey, I know you're American...where are you from?" He's a little tipsy too...leaning in to hear me because they are belting it out in the back of the bus. I told him California.
"Oh! My ex-girlfriend's from there! Say, do you like Folger's coffee?" Only he pronounced the "g" like as in "goat"
Then he said he LOVED Lucky Charms and Butterfingers, so he order all three of those things from offline. Then he mentioned that Hershey's tasted horrible (and it does, compared to the chocolate here!). They all got off at the same stop and, of course, shouted "GOODBYE!" to me before exiting. Very friendly. Very drunk. Very entertaining.

I found out later that this is a thing in Oxford, I guess. Getting dressed up in costumes and going to clubs for someone's birthday. That there is them Brits lettin loose. Craziness.

BUT I did make it home safely, and I have realized it's probably not the smartest thing to take public transportation during the night. When I came in view of my house and saw everyone in the kitchen window, I practically ran toward it, smiling because I was home :)

That's all the updates I'll give for now, but I have a few more differences, I believe :)

Here we go!
  • Serviette = napkin. I think it sounds more like a waiter.
  • Pick-up line = chat-up line. Pick-up sounds like you're just adding someone on to your entourage...chat-up sounds way friendlier. I like it.
  • They say we've got it "sorted" instead of "figured out". Either one works, right?
  • Restroom = loo or toilet. Toilet makes way more logical sense than RESTroom. It's taken some getting used to saying, though!
  • Catch Phrase/Taboo = Articulate. Way harder for me, since I have no idea about British pop culture. I learned, though!
  • This one's a more well-known one, but: Pants = trousers. Pants are your underwear. Way more posh sounding, England.
  • They don't give you the option of straight-up coffee at cafes...only things like lattes, mochas, cappuccinos, etc. They don't know why you would want it by itself. USA for the WIN!
  • Lights in all of the domestic bathrooms I've been in have had pull strings rather than switches...kind of easier.
  • The average dinner time is around 8 pm...somebody mentioned having dinner at 6, and they were like, "Wow, that is quite early!" This is mostly because they have tea in the late afternoon, which holds them over until dinner.
  • I don't know if I said this one in the beginning, but the trash can is, indeed, the rubbish bin. Way more fun to say.
  • This is just kind of interesting: many English folk have now begun asking if you're from Canada rather than just assuming you're American. The Canadians would get really upset and harshly say they were NOT Americans, so the British don't want to offend anyone.
I'm sure there are many more, but I will save them for next time. Until then, I hope to update you soon, and I'm thankful for all of your prayers! Love you!

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