It takes a village.... to bore a college student
Last night was an eyeopener. Nottingham is way too damned big. I'm all for a goodtime, but to revert back to my Amusement Park analogy, I almost feel like there's too much to do here. there are literally thousands of bars, clubs, pubs, and hangouts. Walking from one side of city centre to another is like crawling over drunks, avoiding people handing out flyers, and avoiding taxis. We found out the hard way that IDs are a necessity, and International ID cards do not count. Passports and Drivers License only please.
Mary and Hil headed home dejected (they bonded, don't worry), and the rest of the overwhelmingly large Luther contingency made our way to Walkabout, a huge Australian-themed pub/club on the Westside. Atmosphere was ok, drinks were cheap, and the crowd was entirely too old. We arrived at the conclusion that we are lame. We have too many people, no native friends, and are not comortable enough with the city to wander around at night. Hopefully that will change.
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Today was an experience.... each one of us (the 9 Notters) were assigned a local village just outside of the Nottingam city limits. Ryan and I were paired up to explore Lowdham, a city to the southeast of city centre. Other cities included Calverton, Cotgrave, Sutton-Bonnington, and Southwell (pronounced Suthall)...
Basically we were told to make our way to the towns, enjoy the town, and make our way back. The objective was to talk to as many people as possible (even with their stuffy attitudes). Unfortunately, Ryan and I are not exactly anxious to talk to strangers, let alone on the other side of the world. Sad, yes, but I think the act of talking to another person should be voluntary, not a graded adventure.......nah, I'm just scared to talk to people....
On the plus side, Brandon and Kate managed to meet more people today than I have in my three weeks here It's a skill. Kate has a knack for talking to random people about ANYTHING. Today, while walking down the street she noticed a man gardening and managed to have a 30 minute conversation by using the pick-up line: "I think we have a bush like that back home in the states"....this girl could write one-liners for a living....
Ryan and I were less than enthusiastic. After the bus drove straight through our town once, we managed to get off as soon as possible and walk across the street to try and catch the next bus back into town. We stood next to a Kelly Osborne look-alike for awhile before the bus actually came, but the awkwardness lasted throughout the day.
Ryan and I first made our way to the Magna Charta (a play on words, a silent H? we still don't know)- one of the 3 famous pubs in Lowdham (and also one of the few businesses actually open). After downing a pint before noon, we headed out to find better food. -- in a side note, it's kind of sad that a chain company has taken over the best pubs in the UK, but H&H is the owner of both Ye Old Trip to Jerusalem and the Magna Charta)....
Our next stop was a bust. Despite the sign outside reading "5 pounds- one pint and one pie- Satudays"- a freshly chalked sign mind you, the young bartendress inside was less than helpful.
"so i see you have a deal today- five pounds for a pint and a meal"
"what? where'd you get an idea like that?"
"outside, the sign that says so"
'no no no, not here we're not serving food all day'
Sweet. so we left, our conversation with her being the one and only one we had maintained during our hour in Lowdham, still leaving a bad taste in my mouth (or was it the H&H Special Lager? )
To draw a longer-than-necessary blog to an end, we finally managed to find a decent pub, the World's End, where i enjoyed the bliss that is Guiness Extra Cold and a Steak Sandwich on a hoagie.
Ryan managed to flirt like crazy with a girl on the bus, but a combination of her caked-on makeup and the bus's vibrating seats gave my already bad headache a stir, and I vouched for listening to my ipod instead of branching out.
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In the end, it was kindof depressing. the towns surrounding Nottingham are falling apart- the elderly enjoy them, but the young people come by the busloads into the city centre on weekends (estimates are as high as 100,000 people every weekend come in just to party). ..
tomorrow looks like a day of shopping, visting Hyson Greene (neighborhood nearby), and watching Jane Eyre on BBC1.
Changes....shoot, change is everywhere
So, less than one full week into basking in the glory of my new schedule, and I'm making changes. Apparently Dr Wee has nothing better to do at Luther than shoot me down.- Brandon and I recieved emails today informing us that our "Language, Communications and Society" class is in no way similar to the Luther class "English Language/Linguistics".... so we're more or less screwed.
Our options are to A) take some BS class (one of the very few) that the University will let us take in the English Dept., or B) try to kill some other grad requirement.... So option B it is. My new class is a non-lab science, titled "Woodland Ecology". I know, it sounds just like me. No time to complain, I guess I just hope Luther keeps it down this time.
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In other news, some old Notters (97 and 98 Luther Grads) stopped by the flat today while everyone else was gone. I was making some awesome fruit syruppy/jam stuff for our p-cakes, and the doorbell rang, only to reveal two very Norwiegen looking people and their semi-British friend. It was cool to see their reactions to the new and improved flat, but depressing at the same time. They reminisced about Nottingham times gone by, but also told me how isolated they felt as Americans, and how few actual English friends that they had made. Keep in mind that neither of them were involved in societies much, but the thought of only making friends with other Americans studying Internationally was downright lame. They seemed like pretty cool people- what was their problem?
Also strange to note- they hadn't been back to luther since 2001, and were asking about how campus was. Turning on my tourguide charm, I started thinking about all of the things that have started up at Luther since they had graduated in the late 90's.... the answer? A hell of a lot: New union, CFA built in 2002, Brandt remodel, Olson remodel, Larson remodel, Ylvi remodel, Towers somewhat better, Baker Village was built, Marty's has changed quite a bit.... I was shocked at how much Luther has done in the past 10 years, and was surprised that they hadn't been back.
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Tomorrow we "Explore a Village" - we are individually sent to different surrounding towns to learn about the communities and the people that live there. Ryan is actually my partner, and I'm looking forward to the "Amazing Race-eque" quality of being forced to travel in a very unknown area. Our town is called Lothbroosdihf;oansd..... hell I have no idea. I guess we'll find out tomorrow when we stumble downtown to the bus station and manage to find our way there....
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Finally, UNOTT was just voted as top 10 University in the UK and a top 100 in the world... (74th in the world to be more precise.... Harvard Stanford and Yale make up the top 3)
For better reference, here are the schools that WE are better than....
74. University of Nottingham
75. Carnegie Mellon University
76. Lund University
77. Texas A&M University
78. University of Western Australia
79. Ecole Normale Super Paris
80. University of Virginia
81. Technical University of Munich
82. Hebrew University of Jerusalem
83. Leiden University
84. University of Waterloo
85. King's College London
86. Purdue University
87. University of Birmingham
88. Uppsala University
89. University of Amsterdam
90. University of Heidelberg
91. University of Queensland
92. University of Leuven
93. Emory University
94. Nagoya University
95. Case Western Reserve University
96. Chinese University of Hong Kong
97. University of Newcastle
98. Innsbruck University
99. University of Massachusetts at Amherst
100. Sussex University
So take that, US. In other other news, UNOTT's American Studies Dept was named best Am. Studies Dept in the UK as well. So here's to a decent education abroad.....
Are you calling me a term paper?
Today was lazy, lame, blah. tying up lose ends as Brandon would say. Make room for Friday, I guess. Our essays on British Education are due today at 5, and i would just assume shoot myself in the face. Guns being illegal here in the UK, i'll have to substitute coming down with a crappy cold for the shot to the head.
Today the girls and I walked to Jubilee campus (about 20 minutes through our working class neighborhood), took ID pics, and handed in our blue sheets.
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On the way I found many exciting new Cigarette Warnings, which brings us to a segment I like to call "AWESOMELY CRUEL CIGARETTE WARNINGS THAT MUST MAKE ALL SMOKERS EITHER LAUGH OR FEEL LIKE CRAPPY PEOPLE:"
I had to ask the lady behind the counter at a convenience store to take that pic
That's almost as good as the sperm and fertility one.....
So multicultural over here.... anyone have any idea what that means, or even what language it's in?.......
It's almost like they're making fun of the smokers.....
This last one I actually found on a piece of wood, a stump, in the Moors out on our hike... the tree was about 6 or 7 feet in diameter.... friggin huge.
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Otherwise, things are going well... i guess.... Lately it seems as though our meetings with Mark and Carol have been lasting forgoddamnedever... Especially with our new allegiances to Societies and Groups at the school, this whole Luther thing is really starting to hinder our social lives. Tuesdays are officially Paidiea nights- lasting from dinner at 5 until around 9 or 930. Now, Thursdays are days when we turn in our essays about Tuesday night. Last night we had dinner around 6, and the girls didn't finish washing dishes until 9... It's beginning to be rediculous. Not to mention our weekend trips- which, (although amazing and fun and cool and exciting and mind expanding) are the exact same dates as my crosscountry meets, Brandon's crew training and practices, and other Society meeting times....
We met a kid from Queens who was really intersted in finding a way to travel around the UK, which would suck.... but do we really want to be stuck on the other end of the extreme? I can't believe that I'm complaining about traveling around the UK, but sometimes it would be nice to settle into a routine...
As far as classes, at this point the disorganization and confusion that our two Luther courses are emitting is enough for me to want to punch a baby. Thank god my UNOTT classes only meet on Wed,Th,Fri.... man, that's sweet.
I guess that's it... I'm looking forward to finshing this crapfest of an essay, getting over sickeness, and possibly going for a run (yeah....)
until later,
kevin
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Actually, I had promised a pic of that 'sex ed' card that I found at the Fresher's Fayre.... The intention was to convince kids not to have sex or at least not unprotected sex. First is the side I saw, followed by what the back said (in a thousand words)...
For some reason, I can't see Bob Barker hosting a show called "The Sex Lottery"....
That's some creative advertising.... courtesy of the English....
Sex, Ques, and Registration
Day three(?) of registration is in the books so to speak, and what a day. Aside from almost committing assult on a very stubborn and (let's face it) frumpy Englishwoman in a patronizing yellow polo, the day is almost over and i'll be a better man for it.
We arrived at the English Dept que at about 9, and waited for a good half hour before we made it to the main room. Problem One: in the main room, students were queing behind signs for their classes which had been posted on the walls. Our classes were not among those posted. Problem Two: before entering the room, it was discovered that-although the module info on the internet claimed our classes were 10 credit- they were now all listed as 20. Not good.
We made it to the front of one line, where a lady told us to see the head honcho in the English Dept. Her office was filled with candy wrappers, fruit baskets, and angry looking foreign exchange students. Ana was first, and upon presenting her BLUE SHEET of hopeful classes to the Yellow Lady, was promptly told that "You can't take these... any of them.... " And the yellow lady crossed them off of her sheet.
Ana was dumbfounded. Brandon was next. Same result. While the internet and several members of the International Student office told us that we were able to take certain classes, we were denied- save for a few very unhelpful courses that were available to all students regardless of ability or level.
Bottom line: we signed up for a course with a similar title and equally vague course description as our intended course: "English, Communications, and Society"
Now we sit and pray that Luther accepts the course as a linguistics/comm class that can be used towards the Ed minor.
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In other news, we were treated to an awesome lecture last night from a professor who has taught in the US and in the UK for the past 30 years. He included some insight into the mindset of most UNott students as we begin to meet them in our classes.
Most importantly: they are rich. they have studied the same subject for the past 4 years or more, and they are spoiled. While we sit in classes with these Brits, they pay less than 5,000 US dollars a year in tuition. To be fair, Diet Coke here is about 2 US dollars for a 20 oz, but let's be real- the Luther gang is here paying 30,000 a year, taking out loans with outrageous interest rates. Interest rates for British students? Zero. And loans are repaid as soon as the students are able to earn more than 15,000 L (30 grand) a year. So... under this system, teachers in the US would never repay their loans.
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glad to be done with registration, looking forward to running on a team again, needing to finish this essay for Luther class, hungry for chicken cooking upstairs, wishing Muggles didn't make us sound like morons in an email to the UNott directors....
kevin
oh, more on the 'sex' in the title later.... i have a pretty rediculous picture (don't worry, family)
Registration.... a day of que-ing and frustration.
Welcome to Britain, where lines are called 'ques' and where the concept of a 'Liberal Arts Institution' is as foreign as.... well, no one over here gets it.
Today was spent attempting to register for classes at the Univeristy of Nottingham. While computers may or may not have been invented in 1934 (ENIAC, Iowa State, bitches), they still prefer to have students wait in line with a sheet of paper that outlines their plan of classes to take (for the entire year, mind you), without any kind of idea as to how the classes may fit into a weekly schedule.
So picture this: 9 Luther students, confused as hell, get on the bus to head to campus knowing that they must sign up for spring and fall semester-- only some classes will transfer to Luther, and we can only take 'Level One' or 'Level A' classes... Also, as mentioned previously, we have no idea what times these classes will meet, or if we will even get in the classes in the first place.
In England, each student selects a course of study at age 14. At this point, they begin to specialize. By age 16, 40% of students in England have dropped out, while the other 60% are to chose just 4 subjects. By 17, they take only 3 subjects, making them very very sure about their subject area.
In a lecture today after dinner, a visiting professor told us a good way to think about it is "Americans know very little about a lot of things, while the British students know alot about very little"
So, while I wanted to sign up for 1)American Novel, 2)Islamic Traditions, 3)History/Context of English Language, 4)Television Cultures, I will be sent to 3 different meeting points on 2 separate days, with lines that (today at the Theology dept) were 2 hours long.
In the American Studies Dept, over 40 foreign students waited for 20 minutes before a lady came crashing into the corridor exclaiming "If American Studies is not your home school, you must leave! I have 9 students on this list, the rest... get out!"
Try explaining to someone who assumes you've taken American Studies classes for the last 5 years what a "Liberal Arts School" is and what it means as far as class variety. Absolutely clueless.
Rest of the story? After being kicked out, we headed to Internt'l students office, where an even more inept lady fed us some line about 'don't worry about it' after which we headed back to the same building and meandered our way into a room for returning students, and managed to register after another lenghty debate about American Schooling and the idea of learning more than one subject for 10 years....
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Tomorrow Brandon and I will attempt to sign up for a class that (fingers crossed) Luther will accept as our 'linguistics' course for the Secondary Ed minor.
In other news, I'm leaning towards the school magazine Impact, running Crosscountry, and possibly enjoying myself and allying with the Real Ale Society.
Good times.
School in exactly 6 days. Bout damned time.
kevin
History Boys, Derbyshire, Fresher's Fayre
Well, after a fun-filled week of Oreintation, it felt great to be back in the flat and get back to normal. After deciding to skip out on our last Orientation meal (influenced by our missing the bus' last stop of the day), we made a long and rainy walk around the block to a local Chinese food/Traditional English fried food joint. Let's just say I'm counting down the days until June 7th when I can mow down some Tsing Tsao crab rangoon.
Saturday was again, lazy. Most of the day was spent catching up on the 130 pages of reading for our International Studies 135 course "Exploring Britian" (basically a travel course with random quizzes and tests and reading assingments and journals), which we followed with a three page test that Mark and Carol brought over to the flat. Sample Question: "Describe, draw an example, and give an approximate date for the following styles of arches and windows in English Cathedrals: 1)Norman, 2)Roman, 3)Gothic, 4)Perpendicular, and 5)Decorated "
Are you kidding me?
Fortunately, Satuday ended on a good note, as we headed to the Royale Theatre in town to watch The History Boys, a play written by national genius Alan Bennett.
The story is interesting- old crotchety teacher, new uptight but smart wiseass teacher, kids that are smart but don't care, mixed with a little homoeroticism and plasma screens that played music from the Dire Straits and other 1980's indie groups made for a play that was both challenging and entertaining. It made me wonder- would a story that contained so much locational humor (making fun of going to different universities in the UK), and so much homosexual entendre ever make it in the US? Emily says it's on broadway, so i guess it has, but a lot of the humor has to be lost on US audiences.
The audience here was so amazingly cultured. At one point, the characters start speaking french as part of a class- the scene lasts about 10 minutes, and it's hilarious, but as a non-french speaker, I was soooo lost at times. The audience around me, however, was dying with laughter....
In other news, MAGNUM is everywhere here.... from ice-cream treats to electric dryers, it's all over the place. (pics later)
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Sunday provided a nice trip to Derbyshire, where we visited an Anglican church and took part in a mass, presided over by a local bishop... the guy was hilarious, and afterwards the entire congregation cornered us and made us stay for tea and coffee. Carol was pursuaded into buying a ton of Plum Jam, while Brandon left with an 80 year old's phone number....
After lunch, we visited Haddon Hall (another ancient building) that had been unused for about 200 years, and had recently been restored. The garden was amazing, and the following pics do it more justice than I ever could with words:
Later, we had tea, scones, and clotted cream. Very English. Stomachs full, we went on a 6 mile hike across the Moors. The following pics, again, will do more justice than I ever could.
These pics are included for several reasons. 1) The Red Lion is one of the most popular names for pubs in the UK. Crosscountry Runners will know why. 2) All Handicapped signs here are backwards, and it bugs the crap out of me. Maybe it's the whole 'left side of the road' thing. 3) The last one is just funny. Note the steaming pile.
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Today was Fresher's Fayre, a chance for first year students at the University to check out the more than 120 societies and groups on campus. It's hard for me to understand, and I forget at times that Nottingham has over 30,000 students. That's bigger or as big as ISU... a big change for a little Luther-ite like myself. The fair took place in a two-tented sauna on the Sportscenter Green on the far side of campus.
The groups i've decided to join thus far? Athletics and Crosscountry, The Real Ale Club, the English Dept Society, and the AmeriCan Society which focuses on American studies students. All of the groups provide socials, events, and get togethers throughout the year. I just hope I can balance our Tuesday night class here at the flat and all of the groups at the same time.... it's a little daunting.
Tonight and tomorrow will be a scheduling nightmare trying to figure out what classes to take, but it will be amazing to finally know what our normal schedule will be. The last few weeks of 'floating' is starting to get old...
Tomorrow: register for English classes, pay Fresher's Fayer membership fees, read Chpt 9 for our guest speaker tomorrow night....
until then,
kevin
