It's been almost five months since I got home from London and I'm settling in nicely to my last semester at UH Manoa. If someone told me I could finish my last semester abroad, I would have my bag packed in less than 10 minutes and be ready to leave. 

If there is any advice, or words of wisdom, I could give to prospective future study abroad students it would be...

1. Pack light. You may think you need every comfort from home, but the truth is, you'll find comforts in your host country.

 

2. It will be the single most exciting experience of your life so far.

3. The experiences you will have will by far outweigh the fear of the unknown.

4. People in other countries love to show off their country, customs, and food. Especially the food!

5. Public transportation is much easier than you think.

6. Prepare to dress in layers and if you're going to Europe for the spring semester, take waterproof shoes (boots) and a warm, Gortex coat. I traveled from Ohio, where it was 20* to London where it was 40* thinking I would be 20* warmer. Not so much. The difference is, London gets arctic winds and Ohio doesn't. London is cold. But amazing! 

7. At the University of Roehampton in London, the professors have always been highly impressed with American study abroad students and take the time to make sure they're on track and following the curriculum.

8. Just jump. Take the plunge. Step out of your comfort zone and experience university in a place where things are run different and people think different. Experience America from another continent with people who have only experienced America from afar. Learning about how foreigners see us, and our country was a HUGE eye opener!

The single most important lesson I learned in London is that people truly are good and friendly. Besides Big Ben, what I miss most are the people. I miss my flatmates, and my classmates, and the people on the tube, and the shop owners, and the audience in the theater, and the people in the parks, and the people who work at the castles, and my list can go on and on and on. 

Prior to leaving for London I researched and researched and researched. I wanted to be completely prepared because I'm not a fan of surprises. Some of the things I read were...

1. People don't talk on the Tube (the underground train). People do talk on the train. Some sat quietly and read the newspaper or some form of ebook, but most, if they were with others, they had ordinary conversations. Most were respectful of the people around them and kept their conversations to a normal level, however, after a big "football" game, there were always a crown of inebriated  young adults sporting their favorite team's jersey, and acting a bit more rowdy than normal. It's all in good fun.

2. People in Europe dress better than Americans and would never be seen out and about in sweatpants (or trackies as they call them). There was absolutely no difference in the way a normal American dresses vs. the way they dress in London.

3. Paris is dirty and the people are rude. I spent a week in Paris and found it to be no dirtier than any other large city. The people there were more than friendly (except for one American at the Eiffel Tower who had no sense of humor). The only french I know are ballet terms so that was no help, but the people were never rude because I don't speak their language. They tried very hard to help me understand and teach me a few key words and phrases.

I wish I could say the same thing about Rome. Rome was filthy and the people are extremely rude. Except for the nun at the UPS store :-) 

So set any and all fears aside and get ready for the biggest adventure in your college career!

My last week in London

I can’t believe it’s my last week in London. It’s a sad, sad time in my study abroad experience.

Last weekend I went to Wales and stayed with a friend I met in massage therapy school in North Carolina. She lives in Caernarfan, which is on the west coast of the country. It is one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen in the UK so far. We visited Penrhyn Castle, Castell Caernarfan, and watched a rugby game at Marston’s, the local pub. On my last day we took a walk to St. Baglan’s Church in her village of Llanfaglan.

Every place I’ve visited, whether it is right here in London, or miles away in Wales, Ireland, or Scotland, has had a gigantic history lesson. There were times I was tired of hearing the history and just wanted to look and enjoy. I tried to tune out the tour guide and just observe, but it wasn’t as fun as I thought it would be. I didn’t know what I was looking at. There is no college course in existence that could teach me the history and culture I’ve experienced studying abroad.

Luckily, my traveling, learning, and experiencing doesn’t stop here. This weekend, when the semester is finished and my last paper is turned in, my mom and two friends are flying to London to go on a three week European tour with me. We’re spending the night in Thornbury Castle in Gloucester, a part of the Cotswolds, visiting Paris, Rome, Venice, Pisa, Prague and Berlin before we head back to the US. It is going to be AMAZING!!

Each class has a paper due by the 31^st of March. These assessments will ensure my understanding of the concepts taught throughout the semester. I am almost finished with them and they were not as easy to write as I anticipated. The concepts are not difficult to understand, but to put them in the situation of a real company, piece of theater, or place in history is hard to do. But with time, effort and brainpower, it’s all coming together.

There are no words to describe how amazing this adventure has been. For any students thinking about studying abroad, do it. Set aside any fears you may have and go for it. Jump in and acquaint yourself with new places, new people and new cultures. Once you’re here it’s not as scary as you might have thought.

 Beautiful views in Caernarfon

 I love sheep and mountains!

 Castell Caernarfon

 Penrhyn Castle

St. Baglan's Church, Llanfaglan

My Ninth Week in London

There are only three weeks left in this semester. It is now time to collaborate all of the concepts I’ve learned in the last nine weeks. My understanding of each concept taught will be displayed in the final assessments due in three short weeks.

In project management I must, with my group, expound on the information given in our presentation a few weeks ago and add to it the new concepts we’ve learned since then. Our presentation was on Isles of Wonder, the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremonies and we earned a 75%. In the U.S. this would equate to a C, in the UK, it’s an A, or “top mark” as they call it. The report on Isles of Wonder will be well researched and very concise. We have a 4000-word limit and an extensive amount of information to include. Not only must we explain the project itself, we must also include the theories behind the decisions made during the project. Thankfully it is a group project so there are four of us to check, double check, triple check, and quadruple check the work.

The People and Organizations final assessment is a research paper. I need to find a problem in the work place, and it must be a real documented case, describe the problem, collect information and analyze concepts learned in class as they pertain to this particular case. I have found a few gender discrimination cases that look promising but I have not yet decided on a case. This is on my to-do list for tomorrow after lecture. We’re not having seminar tomorrow because the instructors want to give us ample time to research and work on our final assessments. 

This week in theater class we’ll be getting the “low-down” on our final assessment. I know it will be a research paper, but I don’t know the specifics yet. This holds true for my black Britain history class taught by the University of Hawaii professor. There will be a research paper due on a specific subject, which must be a specific length, and due by a specific date. I hope to get that information this week in class.

I mentioned it last week, but I think it’s worth mentioning again. I LOVE the style of teaching and assessing here. I feel like I’ve really learned the concepts taught. I LOVE that they stop teaching new concepts a couple of weeks before the final assessment is due so I have time to focus on what I’ve been taught. I LOVE that the assessments force me to research and understand the concepts. It’s all piling up now, but I have three weeks to get it done without the pressure of new concepts.

In other news, I went with the social program to Scotland this past weekend and had a fantastic time. We took a four and a half hour train ride to Edinburgh and went on a walking tour of the city. It’s a beautiful place and so interesting. It’s a city that is built on three levels. Imagine standing on the third floor of a building and looking down at the other two levels. This is what it’s like to look at Edinburgh from the third level. My favorite part was walking around the old graveyard behind George Heriot’s School, where J.K. Rowling’s kids go to school, and according to our tour guide, was her inspiration for Hogwarts. In this graveyard I saw the grave of William McGonagall, a very bad poet and inspiration for Rowling’s character Minerva McGonagall, and the grave of Thomas Riddell. His is the most photographed grave of a non-famous person in the world.

On Saturday we boarded a coach and headed north to St. Augustus. On the way we toured Doune Castle, which is where Game of Thrones, Outlander, and my personal favorite, Monty Python were filmed. We made a few stops in the ever beautiful, and extremely cold Highlands on the way to our destination. Sunday morning we were up, fed and loaded on the coach by 8:30 to check out Loch Ness, have lunch in Piclochry, take a hike to majestic water falls in Macbeth’s Burnham Wood, and end up back at the train station in Edinburgh for our trip back to London. I fell in love with the nature in the Highlands. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before.

This weekend I’m taking a trip to Wales to see an old friend from North Carolina. She has plans to take me to a few old castles and to a local pub to watch the Wales vs. England rugby match. I don’t know anything at all about rugby, but I will assume it is a bunch of men running around with a ball, a stick, or both, kicking, throwing, or hitting said ball with their feet, hands, or said stick. I guess I will find out Saturday.

 George Hariot's School (Hogwarts)

 Grave plaque of William McGonagall

 Grave plaque of Thomas Riddell

 Doune Castle

 The Highlands

 The Highlands

 The Highlands

 Loch Ness

The falls at Burnham Wood

My Eighth Week in London

 

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is the show I saw this week for theater class. It is a production that deals very little with Ma Rainey, the “Mother of Blues,” but more about the fictional, black band members and their opinion of how they’re seen by each other and white people. Symbolism was at the height of conversation in class when discussing this production and it seemed each student had a different opinion about what certain props, or specific lines meant. I made sure to journal thoroughly so when we get to the 20^th century in my black history class I can have questions ready.

The presentation in theater class went very well. I spoke about my experience at the English National Opera and the production of the Mikado. When talking about my impeded view of the stage, I passed around a yellow ribbon for each classmate to hold in front of his or her face. This was to give them a sense of the annoyance at the gold bar positioned in the balcony at my eye level. I believe it was an effective representation and I hope to earn some points for creativity.

My business classes have been less demanding this week. We were lectured on international project management issues in Project Management and gender diversity and equality in the workplace in People and Organizations. It is time to start working on my research papers for these two classes. Both are due at the end of March and require extensive knowledge on the topics we’ve covered. 

My favorite thing about going to school here in the UK is the lack of requirement to purchase books. The instructors list “recommended reading” in the syllabus and numerous copies of these books are located in the library. This saves students hundreds and hundreds AND HUNDREDS of dollars! WHY are universities in the US still requiring students to purchase books they hardly ever use? Professors in the US teach from Power Point slides just like the instructors in the UK. They don’t teach from the books we are required to purchase. The books are there for additional reading and understanding so it makes sense that if I need clarification on a subject, I’ll go to the library and either research there, or checkout the book for a week and get the elucidation I was looking for. 

I also love the lack of constant homework and threat of quizzes. The mid-semester projects and end of semester research paper or exam give me more time and motivation to delve deeper into the concepts we learn in class. And if I do so dare to mention a third item, without fear of offending, or sounding as though my education in the US is less than excellent, I would mention the 12-week semesters. I LOVE 12-week semesters. While it is only four weeks less than the 16-week semesters in the US, it makes a huge difference. This coupled with the lack of grade possibilities forces me to work hard. I don’t slack off knowing I still have X number of weeks left and X number of assignments that can pull up my grade. I have 12 weeks and 2 assignments.  That’s it. 

On the entertainment front, other than going to see Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, I went on a tour of Burford-On-The-Water in Gloucestershire. Gloucestershire is one of five counties called the Cotswolds. The homes in the Cotswolds are very uniform. All are made from the same type of limestone. Gentle hills, or “wolds” and sleepy little towns make up the Cotswolds and there is no shortage of teahouses, pottery shops and chocolate shops. When the average American thinks of England, I would be willing to bet, the picture they have in their head is of the Cotswolds.

After leaving Burford, we went to Oxford. What a beautiful, historic place! It was a typical crowded college town, except that parts of it are over 1000 years old! Oxford University was founded in 872. The grounds are spectacular and the buildings are even better. We saw Oxford’s Martyr’s Memorial, which memorialized three prominent Protestant church leaders who were burned alive on Broad Street for their religious views; Radcliffe Camera which was the first round library in the country; Divinity School, a library built on top of lecture halls in 1427 to house books from St. Mary the Virgin for theology students; and Christ Church built in 1122. Once a nunnery for which Oxford was founded, this was also the location of many scenes from Harry Potter, including The Great Hall in the first movie. 

Next weekend, Scotland bound!!

 A home in the Cotswolds

 One of the many tea rooms

 Martyr's Memorial

 Radcliffe Camera

 Christ Church

The Great Hall

My Seventh Week In London

Seven weeks GONE! POOF! Just like that I’m more than halfway done with this amazing adventure!!!

The last few weeks have been busy, busy, busy, and even busier. The social program at Roehampton is awesome. There is something to do every weekend. Two weeks ago I went to Ireland and this past weekend I went on a trip to York and experienced the Minster, which was so beautiful and so full of history. On the way back to campus we made a stop at the Elizabethan country house, Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, built for Bess of Hardwick in the 1500’s. The house is spectacular and the grounds are breathtaking.

My classes are going very well. Each week for the last few weeks I’ve had a group project due. Here in England, the students go to University for three years. They choose their area of study and take classes for that area of study. There are no required language courses, math courses or science courses. If they choose to major in accounting, they take three years of accounting classes. They have a short list of classes they can choose from that are designated “first year” classes and the same goes for second year and third year. The classes get progressively harder each year. I’m taking Project Management, which is a second year class, and People and Organizations, which is a first year class. There is a distinct difference between these two classes in regard to expectations. In People and Organizations, our group had to choose a company and produce an academic poster with specific details included. (I blogged about this a few weeks ago.) The group project in Project Management was much more detailed and much less structured. The lecturer’s instructions to us were, “You know what we’ve been studying so far, so pick a project and write about that stuff.” There were no set rules. It was great fun sitting with my group and brainstorming ideas and directions we could take the project. We presented this project last week and it was a hit! We won’t get our grade for another week or so, but our instructor had very nice things to say.

This week I have a group presentation due in my theater class. This one is bit tough for me because theater is not my forte. I took this class as my London Studies/culture course. Our instructions are to think back on all of the performances we’ve seen so far and ask ourselves what questions we’ve been asking ourselves. Is there something in particular that is absent, or present; a tone or an aesthetic choice? We have to research this and present to the class in a way that will show the class what we have discovered; draw them in and make them feel what we feel. This is slightly obscure for my pragmatic mind, but I wanted a challenge and I definitely got one. This presentation is due Thursday. We’ve decided to research how our emotions and feelings for the actual performance are dictated by our life leading up to the performance and the actual space in which the performance is taking place. I’m just hoping this is what the instructor meant in her extremely ambiguous instructions.

There are no words to describe how this experience has been. I have been a stay-at-home mom for 15 years and this chance to “run away from home” has been exactly what I needed to motivate me to keep working hard  and finish school. The daily grind of mothering and running a household and being a full-time student is exhausting! Here, I come back to my flat and relax; get schoolwork done; enjoy the peace and quiet and miss my family and the chaos they bring to my life. I know when I get home I will be thankful for their company.

For those students who are thinking about studying abroad, DO IT!!! I cannot stress this enough. This experience has forced me to step out of my comfort zone, go on walks in the park to reflect on the day I had, or the day ahead. It’s no big deal to jump on the bus at 10pm and go to Asda to pick up the necessities I need, or to check out all of the different and interesting food they have. Like most of us, I get stuck in the same routine. I cook the same things for dinner, and eat out at the same restaurants, and drive the same routes to the same locations. Since I’ve been here I’ve tried steak and ale pie, hot crossed buns, Guinness straight from the tap at Guinness in Dublin, freshly prepared sandwiches from local delis, and the most delicious chocolate I’ve ever had. European chocolate is unbelievably exquisite! I’ve taken public transportation all over England and in a couple of weeks I’ll be taking public transportation to Wales.

There is no fear of getting out there and doing things alone. Sometimes those are the best ways to find little gems hidden in the city. On the flip side, there is no shortage of new friends to pal around with at a moments notice.  So work hard to get good grades and take the time to go through the process of applying for study abroad. You won’t be sorry! When you are abroad, join a club or two or three. I joined the trampoline team and it is the most fun I’ve had. The girls on the team are extraordinarily talented and win big at competitions. I’m learning a routine that consists of tuck jumps, pike jumps, straddle jumps, a ½ twist, a full twist, a seat drop, a ½ twist to a seat drop and the most terrifying part, a seat drop with a ½ turn to my feet. This may sound amazing to some of you (insert laugh) but if you could see the twists and turns these girls do mid-air you would be just as enthralled with them as I am. Even though I am an infant learning to walk compared to their skills, they have welcomed me as one of their own and continuously take the time to teach me new things and how to improve. Being a part of the University trampoline team gives me more pride in my schoolwork than anything else I have done here.

I’m off to research theater and emotions. Until next week…

 York Minster

 A spectacular view of the inside.

 Hardwick Hall

My Fifth Week in London

Another week down already???  Time is going by WAY TOO FAST!

It has been an amazing five weeks so far, but I need to take this time to vent just a little bit.

As I posted a few weeks ago, Asda (the local Walmart store) offers home delivery. I love everything about this, except for one thing; I have to have a UK phone number and a UK billing address for my credit card. I recently purchased a small, pay-as-you-go cell phone so I would have a UK phone number. The UK billing address is a problem. I have ordered from various places online since I got here and none of them require my billing address to be in the UK. I don’t understand why this matters. I am giving them money for their product, so where my bill is delivered shouldn’t be an issue.

Speaking of the pay-as-you-go phone; I went to their website to top it up (add money) and guess what, I can’t top it up online because I don’t have a UK credit card!  Why, why, why does this matter?

I will be calling both places tomorrow to find out how (or if) I can solve these issues without getting a UK credit card.

Moving on…

My group in People and Organizations turned in our project today. We made an academic poster detailing the motivation techniques of Parker Hannifin Corp. and wrote a summary report to go with it. It looked pretty amazing and I hope we get good marks for all of the work we put in. 

My project for Project Management is much more detailed and due next Monday. Our group meets nearly everyday to coordinate our presentation and I think it's going to be informative and exciting. I hope our class enjoys it. Both of my groups have worked together extraordinarily well and I’m very thankful they are as motivated as I am.

This weekend I was exposed to three days of new places and new experiences. Friday evening, with the other University of Hawaii students and our University of Hawaii professor, I went to the Library Lounge in the Marriott Hotel for High Tea and then to the National Theater to see Shakespeare's As You Like It. High Tea was everything I thought it would be. The room had bookshelves everywhere filled with books and a view of Big Ben out the window. That's my kind of room! We had our choice of one of many flavors of tea and were served finger sandwiches, cakes and pastries and scones with clotted cream and strawberry preserves. It was delicious!

Saturday, with the social program, I took a trip to Stonehenge and Bath. We boarded a coach from the Embankment Tub Station and rode through the english countryside to Stonehenge. It is out in the middle of nowhere. There were pig farms and sheep farms and that's about it. The weather was very nice except for the gale force winds that just about blew me away. Stonehenge itself is a spectacular scene. There are many theories about it, but I believe it was built as a calendar. After spending about an hour at Stonehenge, we boarded the coach, traveled through more english countryside until we reached Bath. The city is built in what seems like a valley and all of the buildings are made from the same pink hued limestone. We ate lunch on the main thoroughfare and then headed to the Roman Baths. Stones from 836 BC were preserved. 836 BC!! I still can't believe I saw, with my very own eyes, stones dating back to 836 BC.  The baths themselves were pretty disgusting and I have a feeling they did more harm than good when the Romans and English bathed in them. There is a very strong sulfur smell. Unfortunately, we only had two hours in Bath so I wasn't able to go on the Jane Austen tour. Maybe next time.

Sunday was perhaps my favorite day. I went on the Harry Potter Experience with the social program. We boarded a coach from King's Cross, after visiting Platform 9 3/4 of course, and took a tour of filming sites around London. Then we rode out to Warner Bros. Studio and toured the old airfield and factory that had been transformed into huge Harry Potter "scrapbook." Everything from the smallest prop to the Hogwarts Express was in the movie. These were not remakes. These were IN the movie. I was overwhelmed with the amount of "stuff" that is needed to make a movie and the number of people involved in the process. Oh to be in THAT finance department!

This weekend I have a trip to Ireland planned with the social program. It’s going to be very exciting!!! 

More next week...