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