First Month of UK Life

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I have been seriously procrastinating writing a new blog, so this blog will set out to summarize the first four weeks of living in the UK. Hopefully it won't be too long.

The first full week of living in the UK was Fresher's Week. This week was full of school organized events and social gatherings. During the day, we would all go to meetings for our departments. In the UK, you sign up for a degree and those are the only classes you are taking. They do not require anyone to take Gen Eds. at all. Jealous. For us, this week meant many meetings with the International Office about how the UK school system works and figuring out which classes we were taking. During the nights, there would be school organized events that were centered around drinking. This, already, is hugely different from the United States, where you can't even drink if you are over 21 on my campus in OK. I wont go into huge detail about the events of the week, but I'll tell some stories of the highlights.

On Monday night, the school organized an event where we would take buses into Liverpool and they rented out a nightclub called The Nation for only EHU students. This was, by far, the best night of Fresher's Week. We all got ready and headed over to the Student Union to get on buses. So far, the American students had all been clinging together and only slightly getting to know the British students that had moved in the previous night. We went to the SU together, and I noticed that the American students and British students from our hall, Lady Openshaw, were all standing separately. I knew some people from going out the previous night, so I decided that we would join up. Next thing I knew, the entire hall, including the American students led by the British students, were joining together in the middle of large groups of other students to chant for our hall. They were taking football (soccer) chants and replacing the team names with "Openshaw". At football games, the crowd of fans often sings chants or makes them up to support their team. It seems like a completely different sporting atmostphere, and I hope to make it to a game while I'm here.

Back to the story: Naturally, the entire group of other students was staring at us, but none of us cared. Apparently, I got into the rowdy hall, and I love it. We all have gotten close so quickly, and subsequently become the hated dorm by the other halls, and I think this night was the beginning of it. They finally called for us to get on the bus and the rest of the night was just a rowdy night in a club. On the way there and back, we spoke to many people that we didn't know from other halls, etc. The nightclub was basically another cool nightclub so you can fill in the blanks. However, I did notice two things. One: people in this country are incredibly energetic and loud when they party, in contrast to many people's views of them being more responsible with drinking... It's not that different from American students except that it's legal so they can be louder about it... and they are. I never thought Americans were reserved until this night. Two: British boys CANNOT dance. Another interesting fact of the night was that I learned that their police officers are not allowed to carry guns.... guns themselves are entirely illegal in this country. No wonder they all laughed when I asked if I could carry pepper spray... This fact just blew my mind, because I feel like the day that guns are illegal in the US is the day that all of the states become separate countries. We love our guns in America. Frankly, I think the UK has it right, but they live in an extremely different culture here. The biggest animal they have to worry about is a fox anyway. But this is not a place for me to talk politics, so I'll leave it alone.

The rest of the week was basically the same. The only other interesting highlight was a pub crawl in Ormskirk, where I was the only American student from our halls. We all began getting close with the students in our halls and mixing up. Some American students have not been as social as the others, but I am proud of myself for getting out and being very social and not shy at all.

Also, I figured out my classes, so I'll go into that a bit. I am taking FLM 1007 Cinema in Context, which is basically a history of world cinema. This is my favorite class so far. I am also taking HIS 1003 20th Century and LIT 1000 Texts and Contexts which satisfy my gen ed requirements. The only performing arts class that I'm taking is DRA 2021. All of the second-year students take this class and we study Stanislavski, Meyerhold, Copeau and Laban, who were all theatre practitioners that created new methods for acting. The people in this class are very friendly towards me and we have become a nice ensemble. I was also very proud of myself because I was the only one to volunteer on the first day of class and found myself doing maskwork, which I had never done before, in front of people I had never met before. This experience has definitely gotten me out of my comfort zone so far and I think I will no longer have a problem being reserved and shy in and out of class.

So far, the only places I have visited are Liverpool and Edinburgh. Liverpool is the nearest large city and is famous for being the birthplace of the Beatles. Of course we went to the Beatles Museum and the Cavern Club where they played 292 performances and were discovered by their manager who made them famous. The city is really cool and I would recommend a visit, but many Liverpudlians or Scousers (that's really what they're called) tell me to stay in the city centre, near the docks and main areas, because the city is rough. Take that into consideration when planning your visit. Liverpool is good for shopping and Beatles stuff. It's worth a day in your UK journey.

There will be a separate entry for Edinburgh.

So all in all, this first month of living in the UK has gone by so quickly and has been wonderful. I have not experienced culture shock or homesickness like I expected. I do not necessarily miss America, but I miss the people that I left behind. If I could just bring them all here I could stay forever. I'm excited to finish out this semester and there will be many more entries to look forward to!

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