Being American Abroad

... and also British opinions of Americans.

I just wanted to do a little blog post about this subject because it was something I heard a lot about before coming here.  A couple disclaimers before I start, however.  1)  This post will be based entirely on MY experiences, which are admittedly limited - things could be different depending on where you are, or even who you talk to 2)  Obviously, a topic like this could be continuously updated, so other stuff may happen that will change what I say in this post.


  Before coming here, my University gave an orientation for everyone leaving on any program (any destination).  During that orientation, there was a whole section on anti-Americanism and how to deal with it and avoid issues and all of that.  Clearly, problems like that will be different depending on where you go (and who you talk to... and come to think of it, how you act). 

As of right now, I haven't really experienced what I would call anti-Americanism.  Now, Glasgow in general is a very friendly city, but I still haven't experienced any attitude or issues from people just based on hearing my accent.  It might be good to point out that I do my best to be polite and not be a typical American*, but people are still all around extremely friendly.

(*Edit:  I said the wrong thing here, when I said 'typical American'.  What I meant to get across, was trying not to be a stereotypical American, not a "typical" American.  And by this I just mean that there are stereotypes that aren't very flattering about Americans (which I'm sure you either know or can google), and I do my best to NOT be that type of person.  I apologize for saying the wrong thing - and if I possibly offended anyone.)

I've only heard vague little bits of ... I guess you could call it anti-Americanism, but its never actually been directed AT someone.  For example, after a fire "drill", I heard some British girls talking in the stairwell about something about Americans (something negative, about a stereotype).  But they weren't talking ABOUT someone - as far as I know - and they definitely weren't talk AT someone.

I've even had a friend here (who lives in Scotland) tell me that her and her friends "love" Americans and America.  I'm going to take her word for it, but *shrug*. 

Overall, if you're about to come to the UK, and are concerned about anti-Americanism... don't be.  I'm sure its out there, but I've never had stones throwed at me, or people laugh at me when I talk, and I've never seen people burning the American flag or anything (those were all the only things I could think of). 

Advice:
1.  Obviously, be polite.  Just like you (hopefully) would be at home.  People like that, no matter where you're from and no matter where they're from.  Unless they're mean.  And then it won't matter if you're American or from Mars.

2.  Do try to use their local words... in the sense that when I go to the restaurant next store to get french fries to go, I ask for "chips for take away".  They may or may not care, and they may understand if you ask for 'fries to go', but it tends to make things easier if you put in the effort.  Besides, isn't that what you're here for?  You can order fries to go at home.  Order chips.

3.  I've heard advice about trying to avoid political topics.  I've been following this advice as well as I can (which is really difficult because I'm taking a politics class).  I would say just try to stick with this.  And if you feel seriously compelled to talk with some Brits about American politics, stay away from controversial topics.  Its not like they'll punch you in the face (I'd hope not.. what kind of friends are you making over there!) but like I said before, it just makes it easier.

4.  People here wear hoodies and sneakers here just like people in the US.  Don't be afraid to do the same (I heard many things that said that was a dead give away that you're an American).  I can't tell you how many hoodies I've seen on locals have said something about New York or California. 

Thats it for now, until I learn more...

To end, I'm going to begin a list of (this is not the most eloquent title, but...):

Things I've Learned About Being American by Living in the UK:

1.  This one may seem obvious, but it was still a little strange when I "discovered" this.
     In Fourteen Hundred Ninety Two, what happened?  Well in the UK, Columbus certainly did not sail the ocean blue.  Nor was there a song written about it.
        I found this out in my History of Art tutorial, which is led by an American.  She was talking about how to remember dates of paintings (I can't even remember which one) and she said something about how she remembered one of them because it was done in 1492, and then she said "Ok, only other American in the room *points to me*, what happened in Fourteen Hundred Ninety Two?"... to which I immediately replied, "Columbus sailed the ocean blue." 
        I did not get a sense of recognition from anyone else in the room.  There was just silence. 
        I know Columbus sailing to America would obviously be an American thing... but its just weird to me that not everybody in the entire world knows that song, because its like... in our DNA our something.

2.  As an American, I apparently have an instinctual preference for a Bicameral legislative system (Checks and Balances, and all that).  When discussing the "ideal UK Parliamentary system" in my politics class, the majority of the students were all for having just one legislative body so that laws could be passed more quickly.  And I'm all "*gasp* What about not giving all the power to one person/body?!  What about Checks and Balances?!"  Nope.  They don't care.  Apparently, as an American, I do, without even realizing it.



Thats all for now - hope this post wasn't a complete mess, because I didn't plan it AT ALL when I started writing.  Tata!


BTW: nothing cool happening for awhile, so there may be more blog posts like this for the next couple weeks.  May do a blog post of pictures of Glasgow looking all fall-y, cause its even prettier here now.  ALSO, if you've noticed, I have a little poll on my blog, on the right side near the top.  Try to guess where my next trip will be to :)
 

Adventure on the Hogwarts Express!

And what an adventure it was! 

A few friends and I decided to take a train (that is an old one, and is the "same" kind as the one used in the Harry Potter movies) that goes through the Highlands and has very pretty sights and all that.

We had to get up to Fort William (north of Glasgow, 3 hours by bus), to get on the Harry Potter train, and then that went to a little seaside town called Mallaig, stopped there for 2 hours, and headed back to Fort William. 

It was sooo beautiful and a lot of fun!  I'd definitely recommend it, even if you're not a fan of Harry Potter, because the views are spectacular and the train is still really cool (its basically just an older style train).

Picture time!

Yep! Thats coal in there!  The real kind, too!

No, this is not at a museum.  We actually took this train!

The Glenfinnan Viaduct - you know, like in Harry Potter

More of the viaduct

Mallaig!

Thought you guys might enjoy this little slice of Britishy-ness   (this may or may not be obvious but 'take away' is their version of 'to go', and generally, things cost less if you get them for take away)

The ocean! (?)  I'm pretty sure its at least some part of the ocean :-\

A little boat!

Glenfinnan Viaduct again - on the way back

Bye bye Hogwarts Express! :(

Fort William - we had a couple of hours to "kill" before our bus home left.  We half wanted to kind of look around and half were just exhausted.  We did look around some though!

Thats it for now!! Let me know what you think :)

How Classes [seem to] Work...

As classes have now been going on for a month now, I thought it would be a good time to do a blog post about the basic format of classes, and basically how the semester is organized.  This may be edited/updated at a later date, as a lot of this is just what I've been told by lecturers so far, and may actually be different once I've experienced it.


Lectures:  Lectures are fairly similar to how they are in the US, as I've said before.  I've heard a lot of people say that you don't HAVE to go to lectures, and a lot of people just don't.  It also may depend on the class.  While I don't actually go to my Politics lecture in person, they offer it online, so I watch the whole lecture (powerpoint slides, audio, and visual of person lecturing) at home.  For Politics, I feel like getting the information from the lecture is important.  Also like I've said before, lectures appear to be supplementary - and even sometimes, as in my History of Art class, some of the lectures appear to be based on the different essay topics.

Edit:  I just realized that I forgot to mention one of the biggest differences between lectures here and in the US.  Apparently it is completely normal to have multiple (and I mean, 10, 20 or more) lecturers for one class.  And they just come in for different topics on different days (like in my History of Art class, where we've had probably about 7 different lecturers so far), or they will split up the class based on their expertise (like in Archaeology and Politics, where there are three lecturers and they each do the lectures for like 3 weeks or so, based on the time period or topic). 

    Also related, lectures sometimes don't really have anything to do with each other.  The lectures for my History of Art class are like this... completely random and unrelated, except that they have to do with Art History.  Although for Politics and Archaeology, the lectures make sense in context with each other.

Tutorials/Seminars:  Once again, very similar to how they are in the US.  Attendance counts here, and generally (depending on the number of sessions you have), you can only miss a few.  One of my friends has a class where there are only 5 seminars, and I think she is not allowed to miss any because of that.  Tutorials/Seminars also seem to differ based on who is running it.  For example, in my History of Art tutorial, we're doing a practice test for a test we're going to have in class in two weeks, but I don't think the majority of the other tutorial groups are doing it.  We also have to turn in an abstract on the essay we're going to do in December, and the other groups aren't doing that either.

Homework/Assignments:  One thing I had heard about the British education system before I came here was that there were very little, if any, homework assignments, and that usually your whole grade was based on maybe one or two grades from the semester.  Generally, this is actually true... scarily enough.  With the exception of my Archaeology class, which has us doing two worksheets based on the fieldtrips we're taking, there are no assignments or grades other than an essay and a final exam.  The essay doesn't seem to be too ridiculous (so I say now).  The word requirements are not that much - which can be a bad thing.  Some local students have apparently already started working on theirs (which scares me), even though for the most part, they are not due until mid November or early December.  And then you have the final exam, which can be at any point during a 3 week period in December.  Classes here end December 2nd, and the final exam period runs from around then until December 16th.  I've also been told, that apparently, final exams here could possibly be on Saturdays and Sundays!  We find out our final exam schedule on November 7th.

School Breaks/Reading Week:
Apparently, there are no British holidays in the fall that require a break from school.  Incredibly depressing for me, as that means that you go the whole way through without any form of vacation (which is not necessarily a huge deal, but when you're used to it, it can kind of suck).  However, they do have Reading Week breaks.  These can be completely random, so it seems, and can depend on the class.  For example, Reading Week for one class may be one week, and then for another class, its a different week.  So it really doesn't do you any good, cause you're only having a break for one class, and still having to go to the others.  Also, apparently even the fact that a class is having a reading week doesn't even matter, because during the reading week for History of Art, we still have a lecture on one day, and a test on another.  Doesn't make ANY sense to me.

One final note: 
You can only get books out of the library for one week!  What the heck am I going to do with a 400 page book in one week!  And you can only renew it if no one else has placed a hold/request on the book.  Soooo weird. 

Anyway, thats how classes [seem to] work, so far.  :)

Dublin, Ireland!

Hi everyone!  Got back yesterday from our weekend in Dublin, but didn't have the chance to look through my pics (to decide which ones to post) until late yesterday, and then it was taking forever to upload pictures.  Dublin was such a nice town, and we had a really fun trip!  Even "sleeping" in the airport wasn't so bad (I don't know if I mentioned this but I slept on Friday so I wouldn't have to sleep in the airport). 

We got to Dublin a little before 8, but sadly couldn't make it in time for the 8 am shuttle that would have taken us directly to our hotel.  Turned out fairly okay, we took a regular bus and had to do a bit of walking to get there, but we saw lots of pretty things that I don't think most tourists get to see.  Our hotel was in the Financial district, so its mostly a place for people who are travelling on business.  But the hotel was still really nice, and it actually wasn't THAT far.  I've learned that Dublin is actually a fairly compact city, and you can generally walk from one side to the other (of the main area that you'd want to see) in about 10 minutes... depending on how tired you are!

Quick summary of what we saw on which days:

Day 1: Trinity College/Book of Kells, Grafton St, St Stephen's Green, Christchurch, Temple Bar, Ha'Penny Bridge

Day 2: Wheel of Dublin, Trip to Howth, O'Connell St, Henry St, Dublin Castle, Guinness Storehouse, St Patrick's Cathedral, The Brazen Head

Anyway, I'm going to get started with the pictures, because there are so many!

Here we are at Prestwick Airport, after being there all night

Our plane!  I was surprised to see that we had to climb up the stairs to get to it - I've only seen that in movies!

Dublin Airport!  (and a hand with severed fingers? No stealing!)

And Irish Bus (sadly, not ours)

O'Connell St (the widest urban street in Europe.)  Shopping was a little disappointing though, have to admit.  Mostly stuff locals would want.

General Post Office. 

This particular road is random but I wanted to show how everything is in both English and Irish Gaelic

Our hotel, The Clarion!  (Thanks Dad, it was super nice!)

A funky looking bridge near our hotel.  Thats the River Liffey, by the way.

A ship - which I think is a museum.

Famine Memorial...

Some impressive looking building

A view of the river from above and beneath two bridges :)

Entrance to Trinity College!  Look at the funky lookin' door!

Trinity College

Inside the courtyard area of Trinity College

We went to see the Book of Kells (which is the oldest book, anywhere, I think).  It was interesting but kind of expensive for 8 Euros (about 11 dollars), particularly because I don't think they organized the exhibit very well and you basically had to wander around.

Molly Malone!

"In Dublin's fair city,

Where the girls are so pretty,

I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone,

As she wheeled her wheel-barrow,

Through streets broad and narrow,

Crying, 'Cockles and Mussels, alive, alive, oh!'"

(Thanks Wikipedia!)

Side street off Grafton St (you can just make out on the left, with the green flag, a store.  Its called Carroll's, and its the main type of touristy souvenir shopping for Dublin... and they are EVERYWHERE!  Literally.  And there aren't too many other types of souvenir stores either.  Luckily Carroll's seemed pretty good, but still)

Beginning of Grafton Street (one of the main shopping areas.  A little too expensive for my tastes but still fun to walk down)

A dude carving a dog out of sand!

More Grafton Street

St Stephen's Green Shopping Centre.

Lunch at the Clarendon!  Happened to stumble upon this place when we were all starving and had a yummy chicken caesar salad (despite the fact that they put bacon in it)

Beginning of St Stephen's Green (a big park)

Cemetery by St Patrick's Cathedral.

Helpful signs that are all over the city.  Also both in English and Irish Gaelic.

Christchurch

Ruins of something that I can't remember right now.

Heading into Temple Bar.  I just thought this was a fun looking building

Gallagher's Boxty House.  Kind of wanted to eat here but it was fairly expensive.  A Boxty is a potato pancake  :)

Elephant & Castle!  Totally wanted to eat here! But alas, they have a limited menu.

Temple Bar

Ha'Penny Bridge (it used to cost half a penny to cross it, in the 1800s, but now its free :)  )

Day 2!

Wheel of Dublin - we didn't get a chance to go on it as their hours and location worked against us.  It was closed when we came by here.

Funky statues

Train station!  We're taking a trip up to Howth

Howth is a little like, suburb but not quite of Dublin.  Its on the sea and it was really pretty.

GREEN telephone booth

Sooo pretty

Look at those funky rocks!

More of Howth, from out on the dock/harbor area.

Lola-seal!  (Seals that look like Lola)  This one posed for us for awhile.  I think he was expecting food.

While we were there, I learned that we had come just in time to see the seals, as apparently, they stop showing up right around this time.

(I think this one was the Murphy-seal... - a bigger seal than the Lola-seal)

More of Howth

Back in Dublin!  Cute details on a bridge

Courtyard of Dublin Castle

Pretty doorhandle, inside Dublin Castle

Ceiling

Looking outside from Dublin Castle at the remaining parts of the actual castle.  The green area there is supposed to represent where a pond had been once.  The water was very dark, and it was known as the black pool.  The Irish Gaelic for this is Dubh Linn, and thats what the surrounding city became known as... and it was eventually anglicized into Dublin!

More walls/ceilings

Detail of the arches

Dublin Castle (the tower part, from inside the building)  Its called Dublin Castle because there was a castle built here in 1204 by King John of England, but then it mostly burnt down in the 17th century, and this was put in its place. 

Throne Room

Crown shaped mirrors inside the Throne Room

Paintings from the ceiling

Another ceiling painting

Last one

Where the remaining part of the castle (from 1204) meets up with the new part of the building.  Super cool!

Guinness Storehouse!

I didn't take any pictures from inside because 1) It would have been a little weird, I think 2) I was exhausted and 3) I care even less about Guinness and how its made than I thought I did...

St Patrick's Cathedral (we made it just in time to see it before it closed for the day)

St Patrick's Park

Outside of St Patrick's Cathedral (from the park)

The Brazen Head - the oldest pub in Dublin! 

Yes, it says it was established in the 1100s!  We had dinner here on our last night and it was pretty good!  Not very good in terms of their gluten free friendlyness terms.  Mainly because I ordered a chicken caesar salad and half of the things in it weren't on the menu (including croutons).  But still very yummy, and the atmosphere was nice too!

Yay Dublin!