Claire at Cambridge

So, as I'm sure all four of you that read this know, I'm currently involved in a Junior Year Abroad program at Homerton in Cambridge. That tells you little to nothing about what I actually do here. I study, of course, but studying here is a bit different than in the states and I actually do a few other things besides just study (thankfully. I hope it will continue to stay that way)

I think I am going to keep up with putting things under headings. It gives some sort of organization (ahem. organisation) to what is the complete stream-of-consciousness word vomit that is my typical writing style.


Lectures, supervisions, etc.

Alright. So courses are defintely much different here in comparison to Jewell. The 20-30 person semi-interactive classroom does not really exist. Rather, Cambridge splits this idea into two extremes. You have lecture and supervisions.

Lecture, as you may have guessed, is typically a larger class setting where a professor will, well, lecture on a particular subject. You pay attention and take notes. Sometimes questions can be asked at the end, but there is certainly no active dialogue between students and professors during a lecture. My lectures so far have been introductions/brief overviews of a particular subject. They have lasted anywhere from 45 minutes to about 2 hours and occur once or twice a week, depending on the course.

Supervisions, on the other hand, are very interactive sessions with a supervisor (not necessarily the same person as the lecturer...usually not the same person, actually). These occur in a very small group setting, usually 2 or 3 students per supervisor. They last for an hour and you discuss in greater depth the topics introduced in lecture, or whatever you may be independently working on. It's a little bit intimidating, but it hasn't been so bad thus far. Jewell prepares you fairly well in this aspect. Supervisions typically occur once a week, or every other week.

As you might imagine, only having these two "in-class" requirements, I have quite a bit of unscheduled time. Notice I use the word "unscheduled" as opposed to the word "free." While I may not be in-class, much more time is spent out of class studying than compared to the states. I'm assigned essays for each of my supervisions, and most of the research is done on my own. A general reading list may be given, but it's typically large and general enough that there's still plenty of digging to be done. It's quite a bit like tutorials back home...but it's like taking three of them in a semester instead of one. So, it's definitely challenging, but I think it's managable.

As far as grading goes, we Junior Year Abroad students are a bit different. Everyone else here does not get a grade for any of the courses until spring term, when they take exams. Yup. One single, massive exam determines your grade for an entire course. Kind of like a final on steroids. Luckily we are not put through this stress, at least not until senior year. (Although, comps still don't make up our entire grade...so it's still not the same). Apparently, we get our grades from "supervision reports." So, I just have to suck up to my supervisors. Check. I hope they like no-bake cookies!


Extracurriculars

Yes! I have time to have a life outside of studying!! A rare feat for an Oxbridger. I have started to get involved in a couple activities...mainly choir, rowing, and rugby.

I am in the choir at Homerton (you can audition for lots of different college choirs at Cambridge). It is an audition choir that has just been started this year. It's a nice balance of seriousness, without being TOO serious. There's only one rehearsal a week, but we still have a number of performances, and the music we sing is relatively challenging. There are only 16 singers in the choir...so it's a nice chamber-ish sort of size. I'm still a bit surprised that I made it in the first place since quite a few people tried out and I was basically hacking up a lung during my audition. Oh well! Their mistake! Our first performance is at formal hall in a couple of weeks. I'll let you know how it turns out.

I also joined the Homerton rugby and rowing teams. You can do both these things at the university level, but I do not possess the skills--or the desire to sell my soul--to play at this level. Playing at the college level, on the other hand, reminds me a bit of intramural sports back home...except with a couple of practices thrown in. It's not terribly serious.

I've been to one rugby practice where we learned some basics of the game. I still don't think I completely understand everything, but I do know you can't get tackled if you don't have the ball. So if some huge girl is barreling down the field coming after me as I'm running the ball in for a try (synonymous to touchdown) I'll just throw it as far away from me as possible. While I was told by our coach this is not an ideal tactic, I have a feeling it will be farily involuntary...a fight or flight sort of response, if you will.

I've been to about three practices for rowing now. It's pretty fun...but definitely harder then it looks. I thought I would just be Outward Bounding it all over again. Unfortunately, there is quite a difference between a canoe and its accompanying apparatus, and an VIII (typical rowing boat) and its accompanying apparatus. Basically take the canoe and oars and stretch them out. Alot. The relatively short and wide canoe I had become so accustomed to is now quite long and skinny...and feels a bit instable. The five foot oar I was used to is about ten feet long now. Also, there are no longer two people in your boat, but nine (eight rowers and a cox...the person who gives orders). With such stark differences basically the only common trait between Outward Bound and rowing is that you are traveling on water. Nevertheless, it's a pretty good time. I haven't had an early morning outing yet, and they are apparently fairly common...so I will get back to you on how fun rowing reaaally is once those start happening regularly.


Food!

Yeah. There is a section of my blog dedicated to food. It's kind of one of my favorite things, so I figure I'd better tell you at least a little bit about it. I basically get my food from three different places, the Great Hall (college cafeteria), my own kitchen, and restaraunts/pubs. I have previously alluded to the fact that I do not eat much meat, but upon further thought, I really do eat some! Just not when I'm cooking for myself.

The college food? Well. It's alright. As much as it pains me to admit this, I think the cafeteria food at Jewell is a bit better, but I only eat in Great Hall two or three times a week so it isn't so bad. Mainly the food at Jewell is better because as ironic as it may be, it has more choices. Here, you have one or two entrees with meat and one vegetarian entree. A couple of sides. That's it. Therefore, the best strategy for eating in the Great Hall is to check the posted menu at the beginning of each week and go on the nights that seem legit. Curry night is quite good.

My own kitchen is pretty much full of your common, cheap college student fare. Pot noodles (English ramen noodles), pasta, rice, cereal, sandwich fixings, canned goods, and a few fresh fruits and vegetables. Oh....and hummous and pita. I loved hummous before I came here and now I love it even more. I go through a container a week, easily. But yeah, my kitchen is already becoming a bit mundane in food selection. If you have any ideas for jazzing things up, send them my way!

I also do go out for food, on occasion. Maybe twice a week or so. Don't worry though, wherever I go I have coupons in hand! There's a Subway down the road from us, so when I have a craving for a taste of home I grab my coupon book and head there. Okay, it's still different from home, but it's sort of the same. Similar sandwiches...much different chips (ahem. crisps). Cheese and onion, and roasted chicken flavored crisps around here. Not your typical BBQ or sour cream and onion chips. Still good, though. I've also had a few meals in pubs. Fish and chips and a full English breakfast. The fish and chips I've had here are quite good, although quite similar to the fish and chips at home. An English breakfast, however, is fairly different. The breakfast I ate had the typical egg, bacon and toast, but also included mushrooms, baked beans, and a mushy sausage. The Mushrooms were good, and the baked beans were too! They tasted like tomato soup...except with baked beans in it? The mushy sausage was okay, I suppose. It was one of situations where I couldn't decide if I actually liked it or not so I just kept eating it, trying to make up my mind. All in all, however, the full English breakfast is pretty darn good.


Nightlife

On top of studying and other activities I ALSO go out on occasion. Who knew I would actually have time for all of this! People around here say Cambridge nightlife is pretty lame. However, they have not been to Liberty, Missouri...they would then know the true meaning of lame.

Anyway, when you go out here you usually go to a pub or a club...or some combination of both. There are tons of pubs around, and they're a little hard to describe. Most are different from bars...they have a more homey sort of feel. They're quite nice. You can drop in for just a drink or stay there all night. The only downside is most pubs close by 11.

However, the night does not end there! If you want to go out after the pubs, you go to the clubs! Clubs are open until 2 or 3, and remind me a bit more of bars back home, but always have dancing of some sort....cause you know, that's what a club is. They play a wide range of music, depending on what night you go and what club you end up at. However, I would say cheesy techno reigns supreme. In fact, Cambridge is apparently known for its "cheese" and many clubs attempt to shed themselves of this label. Maybe I shouldn't admit this, but I kind of like cheese! I would say besides cheese there is also a decent amount of American top 40 type of music. Also not bad for dancing. Overall nights at Cambridge are good fun.


That's all I can really think of for now. I do other little things here and there...go to the store, ride the bus... ooh I flagged a cab the other night! Basically nothing really worth going into detail about. Anyway, hopefully this has given you a general idea of what I do over here.


Cheers!
xxxx
Claire

I have a feeling I'm going to have a problem keeping up to date with this blog thing. I'll try and get better, promise.

I have officially been here for two weeks! I feel like it has been a lot longer. I'm sure I could write an ultra long blog post and recount every detail, but I will spare you that and try to hit just the highlights. (It will still probably be quite long) My apologies in advance if it's a bit fragmented, I'm just talking about things as they come to mind.


GETTING HERE

I land in Detroit and meet up with Ally at our gate. We have about an hour and half to kill before we board our plane. What do we do? Eat giant cheeseburgers at Chili's. I figured I had a bunch of American cash that's not going to do me much good where I'm going and I might as well enjoy one last American meal. It was delicious. I'm discovering more and more that was a good decision considering meat is expensive here and therefore I don't eat it very often. Sorry Grandpa, I'm being forced into vegetarianism.

Anyway, Ally and I then discover that even though we had supposedly booked adjacent seats online, our request somehow got lost in cyber space. I had been having a flawless flying experience up to that point...and when I fly that type of experience simply does not happen, so the fact that something went wrong doesn't surprise me in the least. We decided to take matters into our own hands at that point. We decided we would board the plane last and find two seats together. How convenient! The seat next to the one I'm assigned is free! I beckoned Ally back and she had a seat next to me. Juuuust kidding. The one last person to board the plane has the seat next to me. It was a girl who looked my age, but I was still peeved that I had to bump elbows with a complete stranger for the next 8 hours. Granted if it had been one of the Brit football players sitting a few seats back I may have changed my tune...

Okay, but here's the point (you didn't think I was actually going to make one, did you?): I finally decide to dispel the awkwardness between me and this girl next to me, so we start talking. Turns out, she is originally from a small village in Africa, did her undergrad in the US and her master's in England and is now returning to Africa to help her family. Seriously, she was an incredibly interesting person, and given that I was about to embark on my own study abroad adventure, we had a lot to talk about besides the fact that the food they served us on the plane wasn't thaaaaat bad. Little did I know, me meeting her was just the start of the wide array of different kinds of people I was going to meet.

Although I am notorious for being able to fall asleep just about anywhere, I did not sleep well on the plane. At all. So, at this point I haven't had good sleep for oooh...36 hours or so? I figured I would stay up the night before I left for England so I could sleep on the plane. That did not really work. So I get of the plane, fairly grumpy and once again weighed down by my 100+ pounds of luggage that made it across the pond. All I want to do is find the coach that is supposedly waiting right outside the airport that is supposed to take me to Cambridge. It was not waiting right outside. I couldn't help but be reminded of slogging through the Shark River Slough as I dragged my luggage all through the airport trying to find the stinking bus station. It was strangely similar. Except the maps in the airport are , ironically, much more confusing and you don't have a compass. Good thing Ally has no shame in asking for directions. If I had been by myself I probably would've just sat down and cried and never made it out of the airport.

3 hours later we arrive at Cambridge. After taking a taxi to Homerton (there was no way I was dragging all that luggage 3 miles to campus) Ally and I set our stuff in our rooms and try to fight jet lag by exploring campus. It's gorgeous, by the way. It may not be your King's or Trinity, but at least its not crawling with tourists. I will admit, I did end up taking a small nap that afternoon, but I still slept for, oh 13 hours that night? Probably some of the best sleep I've ever had.


MEETING PEOPLE

I'm not exactly sure how to go about this section. I don't think it would be very entertaining for me to sit here and describe every person I've met, in what context I met them, etc. Let's just say that I have met a tooon of people from a tooon of different places. It's no William Jewell where 99.9% of the student population is from Missouri or Kansas. When I ask where people where they are from I truly ask without any type of expectation. On my hall alone there are people from America, Australia, Ireland, Mexico, Italy, and Germany. Quite a mix, I'd say. Don't worry, I've met plenty of British people too, but no potential husbands yet. Maybe I should give it another couple of weeks...

WHERE I LIVE

I think it's time to break all this text up with a couple pictures. Here is my room:





While I have the smallest room on the hall (of course), I am nevertheless perfectly content with it. I get it all to myself and we even have a cleaning lady! Her name is Claire as well. She is the sweetest lady. The fact that she cleans up after my mess and still is nice to me is a true display of character.

While we have our own rooms, we do share a bathroom as well as a kitchen. Downside: the kitchen does not have a freezer OR an oven. No baking brownies or having frozen pizza...or frozen food of any kind for that matter. Although, our hall did do no-bake cookies the other night. All the non-Americans were fascinated by the idea. I think no-bake cookies are soon to become tradition. At least we've found a way around one of our problems.


FRESHER'S WEEK

Basically Fresher's week is a bit like Jewell orientation, but muuuuch cooler. There is definitely no "adventure day" here. Themed pub crawls, crazy Fresher's Fair, bops, pub quizzes are all part of the week. I don't really feel like going into each event in tons of detail. Let's just say it was all crazy good fun. If you want more details, don't hestiate to ask.


DICTIONARY OF TERMS

One of the reasons I was excited to come to England was the absence of a language barrier. England...English...I thought I was good to go! Wrong. Granted I knew there would be some inconsistencies with slang, but I didn't imagine there would be so many. Listed below are just a few terms that come to mind. I'm sure I will add to this as time goes on.

Pinch= steal. Example- Someone pinched my milk out of the refridgerator. That's a true story, unfortunately. An honest mistake, I'm sure.

Down= synonymous to chug, or drinking your drink very quickly.

Penny (verb)= One must down (see above) their entire drink if they are pennied. Basically, pennying is when one puts a penny in another's drink. Specific rules vary. The object of this lovely game is to "save the queen" pictured on the penny by finishing your drink. This game is typically played at formal hall. One's dessert can also be pennied. This means your cutlery is taken away and you must eat your dessert without it.

Pants- Do not say you are just going to wear some pants out here. That means you are going out in just your underwear. Trousers is the appropriate word.

Cheers- This may be the word I hear the most. I'm still not sure of its exact meaning. It's a mixture of some sort of informal thank you/you're welcome/have a good day. It can be used pretty much at the end of any purchasing experience by either party.

Xx-Not sure of the exact meaning of this one. Kisses? Who knows. Literally every single text/informal e-mail from anyone I've received over here has xx's at the end of it.

Fit- does not mean you have visited the gym frequently resulting in a trim physique...although a bit similar. I would say the closet American synonym is "hot." Basically any very good looking person.

Bloke- a boy. Kind of like "guy" or "dude"

Bird- a girl. "Chick" is would be the best synonym.

Uni- Pronounciation is like "unicycle" It's the short, cooler term for university. Example- Homerton is where I currently attend uni

Are you alright?- Probably the saying that has confused me the most. I have been innocently sitting somewhere and someone will approach me and ask "are you alright?" Um. I think so? Was I sending some sort of signal that I wasn't? I have come to find this is like "what's up." However, I still haven't quite figured out how to answer the question. "Yes, I am alright, thanks?" "Not much, how about you?" I will let you know once I determine the appropriate way to answer.


Might I also add, not all British accents are the same and as easy to understand as you might think. So add various confusing terms with thick accents (particularly thick if speaking with one who's inebriated) and it really is like listening to someone in a foreign language. Although, I've already gotten a bit better with understanding everyone, so that's a good sign. By the end of this year I'll be speaking like one of the natives!

Again, there is much more that I could write about the past couple of weeks...but I'd rather not blab on and on. Hopefully I will get a bit better at keeping up with this thing so you can get a more detailed description of what I'm doing. Until then...

xx
Claire

Welp. I will be leaving Omaha in approximately 4 hours, and leaving the country in about 9. I won't be back until June.

Has it hit me yet?

Nope.

When all of your stuff for 10 months is crammed into two suitcases--the second I have to pay 50 bucks for, I might add--that have to weigh under 50 pounds, you're not even officially signed up for classes, and you don't start packing until the day before you leave it just doesn't seem real. Granted, I feel that even if I was completely prepared and my exiting circumstances were different, I still don't think the fact that I am going to be thousands of miles away from the familiar for a year would sink in. In my mind right now, I'm just taking a little vacation...I'll be back soon.



PS- I'm still trying to figure out everything with this blog. I have the technological competence of a first grader...so bear with me!