Precisely a week ago, I was dragging myself from my bed and into the car to begin the hideous 25 hour journey back to Columbia and the spring semester at USC. But after a month at home and a few days back at Warwick, I had forgotten some of things about school here that are a little different from England...
People's names.
I can't criticise people for choosing to shorten their names as I have always gone by Flo but some of the students here really do push the limits with this. This week all of our classes have been introductory and the amount of times I've heard completely illogical shortened names is beyond belief.
'Ah yeah, my name's Joseph but I go by William.'
'I'm on the register as Kayleigh but it's actually Julia.'
'My name's Mary but ever since kindergarten people have called me Sophia-Maria'
seriously, what the hell??
By far the best name I have come across this semester goes to a guy in my history class, shout out to Randy Barber!
Fashion Choices.
I had forgotten that girls wear Uggs and Nike shorts here, even when it's so cold you can see your own breath. In most cases, it's either that or leggings, a USC sweater and knee-high boots. All topped off with a trusty, often camouflage-patterned, giant rucksack. Lovely.
Toilet Cubicles
I will never ever understand the American design of toilet cubicles. I have no idea why you would want half-inch gaps either side of the doors which enable you to see who is washing their hands while you get on with your business, nor why the door stops about 2 foot short of the ground. As a child I had a bad experience involving getting locked in the loo and have since been somewhat cautious when it comes to to toilets with no visible means of escape if you can't get the lock undone HOWEVER the ones they have over here are just one step too far.
OMG I'M BRIDDISH
I went to target today in search of a vegetable steamer (as is the wild life I lead) and was in a bit of a rush so asked one of the store assistants where it might be. This was genuinely the conversation that took place during my quest to find a bloody steamer.
'hi, do you know if you sell steamers? the little metal ones you put in saucepans?'
'....'
'sorry, do you know what I mean? you use them for vegetables...'
'you....you have an accent'
Seriously. It's not usually this bad but surely people cannot be this flabbergasted to hear an english accent?!
As well as this, there's also been the welcome decrease in food price, the constant presence of strangely confident squirrels wherever you are on campus, COCKS written in lots of places and y'all said in most sentences. Toilet door gaps aside, it's nice to be back.
xxxxxx
Thursday, 16 January 2014
Wednesday, 11 December 2013
Long overdue update
I have got very behind with updating this over the last few weeks but it has been a pretty manic time.
Since I last posted I haven't done much travelling but feel like I've done more in columbia and have to admit it's slowly growing on me. We visited Kensington mansion, a plantation just outside the city which was interesting but made me appreciate how good the national trust is and the sheet amount of old houses we have in England. We were only able to look round the downstairs rooms and it seemed like barely anyone visited it even though it was such a beautiful building.
I've also finally visited the columbia nickelodeon movie theatre which is an arty independent cinema in town with the nicest (and cheapest) popcorn I've come across. We saw Twelve Years a Slave which I can honestly say is one of the best films I've ever seen. I came out the cinema a bit of a wreck; it was so sad but also shockingly violent and watching it in the south just made it all feel a lot more relevant.
November also meant tigerburn time! Basically USC absolutely hates the other big university in South Carolina (Clemson) and so every year they build a big tiger and promptly burn it down to the cheers of the trusty gamecock fans. The whole thing is in anticipation of the Clemson vs usc game which takes place on 'football Saturday' - so catchy- during thanksgiving.
Also during November all my classes really upped their workload and I found myself with even more of a ridiculous amount of reading than usual, as well as a few early exams and some crazily long papers. So when thanksgiving arrived I was very much ready for a break!
We spent the holiday at Paige's in Greenville and it could not have been a more relaxing and enjoyable few days away...meals out, movies and manicures all round.
I also think over thanksgiving I finally turned southern. I ate turkey and marshmallow-covered-yams, discovered my love for the country singer Luke Bryan and at long last began to understand the rules of American football and actually enjoyed watching the match, mainly because we thrashed Clemson.
Returning back to campus after a week of being taken care of and fed delicious food was a harsh reality check made worse by the looming prospect of finals.
I had originally thought that having exams before Christmas would be pretty good, nice to get some out of the way rather than having everything stacked up on summer tests however I completely take this back - I hate finals!
Having multiple exams and papers while trying to pack my whole room up and pack to go home was not enjoyable but thankfully, with copious amounts of tea and red bull, the seemingly impossible was achieved and everything got handed in on time.
I'm now sat at columbia airport about to board my first flight to Washington which I have heard dreadful things about but fingers crossed everything will go smoothly and this time tomorrow I'll be living it up norfolk style.
I can't really believe that my first semester is finished. It has gone by SO quickly - when people tell you your year abroad flies by they aren't lying. There's definitely been high and low points and although I am (so so so) excited for England I know in January I'll be looking forward to coming back for spring term.
Although I definitely will not miss usc fashion choices...
Sunday, 17 November 2013
3 months
So today officially marks my three month anniversary of landing in the states. A whole quarter of a year, blimey. Buying cutlery and towels at Target during our first week here feels like years ago, yet on the other hand it doesn't feel that long since I popped into sainsburys, or caught a train, or bought a legal drink. oh england.
Last week I went to help at a 'pre-departure' talk for USC students who will be studying abroad in January. Lots were going to London and had questions about england, although worryingly out of a whole room of US students about to go and spend 4 months or so in france/england/ireland/italy/germany, only two (!!) people knew the name of their host-country's leader. And those two thought Cameron was our president and had no idea what his first name was. Anyway the disregard of these students for anywhere else in the world other than the good old usa is not what I wanted to talk about. During the talk, a graph was shown which illustrated the stages of culture shock that one supposedly feels when they move to a new country.
I am not at all convinced by this graph. Apparently, (although I'm not entirely sure what timescale goes with each stage) at first you are meant to go through a 'honeymoon' period where everything about the new country seems amazing. For me when it came to my feelings toward America, the first few weeks were anything but loved-up. They consisted of sorting out life in a whole new country; setting up bank accounts, unpacking and sorting out my room, buying bedding and furniture, and ultimately getting my head round the southern way of life. As well as the cultural differences, this period of time also meant starting afresh at a new school with a completely different academic structure and teaching style to what I had got used to at Warwick. It's true that aspects of america did seem a bit new and shiny (people saying y'all in every sentence, people wearing at least one item of clothing referring to cocks, stars and stripes hung up on nearly every house, huge cars) but these things were, for me, outweighed by the stress of being somewhere so different to home.
After the honeymoon phase comes an extreme dip in happiness. wonderful! Again, this wasn't something I experienced. Yes, there were certain days where everything went wrong and OMG I HATE AMERICA was my mantra but I had days like these in england. We all have these days, where just about everything that can go wrong does go wrong, and we all get through them. To be honest, there have been days here when I've felt at just about every point on that graph. Just about completely mundane things. For instance...I wake up in the morning freezing cold because of air-conditioning (culture shock). When I walk to class I'm no longer surprised by the sheer confidence of the squirrels here although I still can't get over how many of them there are (adjustment). It's not a term or a module or a queue or chips, it's a semester or class or a line or fries (mastery). And I can still sometimes find it hard to take in how pretty the campus is, especially now with all the leaves which are all sorts of oranges and golds (honeymoon).
I'm not sure if I've experienced culture shock or not. Obviously it's very different here but it would have been strange for it not to be. More than anything, spending so long away from home has made me realise things about our own culture that I was just completely oblivious of before. For instance, I don't think I'll ever criticise public transport again, mainly due to the fact it actually exists in england!
For me, what has stuck out the most in terms of cultural awareness has been my experience as an international student. Growing up in norfolk didn't exactly lend itself to meeting people from other cultures and whilst this did change when I went to warwick, the amount of people from all over the world that I've met at USC really has taught me loads about countries that in some cases I had never even heard of before (shameful I know - my geography skills are truly dire at the best of times).
The melting-pot nature of America, whilst possibly not so prevalent in the south, means that throughout the year Columbia has held greek, mexican, latin american, and italian festivals for the respective ethnic communities and whoever else wants to experience food, music and games from somewhere different. Through the university I've been to an Iranian dinner and an Indian showcase (including indian food which may have been my best meal since I got here), and most Fridays there's a free lunch for international students. I've had a henna tattoo and learnt to tie a turban, tried persian tea and learnt how to write my name in arabic. I've also got to talk with people from all over the world about their home countries and their impressions of america.
I think my favourite conversation with a fellow international was with someone completely unrelated to the university. I had to get a taxi to the supermarket late one evening last week and had requested a female driver but unfortunately there weren't any working that night so the lady at the office said 'sweetie pie dont you worry imma send you a guy I would trust my own kids with' and hung up. Very thankful for her thoughtfulness as this led to me getting to talk to such an interesting man, called Joseph, from Kenya. His daughter was studying in London at the moment and his brother also lived in england but he couldn't remember the place until our journey home when he suddenly mentioned a big statue of a bull and I realised he meant Birmingham, which again made me think it's a small world when you fly all these miles over the atlantic and meet someone whose brother lives 20 minutes from your university. I asked him what he thought of America and he said he liked it but found some things here pretty strange, like the fact that it was only the beginning of November but people have their Christmas decorations up already.
Since I've been here I have got to know some amazing american people, as I'd hoped to do when I left home all those weeks ago. But what I didn't expect was that I would also get to meet so many people from other places and I think that has been one of the most interesting aspects of my time here so far. It has made me want to travel even more than I wanted to before, so I can see some of the places that I've been told about.
Last week I went to help at a 'pre-departure' talk for USC students who will be studying abroad in January. Lots were going to London and had questions about england, although worryingly out of a whole room of US students about to go and spend 4 months or so in france/england/ireland/italy/germany, only two (!!) people knew the name of their host-country's leader. And those two thought Cameron was our president and had no idea what his first name was. Anyway the disregard of these students for anywhere else in the world other than the good old usa is not what I wanted to talk about. During the talk, a graph was shown which illustrated the stages of culture shock that one supposedly feels when they move to a new country.
I am not at all convinced by this graph. Apparently, (although I'm not entirely sure what timescale goes with each stage) at first you are meant to go through a 'honeymoon' period where everything about the new country seems amazing. For me when it came to my feelings toward America, the first few weeks were anything but loved-up. They consisted of sorting out life in a whole new country; setting up bank accounts, unpacking and sorting out my room, buying bedding and furniture, and ultimately getting my head round the southern way of life. As well as the cultural differences, this period of time also meant starting afresh at a new school with a completely different academic structure and teaching style to what I had got used to at Warwick. It's true that aspects of america did seem a bit new and shiny (people saying y'all in every sentence, people wearing at least one item of clothing referring to cocks, stars and stripes hung up on nearly every house, huge cars) but these things were, for me, outweighed by the stress of being somewhere so different to home.
After the honeymoon phase comes an extreme dip in happiness. wonderful! Again, this wasn't something I experienced. Yes, there were certain days where everything went wrong and OMG I HATE AMERICA was my mantra but I had days like these in england. We all have these days, where just about everything that can go wrong does go wrong, and we all get through them. To be honest, there have been days here when I've felt at just about every point on that graph. Just about completely mundane things. For instance...I wake up in the morning freezing cold because of air-conditioning (culture shock). When I walk to class I'm no longer surprised by the sheer confidence of the squirrels here although I still can't get over how many of them there are (adjustment). It's not a term or a module or a queue or chips, it's a semester or class or a line or fries (mastery). And I can still sometimes find it hard to take in how pretty the campus is, especially now with all the leaves which are all sorts of oranges and golds (honeymoon).
I'm not sure if I've experienced culture shock or not. Obviously it's very different here but it would have been strange for it not to be. More than anything, spending so long away from home has made me realise things about our own culture that I was just completely oblivious of before. For instance, I don't think I'll ever criticise public transport again, mainly due to the fact it actually exists in england!
For me, what has stuck out the most in terms of cultural awareness has been my experience as an international student. Growing up in norfolk didn't exactly lend itself to meeting people from other cultures and whilst this did change when I went to warwick, the amount of people from all over the world that I've met at USC really has taught me loads about countries that in some cases I had never even heard of before (shameful I know - my geography skills are truly dire at the best of times).
The melting-pot nature of America, whilst possibly not so prevalent in the south, means that throughout the year Columbia has held greek, mexican, latin american, and italian festivals for the respective ethnic communities and whoever else wants to experience food, music and games from somewhere different. Through the university I've been to an Iranian dinner and an Indian showcase (including indian food which may have been my best meal since I got here), and most Fridays there's a free lunch for international students. I've had a henna tattoo and learnt to tie a turban, tried persian tea and learnt how to write my name in arabic. I've also got to talk with people from all over the world about their home countries and their impressions of america.
I think my favourite conversation with a fellow international was with someone completely unrelated to the university. I had to get a taxi to the supermarket late one evening last week and had requested a female driver but unfortunately there weren't any working that night so the lady at the office said 'sweetie pie dont you worry imma send you a guy I would trust my own kids with' and hung up. Very thankful for her thoughtfulness as this led to me getting to talk to such an interesting man, called Joseph, from Kenya. His daughter was studying in London at the moment and his brother also lived in england but he couldn't remember the place until our journey home when he suddenly mentioned a big statue of a bull and I realised he meant Birmingham, which again made me think it's a small world when you fly all these miles over the atlantic and meet someone whose brother lives 20 minutes from your university. I asked him what he thought of America and he said he liked it but found some things here pretty strange, like the fact that it was only the beginning of November but people have their Christmas decorations up already.
Since I've been here I have got to know some amazing american people, as I'd hoped to do when I left home all those weeks ago. But what I didn't expect was that I would also get to meet so many people from other places and I think that has been one of the most interesting aspects of my time here so far. It has made me want to travel even more than I wanted to before, so I can see some of the places that I've been told about.
To sum this up, these last three months have definitely had both ups and downs but even on the days where I've been at bottom of the dip on the graph, the people I've met here have made it worth it!
xxxx
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