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host program provides better understanding of british life

I’ve been told life in London is much different from life in the rest of Britain, and this weekend I got to find out how. 

Host UK is a voluntary organization that matches up international students with willing families to stay for a weekend. SU London pays a portion of the program’s application fee, making it only 20 pounds to participate. Your host family covers all the costs of your visit including every activity you do and all your meals, though you need to pay for transportation to the family’s house. When applying you list your preferences for the area you’d like to stay in, the types of activities you’re interested in doing, and the general family composition you’re looking for. I asked to be in the countryside, preferably on a farm. I wound up in Tiverton, Devon (three hours west of London and near the coast) at a house with a barn and three chickens. It was a perfect match. 

On my first night, my host mom, Julia, and her mother-in-law, Patsy, took me to a Christmas fair in town. All the little shops played Christmas music and passed out homemade baked goods and everyone on the streets said hello to me. It was the kind of small town hospitality I rarely see in London and have missed so much while abroad. After a homemade dinner, Julia and her husband Simon sat around drinking tea and talking about the differences in US and Britain with me. I got to ask the questions I’ve been wondering about Britain, like what they think of the National Health System, their thoughts on America’s involvement in foreign wars, and why they don’t like peanut butter. My interest in their lives was matched with their interest in mine and for each question I asked about Britain they asked one about America. I asked how someone becomes a knight and they wanted to know why America is so religious. I had worried we would have nothing to say to one another, but we wound up talking until 2 a.m. 

In the next couple days we went out to a proper English tea, visited a nearby national park, drove through the countryside, and watched their favorite British TV shows. Julia showed me how to make her favorite holiday pudding and Simon taught me the meanings of British slang I still haven’t figured out. With Christmas approaching fast, I’ve been feeling torn between never wanting to leave London and missing being with friends and family during the holidays. Reading the newspaper next to a burning fire and listening to the family’s 16-year-old son talk about his weekend plans, I felt at home and homesick all at once. The couple met while studying at Oxford and have traveled all over the world. Their house was a mess of mixed treasures and their stories were from nearly every continent. 

Early on in London I learned that most Brits eat a “Sunday roast,” so I started making a weekly trek to the nearest pub. But this Sunday I sat at a packed dinner table in the English countryside and shared a home-cooked meal with a British family. When it was time to go I hugged everyone goodbye without feeling at all awkward. The Bonvoisins weren’t my real family, but they had opened up their doors to me like they were. 

blog neglect

Yes, I realize I've gone missing. Where to? Oh, just Ireland, all of London with my sister, Thanksgiving, Christmas carnivals, day trips through England, etc. The weather here has finally gotten to that damp, dreary, typical London fog you always hear of. It's as if one day it just started to rain and I doubt it will stop before I leave. Stepping outside gives you a chill and it's dark very early now; it's getting dark right now and it isn't even 4 p.m.

With only about two weeks left in the semester, class work has started to accumulate and group projects, final papers, final exams, and class presentations are approaching their deadlines. Meanwhile, I'm trying to squeeze out every last bit of this London experience before I head back to the states. So while I've been jam packed with things worth blogging about, trying to fit everything in and still be a decent student has led me to neglect this little site.

I know I'll have time to write and reflect when I'm settled in at home this January, but I worry by then I will have forgotten the little details of all my adventures. A quick update for now then: today I got up early and took the train to Windsor to tour Windsor Castle, the Queen's home when she's not at Buckingham. The castle was the best I've ever seen! The rooms were done up beautifully and one friendly tour guide showed us where the Queen's bedroom is, her favorite living room, and even promised to tell her we say hello when he sees her December 14th (she's got a Christmas gift for him.) After the castle we walked through town and stopped for lunch in a nice, warm pub before going to Eton College, a boy's only school where royalty like Prince Henry and Prince William attend. Now I've got two group projects to work on, a paper to write, and an hour or so to spend at the gym before I'll call it a night. I love not having Monday classes, but I still kind of doubt I'll finish everything before this dreary weather gets the best of me and I wind up on the couch.

class trip

SU London offers several weekend trips to different countries throughout the semester to places like Paris, Scotland, Berlin, and Istanbul. These trips allow students to see a different country without the hassle of planning the trip. The school organizes transportation, the hotel, several meals, tour guides, sightseeing, and even provides chaperones in case you need any help. When I traveled to Barcelona by myself, I couldn’t even get the cab driver to take me to my hotel without calling my Spanish-fluent friend and handing over my mobile. I had the freedom to do whatever I wanted, but I wasn’t that sure what to do. Traveling with the school’s group narrowed my itinerary options, but it eliminated the worry of winding up in a foreign country not knowing the language and having no clue what to do.

On Thursday, my class went on a fieldtrip… to Belgium. The beauty of studying abroad in Europe, aside from getting to know a different culture, is that weekend trips to foreign countries are typical. Every Thursday PSC409.1: The European Union studies how the EU and NATO work, but this weekend we saw it first hand. If that sounds slightly boring, consider that Belgium produces around 750 different brews of beer and you can see how this weekend was both educational and entertaining.

Friday morning the group spent an hour or so seeing the main square of Brussels, which was full of old-fashioned buildings and lots of chocolate shops. We saw Manneken Pis, which is to Brussels as the Eiffel Tower is to Paris. Like the name suggests, it’s a statue/fountain of a tiny boy peeing and for debated reasons has been a national icon since the 1600s.

Later we went to the European Union headquarters and had four sessions with various EU employees who explained their jobs to our class and answered our questions. Being able to discuss Europe’s issues in such a small group was an opportunity no student could have organized on their own. After a quick tour of the EU building we went to NATO headquarters and discussed the organization’s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan with NATO and US Mission employees. It was amazing to be able to talk so candidly about such important issues with the people directly involved in them.

On Saturday we toured the quaint city of Bruges and indulged in some of Belgium’s finest products: amazing chocolates and mussels and frites (fries) with mayonnaise. We took a guided tour along cobbled streets, viewed a sculpture by Michelangelo, saw how lace is made and went on a boat tour. It was relaxing to be away from the bustle and busyness of London.

Each night we returned to the hotel before dinnertime and had the nights to ourselves. We paired off into small groups to explore. Belgium is the home of waffles, and they were so fresh, light and sweet I don’t ever want to eat an Eggo again. I hung out in a pub, which had more than two dozen different beers on draft. I tried mango, cherry, Christmas-tree, and honey flavored beers which were all delicious. Belgium beer is a lot stronger than the US with many brews, including the one I drank out of a glass boot, around eight percent alcohol. I had one, small glass of a brew that’s 10.5 percent and minutes later got the best French fries I’ve ever eaten (they originated in Belgium) covered in mayo. It sounds gross, but it’s a Belgian tradition. 

The trip allowed me to see great speakers I normally would never have access to, really get to know my class professor, bond with my classmates from other universities, and explore two new cities I never would have thought of visiting. Some of my favorite European cities are ones I didn’t even know were there.

yes, there is homework abroad

Yes, there is homework when you study abroad. There are also term papers and midterms and finals and group projects and presentations. While the work load isn't as much as I normally have at SU, fitting it in between weekend trips to foreign countries and exploring London is a bit more challenging than sacrificing a night out on Marshall to study. So please excuse the lack of posts. I have quite a few due dates coming up, spent last weekend in Belgium, leave for Ireland on Friday, and have my sister coming into town for a week. Though busy, life in London right now is better than ever and I am thoroughly enjoying this half of the semester. More soon...

class field trip!

Tomorrow, PSC409 is going on a class field trip... to Brussels! On the itinerary are three meetings with European Union employees, two NATO discussions, and a guided tour through Bruges. But what sounds most intriguing to me is Saturday's lunch time activity: eat mussels and frites with mayonnaise. I'm all for free food, but I'm not sure how much I'll enjoy that.

 

Be back Sunday!

poppy day

This article was published in The Daily Orange on November 12th.

The evidence of war is more obvious here in Britain than it is in the United States. War memorials and statues of military leaders dot the city, and the area to the right of SU London’s classroom building was flattened by WWII bombing. The casualties of war have been immense in Britain with 908,000 killed and over 2 million wounded in World War 1; 400,000 military dead in WWII and nearly 90,000 civilians killed by wartime bombing of British cities. But this week the memory of war was stronger than ever. November 11^th is Remembrance Day, also known as Poppy Day, and for more than a week leading up to it the country has come together to commemorate those lost in war.

Remembrance Day marks the signing of an armistice to end WWI. At 11 a.m. on 11 November 1918, gunfire ceased on the western front after more than four years of consecutive fighting. Since then, the day is held in honor of Britain’s armed forces and to raise funds for troops and veterans.

About a week or two ago, I started to notice little red artificial poppies all throughout London. They were on people’s jackets, in the lapels of TV broadcasters, stuck on the grill of taxis, and printed on the pages of newspapers. I asked a man on the tube what they were for and after he gave me a brief explanation, I decided to find out more.

Poppy seeds can lay dormant in the ground for years without growing, because the flower needs rooted up soil to germinate. In Belgium, where WWI battles tore up the earth, fields of poppies bloomed in the spring. The tiny red flowers became a symbol of winter’s end, a sign of hope, a reminder of life. Worn by civilians, the poppy shows support for troops. The first poppy day in 1921 raised 106,000 pounds. This year the Royal British Legion raised 4,392,007 pounds, mainly for the armed forces in Afghanistan and veterans.

Last Wednesday as I hustled to grab coffee before my 9 a.m. class, I stopped to buy a poppy from a veteran selling them on the street. I placed the tiny fake flower on my jacket, proud to show my support for the cause. As we approached Remembrance Day, the overwhelming British support only grew. I haven’t seen a group of people so unified since the months immediately following 9/11. I felt like I was one with the supporters. I had researched their cause and donated money. I blended with the British.

But when I turned on the TV Wednesday to watch coverage of Poppy Day, I saw the coffins draped in flags, but I didn’t feel the same emotion. The British flag didn’t evoke the immediate sense of feeling and pride that comes instinctively with our stars and stripes. As much as I understand and support the poppy cause, I realized how strong my own nationalism is. After three months, much of London feels like home to me, but I sincerely doubt if any amount of time could ever make me identify with England’s symbols as strongly as I do with the symbols of America. Even with a poppy on, the faces of British soldiers looked like American soldiers to me.