Wrapping up London

OK now that I'm at Manchester, I have proper internets for updating!

I'll start by summarizing what happened in London.

So in case people are a bit confused with the orientations that I've been doing, I'll explain. I'm studying at the University of Manchester, which is in Manchester. However, I applied through Arcadia University's Study Abroad Office, so they had their own orientation for all students studying in the UK who also applied through them. Arcadia's orientation was in London. There were students studying at the University of Manchester and University of Nottingham, as well as students participating in Arcadia's own programs, like the internship program and the semester abroad program for freshman. Orientation was Monday - Wednesday and consisted of informational sessions in the morning about adjusting to life in the UK. They gave us the afternoon free to explore London and helped us by graciously providing unlimited tube passes and tickets to a play Wednesday evening.

London was unreal. It's definitely a city, but it's too clean and too royal-looking. Re: cleanliness - the tube did not reek, and there was no graffiti anywhere. As for the architecture and the like, the buildings were very consistent. They all look like they were built during the same era (like 1600s) which was nice to look at (Manchester's not the case). This also made London very historically-rich. It was definitely very pretty, although it seemed like a fake city for being so ... nice.

In London, I ended up doing a bit of sightseeing, though I didn't get to everything. During orientation, I met the other Manchester students. Actually, I would like to note that everyone else is either a business or an English major, which was interesting for me as a math major. Ok, so I met Ivy, a student at Grinnell who studies English, and Filipe, a student at Hartford who studies business. John and the rest of us went down Fleet Street looking for a barber shop, but to no avail. However, along the way, Ivy spotted a couple secret houses that belonged to famous English writers, so that was cool and off the beaten path. Eventually we made it to the British Natural History museum, which was super cool but we didn't go in. A bit further along, we got to Parliament and the Big Ben. We went into the Parliament to sit in on a House of Commons proceeding, but it was too full so we ended up sitting in on a House of Lords proceeding. We preferred the House of Commons because we've seen on CSPAN that it looks like a pub; the MPs would be throwing things at each other and telling jokes, lots of fun. There weren't any seats left, so we sat in on the House of Lords, which was supremely boring, but I had fun counting the number of Lords who were passed out haha.

We saw a play, as a group, on Wednesday night, The 39 Steps. It was a comedy based on a Hitchcock film of the same name, and referenced a number of Hitchcock's works, so it was a nice little game to spot the references. I can officially say I've been to a British play.

That's a pretty good summary of London. Right now I'm going to go grocery shopping with John and Filipe. Later tonight, we're going to dinner and a pub crawl to celebrate Filipe's birthday so it'll be lots of fun. I'll write more about gastronomic firsts and my homestay when I get a chance. Bye!

Inauguration Day, from the UK

(Note: Due to lack of free internets in London, this post has been published later. Post date and time are reflective of the approximate time at which this was written.)

This morning, while I was getting ready for orientation, I had the TV tuned to BBC. The British reporters are ruminating at the prospect of having a black Prime Minister. I thought that was pretty amusing. On the whole, BBC seemed to be responding positively to Obama being inaugurated today.

Conveniently and very appropriately, we had the privilege of having an open panel discussion with 3 members of the British Parliament, Diane Abbott, Julian Brazier, and Lord Richard Taverne. The students at orientation asked a mixture of general questions about British politics, for example: what critical issues the major parties differ over and how relevant politics are to young people in Britain. While it lent great insight into the impact of politics on the general public, it was not as interesting as the questions about how British politicians feel about Obama being president. It was not a surprise that the general sentiment is relief and admiration that Americans have become so progressive. Americans really have set an important precedent for being able to "turn the page" and uphold the original founding principles of the nation so quintessentially, as MP Abbott had said. "Your new president's mother is from Kansas and his father is from Kenya. He has remarkably succeeded in getting so many young Americans involved in politics. This is something that can only happen in America, and you should all feel proud of your country for coming this far." Lord Taverne also added that it is impossible to underestimate the significance of Obama being elected, for he has instilled a sense of optimism and pride in not only Americans, but also other people around the world. If McCain had been elected instead, the impact would not be as great, but would feel like "business as usual." MP Brazier, a member of the Conservative party, was a McCain supporter, but still feels optimistic for the future of America and the free world since Bush is leaving office. A student then asked how the British reacted when McCain selected Sarah Palin as his running mate. MP Abbott answered the most humorously and candidly, "Sarah Palin is an interesting choice. She staunchly supports abstinence-only education, yet her 17 year-old daughter got knocked up. She is an environmentalist but shoots polar bears from a helicopter. When Katie Couric asked her what newspapers she read, she answered 'Every newspaper,' which really means none. Only in America can you have someone from the religious right be this prominent in politics; the religious right has virtually no influence in British politics."

All in all, I enjoyed the orientation sessions about the uK. I found that the country is quite reasonable and agrees with a lot of my sentiments. Apparently, only 8% of the British population consider themselves to be regular churchgoers (compared to about 60% in America). Gay marriage and abortion are not the main issues dividing the political parties; the British resolved gay marriage conflict by renaming marriage as "civil partnership" and letting marriage remain a mostly religious term, and the only discussion about abortion is over when the latest term is to have one. The separation of church and state is quite clear, which is something that I admire and wish the US government was more like this.