University of Roehampton Fulbright Summer Institute

Our Final Week in London

2010-08-09T10:20:00.000-07:00

So I know that this post is about a week and a half late, but I figured I should go ahead and give you all a brief wrap-up of our last week in London.

The main reason that no one was able to blog the final week is because we were so busy! For our citizenship class, 50% of the grade was based on a 10 minute video. We split up into two groups of four- Nadia, Jason, Jamie and Alex then Malik, Barron, Dayna and I. Everyone had been filming and interviewing people throughout the trip, but the last week was when we really started editing film and putting the video together. So, basically Monday through Friday of our final week in London, everyone was cooped up in Bede working on our videos (see Malik doing a voiceover for our video below).

We all worked really hard on our videos and it payed off in the end! We presented the videos to our teachers, the International office staff and anyone who wanted to come on Friday afternoon. Everyone was very impressed by our hard work and I think that we made our British "parents" proud.

After the video presentations were done, class was also over. We had the rest of Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday to sightsee and relax together. On Saturday we all saw the National Gallery and the British Museum (below) as well as doing some serious shopping on Oxford Street. Sunday, everyone split up a bit and did their own thing. I went shopping again (I know, a little excessive), then saw Harrod's and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Harrod's was probably the most amazing store I have ever been in. The food rooms reminded me of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory!

By Monday, we were all exhausted, and most of us stuck around Roehampton and packed suitcases, went souveneir shopping, etc. I had my first experience in ASDA (the British version of WalMart) and saw Tate Modern. I'm really glad that we got so see so many museums on this trip. I loved seeing all the art and history in London. (Andy Warhol room in Tate Modern below). On Monday night we attended a small reception with all of our supporters and even the Vice Chancellor of Roehampton! We showed the videos again, and received our certificates for completing the program. Sadly, it was also time to say goodbye to many of our friends!

Our final week was busy and hectic, but Like the rest of this trip, it was amazing! I feel so lucky to have been a part of the Fulbright Summer Institute at Roehampton. I would recommend this program and Roehampton University to anyone. I not only got to experience a different culture in London, Edinburgh, and Brussels, but I also got to learn from amazing teachers, and meet some awesome people! All of my fellow Fulbrighters, the Roehampton staff, and the Fulbright staff were wonderful to work with. The people I've met have really made this trip exceptional for me. I owe the Fulbright Commission and Roehampton University a BIG Thank You! To all of my new friends: I miss you guys!

The Time is Winding Down

2010-07-22T06:47:00.000-07:00

On Monday, Alex and I visited Norbury Manor Business & Enterprise College for Girls for the last time. As it was their second to last day of school, they girls had a scavenger hunt throughout London and we were asked to join. Having done this before, Alex and I came prepared with a tube map, map of the city, and travelers guide. It all paid off because we won!

Victorious picture in Trafalgar Square

Since then, things have been more low key than usual as we are all working hard on our final film project. It is due to tomorrow and afterwards, we will have some great adventures and stories to share with you all.

Cheers!

Graffiti in London, Edinburgh, and Brussels

2010-07-21T01:50:00.000-07:00

Hey there!

So my sister and I have had an interest in graffiti art for a couple years now. It all started when we came across one of those random books in Barnes and Noble full of different graffiti artists and their work. Ever since then, I always keep my eyes peeled for any interesting pieces on the streets. Here are some pics that I've taken in London, Edinburgh, and Brussels.

Enjoy! Emma

Dayna's Time in Brussels = BRILLIANT!

2010-07-20T01:19:00.000-07:00

Here's a little recap of Brussels in pictures:

Here's the EUROSTAR!!! We were SO excited to say that we managed to stop off in France on this trip... even though it was only for a few minutes en route to Brussels!

The architecture here is absolutely GORGEOUS! I was so amazed at all the intricate details on all of the buildings. The picture is too small to see, but there is an inscription on the second building pictured, indicating that it was built in 1698! Sego told me that in the olden days, buildings all over Europe would be labeled with the year they were created. It is truly amazing to see all of these ancient buildings firsthand. I am SO lucky to be here!

How can I NOT have food pictures?! We ALL had Belgian waffles and they were SO DELICIOUS! I also had a cup of hot chocolate and this little wafer that melts in your mouth... That was seriously the best hot chocolate I've had in my life!

And of course I couldn't leave without having a bite of the mussels and chips, which is famous in Brussels. I had never eaten mussels before, but they were actually quite good!

Here I am in front of Parliament. There wasn't very windy while we were there, but when the wind did pick up, watching all the flags wave in the wind was absolutely beautiful.

This is something I definitely won't forget! We saw this cute old man performing on the streets and stopped to watch him. He was so entertaining, happy, and full of life. Sego told us that he was on some TV show and is famous in France! Watching him perform just made my day!

I honestly cannot believe how lucky I am to be here. Going to Brussels has been an AMAZING experience and I have had so much fun and learned so much in the short amount of time I spent there. Everything is still surreal to me... Brussels today, London tomorrow... How crazy is that?!

Happy Birthday Emma! Love, Jamie :)

2010-07-19T10:14:00.001-07:00

Today we were able to sleep in (or "have a lie-in," if you're British!)... which was really nice. Everyone + Segolene - Malik and Barron were ready to leave by 10:30 to head to Camden Market for Emma's birthday!! :)

The Camden Markets are a number of adjoining large markets in Camden Town. The stalls sell crafts, clothing, souvenirs, and other things. It is the fourth most popular visitor attraction in London, attracting approximately 100,000 people each weekend. I am NOT surprised by that number! It was the first time in London that I felt surrounded by SO many people, and I finally got the feeling for just how big London is! Not to mention that we went on Sunday, which is by far the most attended day.

There was a little food market area that we ate at that served everything from Thai food, to Indian, French, Mexican, traditional British/American, and so on. It was so good! We got to sit on the edge of this little river :) If one thing is for sure, the song "Waving Flag" by K'Naan (one of the World Cup 2010 songs) will always and forever remind me of this trip! Chances are, at least one person has it stuck in their head at any given time OR it will play in some store or restaurant, and thus we'll all get it stuck in our heads! Good thing it's a catchy song ;)

After lunch, we checked out some of the various side street stores. It was really cool to walk past them because each shop had it's own style as well as it's own song blasting from the store -- so you'd just walk past and hear all this great music and see all the different items for sale. It was great! We then headed to the Stables Market, which is the largest section of Camden Market. The market is built in the former Midland Railway stables and horse hospital, which served the horses pulling barges along the canal. Many of the stalls and shops are set into huge arches in railway viaducts, which made for a really unique atmosphere!

I would say that the Stables Market had more of an eclectic feel to it with almost an alternative/punk edge. While chain stores are not permitted there, many of the stalls are clothes stalls (some vintage/second-hand), some furniture, household goods, and decorative items. A lot of the goods in the Stables Market are hand-made and many are ethnically influenced.

After we spent a good deal of time there, we were ready to head to another shopping area in Central London. To our surprise, because the visitor numbers have become so high in the markets, the Camden Town tube station is available only to incoming passengers on Sunday afternoons to prevent dangerous overcrowding of the platforms. Therefore, we had a bit of a walk to make it to the next tube station to even get out of the area! Total crazyness!

We headed to Primark in Central London, which was hands-down an INSANE experience.
Primark is branded as the J.C. Penney's of the Republic of Ireland, as it sells fashionable clothing at competitive prices. This place is HUGE. Think about the largest Forever 21 you've ever seen and multiply that by 3, as well as cutting the prices in half! I would estimate that there were at the very least 1,000 people in that store while we were there, as well as 100 employees working there at any given time. We saw employees literally sweeping up hangers and astray clothing as well as just trying to manage the mangled racks and at least partially straighten it up. It was a mad house! I had forgotten which parts of the store I had actually been in and where I still had left to go. A few of us got some things, but I was too overwhelmed to even make any decisions what I wanted ;)

After a long, long, fun day of shopping, we headed back to Roehampton! The tube stations were absolutely packed. At one point there were so many people on the platform that there was a woman trying to exit the tube, and couldn't physical get off because there was no room for her to step down on and everyone was trying to push to make it onto the tube... thankfully she was able to get off after all, and we were all able to make it on together! There were definitely no personal bubbles for the extent of that journey though!

We ate a much needed dinner, and downed many many glasses of water, and caught up on lots of academic work! My video group had a very secretive, closed-door, effective meeting ;) Then, we tried catching up on some sleep!

Jamie Boogeying in Brussels!

2010-07-19T10:06:00.000-07:00

Today was a particularly early start, especially after an epic struggle in the bathroom last night! I was trying to take a simple shower, but the shower head was broken off in the stall I usually use. So that was one strike against me. I decided to venture over into the stall just to the left, and all was well until the motion detector decided I wasn’t in there anymore and all the lights went out! In my attempts to flail around to get the motion detector to pick me up and turn the lights back on, I knocked off the glass light covering on the ceiling. Thankfully, though, it didn’t break, but made a loud crashing sound! I finally decided that I had to make a mad dash to the center of the bathroom to get the motion detector to sense me, so I could finish my shower with some light. Definitely made for an interesting experience!

We were all ready to go and in taxis by a ripe 4:30AM… but we were all shockingly energetic! After all the early mornings of Orientation Leader in June, I’ve found that I actually have a large amount of energy in the wee hours of the morning! On the way to the train station to catch our EuroStar train, Jason told either the best or worst joke in the world. It was:

“So the European Union is trying to create an uplifting slogan for the whole EU – what is it?”

….what Jason?

“Eurastar!” (you’re a star)

The taxi driver’s response was, “You do realize that’s how I’m waking up to this morning, right?” I told him I felt sick. Maybe a little extreme ;) I think he got one laugh out of Nadia the entire day of telling that joke!

We caught our EuroStar train at 6:20AM to head to BRUSSELS! Yay! We had croissants and orange juice for breakfast on the train and most of us napped during the trip. It was only a two and a half hour journey! The time difference is one hour, so we arrived in Belgium at 9:45AM.

Our transport to our hotel was literally a huge 45-person charter bus… which seemed really bizarre, but hey, whatever works! When we arrived at our hotel – EU Radisson Blu – we knew we were in for a treat! The lobby area was very fancy, and once again, we got our own rooms. After a small little mishap of the hotel staff writing “Mr Jamie Weiser” on my room key, we all headed up to check out our rooms!

When I stepped inside, my jaw dropped! These rooms are NICE. With a flat screen TV that greeted us with our own name, to a stocked mini-bar, a balcony, colorful/modern furniture, a shoehorn and shoe shiner (??), a bathroom with a tub AND a shower, and a queen-sized bed all to myself? WOW we are spoiled :) It truly is absolutely beautiful.

(Outside my balcony!)

We dragged ourselves out of our beautiful rooms in order to head out into the Belgium world! We went to the market area outside the Atomium for some lunch! We all chose a Panini-serving restaurant, where Nadia, Segolene, and I had to whip out some French skills to communicate with the wait staff. It has been so much fun to catch up on my French, and refresh myself for French class in the fall!

After lunch, we hung out around the Atomium, which is a monument built for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. Designed by Andre Waterkeyn, it is 335 feet tall, with nine steel spheres connected so that the whole forms the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. It symbolizes the democratic will to maintain peace among all the nations, faith in progress, both technical and scientific, and finally, an optimistic vision of the future. Interesting!

While hanging out outside the Atomium, we had a serious debate whether the color on the Belgium flag was black or blue... everyone had a specific opinion and definitely held their ground! For the record though, it's black ;)

We got to the metro station to head to Grand Place, the central square of Brussels. However, Emma and I had an epic struggle with the metro! There’s one thing for sure – the metro shows no mercy! We were all boarding, then all of a sudden, the cabin doors closed so forcefully and quickly that Emma and I were left outside the train, while the rest of our group was inside! I will never forget the expression on Dayna’s face, which was pure sadness as she watched out the window that was leaving Emma and I behind… we both laughed until we cried at the ridiculousness of the situation! Thankfully, Emma knew where we were going and which train we were supposed to catch, so we got on the next one and our group was faithfully waiting for us at the next station.

We ALL made it to Grand Place, where we walked around a bit and enjoyed some coffee and hot chocolate at one of the street cafés. The waiter was particularly fun and called all of the girls “belle.” He looked at me first when ordering and was like, “What would you like belle? Whiskey?” It was so random! I was just like “Um! Non merci, coffee please!” He was definitely a lot of fun.

After, we had a chance to wander around for 30-45 minutes to get some souvenirs… can’t leave without Belgian chocolate after all!! We also saw the Manneken Pis, which is one of Brussel’s most famous landmarks. Basically, it Is this tiny bronze fountain sculpture depicting a naked little boy peeing into the fountain's basin…. Very, very bizarre, but something you must see in Belgium, I suppose!

We headed back to our hotel (thankfully with no more metro mishaps!), and had the opportunity to just relax for a couple of hours in our rooms. It was so lovely to have a little down time. Down time even back in London is a rarity, so it truly feels like we “went on vacation” to Belgium! I got this weird call on my room phone that told me it was “housekeeping” and they needed me to check some number on the outside of my trash can because they were concerned about hazardous waste in my trash… I’m thinking it was a prank, but it was totally weird! Other than that, I watched some BBC and French TV (I got to see The Office dubbed in French!) on my flat screen and just relaxed. Very nice :)

We all got a little bit fancied up and headed to dinner at Volle Gas, I believe. It was really nice! We talked about how sad it was going to be when it’s time to go because we have all gotten to know each other so well. It’s also going to be really bizarre to know that we might not see each other again, since we all live in such different areas! Sad :( But Kirsten, our UK mommy, reassured us that it’s indeed going to be okay and that it’s life for that to happen!

To round off the evening, we all had a wonderful time at Celtica and O’Reilly’s, recommendations from one of my friends who studied abroad in Belgium for a year!

Nadia and Emma in Brussels

2010-07-19T09:33:00.001-07:00

Just a short video clip from the streets of Brussles!

Cheers,

Emma & Nadia

Final Volunteering Session at Christ

2010-07-19T07:43:00.000-07:00

A short video about volunteering at Christ School.

So today was our last volunteer session at each of our schools. Dayna and I have been working at Christ School in Richmond here in London. I say working, but really we just get to hang out with kids and learn about them. I feel like I have gotten as much out of this experience as the students have! The first week we toured the school and had a discussion with about ten Year 10 students. Last week we spoke to a group participating in a vocational program and some year 11's, then went to a science fair with a club from the school. Today, we got to be part of a year 8 Citizenship lesson, sit in on a Religious Education class, and speak to some year 9 students in the Library. Like I said, we basically just hang out with kids, answer questions about the US and ask them questions.

Our school is a secondary school which means that it is students aged about 11 to 16. It's been really interesting to hear from a variety of ages and types of students. It's amazing how the science group's opinions differed from the vocational classes opinions which differed from the Citizenship class's questions. One of my favorite parts of the British school system is this Citizenship class. It's a new requirement in the curriculum, but I think it's a great idea. The students only have it for about and hour every week, but they talk about anything from their own government to environmental issues to human rights news. I think it's a really beneficial way to open students eyes to issues on a national and global level, hopefully making them better citizens.

Like I say in the video above, this has been one of my favorite parts of this whole experience. I think that you can begin to understand a culture through its adult citizens, but when you hear what the youth have to say, you really see the essence of a culture. Since London has been the majority of most of these students' lives, they are a sort of pure source for London culture. Some of the students we have spoken to are really quite intelligent as well. We talk about everything from the government and the economy to what the media is like here to the pros and cons of going to University. Today, we met the next Prime Minister of Britain! It's also fun to hear how they see the US and what kind of questions they have for us. Some popular ones are "Does everyone carry a gun around?" and "Do you see a lot of famous people?". We stereotype the British as snooty and tea drinking while they stereotype us as fat and rich. I think that getting into the schools has been a real benefit not only for us to better understand British culture, but for the students to get a glimpse of American culture as well.

The other interesting thing is hearing how different the schools are from each other. Barron and Jamie have had a completely different experience than Malik and Jason who've had a different experience than Alex and Nadia or Dayna and I. You will have to check out their blogs to see what their schools were like. Christ was a wonderful school to volunteer in and I enjoyed every minute of it! Thank you Tony McLeod and Sarah Brown for organizing this part of the program!

Cheers,

Emma

Progress and Sustainability on Thursday

2010-07-17T17:09:00.000-07:00

top: Malik and Dave Tinham, bottom: Tessa Willy and Barron

Hey everyone! So a couple of days ago - Thursday to be exact - we got to take a class about one of my favorite topics. Progress and Sustainability. First, we talked about our own ecological footprints. I took a quiz online and found out that I am living as if we have 2.41 worlds-worth of resources to use! And I thought I was somewhat sustainable! This was the launching pad for our discussions, but today we had a bit more excitement than normal. We had guest teacher Tessa Willy lead the session, as well as welcoming three former Roehampton student activists to discuss with us. It was really nice to hear so many different points of view, as usual, and to interview both Tessa and the students. I've never thought about citizenship, human rights and the slogan "think globally, act locally" before now. Tess and the students really gave me a new perspective on our topics for this week.
The other really cool part if the day was that in the afternoon, we got to take a walk around Roehampton to the RU Outdoor space that Tessa and Dave have built with students. They have fruit trees, vegetables and other plants growing on small plots right on campus. Students will be able to take part in the gardening and enjoy the fruits of their labors. The group also worked with young people from the neighboring area to create art for the space. The idea is to start a community effort to be more sustainable in the future. I really enjoyed Thursday's session, but we only have one more normal class day left! I can't believe how fast the time is going! Only about a week more in London!

Wishing I could stay longer,
Emma

2010-07-17T15:29:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

We’ve just completed another amazing week at the summer institute.

One thing I can definitely appreciate about our courses here is the diversity. We have several different lecturers, guest speakers, and forms of teaching whether it’d be PowerPoint’s, clips, documentaries, or excursions to exhibits. I found Monday’s class titled Inclusion and Exclusion: citizens and ‘others’ to be particularly interesting as we discussed the history of prisons, and had a head employee from Wormwood Scrubs (one of London’s largest prisons) come and share her experiences with us. It was interesting to just to learn more about prison life and examine how that ties into citizenship.

On Tuesday, Alex and I went to our school Norbury Manor to volunteer for the day. We had such a great time talking to all of the girls about our lives in America, and our education paths. I especially enjoyed having many girls ask us if we’ve ever seen celebrities, and get excited about our American accents.

Currently, I am on the Eurostar back to London after a fantastic weekend in Brussels, Belgium. I absolutely adored the French culture and this has really got me thinking about continuing French and possibly studying in France. In Brussels we had great accommodations, staying just down the street from the European Union Parliament.

Here we learned about the EU as a whole, visited an atom created during the World Fair, saw beautiful architecture in La Grande Place, and of course enjoyed Belgian waffles and chocolate!

As each day continues I am learning so much. In 10 days, I am really going to miss this.

Until next time!

Jamie's Day 18 -- Beyond Citizenship

2010-07-15T02:25:00.000-07:00

Today we had our SEVENTH (hard to believe!) academic session called "Beyond Citizenship." Coincidentally (or maybe not!) it is Bastille Day in France, so it made today's session even more personalized. Because Bastille Day symbolizes the emergence of the modern nation, we looked at evidence and implications from recent attempts towards citizenship beyond the nation state.

Additionally, we looked at this expansion of citizenship. With the European Union, the United Nations, and other supranational bodies in mind, we discussed dual and nested citizenship. Also, we looked at the ideas and critiques of a world government and global citizenship.

A global citizen is someone who is aware of the wider world and has a sense of their own role as a world citizen, respects and values diversity, has an understanding of how the world words, is outraged by social injustice, and participates in the community at a range of levels. After learning this concept, we explored questions such as, "Can this 'global citizen' co-exist with the 'national citizen' or the 'European citizen?'" "Does global citizenship require the existence of a world government in order to ensure global rights?" "Does global or world citizenship imply a common set of values? Would a common set of values mean that some values will be excluded (i.e. the common set will be the only imposed?)" "If we do become world citizens then should we also expect to receive a passport? A passport to where??" Very interesting!

During lunch we were all introduced to a truly bizarre food group known as overcooked egg-like quiche that was actually meant to be pizza? As it jiggled like Jello and tasted like something unidentifiable, we all filled ourselves up with bread and butter instead ;)

In the afternoon, we had the opportunity to split into our video groups and meet with our professor/mentor who will eventually be giving us our "marks." We shared our video ideas with Alex and he gave us a few more things to think about, like making sure that we have a clear thesis and point to making the video. It was good advice and nice to be able to run ideas by him before we start to make sure we're headed in the right direction!

Afterward we watched "In the Loop." It was actually a comedy! It was nice to watch something relatively light-hearted in class. Basically, the film examined international relations and the "special relationship" between the UK and US government.

We got out of class early, which gave us all a chance to go back to Bede and catch up on the crazy amounts of work we have to do! I caught up on some blogging, uploading a video for a video blog we're working on, starting to think of essay topics, etc. Emma and I attempted to go to the library to upload her video and use the FlipShare software but sadly the library closed at 7 :( So we all headed over to dinner instead and decided what we wanted to do for the evening! After throwing around a few ideas we finally decided to....

...see Eclipse! Malik, and all us girls decided to go :) It was interesting because all the voice-overs for the previews are done with a British accent... something small, but definitely different! Also, all the previews were for American movies, so that was interesting too. The movie itself was... entertaining? Malik definitely got a few laughs! It was one of those things that all us girls had read the books and just felt inclined to see the movie, but the acting was by no means top notch. One of the most ridiculous parts was when Bella explained how she was going to take a neutral status by saying "From now on, I'm Switzerland!" Regardless of how we felt about the movie, it was a fun experience to see a movie in England! :)

Picture update and Day 17!

2010-07-14T08:45:00.000-07:00

Hi, it's Dayna! :] I'm going to do a really fast picture update with just a select few of the MANY things that we've done so far!

This is us at the top of the London Eye... we're missing Emma because she wasn't here yet!

This is before going out to ZOOBAR to celebrate JAMIE'S 19th BIRTHDAY!!!

Celebrating our 4th of July with a BBQ (at Tony's apartment) in England... how ironic!

Chilly in Scotland... but isn't the architecture GORGEOUS?!

At The Three Sister's in Scotland! Fulbright family love!

We've been incredibly busy with sightseeing, classes, and activities so far but it has all been so exciting and absolutely BRILLIANT!

Here's a little summary of Day 17 for me!
Today Emma and I did our second volunteering session at Christ’s, a school in Richmond. Our school is the closest of the four schools that the Fulbrighters are volunteering in - we just have a 15 minute bus ride and a 2 minute walk to get to campus. Our first activity of the morning was to talk to students for two periods in the Library about ourselves and where we are from. Emma and I brought our pictures from home to assist us in our mini presentations, and we got to interact with the students and talk to them a bit about their experiences living in London. After a quick coffee break in the teacher's lounge, we went back up to the Library to sit in on a presentation by undergraduate student ambassadors from Kingston University. They came to speak to a group of Christ's students about the possibilities and benefits of attending university. It is really interesting how the school identifies these students to be a part of this group who they feel need a push to get into higher education. At home, or at least at the high school I attended, all the students went to these sorts of presentations on future options, financing further education, and exploring areas of academic interest in a college setting.
We then met with Miss Brown, our contact at Christ's, and she took us, and several boys from the school science club, to a science fair in London, close to King’s Cross station. I had a wonderful time interacting with the boys and talking to them about citizenship and their opinions on the topic. It was especially relevant to them because they take a citizenship class in school. The bunch I talked to held an interesting conversation with me for a while, then proceeded to get carried away teasing each other and being rascal – reminds me exactly of boys their age in the US! There were a lot of schools visiting the fair and walking around. On the first and second floors of the building were student projects and displays by companies on science-related issues. We went up to the third floor to eat lunch quickly before heading off to one of the rooms in the building where we had a laboratory class. The boys made silly putty and learned about solids and liquids through the experiment. Emma and I had a great time watching the boys – some of them had lumpy putty, some had liquid putty, but only one had LEGIT silly putty. Regardless of the success of their products, they sure had a fun time making the putty and playing around with food coloring!

Here's the science fair!

Emma and I left after that session – the boys continued to go to various other sessions in the building for the rest of the afternoon – and decided to do some exploring around London. We walked around a bit and had fun “getting lost,” although you can’t really get lost in London as long as you can find your way to a tube station! We ended up taking the underground to Trifalger Square so Emma could catch up on some sightseeing and then stopped off quickly at a tourist shop before heading back to Roehampton.
At night we had a pub quiz at the Jolly Farmer... here's a picture of our fabulous team! (Who cares if we didn't get 1st place... we were just relieved that we didn't come in last!)

Barron's Day 17: Cambridge University

2010-07-14T07:39:00.001-07:00

Today started at a very early 6:00 AM. I dragged myself out of bed in automatic mode-brushed my teeth, got dressed, did a little kumbaya-and went to get Jamie at 6:15 AM. Jamie, however, did not hear her alarm and continued to remain in her deep slumber until I knocked on her door. After looking at the time with a little bit of shock and profanity, Jamie got ready in a solid 5-10 minutes, a feat that has not happened for the majority of women! We then headed to Barnes station to go to Surrey.

After reaching Clapham Junction and hopping on the wrong train, we hopped off at Balham Station to see when the next Sutton train departed. Unfortunately, the next train left at 7:23 and arrived at Sutton at 7:43, two minutes before the bus to Cambridge was supposed to leave. Since it was a few minutes past 7, Jamie and I decided to try a different method and hopped on the Northern Line down to Morden. I was particularly concerned by the name due to its similarity to Mordor, but at that point we were just driving to get in the vicinity of Sutton or Surrey. Once arriving at Morden, I found a number to call a taxi and at 7:35 (and 10 pounds later), we arrived at Glenthorne High School. I suppose we are officially domesticated by the fact that we used 4 different types of transportation to get there. (Train, Tube, Bus, Taxi). If you aren't impressed, I don't know what will impress you!

We met with Mr. Parrish, the equivalent of the Director of the last two years of high school, and got on a coach towards Cambridge. It took about a solid hour to get through London, and then another hour and 15 minutes to get to Cambridge. Jamie slept most the way whereas I talked to some of the students and got to know them a little bit. After we arrived in Cambridge, we were lost for about a solid 30 minutes and did a few laps around the main library in order to find the Faculty of Divinity building where we were to meet our guide. He had a brief discussion with the high school students and then gave us a tour of some of the 51 colleges at Cambridge University.

Some of the highlights were seeing the lovely tourists punting on the river, eating lunch at the Corpus Christi classical dining hall, and seeing some interesting. In the first picture is the bridge built by Sir Isaac Newton! According to Cambridge tales, the bridge was built to be geometrically-perfect and at first did not require any bolts; however, some staff broke down the bridge to understand the physics behind it and once they rebuilt it, they had to use bolts. Fact or Myth? You decide! There are people "punting down the river" in the picture. Jamie and I were going to do it, but we sadly ran out of time! In the second picture is where Erasmus studied and stayed at Cambridge!

We then went through Queens College, Corpus Christi College, and Kings College. All of us ate lunch at the dining hall in Corpus Christi that looks like the dining hall in the picture (that one is from Queens College). The food was actually really good and made me almost want to go there-that and the awesome academics! While the students were meeting with a senior member of the admission department, Jamie and I went shopping for a few items and walked around the campus.

On the way home, Jamie and I interviewed a handful of students about what citizenship means to them and their perspective of globalization. After getting back into London, we then took the train home and got back around 6:20 PM or so. It was a long day! We both had to quickly eat and get ready for the Pub Quiz Night (Trivia Night) in Putney. It was a lot of fun and even though our team didn't do as well as the other Fulbright team, we didn't come in last place! Before we all called it a night, everyone had group meetings to discuss their video projects.

Class tomorrow on Globalization! Preview for the rest of the week: Class Thursday, Belgium: Friday/Saturday

Emma's Misadventures Thus Far

2010-07-12T16:08:00.001-07:00

I am different from the other Fulbrighters because I arrived exactly one week after them. I titled this blog Emma's Misadventures thus far because the first week of my Fulbright Institute was spent at home in Colorado! The story goes like this: I applied for a visa, as did everyone else, about a month before we were scheduled to leave. Now, to apply for a visa, you have to mail your passport in with all of your application materials. My application was approved, and they mailed my visa and passport back to me with a tracking number through UPS. The problem is that two days after it was supposed to arrive, my dad and I found out that it had never made it to Fruita, Colorado. My passport was lost somewhere between Denver and Grand Junction. So, 4 days before I was supposed to leave, I had no passport and no visa. I wasn't able to come on time, but I did have a new passport and new visa by the next Saturday. To the left is the passport in question - the reason for my temporary 2-week long fit of insanity. Who knew such a little book could cause so much trouble! So, I missed one week of the program. Lucky for me, EVERYONE involved in this program is WONDERFUL. Kirsten, Tony and Katie caught me up quickly on where I was living and gave me food vouchers while Dave and Alex and Segolene helped me catch up in class. All of my fellow Fulbrighters as well as our awesome peer ambassadors Louisa and Curtis welcomed me with open arms into the group. Honestly, I couldn't ask for a better outcome to some really bad luck! I'm just glad to finally be here and be part of such an excellent program!... or as the British say, "programme"!

Since I've been in the UK, my misadventures have been much more mild (like tripping over the door jam on the way to dinner today), but I'm looking forward to more Adventures in the future! I'm sure you will get some more details on what we've done in the last week from the other posts here on the blog, but all I can say is that we haven't stopped moving! We are either in class, seeing the sights around London, doing homework, eating, or - as was the case last weekend - visiting places like Scotland! I can't wait to share more with you about the rest of our experience!

Moral of these misadventures: Never trust the UPS tracking with important travel documents!

More coming soon!
Emma

Alex...in London...too!

2010-07-12T13:02:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! We've officially hit the halfway mark for our Fulbright experience at Roehampton University, so I decided to celebrate with my very first blog entry. These last few weeks have been absolutely AMAZING! Since everyone has done a great job summarizing all of the wonderful excursions we've taken so far, I thought I'd start with Day 17.

I began the day with a lovely breakfast with Nadia, Emma, and Dayna. Nadia and I then skillfully navigated the public transportation system and actually arrived at Norbury Manor--the all girls' school we volunteer at--ahead of schedule. We observed three classes--Identity, Art, and Citizenship--and presented in the fourth class, Geography. Nadia showed the girls pictures she brought from home, while I passed around my student id, library card, driver's license, and currency. After we finished, the girls were allowed to ask questions. Several wanted to know what cheerleaders "are really like," as well as if we had ever met any celebrities. Once class was over, Nadia and I posed for several photos, which are going to be put in the next edition of the school newsletter.

We then returned to Roehampton, where we swapped stories with the other groups over dinner. After dinner we headed into Putney with Mark, Val, Curtis, and Louisa (all of whom work at Roehampton) for a pub trivia quiz. My team consisted of Mark, Curtis, Jason, Jamie, and Nadia. We called ourselves "Questioning Casper" because Casper was the name of the guy who was reading the questions. It was quite difficult because we are foreigners, but we managed to beat the other team and came in fourth overall!

Jason in Scotland!

2010-07-12T12:55:00.000-07:00

Today I rolled out of bed at 4:18AM—an incredible feat for me! I quickly packed, met up with the others, and we all jumped in cabs to Kings Cross. We’re going to Scotland! That said, upon getting to the station we all had just one goal in mind: finding Platform 9 ¾. This platform serves the Hogwarts Express, the famous train wizards and witches take to get to school in the Harry Potter series. A nearby security guard quickly deduced what we were looking for and led us there. Sure enough it was in between platforms 9 and 10 (duh). Under a small “9 ¾” plague was a brick wall which had half of a trolley sticking out of it. Some of the girls got pictures “running” through the wall, and after we made our way back to the main terminal to wait for Tony (who was bringing food)! I was running on almost no sleep and I decided that the comfort of the floor more than made up for its dirtiness.
Specifically we’re journeying to Edinburgh, a city known for both its beauty and political activism. On our trip we’ll be exploring the city, getting a taste of the city’s culture, and visiting the Scottish parliament (which we’ll contrast to the previously visited British parliament). Tony eventually arrived with a hearty breakfast and we boarded our train. After a smooth four hour ride through the beautiful country side we arrived in the heart of the city. We threw down our bags in the hotel and went back out to explore the Scottish way of life. We only had two days, and wanted to make the most of it.
Our first stop was a continuation of the Harry Potter tour. We ate lunch at the Elephant Room the café where Rowling wrote the first few books. Our waitress was a bit…odd (she wrote down the menu for us) but my Sheppard’s pie was delicious, and it was really cool being in the same room that birthed Harry Potter (an integral part of all of our childhood’s—except Malik’s; he never get into the series—stupid muggle). After, we visited parliament; it was shocking to see such modern-looking buildings. England’s parliament was centuries old. On the tour, we learned that Scotland’s parliament was just years old, and that the buildings had been designed to represent all ways of Scottish life. From an aerial perspective, the buildings are designed to look like leaves or overturned fishing boats (emphasizing the countries landscapes and fishing industry). Throughout the tour, the guide pointed out more examples of such imagery and how the building was designed with an emphasis on unity. Even the stone used in the construction of the building came from all areas of Scotland. We also learned how different the parliament was from England’s, and explored how sense of citizenship differed across the country and from England. We got lots of great footage for our video project!
As we walked from location to location we got to see a lot of different faces of Edinburgh (and we walked a lot—at least until Emma took over as navigator). The city is gorgeous! In some parts you can look out over the sea; in others you can see kilted men walking around against a backdrop of all sorts of shops and pubs. Some of us talked of studying abroad there and we all wished we could spend more time exploring. But by the time seven o’clock rolled around, we were all exhausted, starving, and glad to rest our legs. And to cap off the great day, I had an AMAZING dinner at The Outsiders (props to Katie!) Malik and I both got steaks, and it was the best I’d ever eaten. I would go back to Scotland just to have that meal again. Perfectly cooked, juicy, no fat…but anyway, after dinner we walked around the city a bit more. Edinburgh comes alive at night! We didn’t stay out too late though, and everyone crashed when we got back to the hotel. As I write this everyone is already sound asleep. Today was full of excitement and new experiences. Hopefully tomorrow will be even better!

A Quick Summation of Nadia's Experience!

2010-07-12T12:40:00.000-07:00

Hello all!

My time here in London has been incredibly busy, academically stimulating, and nothing short of amazing. The first week was filled with visiting tourist attraction after tourist attraction, seeing architecture of all types, learning new words or taking words and learning the British pronunciation, and bonding with my new Fulbright family.

So far we've: attended two receptions, seen the musical Oliver, did a London photo frenzy/ scavenger hunt, gotten to tour Brick Lane a predominantly Bangledeshi community, had a 4th of July BBQ, visited Windsor Castle, stepped on the Prime Meridian, saw the House of Parliament (and a debate!), traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland, gone out in the city and so much more!

Additionally we're taking a class called Questioning Citizenship and it's challenging my current views, teaching me so much more and empowering me to just be a better citizen.

And this is only the beginning.

Be on the look out for more details as the days go on!

Cheers =)

Barron's Day 16: Inclusion and Exclusion

2010-07-12T05:07:00.000-07:00

After the standard 8:30 AM start with the common croissant and Oats n' Raisins cereal, we started class at 10:00 AM.

Today's session was entitled Session 6: Inclusion and Exclusion: Citizens and Others. In this session, we looked into the definitions and social opinions about immigrants, migrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers. Of course the term citizenship is defined as a set of rights, duties, and identities that link citizens to the nation-state, so there is room to question whether or not these people take away from that national identity.

I had not heard of the word Asylum-seeker, but these are people that flee to countries and register with the government for refuge, but that does not necessarily mean they are refugees who are people with a well-founded fear of persecution because of a variety of reasons. We then watched a video about the refugees fleeing the genocide in Darfur, Sudan and saw the lack of support and organization for the refugee camps. Of course documentaries highlight the worst of the worst, but even with that, the organization was absolutely inexcusable. This leads me to my next rant that there is no sort of accountability with organizations like the United Nations Human Rights Agency (UNHCR). I do not mean that they are not doing the best that they can do-my argument lies with the accountability of other nations. If Sudan does not want to work with this agency, the UNHCR, has no teeth. They can not change legislation, they have no army, and they have no way to punish Sudan or Rwanda for their indecency. That leads to my lack of respect for the UN and its purpose, but this blog isn't long enough for that!!!

Then came lunch-where Jamie dropped her tray and had 300 people give her a standing ovation. We had turkey balls (like meat balls), chips and pasta-always available, and fruit. The afternoon session encompassed the purpose of prison and whether or not prisoners should have the right to vote. As an on-going theme, I was the minority that thought that prisoners should not have the right to vote while serving their sentence. Prisoners have violated their right as a citizen and, in my opinion, they do not deserve the right to live among the society nor the right to vote. Giving them any sort of power only takes away from the victims of those crimes and law-abiding citizens. I do believe that non-violent felons should have their voting rights returned to them eventually (which is the current hopes for Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell). Anywho, it was an interesting discussion to say the least.

Later in the class we had the senior probation officer come in and speak with us about the Woodworm Scrubs or Prison in London. It was very interesting to hear her viewpoint about the UK prison system and the great initiatives they have to help rehabilitate prisoners into society, such as reading programs (one that originates from Roehampton University), and educational and emotional classes.

After class, I tried to conquer the daunting tasks of doing my laundry. No, just because I'm a guy doesn't mean I have never done this before. This may be the first time I had to pay for my laundry to be done (minus dry cleaning) since it is free at Hampden Sydney. Just so I don't sound absolutely stupid, I took a picture of the settings. Perhaps the fact I took a picture to prove myself makes me stupid, but that is neither here nor there!

Dinner was at 7:30 PM and then we all gathered around my computer to watch Bourne Identity-mainly because we all wanted to see the Waterloo Station scene. Jamie and I both wanted to make sure we got a good amount of sleep for our early 6:15 start tomorrow, so it was an early night. We're going back to volunteer at the high school and accompany about 15 students to their college tour of Cambridge! Very excited.

Barron's Day 14: Hogwarts

2010-07-12T01:40:00.000-07:00

Today we had a very early start of 4:30 AM. I finished my essays for the academic program earlier than the others, so I got a good amount asleep than the others. And on top of that, I am feeling a lot better!!! Tony, our UK dad/Roehampton Recruitment and Marketing Officer, scheduled two taxis to pick us up and take us to Kings Cross. For all those people that don’t know the relevance of Kings Cross, this station was where they filmed Harry Potter.

After we arrived, we looked for the infamous 9 3/4 platform where Harry Potter went through the magical wall to go to the train station destined for Hogwarts. After going to Platform 9, we searched around and found it! Ironically, there was half of a travel case attached to the wall. If only we could go to Hogwarts. At 8:00 PM-after getting coffees at Naro Café Express-we hopped on the train to Edinburgh (pronounced Edinborough), Scotland. On the train, I caught up on my blog and talked to a few people on Facebook.

It took about 4 hours to get there since the train averaged between 120-140 kmh at most. There was about three or four belligerently drunk passengers in our coach and as the train pulled away, they received about 4-5 calls from their friend Daniel who went to the wrong station. For about 15 minutes we heard the same “DANIEL! I told you Kings Crossing not Kings Crosset! Its right next to the station. DANIEL. Listen to me. The train is leaving. Run mate!” I’m glad to report after the 15 minutes of screaming Daniel’s name, he came on the 8 AM train to Scotland. The other discussions that the rest of the coach heard from these lot were about Beckham, Soccer, Girls, and Inside Jokes. Lovely people.

Once we arrived, we took the 35 minute walk to where we were staying at University First Hotel (at University of Edinburgh). The accommodations were pretty nice but it was a little bit out of the city. We then tracked through Edinburgh to go to the Elephant Café where we ate the long awaited lunch. This is where J.R. Rowlings wrote the first Harry Potter book. I had a cheeseburger-since I’m trying new things-and had hot chocolate. Everyone else got Shepherds Pie, Beef Pie, or something in between. The food was okay, but the experience-and our waitress-was incredible. She wrote down the entire menu (when she said she would we all thought she was joking) for us since you were supposed to order from the counter.

We then left to go to Scotland Parliament, which was formulated in 1997. Basically, Scotland has its own Parliament to manage their own countries dealings-such as education and law. The building was absolutely breath taking and very symbolic in the way it was designed. Additionally, the chambers are in a semi-circle that follows more like the E.U. and is not as confrontational as the House of Commons in the way they are positioned. As you can see in the photo, there is no protective glass in the viewing area, because they wanted it to be open and connected to all those that wanted to watch. At the House of Commons, there was a 6" glass barrier between the viewing area and the debates. Of course Westminster has some traditions to follow (like wearing wigs), but the Scottish Parliament was very refreshing in their newly formed ideals. The architect wanted to make the building appear very open and very connected to the rest of Scotland to honor the country’s heritage. After our guided tour through Parliament with our male tour guide that was very corky and had an infatuation for eyeliner, we took the long walk back to the hotel and rested up for dinner at 7:00.

We went to dinner at this modern restaurant called the outsiders. We all shared two bottles of white wine from South Africa with dinner. I got the Salmon, Salad, and a Lime and Ginger tart for dessert. After dinner, we walked down King George IV Street to this dance pub called the Three Sisters. It was a great start to our weekend in Edinburgh and we all slept very well that night.

Welcome to Roehampton University's London Summer Institute

2010-07-06T02:13:00.000-07:00

The Fulbright Commission Roehampton University London Summer Institute is a five-week cultural and academic programme for students held at Roehampton University in London in the UK. Participants in this programme will get the opportunity to:

Experience a stimulating academic programme at a UK University in London
Investigate concepts of citizenship and identity whilst improving presentation and communication skills
Explore the culture of the UK with trips to theatres and other cultural sites, and also explore the UK-EU relationship by visiting the Houses of Parliament and Brussels, the capital of Belgium and the administrative centre of the European Union.
Develop their team work skills by working on a group project to produce a short film on human right and citizenship
Take part in volunteering opportunities in the UK Community
Become an ambassador for studying in the United Kingdom

This year’s institute will take place from 27 June – 29 July 2010.