Finally got around to posting all of the photos I had left on my camera. They pretty much encompass everything post-Spain, except I was way less zealous about taking pics in general because I started to feel like everything was looking the same. Still, they are up on the Flickr page if you are interested. You can see pics of the kids I was in charge of in Oxford, among other things. I forgot to take pics of the kids in Cambridge... oops.
So I've been home for about a week now and I'm honestly not feeling any great amount of culture shock. Maybe a little, I suppose, but it could be something else. As originally predicted, England proved to be a really good buffer between Spain and America as it has many American-like qualities (insatiable appetite for junkfood and mindless reality television), yet still manages to be quite European (small houses, small cars, diversity). On the whole, however, I find England to be so much like America that I've found myself just comparing all the details between the two since I've been home. Sure there are some big differences, but when looking at the surface, it's mostly about the details. Some stuff I prefer in England, some stuff I prefer here. For example: I prefer pubs in England to bars in America. They are just a hundred times better, hands down.
When pressed to think about it, there are some things that I feel negative about that really do get my goat. Yet I'm not sure how much of this can attributed to culture shock, or a generally heightened awareness towards the quirks of American society as a result of getting a slightly fresh, quasi-objective view of it.
I forgot how much flag waving us Americans do. It's a little ridiculous how many I've seen since I've been home. That's been slightly annoying. What is everybody trying to prove? Yeah, I know it shows support for your country and promotes solidarity, etc., but what does hanging a flag on our porches really tell our neighbors? It seems like an overblown symbol that nobody actually knows the meaning of. Which sort of leads me sideways into my next idea:
Europe really is old and it's easy to forget sometimes that America isn't. I definitely got desensitized to all of the old beautiful architecture and the history connected to it while I was in Europe, but it's crazy being back here where absolutely everything is modern. It sorta feels like things have less individual character because so much was built in a shorter period of time (less diversity in style). Our lack of history in general seems more evident as so many facets of European life are derived in some way, shape, or form from something that happened hundreds upon hundreds of years ago (if not over a thousand). We have no old history, so to compensate we create thousands of symbols that we prescribe meaning to (many times forcefully). We haven't learned all of the same lessons our European predecessors have, yet we have so much military and economic might. Kinda scary, I suppose. Onward (and this might get ranty)...
Televised news, and indeed all journalism in general is truly horrendous in America. I mean it's abysmally terrible. It's totally impossible to overstate what a complete and utter shambles the Fourth Estate is here in the States. While I'm not saying European news is perfect, I would say any American who gets all of his or her world information from watching televised news (any network, doesn't matter) will be totally disconnected from reality. Almost to prove this, the BBC -later at night- will show a 15-20 minute clip of ABC World News Tonight from here in the States and it's absolutely appalling how huge the gap in professionalism between their reporting and ours is. American news constantly, inappropriately editorializes, rarely offers multiple relevant viewpoints surrounding an issue, distortedly/unevenly presents facts, and blatantly fearmongers to the point of driving a viewer insane. One could be excused for thinking the Lebanon/Israel conflict on English news television is an entirely different war than the one being shown in America. I really could go on about this for pages but I won't since it will get me off the point.
While none of these ideas are terribly new to me, I was reminded of all of them going away and then coming back. At the very least, I do think American televised news has gotten much much worse since the last time I was in England (two years ago), since the difference in quality was so noticeable this time around.
Slight feelings of resentment can be thrown back towards Europe as well, however. I find it annoying that so many hold themselves to be morally superior to those in the US because they live in Europe. I won't try to argue that Americans aren't self-centered and ignorant, but it's ludicrous that this accusation should come from a European's mouth. Europe strikes me as being just as self-centered and high on itself as America is. While they aren't quite as ignorant as we tend to be (because of a functional newsmedia and the side effects of straight up geographical inevitability), they still have an equal share of racial intolerance and social injustice that is prevalent in the US. Spain is a particularly xenophobic country, I've found, being much less welcoming to outsiders (especially the ones with darker complexions) than I originally assumed it would be. I guess my bitterness relating to this subject stems from my being singled out as a verbal pin cushion for anybody who felt the need to voice their dissatisfaction with our administration's foreign policy. Regardless of how much I would try to nod, agree, and reassure them I didn't vote for this wreckless gang of psychopaths, they still felt the need to dump all of their ideas out on me, barely letting me get a word in edgewise. I mean, I'm American, so I deserve a good talking down to.
That's not to say this happened extremely often, but it easily came up at least a dozen times in my 7.5 months being abroad. I was told honestly by a good deal of Europeans that, despite our "elected" officials, they still held quite a high opinion of Americans based on the ones they had met personally. At least we make a good impression when we travel.
Well, I didn't mean for this post to be so vitriolic, but I guess I was in the mood to bitch. I think the moral of the story is, no matter where you go, there is plenty to be unhappy about.
I'm still happy to be home and excited to get on with life. I am also grateful and appreciative having been able to travel abroad for so long, see so many places, and have so many different experiences. The idea that I could have made it through college without doing what I did seems almost preposterous at this point. People always say that they know when they missed a huge oppotunity and then regretted it for the rest of their life, but I can say with certainty that I grabbed this one and am very happy I was able to take advantage of it.
Since I've been home I haven't done a whole lot really except start to tie some loose ends up. I cleaned a bunch of my room, although there is still more to go. I went into Boston last Friday and stayed the night. The point was to see as many friends as possible, which I did. Since then, I've been sorta hanging around the house all day (being without car and all). Most of my friends that are around Foxboro (and there aren't many) have day jobs, so I have to wait til night to do stuff. I've been chillin with Steve lately like the good ol' days which has been refreshing. Hoping I can see more of my friends in the coming weeks, especially the ones that don't live in the area anymore.
I'm supposing I'll keep this blog updated on a somewhat normal basis, although what I write about, I've yet to figure out. Hopefully interesting things will happen to me. I'm once again in need of a title change, so I'll take suggestions... or just think of one myself. The address will remain the same, despite my decidedly domestic setting.
Bye!
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Homecoming
I'm home.
And, I guess that's that. So ends my journey.
Spent some time at Matt's place in Southampton taking in the last bits of England I could, seeing people, bowling, eating curry, and drinking ale. I've mentioned how awesomely incredible Matt has been to me over the course of my blog, but it bears repeating at least one more time. He put me up for about a total of 2 months since I've been abroad, never asking for shit in return. He's been really enthusiastic about finding me employment and has just been a generally kickass friend. My ability to stay overseas for so long has been made possible by his generosity (and that of his housemates and family). I am very indebted to him at this point but will hopefully find the opportunity to repay him eventually. So in general, I feel I had a good sending off. Then there was the trip home...
Airport security at Heathrow was predictably excessive. I had to take my shoes off twice as well as be frisked twice (along with all the other typical song and dance). Also the no liquids on the plane and a reduced size carry on, blah blah blah. Just more shit to deal with before getting on the plane, but nothing too harrowing. Basically BAA had their act together, everything just took a bit longer with the added measures. On the plane I had the pleasure of sitting next to a spastic 10 yr. old British girl that had never been in an airplane before. Did I mention she was spastic? She had no sense of other people's personal space (and fidgeted more than a meth addict), which translated into me getting elbowed 5 dozen times, her poking and prodding my belongings and generally sticking her face right up next to mine for god know's what reason, her screaming and jumping up and down on the seat AND she felt the need to get out of her seat to walk up and down the aisles no less than 20 times over the course of the flight. Even more reasons to move forward with my Youth Genocide Movement.
Homecoming was great, with the family plus Scott (sister's b-friend) waiting at home with some of my favorite foods and a belated birthday cake. It's nice to feel welcome. Kept it lowkey, and now I just been getting used to having my computer again which is strange as hell. I never would have denied how wired in I am before I left, but having been away for so long from my personal portal to the internets I feel oddly empowered to be sitting infront of these monitors again.
Not to cut this sort or anything, but my body thinks it's 4am at the moment and I don't care much to argue with it, so I think I'm gonna hit the pillow. I'm sure I'll be experiencing all sorts of culture shock in the coming days, which I'll report on. I'll be spending some time with family on Thursday, but I wanna see as many people as I can in the coming weeks, so get in touch and lemme know what you're up to. I might be planning a journey into Boston as early as this weekend, so definitely drop a line if you're in the city. My phone number is the same as it was before I left.
I love and miss you people. Let us be re-united in Peace and Harmony.
And, I guess that's that. So ends my journey.
Spent some time at Matt's place in Southampton taking in the last bits of England I could, seeing people, bowling, eating curry, and drinking ale. I've mentioned how awesomely incredible Matt has been to me over the course of my blog, but it bears repeating at least one more time. He put me up for about a total of 2 months since I've been abroad, never asking for shit in return. He's been really enthusiastic about finding me employment and has just been a generally kickass friend. My ability to stay overseas for so long has been made possible by his generosity (and that of his housemates and family). I am very indebted to him at this point but will hopefully find the opportunity to repay him eventually. So in general, I feel I had a good sending off. Then there was the trip home...
Airport security at Heathrow was predictably excessive. I had to take my shoes off twice as well as be frisked twice (along with all the other typical song and dance). Also the no liquids on the plane and a reduced size carry on, blah blah blah. Just more shit to deal with before getting on the plane, but nothing too harrowing. Basically BAA had their act together, everything just took a bit longer with the added measures. On the plane I had the pleasure of sitting next to a spastic 10 yr. old British girl that had never been in an airplane before. Did I mention she was spastic? She had no sense of other people's personal space (and fidgeted more than a meth addict), which translated into me getting elbowed 5 dozen times, her poking and prodding my belongings and generally sticking her face right up next to mine for god know's what reason, her screaming and jumping up and down on the seat AND she felt the need to get out of her seat to walk up and down the aisles no less than 20 times over the course of the flight. Even more reasons to move forward with my Youth Genocide Movement.
Homecoming was great, with the family plus Scott (sister's b-friend) waiting at home with some of my favorite foods and a belated birthday cake. It's nice to feel welcome. Kept it lowkey, and now I just been getting used to having my computer again which is strange as hell. I never would have denied how wired in I am before I left, but having been away for so long from my personal portal to the internets I feel oddly empowered to be sitting infront of these monitors again.
Not to cut this sort or anything, but my body thinks it's 4am at the moment and I don't care much to argue with it, so I think I'm gonna hit the pillow. I'm sure I'll be experiencing all sorts of culture shock in the coming days, which I'll report on. I'll be spending some time with family on Thursday, but I wanna see as many people as I can in the coming weeks, so get in touch and lemme know what you're up to. I might be planning a journey into Boston as early as this weekend, so definitely drop a line if you're in the city. My phone number is the same as it was before I left.
I love and miss you people. Let us be re-united in Peace and Harmony.
Monday, August 07, 2006
On keeping your chin up...
To counteract some of the negativity from my last post, I'll mention some good things that have been going on lately in the program:
- I've read a handful of good books in the last two weeks including In Cold Blood and Catch-22. Both are highly recommended. Gonna try to knock off two more before I leave on Sunday.
- One of the kids that already left took me out and bought me an expensive Chinese food lunch.
- Got to play mini-golf for the first time in years when we were in Yarmouth. I did poorly, but had a lot of fun anyway.
- The Sunday excursion got cancelled because it was finally understood how ridiculous it was to drag the kids to another historic building they wouldn't want to see or try to appreciate. As a result I got to sleep in late, and didn't have much to do all day. Kind of like a free day off.
- There's a good amount of early departures. Less kids means less annoyances.
- The program director has been much cooler to staff lately, probably in response to us bitching and moaning about everything. He bought us an expensive dinner after the Norwich/Yarmouth trip on Saturday. Also, he's offering to subsidize any activities we wanted to do while in the area (and being less stingy with money in general). He said he would pay for my transportation back to Matt's place in Southampton after the program has ended too. Sweet.
- The program ends in less than a week.
More on Yarmouth: It looked exactly like a northeast US coastal town. You know the ones with all the arcades, fried food, sketchy roller coasters and white trash galore. It kind of made me think of home, even if it was a seedier side of it.
I feel bad about not having bought a lot of souvenirs for people, but I literally have no room in my luggage for anything else, and am already way over the weight (and baggage number) limit for my flight back. I'm probably going to have to pay an assload of money just to get my stuff on the plane. I'm going to try to throw away things before I head home. And there I go getting all negative again.
Hoping the last week will go smoothly with a minimum of incidents, but I'm not expecting to be so lucky. Hope for the best, plan for the worst as they say.
I'm hungry, time to eat.
- I've read a handful of good books in the last two weeks including In Cold Blood and Catch-22. Both are highly recommended. Gonna try to knock off two more before I leave on Sunday.
- One of the kids that already left took me out and bought me an expensive Chinese food lunch.
- Got to play mini-golf for the first time in years when we were in Yarmouth. I did poorly, but had a lot of fun anyway.
- The Sunday excursion got cancelled because it was finally understood how ridiculous it was to drag the kids to another historic building they wouldn't want to see or try to appreciate. As a result I got to sleep in late, and didn't have much to do all day. Kind of like a free day off.
- There's a good amount of early departures. Less kids means less annoyances.
- The program director has been much cooler to staff lately, probably in response to us bitching and moaning about everything. He bought us an expensive dinner after the Norwich/Yarmouth trip on Saturday. Also, he's offering to subsidize any activities we wanted to do while in the area (and being less stingy with money in general). He said he would pay for my transportation back to Matt's place in Southampton after the program has ended too. Sweet.
- The program ends in less than a week.
More on Yarmouth: It looked exactly like a northeast US coastal town. You know the ones with all the arcades, fried food, sketchy roller coasters and white trash galore. It kind of made me think of home, even if it was a seedier side of it.
I feel bad about not having bought a lot of souvenirs for people, but I literally have no room in my luggage for anything else, and am already way over the weight (and baggage number) limit for my flight back. I'm probably going to have to pay an assload of money just to get my stuff on the plane. I'm going to try to throw away things before I head home. And there I go getting all negative again.
Hoping the last week will go smoothly with a minimum of incidents, but I'm not expecting to be so lucky. Hope for the best, plan for the worst as they say.
I'm hungry, time to eat.
Friday, August 04, 2006
I h8 teenagers
After last night, I think I'm officially tired of this job.
I had my 2nd of 3 days off on Wednesday and the lovely Samantha came to visit. I worked with Sam first session at Oxford and she was gracious enough to ride 3 hours to come see me and Kim (and then ride 3 hours to get back). Although I had fun on my first day off (last Friday), I can truly say it was a candidate for one of the more ridiculous nights of my life. I think I was slightly insane that day, which the other RAs that saw and hung out with me can attest to. Anyway, this 2nd day off went much better. We decided to shake things up and go play BINGO. Never in my life have I experienced anything so hopelessly depressing yet riotously amusing at the same time. Thank god they served beer. Sam and I were the youngest ones there, although, somewhat surprisingly, not by much. Then again, the only other people there that may have been in or near their 20s were with elderly parents. Whatever. The people there were friendly and taught us how to play (there is a learning curve) as British bingo is, in fact, different than American bingo. Afterwards, we drank more at a pub and talked about life, love, and all that junk, or whatever it is you banter about when you're drinking. It was all great fun, but sucked pretty hard when we had to wake up at 5am so Sam could hop a bus back to Oxford so she could be in time for her staff meeting.
I was afforded the luxury of sleeping for another 5 hours before I needed to wake up for a (yipee) mid-week excursion. We took the kiddies to Warwick Castle, which from personal experience along with my powers of deduction, was probably the biggest castle-related tourist trap in all of the United Kingdom. The castle seemed to have been renovated in the 19th century so it just looked like a mansion on the inside, despite being a 12th century castle on the outside. They also had a fake jousting performance, a trebuchet demonstration (which I unfortunately missed), archery, plenty of ice cream, and tons of other stuff to keep your snot-nosed 8 year old cackling maniacally for the afternoon. Not really the greatest for a group of 30 American teenagers. Maybe the 1 or 2 history buffs in the group enjoyed it, who knows.
After that, we hopped back on the bus and moved along to Stratford upon Avon, the birthplace of Billy Shakespeare. We walked by his supposed house, although it was too late to take a tour (not that I would have). You can imagine the anti-climactiveness of it all. It's a cute town that contains practically nothing. I don't understand how there are so many of those in England. After dinner, we caught a performance of The Tempest put on by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Patrick Stewart was the leading role, Prospero, which was sorta cool, but the play was hopelessly weird and hard to follow. My general deal with Shakespeare is if I haven't read it, I probably can't follow a performance of it, which proved once again to be true.
I got into this quiet murderous rage on the 1.5 hour bus ride home as the kids were being impossibly loud and abominable. I've never been so inexplicably angry at everyone and everything around me in my entire life. I tried to put on my headphones and just close my eyes, but there always seemed to be something to distract me and remind me of how much I hated the world at that moment (hence the title of this post). When we FINALLY got home, I just went straight up to my room and crashed out, but I'm now quite afraid of what'll happen on the last 4 excursions we have in the next 8 days (!!!). I might actually hurt someone if I manage to get into one of those funks again.
There's maybe 4 or 5 kids I genuinely like talking to in the program at this point, 2 or 3 that I can't stand to even look at, and the rest which seem to be alright when on their own, but manage to be odious little hellspawn when in groups of 4 or more. The program director is getting on my nerves in a big way, at this point, and really makes me miss the way the Oxford program was run so smoothly. There's so little professionalism going on here. Staff will talk about other staff and students behind their backs in front of other students, there's lots of open criticism about every aspect of ASA, and rules are enforced so rarely, I think some of the students don't remember there are any. Earlier last week, the program director was teaching kids the "real way" to roll cigarettes. wtf?
I was thinking at first that all of these ill-feelings were stemming from my innate readiness to return home, but sentiments are pretty much uniform across the board with the entire staff. The kids mostly seem to be having a good time, at least.
So it's a comedy show tonight and a trip to Norwich and Yarmouth (the beach) tomorrow. It'll probably be too cold to go in the water, but the way excursions are run here, they aren't generally high stress when we're not on the bus. Too bad there's lots of bus time tomorrow.
Gotta get to that show. I'll try to be more positive next post.
I had my 2nd of 3 days off on Wednesday and the lovely Samantha came to visit. I worked with Sam first session at Oxford and she was gracious enough to ride 3 hours to come see me and Kim (and then ride 3 hours to get back). Although I had fun on my first day off (last Friday), I can truly say it was a candidate for one of the more ridiculous nights of my life. I think I was slightly insane that day, which the other RAs that saw and hung out with me can attest to. Anyway, this 2nd day off went much better. We decided to shake things up and go play BINGO. Never in my life have I experienced anything so hopelessly depressing yet riotously amusing at the same time. Thank god they served beer. Sam and I were the youngest ones there, although, somewhat surprisingly, not by much. Then again, the only other people there that may have been in or near their 20s were with elderly parents. Whatever. The people there were friendly and taught us how to play (there is a learning curve) as British bingo is, in fact, different than American bingo. Afterwards, we drank more at a pub and talked about life, love, and all that junk, or whatever it is you banter about when you're drinking. It was all great fun, but sucked pretty hard when we had to wake up at 5am so Sam could hop a bus back to Oxford so she could be in time for her staff meeting.
I was afforded the luxury of sleeping for another 5 hours before I needed to wake up for a (yipee) mid-week excursion. We took the kiddies to Warwick Castle, which from personal experience along with my powers of deduction, was probably the biggest castle-related tourist trap in all of the United Kingdom. The castle seemed to have been renovated in the 19th century so it just looked like a mansion on the inside, despite being a 12th century castle on the outside. They also had a fake jousting performance, a trebuchet demonstration (which I unfortunately missed), archery, plenty of ice cream, and tons of other stuff to keep your snot-nosed 8 year old cackling maniacally for the afternoon. Not really the greatest for a group of 30 American teenagers. Maybe the 1 or 2 history buffs in the group enjoyed it, who knows.
After that, we hopped back on the bus and moved along to Stratford upon Avon, the birthplace of Billy Shakespeare. We walked by his supposed house, although it was too late to take a tour (not that I would have). You can imagine the anti-climactiveness of it all. It's a cute town that contains practically nothing. I don't understand how there are so many of those in England. After dinner, we caught a performance of The Tempest put on by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Patrick Stewart was the leading role, Prospero, which was sorta cool, but the play was hopelessly weird and hard to follow. My general deal with Shakespeare is if I haven't read it, I probably can't follow a performance of it, which proved once again to be true.
I got into this quiet murderous rage on the 1.5 hour bus ride home as the kids were being impossibly loud and abominable. I've never been so inexplicably angry at everyone and everything around me in my entire life. I tried to put on my headphones and just close my eyes, but there always seemed to be something to distract me and remind me of how much I hated the world at that moment (hence the title of this post). When we FINALLY got home, I just went straight up to my room and crashed out, but I'm now quite afraid of what'll happen on the last 4 excursions we have in the next 8 days (!!!). I might actually hurt someone if I manage to get into one of those funks again.
There's maybe 4 or 5 kids I genuinely like talking to in the program at this point, 2 or 3 that I can't stand to even look at, and the rest which seem to be alright when on their own, but manage to be odious little hellspawn when in groups of 4 or more. The program director is getting on my nerves in a big way, at this point, and really makes me miss the way the Oxford program was run so smoothly. There's so little professionalism going on here. Staff will talk about other staff and students behind their backs in front of other students, there's lots of open criticism about every aspect of ASA, and rules are enforced so rarely, I think some of the students don't remember there are any. Earlier last week, the program director was teaching kids the "real way" to roll cigarettes. wtf?
I was thinking at first that all of these ill-feelings were stemming from my innate readiness to return home, but sentiments are pretty much uniform across the board with the entire staff. The kids mostly seem to be having a good time, at least.
So it's a comedy show tonight and a trip to Norwich and Yarmouth (the beach) tomorrow. It'll probably be too cold to go in the water, but the way excursions are run here, they aren't generally high stress when we're not on the bus. Too bad there's lots of bus time tomorrow.
Gotta get to that show. I'll try to be more positive next post.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Cambridgeshire
I made it to Cambridge, although I'm knackered.
Friday night in Oxford was fun but tiring. We had a formal style dinner where the RAs had to serve the students and dress up all nice. They recognized each of the individual staff members and I think I pretty much got the loudest cheers when they called my name (not to mention the standing ovation from my floor and a bunch of others). That made me happy, of course. At least the kids thought I was a good RA. I had to set up all the equipment for the final dance and then make sure it all went down smoothly which was fine, except I needed to pack. After everything was over we got upstairs and I spent the night just hanging out with my floor since it was my last night. After chilling for a long while, I finally started packing and then after finshing, only managed to get an hour or so of sleep since I needed to be up at the ass crack of dawn so I could go to the airport and pickup up the Cambridge group flight on my way to Cambridge. So I had to leave Oxford early, not being able to properly say goodbye to anybody, and then had to rush over to a city I know nothing about and try to answer lots of questions I didn't know the answer to since I missed orientation.
On a side note, I'm gonna miss the kids on my floor. They were really decent people and gave me very little trouble. I'm hoping to keep in touch with all of them to some extent. It sucked to say goodbye to them, but you always gotta move onward, so...
Cambridge is great. It's a gorgeous, albeit small, city. I think I like it better than Oxford (minus that it's noticeably more expensive), and the college they put us in, Corpus Christi, is much nicer than the one we were in in Oxford (Lady Margaret Hall). I think Corpus Christi is one of the 3 most well known colleges in Cambridge instead of being one of the little podunk ones we were in before (yeah, I just called an Oxford college "podunk." hahaha). As a result we're housed on the main tourist drag (I do have a great view of King's College at least), and everything in the immediate area is ridiculously expensive. It's really loud outside my window at night, but it's sorta nice to be back where there is city din to fall asleep too. I started getting used to absolute silence during bedtime which I don't like as much.
Being the first time this program has ever run, things are pretty much figure-it-out-as-you-go. We are really just making things up all the time and there is so little organization to what we're doing I'm praying the kids don't figure out how much we don't have it all together. The program director has started other ASA programs before from scratch but I'm having trouble figuring out how. In any case, there still seems to be plenty of money to go around so we're not sparing many expenses making sure things get off the ground. There's only 30 kids so we're keeping things flexible and all of the rules are much more lenient. Also hoping this doesn't bite us in the ass. The few kids we took with us from the Oxford program are happy that they can go into hookah bars without fear of being hunted down. I'm also happy that I'm going to have 3 to 4 days off (!!!). I have better access to the internet here so I might even get all my pictures up eventually when I have some free time.
So that's first impressions. I'm still exhausted despite a solid night's sleep. Hopefully after today I will be feeling recharged. I'm sorta sad staff is so small since there are less people to hang out with and bitch to, but the ones we have are good people, so I'm not too worried. Plus, I'm only here for 3 weeks, so even if something sucks, it'll all be over soon. I don't think it will suck though. While I'm exhausted at the idea of staffing another ASA program, the leniency in the rules definitely extends to the staff. I should be able to get off the floor and out of the building after the kids are checked in at night, and grabbing a beer here and there when it isn't my day off won't be so taboo.
OK, sorry if this and my last post have been a little on the dry side, but honestly all of my life and creativity gets used in trying to hold the students' attention while I'm "working." It seems like I always have some excuse why my blog isn't too interesting to read. Too bad.
Friday night in Oxford was fun but tiring. We had a formal style dinner where the RAs had to serve the students and dress up all nice. They recognized each of the individual staff members and I think I pretty much got the loudest cheers when they called my name (not to mention the standing ovation from my floor and a bunch of others). That made me happy, of course. At least the kids thought I was a good RA. I had to set up all the equipment for the final dance and then make sure it all went down smoothly which was fine, except I needed to pack. After everything was over we got upstairs and I spent the night just hanging out with my floor since it was my last night. After chilling for a long while, I finally started packing and then after finshing, only managed to get an hour or so of sleep since I needed to be up at the ass crack of dawn so I could go to the airport and pickup up the Cambridge group flight on my way to Cambridge. So I had to leave Oxford early, not being able to properly say goodbye to anybody, and then had to rush over to a city I know nothing about and try to answer lots of questions I didn't know the answer to since I missed orientation.
On a side note, I'm gonna miss the kids on my floor. They were really decent people and gave me very little trouble. I'm hoping to keep in touch with all of them to some extent. It sucked to say goodbye to them, but you always gotta move onward, so...
Cambridge is great. It's a gorgeous, albeit small, city. I think I like it better than Oxford (minus that it's noticeably more expensive), and the college they put us in, Corpus Christi, is much nicer than the one we were in in Oxford (Lady Margaret Hall). I think Corpus Christi is one of the 3 most well known colleges in Cambridge instead of being one of the little podunk ones we were in before (yeah, I just called an Oxford college "podunk." hahaha). As a result we're housed on the main tourist drag (I do have a great view of King's College at least), and everything in the immediate area is ridiculously expensive. It's really loud outside my window at night, but it's sorta nice to be back where there is city din to fall asleep too. I started getting used to absolute silence during bedtime which I don't like as much.
Being the first time this program has ever run, things are pretty much figure-it-out-as-you-go. We are really just making things up all the time and there is so little organization to what we're doing I'm praying the kids don't figure out how much we don't have it all together. The program director has started other ASA programs before from scratch but I'm having trouble figuring out how. In any case, there still seems to be plenty of money to go around so we're not sparing many expenses making sure things get off the ground. There's only 30 kids so we're keeping things flexible and all of the rules are much more lenient. Also hoping this doesn't bite us in the ass. The few kids we took with us from the Oxford program are happy that they can go into hookah bars without fear of being hunted down. I'm also happy that I'm going to have 3 to 4 days off (!!!). I have better access to the internet here so I might even get all my pictures up eventually when I have some free time.
So that's first impressions. I'm still exhausted despite a solid night's sleep. Hopefully after today I will be feeling recharged. I'm sorta sad staff is so small since there are less people to hang out with and bitch to, but the ones we have are good people, so I'm not too worried. Plus, I'm only here for 3 weeks, so even if something sucks, it'll all be over soon. I don't think it will suck though. While I'm exhausted at the idea of staffing another ASA program, the leniency in the rules definitely extends to the staff. I should be able to get off the floor and out of the building after the kids are checked in at night, and grabbing a beer here and there when it isn't my day off won't be so taboo.
OK, sorry if this and my last post have been a little on the dry side, but honestly all of my life and creativity gets used in trying to hold the students' attention while I'm "working." It seems like I always have some excuse why my blog isn't too interesting to read. Too bad.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Shorty
Not a whole lot to report on. I could get into details about specific things that happen here on the job, but they'd probably be a bore since I'm too tired to make them seem as funny as they were when they occured (does that make sense?). It's hot (mid 80s) and humid (50%) as hell here right now, and is sapping my will to do anything productive, which sucks since the Oxford program ends on Saturday and I ship off to start in Cambridge, meaning there is plenty to do. I've been talking with the program director for Cambridge and he seems pretty psyched about the facilities and everything we have lined up, so I have all that to look forward to I suppose. Basically though, things are going well here.
I spent my day off here in Oxford with Diane doing not much. Her friend from high school was in town for the day, so we went to Christchurch (where a bunch of Harry Potter was filmed) and payed too much to get in and look around. Beautiful campus, but also kind of unremarkable. As I've mentioned this to my friends here, I'm sort of beautiful-European-architechtured out at this point. I know I probably (or definitely) sound like an arrogant jackass, but I've seen so many world famous this and jaw droppingly beautiful that for the last 7 months that a couple of nice looking English university buildings don't inspire much inside me at this point. It's totally a shame since Oxford is filled with assloads of good historical crap, especially related to C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein, both of whom spent a bunch of time here and wrote some of their most famous stuff while living in town. I really wish I could space my experiences here out more so I could appreciate all of this more, but everything happens so fast, and I have so much other crap to do while I'm here working.
To all my friends and loved ones who are reading this. I'm sorry I haven't been corresponding with you personally more. I've been missing everyone from home and even people I met in Spain already. I'm going to make a big effort to see as many as I can when I get home (now slightly under a month!). If you do drop me an email (drosen84@gmail.com) I will probably be able to get in a reply, so do it! For now, I must nap, eat, and get ready to go to a string concert that I know nobody will show up for. I'm kinda hoping they don't show up, anyway, so I can sit on my ass and laze around all night in front of a fan.
Unsaltily,
Daniel
I spent my day off here in Oxford with Diane doing not much. Her friend from high school was in town for the day, so we went to Christchurch (where a bunch of Harry Potter was filmed) and payed too much to get in and look around. Beautiful campus, but also kind of unremarkable. As I've mentioned this to my friends here, I'm sort of beautiful-European-architechtured out at this point. I know I probably (or definitely) sound like an arrogant jackass, but I've seen so many world famous this and jaw droppingly beautiful that for the last 7 months that a couple of nice looking English university buildings don't inspire much inside me at this point. It's totally a shame since Oxford is filled with assloads of good historical crap, especially related to C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein, both of whom spent a bunch of time here and wrote some of their most famous stuff while living in town. I really wish I could space my experiences here out more so I could appreciate all of this more, but everything happens so fast, and I have so much other crap to do while I'm here working.
To all my friends and loved ones who are reading this. I'm sorry I haven't been corresponding with you personally more. I've been missing everyone from home and even people I met in Spain already. I'm going to make a big effort to see as many as I can when I get home (now slightly under a month!). If you do drop me an email (drosen84@gmail.com) I will probably be able to get in a reply, so do it! For now, I must nap, eat, and get ready to go to a string concert that I know nobody will show up for. I'm kinda hoping they don't show up, anyway, so I can sit on my ass and laze around all night in front of a fan.
Unsaltily,
Daniel
Saturday, July 08, 2006
Bloody Brilliant
Things have been going rather well here. I'm really having waaaay more fun than I thought I would.
My floor has been really great as they don't cause [too much] trouble and have been ridiculously enthusiastic about most things in general. I haven't had to write anybody up yet, which is nice and will hopefully remain the norm.
Last night I planned and ran (with the help of Diane and a few of the residents on my floor) a dance that went really well. I had the guys make up the playlist, and more or less let them take care of DJing just cause I know nothing about that sorta crap (I'm sure most of you are aware of my "eccentric" tastes in music). There was a suggestion for another dance with an 80s theme which I think is a very good idea. I just need to figure out where I can get 3 hours worth of 80s pop and dance music.
The first London trip we took was definitely on the stressful side. We had to take the kids to 3 different locations (loading them on to a bus between each one). The first stop was the Tate Modern which was amazing but we didn't have nearly enough time at (one hour, tops). After another hour of loading onto the bus and travelling to the next stop -Camden Market- we had one hour to shmooze around. Camden Market is really incredible. it's a gigantic (this can't be overstated) labyrinth of street vendors that sell everything from the cheapest crap to the most expensive crap. It is a very cool place, but once again, our time was far too short there. I was very impressed that the kids didn't get lost in the maze, and we managed to be mostly on time for Covent Garden. This is where things got especially sticky since Diane and I thought it would be a good idea not to give the kids the maps we were supposed to since the pickup point had changed slightly from the original plan. This was a dumb idea, to say the least, and ended up making life much more confusing, and ultimately delayed us getting out of London longer than we wanted. In the end, the kids never got more than 1 hour in each individual location, and had to spend the better part of the day sitting on a bus. I guess that's inevitable when you try to take 200+ kids to London. Oh, and I forgot to mention all this was during the day of London's quarter-final World Cup match with Portugal, as well as the Gay Pride March. weeee.
The next trip (on Tuesday) will be much more low key for me, since I will only have 30 kids to look after. I will be taking a walking tour of the East End which I'm told is extremely cool. Some old guy who has lived there his whole life is going to walk us around and show us all its interesting bits then sit us down in a pub and tell us stories. Apparantly, it's supposed to be the best of all the London trips we do and, unlike the others, involves no shopping. Paul (the program director) assigned me to it because I advised him on what Orthodox Jews can and can't eat. Lemme explain: Since the other two London trips fall on Saturday, the more devout of the Jewish crowd can't go since they can't ride on a bus during Sabbath, so they only get to go on the one Tuesday trip. Paul wanted to make sure they get the most special experience possible so he signed them all up for the East End tour. Since part of the tour involves us eating in a pub, he was unsure about what to do with meal options and I explained to him about keeping kosher and what the kids will or won't want to eat. Apprantly, he took this to mean that the Orthodox Jews here at ASA identify with me especially (they don't, as I'm a non-practicing Conservative Jew who never even mentions his religion) so he's having me tag along for whatever reason. I can't really complain. Less stress, more interestingness.
My first day off was a few days ago. Melissa, Diane, Christina and myself all headed into London for the day. We went to the Tate Modern (sans 90 students) to actually take a good look around. I really love that museum as there is a ton of awesome stuff to look at. After a good chunk of time we left and went to South Kensington to find a pub and relax. We found a nice little place and enjoyed a few pints before getting some curry for dinner. We then proceeded to dick around for a couple more hours before it was late enough to find a club. We ran into a good one at Convent Garden and danced our asses off all night. We then walked to the Oxford Tube (a bus that runs between London and Oxford 24 hrs. a day, so sweet) and passed out on the way home. We got in around 4AM or so, and after not nearly enough sleep, were up again for the daily staff meeting. While it definitely wasn't a restful (nor inexpensive) day off, it was a welcomed one nonetheless.
Basically, then, so far so good. A couple kids have already been kicked out for general dumbassery (read: getting too drunk to keep it together). One of the two incidents happened two nights ago and was an total and absolute train-wreck disaster. I have plenty of gritty details, but I won't bother sharing them on the blog since they are far too ridiculous to believe, and I'm still working here and everything so I don't wanna give away tooooo much off the juicy stuff (who knows who might be reading this?). Let's just say I'm very happy that my residents have been intelligent enough not to get detectably drunk before coming to check in at night. I got really lucky in not getting a floor of idiots.
I met the program director for Cambridge and I'm now really excited. Not only was he a very nice guy, but he informed me that there are only 29 kids attended the 3-week program (as opposed to the 230 we have here in Oxford). It will be ASA's first ever program in Cambridge and I get to be there for it (what an honor). It should be extremely laid back compared to what I'm doing now, and I think it will be a lot of fun helping it get off the ground. There will be only 3 RAs instead of 22, so I'm sure we'll all be getting nice and close. Cambridge is supposed to have a much more "small town feel" to it, as opposed to the relatively busy city bustle of Oxford. I'm excited to be able to see even more of England as well.
I'm getting hungry now, so I'm gonna take off. I have some small junk I need to do today while everything is quiet. There are 3 or 4 excursions today, none of which I luckily had to go on, so things are pretty low key around here and I wanna try to get some stuff done while I can. I need to start putting together my Presentation of English Slang that I'm supposed to have ready for Tuesday. Should be sweet. I'll tell you how it goes.
I love you all.
My floor has been really great as they don't cause [too much] trouble and have been ridiculously enthusiastic about most things in general. I haven't had to write anybody up yet, which is nice and will hopefully remain the norm.
Last night I planned and ran (with the help of Diane and a few of the residents on my floor) a dance that went really well. I had the guys make up the playlist, and more or less let them take care of DJing just cause I know nothing about that sorta crap (I'm sure most of you are aware of my "eccentric" tastes in music). There was a suggestion for another dance with an 80s theme which I think is a very good idea. I just need to figure out where I can get 3 hours worth of 80s pop and dance music.
The first London trip we took was definitely on the stressful side. We had to take the kids to 3 different locations (loading them on to a bus between each one). The first stop was the Tate Modern which was amazing but we didn't have nearly enough time at (one hour, tops). After another hour of loading onto the bus and travelling to the next stop -Camden Market- we had one hour to shmooze around. Camden Market is really incredible. it's a gigantic (this can't be overstated) labyrinth of street vendors that sell everything from the cheapest crap to the most expensive crap. It is a very cool place, but once again, our time was far too short there. I was very impressed that the kids didn't get lost in the maze, and we managed to be mostly on time for Covent Garden. This is where things got especially sticky since Diane and I thought it would be a good idea not to give the kids the maps we were supposed to since the pickup point had changed slightly from the original plan. This was a dumb idea, to say the least, and ended up making life much more confusing, and ultimately delayed us getting out of London longer than we wanted. In the end, the kids never got more than 1 hour in each individual location, and had to spend the better part of the day sitting on a bus. I guess that's inevitable when you try to take 200+ kids to London. Oh, and I forgot to mention all this was during the day of London's quarter-final World Cup match with Portugal, as well as the Gay Pride March. weeee.
The next trip (on Tuesday) will be much more low key for me, since I will only have 30 kids to look after. I will be taking a walking tour of the East End which I'm told is extremely cool. Some old guy who has lived there his whole life is going to walk us around and show us all its interesting bits then sit us down in a pub and tell us stories. Apparantly, it's supposed to be the best of all the London trips we do and, unlike the others, involves no shopping. Paul (the program director) assigned me to it because I advised him on what Orthodox Jews can and can't eat. Lemme explain: Since the other two London trips fall on Saturday, the more devout of the Jewish crowd can't go since they can't ride on a bus during Sabbath, so they only get to go on the one Tuesday trip. Paul wanted to make sure they get the most special experience possible so he signed them all up for the East End tour. Since part of the tour involves us eating in a pub, he was unsure about what to do with meal options and I explained to him about keeping kosher and what the kids will or won't want to eat. Apprantly, he took this to mean that the Orthodox Jews here at ASA identify with me especially (they don't, as I'm a non-practicing Conservative Jew who never even mentions his religion) so he's having me tag along for whatever reason. I can't really complain. Less stress, more interestingness.
My first day off was a few days ago. Melissa, Diane, Christina and myself all headed into London for the day. We went to the Tate Modern (sans 90 students) to actually take a good look around. I really love that museum as there is a ton of awesome stuff to look at. After a good chunk of time we left and went to South Kensington to find a pub and relax. We found a nice little place and enjoyed a few pints before getting some curry for dinner. We then proceeded to dick around for a couple more hours before it was late enough to find a club. We ran into a good one at Convent Garden and danced our asses off all night. We then walked to the Oxford Tube (a bus that runs between London and Oxford 24 hrs. a day, so sweet) and passed out on the way home. We got in around 4AM or so, and after not nearly enough sleep, were up again for the daily staff meeting. While it definitely wasn't a restful (nor inexpensive) day off, it was a welcomed one nonetheless.
Basically, then, so far so good. A couple kids have already been kicked out for general dumbassery (read: getting too drunk to keep it together). One of the two incidents happened two nights ago and was an total and absolute train-wreck disaster. I have plenty of gritty details, but I won't bother sharing them on the blog since they are far too ridiculous to believe, and I'm still working here and everything so I don't wanna give away tooooo much off the juicy stuff (who knows who might be reading this?). Let's just say I'm very happy that my residents have been intelligent enough not to get detectably drunk before coming to check in at night. I got really lucky in not getting a floor of idiots.
I met the program director for Cambridge and I'm now really excited. Not only was he a very nice guy, but he informed me that there are only 29 kids attended the 3-week program (as opposed to the 230 we have here in Oxford). It will be ASA's first ever program in Cambridge and I get to be there for it (what an honor). It should be extremely laid back compared to what I'm doing now, and I think it will be a lot of fun helping it get off the ground. There will be only 3 RAs instead of 22, so I'm sure we'll all be getting nice and close. Cambridge is supposed to have a much more "small town feel" to it, as opposed to the relatively busy city bustle of Oxford. I'm excited to be able to see even more of England as well.
I'm getting hungry now, so I'm gonna take off. I have some small junk I need to do today while everything is quiet. There are 3 or 4 excursions today, none of which I luckily had to go on, so things are pretty low key around here and I wanna try to get some stuff done while I can. I need to start putting together my Presentation of English Slang that I'm supposed to have ready for Tuesday. Should be sweet. I'll tell you how it goes.
I love you all.
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