The first three weeks here have definitely been interesting.
We've been on TV, we've gone to Snowdonia, we've seen
castles and forests and slag heaps and brooks and sheep
and everything is still quite beautiful. However, I've
found myself taking significantly fewer pictures since
I first got here, which is worrying me, as I might regret not having a photographic journal of my trip later.
Living with the family for two weeks was really
a good experience. They were all very friendly, and the
mother kept a wonderful house. The sons were both
very welcoming, and Algon, the younger one, introduced
me to his friends, which helped establish me and make
me much more comfortable. Living with the family
also gave me a lot of insight into what the children
usually go through growing up - which seemed quite a
bit different than what American children go through.
All of the people here have been wonderful as well!
Everyone is completely willing to help us do what we
want to or need to to make our studies successful.
Remo Catani, who is basically our advisor, is a
godsend. He is completely willing to intervene on
our behalf in anything academic, which has been a
great help in more than one occasion. Sioned Davies
has been wonderful and flexible as well, and gave
probably the most interesting lecture that I have
heard thus far! And, last but definitely not least,
Rhodri Morgan has been absolutely fantastic. He was
our cultural advisor, and basically his job was to
show us a wide range of people and places and get us
to see a wide swath of Welsh life. In a lot of ways,
I kind of see his job as him trying to show us the
rings of a tree and explain them, and he was supposed
to only show us a cross section of a sapling, but he
instead decided to show us a sequoia - and succeeded
brilliantly.
One of the negative experiences I have had is with
anti-American sentiments. The head of the Politics
department, Dr. Donovan, met with me, and we had a
great chat about it. He was saying that he has never
met an American that he didn't like, but he still
cannot bring himself to like America - his words summed up perfectly what lots of Europeans seem to think. Lots of
British seem to see American cultural hegemony as
something negative - there are Gap stores, Coke
machines, Pizza Huts and McDonald's everywhere, and,
in the stores, you can get Ralph Lauren, Calvin
Klein, and Tommy Hilfiger as easily as you can get
anything else. They even have Budweiser next to the
Guiness and the Brain's in the pubs, and, even though
these people are supporting these stores and helping
them to flourish, they see our role in the buisness
world as negative.
I have also had quite a few interesting experiences
defending the USA, its role in world politics and
economics, and its people in quite a few conversations.
Lots of British and Welsh like to attack the
Americans for everything, from our television,
movies, books and even newspapers to our domestic
and foreign policies. Some of their attacks are justified,
but most of them have simply been personal attacks on
me based upon their perceptions of Americans in
general that they get from the media. For example,
I've had people tell me that I am "completely fucked
up" because children in America have filled
Super-Soakers with bleach and sprayed people. One
girl was under the impression that all of our media
sources were nationalized, similar to the USSR, and
that newspapers did not have reporters, but rather
completely regurgitated the news given to them by the
government. She also said that our culture is
completely contradictory, and based this upon her
knowledge (literally based completely upon Jerry
Springer) that Americans are more religious, but,
at the same time, are more likely to have affairs
than British people. This may be true. She also had some
interesting ideas regarding our more recent political scandals. However,
I had to remember that President Clinton and former
quasi-speaker Livingston have been the major
political news stories of the recent past,
whereas MP's in Britain have been forced to
resign for sex scandals ranging from Tory
homosexuality to physical abuse
and assault - and many of these resignations
happening within the last year.
People here prounounce 'schedule' as "Shhedule" instead
of "Skedule."
They also have "Kleenex - For Men" which is still facial
tissue, except that it's bigger and thicker. Because
Real Men need stronger facial tissue for their Real Men
Snot.
There are NO phones in the dormitories. Not even a flat
phone. So, basically, people can write you letters or email you
or come to your flat. I am going to pick up a cell-phone
(over here, a "mobile") soon; however, you have to have been
in the UK for 3 years in order to get a contract, so the
only option is pre-pay. That's just a tip for people coming
over!