When I went to the international/exchange student orientation earlier in the week, the head of the program doing the presentation explained culture shock in a way that was a little more comprehensive than the definitions I've heard before.
She said that anytime you find yourself comparing what you're experiencing to your past experiencing and thinking that it was better or worse or just different than what you are used to, this is a kind of culture shock. Because as we know, culture isn't just music and art, it's everything that is involved in how a society works.
So some of the instances of culture shock that I've had here so far:
-> How people approach you: almost everyone I've met has been extremely friendly and they ask a lot of questions. Surprisingly the most common first question is: "what are you studying?" This question and "Where are you from?" are the two most common of the questions. It seems that people often don't introduce themselves until later in the conversation, if at all. I don't know if this is the norm or if it's just the context in which I'm meeting people at the moment, we'll see.
-> There are two taps on the sink, one for hot water and one for cold water. So you can either scald your skin off or freeze your fingers off. This does not please me. Apparently the way to do it is to plug up the sink and put in a mixture of hot and cold water to wash your face or do the dishes. It's rather inconvenient.
-> Everything is uber expensive, especially the bus and drinks. The exchange rate does not help.
-> Some common words that I really enjoy: Cheers - said sort of in the place of "thank you" but also just in a situation when one person is pleased with the other. Fit Like - this I mentioned in another post, but it's the equivalent of "how are you," it's from the Doric dialect which is popular in northeastern Scotland (where Aberdeen is located). Hiya - instead of hi or hello. Uni - instead of University or College. I've had to change my way of referring to K as a "College" because here "College" is a beauty school or some other kind of trade school. So I've attempted to switch over to Uni. I'm sure there are many more that I will add later on.
-> It's perfectly normal to have a Fresher's week (Freshman orientation) that has school arranged events involving alcohol. Something that would never happen in the U.S.
-> I've had several discussions with my flatmates and some of the other people I've met around campus about the cost of Uni here compared to the U.S. They are all shocked when I tell them how much it costs for one years tuition at K. Here the tuition is 3,000 pounds per year, as opposed to the $44,000 per year it costs to go to K. Although there have been a lot of protests lately, as all the colleges in the UK are raising their tuition to 9,000 pounds per year beginning next year. I've met several German exchange students and it seems that their tuition is even more affordable. One girl said she was paying around 50 Euros per year, which is under $100. It's just crazy how much higher education costs in the U.S.
-> Soap in bathrooms - in my limited experience so far it seems that this is not altogether normal. At the Pearl Lounge there was absolutely no soap in the bathroom. I wasn't wild about that.
-> Paying the bill in a restaurant - it seems as though you have to make a point of asking for the bill as they will not just bring it to you even when all your plates have been cleared away and you are just sitting there. It's very civilized.
As a side note, I purchased my first alcohol in a store the other day, it was kind of exciting. My friend Allie and I were there together and we both felt as though we were doing something wrong. But it was perfectly normal, especially since the store where we bought it is very close to Hillhead so they get uni students in there all the time.
On the whole, the cultural differences haven't been too overwhelming. I'm expecting it to get a little more challenging with the start of classes next week.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Hannah and Her Scottish Classes
These are the classes that I registered to take starting next week:
Romans, Celts, Druids, and Warriors - a study of the Celtic-speaking peoples from prehistory to the early Middle Ages
Modernism - A literature class about writers during the modern period including Woolf, Nietzsche and Yeats.
Arthur in Medieval Welsh and Gaelic Tradition - a course about King Arthur in Welsh and Gaelic literature.
I'm excited to start my classes, but nervous also. The class structure is different here, there are lectures and tutorials at separate times during the week. The tutorials are the time for participating, and from what I've heard the lectures are mostly for listening. I'm a little worried about understanding the Scottish accent, especially in a classroom setting, but I'll get used to it eventually (hopefully). I haven't had any serious misunderstandings as of yet, mostly just instances of having to ask someone to repeat what they said once or twice.
Romans, Celts, Druids, and Warriors - a study of the Celtic-speaking peoples from prehistory to the early Middle Ages
Modernism - A literature class about writers during the modern period including Woolf, Nietzsche and Yeats.
Arthur in Medieval Welsh and Gaelic Tradition - a course about King Arthur in Welsh and Gaelic literature.
I'm excited to start my classes, but nervous also. The class structure is different here, there are lectures and tutorials at separate times during the week. The tutorials are the time for participating, and from what I've heard the lectures are mostly for listening. I'm a little worried about understanding the Scottish accent, especially in a classroom setting, but I'll get used to it eventually (hopefully). I haven't had any serious misunderstandings as of yet, mostly just instances of having to ask someone to repeat what they said once or twice.
Hannah and the Days that Go like Lightning
It's Thursday now so I figure I'll provide a short summary of the past couple of days as each are definitely not interesting enough to merit their own posting.
Monday and Tuesday I spent wandering around the uni's campus and downtown Aberdeen going to an international student orientation and my advising appointment, then getting some of the basic things like a cell phone from downtown.
I feel as though I know my way around fairly well for only having been here for a couple of days. I've done a lot of walking which has helped in establishing some sort of internal map of the city in my mind.
Tuesday night I went to the Pearl Lounge, my first club. Since it is Freshers' week right now, I was able to purchase a wristband that gets me into the the Pearl Lounge and the Priory, two of the big clubs in Aberdeen, for free and without waiting in line. Also free transportation to and from Hillhead. Tuesday night there was a foam party at the Priory, so my group of friends decided to go to the Pearl Lounge instead, because we figured it would be a lot less crowded, which proved true. It was a nice amount of people, and I actually went to the bar and ordered a drink! It's amazing, being legal.
Wednesday I went to the uni to check out the Societies Fayre, where all the societies set up booths and you can find out about the activities they do and sign up if you wish. I signed up for the international student society, they do many cool and inexpensive trips throughout the year, including a trip to Loch Ness in a couple of weeks that I'm planning on taking advantage of.
Wednesday night I went to the Priory, which was super packed. It was "Cheese Night" which consisted of music from the 90s. The band "Five" was playing live for some of the night, my understanding is that they are similar to the Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync, New Kids on the Block etc. in their popularity and their boy band-ness. I also appreciated that they played a mix of songs from Grease, that was hysterical as everyone in the club was singing along with John Travolta when he hit the high note at the end of "Summer Nights." I didn't get home until 3am (I can hear my mom saying "What?!" from all the way over here).
Overall, these first few days have been quite successful. I'm adjusting to the differences of both the much bigger school and the new country. I'm enjoying getting to know the people and the place immensely. It's been tiring but satisfying.
Hannah and the 30+ Hour Day
Fit Like? (How are you? I'm learning already)
Yes, I have made it safe and sound to Aberdeen with very tired but in one whole Hannah-shaped piece. It's Monday afternoon for me now* and I got into Aberdeen yesterday morning at around 8:30. The time difference was quite a shock to my system especially since I didn't sleep on the plane...but let me start from the beginning.
I got on the plane in Detroit at 4pm on Saturday after making it through the various lines, scanning machinery, and hoops for jumping through that dot the airport. I found myself in the company of some of my fellow K students as we waited to depart from Detroit. Once on the plane it was a fairly smooth ride, although I always forget how much I hate taking off. I didn't sleep at all, but watched a couple of movies and ate airplane food (yum?)
We landed in Amsterdam just before 6am. Amsterdam was really cool looking from the air at night, tons of lights. We wandered off the plane and went to find where our connection was and on the way we ran into a couple of other K students who had also just arrived. We were all rather slap-happy from the traveling, the time difference, and the fact that we were on our way to Scotland, finally! It was definitely a bit disorienting, and the fact that almost all of the airport announcements were in Dutch didn't help matters.
We made it through another passport check and security line and then got on a bus that drove us to the cityhopper plane from Amsterdam to Aberdeen. That flight was pretty turbulent (*shudder*). My poor ears were not happy with all the pressure changes.
My first sight of Aberdeen was green fields and sheep - lots and lots of sheep. We came really close to a field of them when the plane was landing, and they didn't seem to give a crap. They just stood in their field, eatin' their grass. So the sheep are very chill here.
We got off the plane to a grey and drizzling morning (welcome to Scotland). We all made it across the UK border (I have a pretty new stamp on my visa inside my passport!) and collected our luggage. Then right when we walked out into the main lobby we were met by a very enthusiastic and nice group of Aberdeen students in bright yellow T-shirts who were running the shuttles from the airport to the uni campus and the flats. So we ran through the rain (which had gotten significantly heavier while we were waiting in the airport), and were whisked away by two very enthusiastic students in a big van that was blasting music. I think they wanted to keep us from falling asleep.
Once we made it to Hillhead halls, which is a large group of flats that serve as housing for students studying at the Uni, we picked up our keys and headed off our separate ways to find our new flats. I live in Hector Boece Court, which is one of the groups within the collection of flats in Hillhead, and apparently known as one of the shittiest (pardon my language). I will go into more detail and put up pics of my flat in another post.
After finding our rooms separately and putting our bags down a few of us managed to gather once again and go on a search for food of some sort. All this was made much more difficult by the fact that 1.) we had no phones and therefore no way of communicating with one another. 2.) we had no internet, again no way of communicating. 3.) the fact that we were all uber tired. 4.) the fact that we had no idea where we were and where we were going.
But we got directions to a grocery store that is down the hill from the flat complex, the Lidl and managed to make our way there. By chance there was a restaurant next door which we wandered into. We had a zombie-like lunch at the end of which we tried to figure out the proper way to 1.) pay the bill and 2.) tip. We finally asked the bartender, and he very nicely gave us a little bit of an idea how to do both those things. We probably looked like we hadn't enjoyed our lunch at all, we literally all looked a little sick.
On our way back we picked up a few groceries at the Lidl, just what we could carry since the Lidl is similar it the Aldi in the U.S. where you have to pay for bags. When we got back we split up again and went to take naps or unpack.
For my part I was determined to stay up until the evening so that I could start adjusting to the time difference. So I set about unpacking. There a few times in the middle of folding a shirt or some other more relaxed activity that I started to nod off while sitting up. It was a little sad.
I hadn't been planning on going anywhere else, but in the evening we all met up again and ended up walking to downtown Aberdeen, which is about a 40 minute walk from Hillhead. We had dinner at the Abercrombie Bar - consisting for me of fish and chips and a pint of Tennent's, a Scottish beer - a fairly good ending to our first (very long) day in Scotland.
*I started this post on Monday, but wasn't able to finish it until Thursday.
Yes, I have made it safe and sound to Aberdeen with very tired but in one whole Hannah-shaped piece. It's Monday afternoon for me now* and I got into Aberdeen yesterday morning at around 8:30. The time difference was quite a shock to my system especially since I didn't sleep on the plane...but let me start from the beginning.
I got on the plane in Detroit at 4pm on Saturday after making it through the various lines, scanning machinery, and hoops for jumping through that dot the airport. I found myself in the company of some of my fellow K students as we waited to depart from Detroit. Once on the plane it was a fairly smooth ride, although I always forget how much I hate taking off. I didn't sleep at all, but watched a couple of movies and ate airplane food (yum?)
We landed in Amsterdam just before 6am. Amsterdam was really cool looking from the air at night, tons of lights. We wandered off the plane and went to find where our connection was and on the way we ran into a couple of other K students who had also just arrived. We were all rather slap-happy from the traveling, the time difference, and the fact that we were on our way to Scotland, finally! It was definitely a bit disorienting, and the fact that almost all of the airport announcements were in Dutch didn't help matters.
We made it through another passport check and security line and then got on a bus that drove us to the cityhopper plane from Amsterdam to Aberdeen. That flight was pretty turbulent (*shudder*). My poor ears were not happy with all the pressure changes.
My first sight of Aberdeen was green fields and sheep - lots and lots of sheep. We came really close to a field of them when the plane was landing, and they didn't seem to give a crap. They just stood in their field, eatin' their grass. So the sheep are very chill here.
We got off the plane to a grey and drizzling morning (welcome to Scotland). We all made it across the UK border (I have a pretty new stamp on my visa inside my passport!) and collected our luggage. Then right when we walked out into the main lobby we were met by a very enthusiastic and nice group of Aberdeen students in bright yellow T-shirts who were running the shuttles from the airport to the uni campus and the flats. So we ran through the rain (which had gotten significantly heavier while we were waiting in the airport), and were whisked away by two very enthusiastic students in a big van that was blasting music. I think they wanted to keep us from falling asleep.
Once we made it to Hillhead halls, which is a large group of flats that serve as housing for students studying at the Uni, we picked up our keys and headed off our separate ways to find our new flats. I live in Hector Boece Court, which is one of the groups within the collection of flats in Hillhead, and apparently known as one of the shittiest (pardon my language). I will go into more detail and put up pics of my flat in another post.
After finding our rooms separately and putting our bags down a few of us managed to gather once again and go on a search for food of some sort. All this was made much more difficult by the fact that 1.) we had no phones and therefore no way of communicating with one another. 2.) we had no internet, again no way of communicating. 3.) the fact that we were all uber tired. 4.) the fact that we had no idea where we were and where we were going.
But we got directions to a grocery store that is down the hill from the flat complex, the Lidl and managed to make our way there. By chance there was a restaurant next door which we wandered into. We had a zombie-like lunch at the end of which we tried to figure out the proper way to 1.) pay the bill and 2.) tip. We finally asked the bartender, and he very nicely gave us a little bit of an idea how to do both those things. We probably looked like we hadn't enjoyed our lunch at all, we literally all looked a little sick.
On our way back we picked up a few groceries at the Lidl, just what we could carry since the Lidl is similar it the Aldi in the U.S. where you have to pay for bags. When we got back we split up again and went to take naps or unpack.
For my part I was determined to stay up until the evening so that I could start adjusting to the time difference. So I set about unpacking. There a few times in the middle of folding a shirt or some other more relaxed activity that I started to nod off while sitting up. It was a little sad.
I hadn't been planning on going anywhere else, but in the evening we all met up again and ended up walking to downtown Aberdeen, which is about a 40 minute walk from Hillhead. We had dinner at the Abercrombie Bar - consisting for me of fish and chips and a pint of Tennent's, a Scottish beer - a fairly good ending to our first (very long) day in Scotland.
*I started this post on Monday, but wasn't able to finish it until Thursday.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Hannah and the Journey to Romulus (MI.)
All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware. – Martin Burber
Welcome to my blog! I'm very excited to have started my journey to Aberdeen, Scotland where I will be spending the next five(ish) months of my life. I'm hoping to use this as a place to write down some of the adventures I have while on study abroad. I also hope to write fairly regularly and keep it up to date, whether that will happen is another story. We'll see.
Tonight, I have made it as far as Romulus, MI. thanks to my lovely father and his excellent driving. It has been a smooth journey so far, the only hiccup we've experienced was a moment of panic thinking we'd missed the Skyway entrance, but we hadn't so no problem there. We haven't run into any birds of prey or Warbirds here in Romulus (my inner Star Trek nerd is going crraazy!) Just a lot of motels/hotels and some pretty good Middle Eastern food. Tomorrow I get on a plane headed for Amsterdam and then Sunday morning (or for my internal clock and most of you, the middle of Saturday night) I'll be taking a plane from Amsterdam to Aberdeen.
Being back in the mitten reminds me of all my friends in Kalamazoo (and on study abroad in other places across the globe) who I will miss very much while I'm away. Not to mention my family and friends in Chi-town and scattered in various places throughout the U.S.
But despite missing you all, just think of all the stories I'll get to write and tell you when we meet again! And that's exciting in of itself!
That's all for now! I hope that the next time I write I'll be sitting in Aberdeen. In the meantime it's off to bed for me, to dream of airplanes and things starting with Scot (Scotland, Scotch, Scottish men, Scotch tape...)
Welcome to my blog! I'm very excited to have started my journey to Aberdeen, Scotland where I will be spending the next five(ish) months of my life. I'm hoping to use this as a place to write down some of the adventures I have while on study abroad. I also hope to write fairly regularly and keep it up to date, whether that will happen is another story. We'll see.
Tonight, I have made it as far as Romulus, MI. thanks to my lovely father and his excellent driving. It has been a smooth journey so far, the only hiccup we've experienced was a moment of panic thinking we'd missed the Skyway entrance, but we hadn't so no problem there. We haven't run into any birds of prey or Warbirds here in Romulus (my inner Star Trek nerd is going crraazy!) Just a lot of motels/hotels and some pretty good Middle Eastern food. Tomorrow I get on a plane headed for Amsterdam and then Sunday morning (or for my internal clock and most of you, the middle of Saturday night) I'll be taking a plane from Amsterdam to Aberdeen.
Being back in the mitten reminds me of all my friends in Kalamazoo (and on study abroad in other places across the globe) who I will miss very much while I'm away. Not to mention my family and friends in Chi-town and scattered in various places throughout the U.S.
But despite missing you all, just think of all the stories I'll get to write and tell you when we meet again! And that's exciting in of itself!
That's all for now! I hope that the next time I write I'll be sitting in Aberdeen. In the meantime it's off to bed for me, to dream of airplanes and things starting with Scot (Scotland, Scotch, Scottish men, Scotch tape...)
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