Block C - 01

I currently live in Block C on Floor 01.

Do not get Floor 1 confused with Floor 01; they are different.

England or maybe all of UK's flooring system is different than what I am used to.

You should think of '01' as -1, so the floor below '1.'

But, then for some reason, the floors in the dorms start with 1 and end at 04. WHAT?!

Still confused? Yeah, me too. Basically this is how the floors are labeled:

1

                                    01 --> this is where I live

02

03

04

Pictures of (some of) my flatmates! 

Teaching the English how to properly work the 'v'

Kate, my fellow angry feminist! GRRL POWER!

I keep forgetting I have my Polaroid camera with me! 

Finally found my calling in England, y'all!

Cambridge!

Went to Cambridge with Jihye on Sunday, 29 September! (Still not used to writing my dates this way)

First off... the famous King's College Chapel. 

We had the opportunity to attend their mass (my first mass, ever!) when we went to Cambridge and the chapel was beautiful. We were unable to take photos inside the chapel; some people were still taking photos indoors, but I was too scared to.

More photos around Cambridge!

It is known that punting is a must in Cambridge, so we did it but I am not sure if it was worth 11 pounds! I feel like I would have regretted it if I did not experience punting but my experience was not all that great. It might have been better if I just took a stroll on The Backs instead of punting through it, mostly because our punter hated his job and did not want to make an effort to engage with us.

 Selfies on selfies on selfies ('cause, let's be honest, trips are incomplete without them)

Also.. found out Cambridge and Oxford are public universities! I (wrongly) just assumed these colleges were privates but my flatmates told me there are barely any private universities in England.

My first legal alcohol purchase! 

I love anything sweet, so the cider on the left was perfect for my taste buds! It was pear cider but basically tasted like apple juice. I unfortunately did not get to taste the beer on the right because I put it in the freezer to speed up the cooling process but ended up forgetting about it and the bottle bursted in the freezer! (Shoutout to Jihye for taking care of the mess)

SO many of the eggs had feathers coming out of the shells. No bueno.

Strawberries come in hearts! 

I am not sure if these can be bought in the States but…so yummy! And I do not even like chocolate!

An Introduction to My New Adventures in England…

I went to a poster sale and came across that picture! I am not sure if these foods are native to Britain or even what any of these foods are, but I just thought it was cool and I love food! 

A little bit about where, why and what I am studying in England…

I am currently doing an exchange program with University of East Anglia (UEA). UEA is located in Norwich. When I tell people that, it is the same reaction I get when I tell people I go to school in Vermont.

A lot of people know London, so here is a map of where Norwich is in comparison to where London is!

I am studying abroad because I really needed to get away from Middlebury. It is physically, mentally, emotionally and socially hard to live in a place like Middlebury, both the school and the city. Especially for an angry feminist of color from Los Angeles, like me! Not to say that UEA is a magical place where diversity is abundant and everyone actively works to create a safe space for every community...

UEA is actually really similar to Middlebury in that UEA/Norwich is super white and small. 

Even with the similarities between the two schools,  I still wanted to experience the whole “sometimes you have to get lost to find yourself” philosophy. 

Also…Middlebury has this weird thing where if you choose to study at a country where Middlebury has a school abroad, you have to be fluent in the language of that country. And..I did German for a whole year and that probably falls under the top two worst decisions I made during my college career. It was either UEA or Yonsei University in Korea but my scholarship and grant transfers to UEA, so here I am!

~Let’s be honest, I did not want to wait till June 2014 to legally drink so I flew over to Europe to get drunk~

What am I studying?

I am currently registered under the American Studies Course here at UEA. In the UK, “major” is called “course.” That is super confusing because “course” in the States means “class” while “class” in the UK is “module.” My actual major/course is Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies with an Education Studies Minor. UEA does not have that, so I think they kind of stuck me in American Studies. 

Nonetheless, I am still taking cool classes! 

• Gender and British Cinema
• Women, Islam and Media
• Doing it Yourself: Punk in America

Do not ask me why I am taking the third class. I am not really enjoying it but hopefully it gets better!

"American" Jackie, You Say?

I tried really hard to try and come up with something a little bit more punny or creative for my URL but I still do think the URL/title sums up my experiences so far in England. 

People in my flat call me “American Jackie.” I do really like the nickname but I wonder how I would have felt to be called that if I was not an American citizen (cause, yknow, Korean pride). Also, people knew I was from the States (or California, to be specific) because of my accent! Crazy to think that my English has an accent because back in the States, it is pretty standard. 

Additionally, being a student here in England made me realize a lot of things I take for granted back at home (super cliche, I know), but it also made me even angrier at how some of the systematic things work in the good ‘ol U S of A.

One big FAT example is $healthcare$. People over here think that it is massively silly that we do not get free healthcare in the States. Trust me, I think it is ridiculous too! 

Also, that picture of the American flag, the bald eagle and Declaration of Independence(?) all in one freaks me out a lot. Basically, nationalism and patriotism for USA makes me feel uncomfortable.

Can you believe it? It is already week four of my time here in England/Europe. 

I was originally not planning on having a study abroad blog because I knew I would have not been able to keep up with it, but I do not want to do any of my readings and wanted to find ways to procrastinate! 

Decided to just make this into more of a travel photo blog and maybe with some accompanying texts and captions!