The Realization about England

But first, an update since I've sorta been slacking: but in a stroke of (mis)fortune, the only real significant thing on my plate this past week was a homestay in Southport, which is basically extremely close to Liverpool and Manchester.  I stayed with a nice British family, a mom and twins (the father and the other kid were in the States).  The father has a job in Hollywood or something, which explains that.  But it was nice.  I was taken around Southport the first day (some people ventured off to Liverpool, I think), and here's my favorite photo from that sojourn:

 

This is what's known as a Victorian arcade, which basically is a mall.  But since it's older, it's smaller (you could perhaps argue it's smaller since the nature of business then was small business, not like it is today).  I got to meet a butcher in what's apparently a pretty famous butchery in one of the parts of Southport, and another guy working there had a friend or relative in Dayton, which I found pretty amusing.

The next day we went out to the pier.  The day was sort of cold, blustery, and really gray, but I do like this photo that I took:

The lantern sort of reminds me of something out of a video game.  Zelda, perhaps, but I'm not sure.  And then everyone went back to London.  So, 11+ hours on a bus to stay for, like, less than 48 hours.  That led to some good feelings the next day (sitting down still gave me that "I'm on a bus" feeling, which is not great when you're sitting on solid ground).

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But to my realization.  England, all in all, is not terribly different from the United States.  Sure, you have the "driving on the other side of the road" and the accent and all sorts of that, but outside of the eccentricities and niceties of a culture, it's still almost the same as United States.  Everyone speaks English here, and it just doesn't feel like an entirely different entity from the US.  In some ways, it almost feels like just being on a farther away campus from home (as at Ohio State, home was 15min. away, this just feels farther rather than being totally removed from home).

Now, some of those niceties and differences do get on my nerves sometimes (i.e. my previous saga of getting charged for EVERYTHING, having to walk for copious amounts of time to get to places), and sometimes I love the differences (the accents, the good beer), but no, it doesn't feel that different in the long run.  A staff member at Arcadia told us that England was "80% the United States" when it came to resemblance.  He also noted that what differences there are between the two are not glaring; they're rather subtle, and as he put it, they "poke you in the face constantly" rather than punch you in the gut.  I'd agree with both statements.

Part of this, I suppose, stemmed from my expectations.  Having romanticized the British culture for most of my modern existence, I saw Britain as a sort of paradise (I do hear that Wales and Scotland come pretty damn close to paradise, though).  And, well, no place is really ever paradise, is it?  London is a city like many other cities, just bigger, with better public transportation, and is, well, British.  I also saw Britain as some sort of wild new world out there, which is definitely not the case.  I'm not saying that I don't like living here at all, because it's great and I love it and it's been rewarding, but no, it's not terribly different from the United States.

I considered, in my romanticizing of London, that I would perhaps come back after this abroad experience and simply just live here forever.  But after even a short month, I realize that I truly appreciate the Kraft macaroni and cheese, and in general the American niceties.  For sure, I'd love to come back as a vacation opportunity, but in some ways I'm not ready to give up being American (at least yet).

But yeah, I should really get to doing work.  I have a paper due Monday and two problem sets due Thursday, and I'm nowhere near as far into any of them as I'd like to be.

-e.