Closing the Door So Another Can Be Opened

So, now that I've had a few weeks away from England, I've begun to sort of wrap my head around my 2+ years in Oxford and the incredible experiences that I had, both in Oxford and elsewhere. I didn't quite know how to begin to share my final perspectives and so I broke it up into sections. The first section is cool things I did. Then I move on to places I went. I then discuss some of the differences between the UK and the US that I came to learn during my time there. Then I talk about some stereotypes the Brits have about Americans. Finally, I attempted to list some ways that I was forever changed by my time in Oxford and the incredible people that I met there.

COOL THINGS I DID/ACHIEVED/SAW/EXPERIENCED

-Football matches at Anfield (thrice), Wembley, and the Emirates

-Earned a Blue (if you don’t know what it means, check this info out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_%28university_sport%29) and captained Oxford Women’s football team  

 

-Attended Varsity Rugby Match at Twickenham, the National Rugby stadium (twice)

http://roniyadlin.blogspot.com/2010/12/varsity-rugby.html

http://roniyadlin.blogspot.com/2011/12/varsity-rugby-2011.html

-Ate a Formal Hall dinner in Christchurch College (the Harry Potter dining hall)

 

-Attended church service and evensong in Christchurch Cathedral

-Actually watched a Cricket Match live (Oxford versus Oxford Brookes)

-Broke 2 bones (not so cool but part of the experience): left ankle on 11 Nov 2009 and right thumb on 13 April 2010

-Summer 8s Rowing on the Isis (watched, not rowed)

-Saw Les Miserables, We Will Rock You (thrice), Wicked, Love Never Dies, Much Ado About Nothing (starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate) in the West End

Places I traveled inside England

-London (more times than I can count!)

-Telford and Ironbridge (a World Heritage Site): here I learned more about Abraham Darby than I would ever want to know

 

-Birmingham: here wandered around and watched the Birmingham Derby (Aston Villa v Birmingham) match in a pub with crazy Villa fans

-Stratford upon Avon: Shakespeare’s birthplace; I went twice, once with Kristen, once with Youval

-Bath: Once with Anson, once with Youval and the 'rents

 

-Liverpool (4 times): With Michal and Ashley, Youval, Neal and some football girls, and Kristen' Several matches at Anfield, the museums at the Albert Docks, the Cathedral, Beatles experience, ate at Jamie Carragher's restaurant, Goodison Park, lots more stuff

Blog posts about Liverpool:

http://roniyadlin.blogspot.com/2010/07/youval-and-ronis-english-adventure-part_15.html

http://roniyadlin.blogspot.com/2010/10/updates-and-beauty-of-liverpool.html

http://roniyadlin.blogspot.com/2011/08/we-wanna-score-at-anfield.html

-Ilse of Wight (http://roniyadlin.blogspot.com/2010/06/very-english-bank-holidaymemorial-day.html): here Michal and I got terribly and horribly lost in some crazy intense forest

-Trip around the Southwest with Kristen and Michal (http://roniyadlin.blogspot.com/2010/06/newquay-is-my-waterford.html):
--Cheddar: Michal, Kristen, and I almost got killed driving in the Cheddar gorge

 

--Newquay: Once for a Beach Sports tournament and once with Kristen and Michal where we frightened an old man to death and Kristen may or may not have a warrant out for her arrest

--Land’s End: where we took "model photos" on the cliff

 

--Penzance: here we took jumping photos on the beach but didn't find any pirates

  --Plymouth: Here we marveled at the lameness of the Mayflower memorial

 

--Dartmoor: wandered across the moor singing Sound of Music songs and saw a helicopter medivac someone off the Moor

-Exeter: Saw the Cathedral

-Newcastle: walked miles and miles and miles all over the city with Youval

 

-Brighton ( http://roniyadlin.blogspot.com/2010/08/youval-and-ronis-english-adventure-part.html): where Youval and I got unbelievably sunburnt on the pier:

Parent's visit to England:  http://roniyadlin.blogspot.com/2010/08/youval-and-ronis-english-adventure-part.html
 --Cotswold Villages

 --Salisbury: The Cathedral where we saw a copy of the Magna Carta

 --Stonehenge

--Dover: Dover Castle and the white cliffs

 --Canterbury: The Cathedral

 -Eastbourne: Wandered around the beach and ran into an airshow with the Red Arrows

 -Long Man of Wilmington

 -Sussex Downs: Wandered across the downs pretending to be Mary Russell

Places Outside of England

-Wales:

            -Cardiff

            -Caerphilly Castle

-Ireland:

            -Dublin: we were there for St Patrick’s day which was insane

            -Killarney: Castle

            -Waterford: Michal’s least favourite place in the world

            -Cork: Covered Market, Cork Gaol, Jameson Distillery, and Cobh

            -Blarney Castle (twice): First time I kissed the stone of course but the second time I sat in a coffee shop doing my engineering work while Kristen and Greg went to the castle

            -Kilkenny: Went on a horse-cart ride through town to a pretty castle

            -Galway  and the Cliffs of Moher

-Scotland

            -Edinburgh: Wandered the Royal Mile, including the Holyrood House and Edinburgh Castle. Also went on a Literary Pub Crawl, but Ashley has all these photos

-Switzerland: http://roniyadlin.blogspot.com/2010/08/switzerland-land-of-chocolate-knives.html

-Morocco: http://roniyadlin.blogspot.com/2010/08/maroc-and-roll-surf-trip-to-morocco.html

-Russia, Mongolia, and China: http://roniyadlin.blogspot.com/2011/07/summing-up-my-russiamongoliachina-trip.html

Differences between the UK and US or between Brits and Americans

-The Brits really like sarcasm and dry humor and they assume that American’s can’t understand it. Therefore they will use sarcasm even more around Americans because its even funnier for them when we don't understand their sarcasm. Many people tried to get me in this way but thankfully I'm not horribly bad at picking up on it.

-No matter what country they live in, boys will by boys. I think everyone knows what I mean by that and spending time with the Manny Road boys and the gym guys really taught me that this was the case...

-In the UK, people call you “love” and “mate”. Most places in the US people don’t do that but I’m finding out that people in the south seem to call women “sugar” so I guess that’s similar. I liked this and will miss it.

-The UK has a much more uniform society in terms of ideology, whether that be politics or civil rights or religion. The main political differences come in the economic arena but even when differences arise, people seem to be far less fundamental about their beliefs. The fundamentalists are seen as being on the extreme fringes, whereas fundamentalism is far more mainstream in the US.

Linguistical Differences (that I actually encountered and that may or may not have gotten me in trouble...)

Since this is a PG blog, some of the less appropriate ones with not get an explanation... The "British" phrase comes first, with the "American" equivalent

 

-"double parking" vs "double fisting"

-"shagging" as in sex vs "shagging" as in getting balls that have gone beyond the goal

-"advert" vs "commercial"

-"cheers" vs "thanks"

-"A&E" vs "ER"

-"athletics" vs "track and field"

-"aubergine" vs "eggplant"

-"courgette" vs "zuchini"

-"fringe" vs "bangs"

-"braces" vs "suspenders"

-"chips" vs "fries"

-"crisps" vs "chips"

-Football related terms that were different and I got in trouble when I didn’t use the right ones:

            -boots (not cleats)

            -shin pads (not shin guards)

            -pitch (not field)

            -match (not game)

            -United and City (not Man U and Man City)

            -bibs (not pinneys)

Perceptions Brits have of Americans

Many British people seem to believe that Americans are:

-morbidly obese

-overly nationalist and believe we are the only country on earth

-gun toting lunatic rednecks
-fundamentally ideological evangelical Christians 
Thankfully I don't fall into any of these categories!

Ways that I changed while in Oxford

-Rediscovered my unbridled love and passion for football/soccer after 4 tough years at the Academy.

-Learned I can drink a whole lot more than I would expect I can drink.

-Started using British phrases and my voice and inflection became very British (but no accent).

-Got in the best physical shape of my life (which is strange considering I went to a military Academy, but I guess thats what happens when the gym is both your escape from engineering work and a place you get to see all your friends).

-Mastered cooking several dishes (for example, chili, stir fry, chicken parmesan, not that they're all that hard).

-Learned how to be a master hostess (hosted Thanksgiving 3 times, a Hanukkah party, a huge party for the US-England World Cup game, a big summer barbecue, etc).

-Came out of my shell and (hard to believe because of how sheltered and naive I still am) because far less sheletered.

-Made incredible friends from different countries and a  while array of ages and backgrounds which opened up some great new experiences for me.

-Got to have 2 of the most incredible years anyone could possibly imagine that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

-Realized how incredibly blessed I am!!