London: A Learning Experience

Since October 26th is a bank holiday in Ireland, myself and two friends decided to take a weekend trip. Actually, in all fairness, a friend of mine planned the weekend trip, and two of us decided to tag along. The plan was to hit London friday, York saturday, and Edinburough, Scotland on Sunday, then fly home Sunday night from Scotland.

Sometimes things don't go as planned.

If you're planning on studying abroad, or even just taking a vacation, and you're headed to London, or any where else for that matter, I can't stress enough planning ahead. We waited until Friday morning (After we had arrived) to book a hostel - bad idea! Apparently the weekend we visited happens to be students "spring break" there. D'oh!

We did manage to find a hotel though, and picked up our London Passes and Travel cards before venturing forth into the city.

Tips to Visiting London
---If you're planning on visiting London - plan to stay there for a couple of days.
---Take the first day you arrive to check into your hostel, get settled in, and visit sites that AREN'T covered in your London Pass.
---The London Pass is a card that allows you free admission to around 70-80 sites in London, but a "day" pass, only works from the first time you use it to the end of that night when attractions close - not for 24 hours. At about 35 british pounds for the first day, its a waste to start using it around 1pm in the afternoon (it's around 55 british pounds for a two day pass). It IS worth the money, if you leave yourself enough time in the day to see numerous sites.
---Get a travel card! A daily or multi-day travel card will save you money after TWO trips on the underground - and the underground saves you an incredible amount of time!! But - depending on where you're traveling, you'll only need areas 1 and 2 of the 6 sections that the underground covers. Look into this when you get to the city!!!



On our way to picking up our London Passes, we passed Buckingham Palace. We weren't lucky enough to catch the changing of the guards, but it was still an incredible sight.

After picking up our London Passes, we headed straight to Big Ben, the House of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. Unfortunately, Westminster Abbey has slightly odd hours and it had closed 15 minutes earlier (as its still in use today). You can't take pictures inside of Westminster, so you'll just have to take my word that it has some of the most incredible sites in terms of tombs, graves, and statues I have ever seen (we managed to get in early saturday morning).

We also visited the Jewel Tower near by, which was originally designed as a private treasury to the king. The original roof is still intact today.

By far, my most favorite part of the trip was the Tower of London. Contrary to popular belief, the Tower of London is not, in fact, a Tower, but is rather an entire fort where the soveriegnty of England used to reside. From the number of towers, chapels, and stories housed in this famous fort, I could have spent all day there (we did spend about 3-4 hours there). It also holds the crown jewels - an entire building dedicated to highly guarded glass display cases of the the crowns, coronation rings, orbs, scepters, and other odd, assortments of items owned by the Crown (Example: an entire dining set made of gold used by previous Kings and Queens of England). Again, this (and the chapel) is a place where you can't take pictures, but you can pretty much everywhere else in the fort.

If you get the chance to go to the Tower of London, it is in your best interest to follow one of the tours. "But why, Heather? Tours are boring.. the tour guides just ramble...it's so long... if I go, I feel obligated to stay for the entirety..."
I hear you - I do. I thought the same thing, and we almost skipped the tour. I'm glad we didn't.

Firstly, the tour guides are part of the Queen's Army - In order to become a tour guide, they have to be part of the army for at least 20 years. The outfits may look funny, but it's their ceremonial garbs, and the metals on them are real. Our tour guide was incredible: fun, entertaining, spoke with and played off of members of the crowd, and he told stories about the towers and the chapel that gave me chills.

Not only was he incredibly good at his job, but the three of us stop to speak with him after the tour and got our pictures taken with him - and it was such an honor to be able to. I will go ahead and claim that the Tower of London is by far the most incredible historical site I've been able to see to date, but what I will never forget about it is him.


The plans for the rest of the weekend got a little jumbled, as the coach/trains we were planning to take up to York and Edinburough took longer than we thought and were more expensive then we expected. This wouldn't have been as big a deal as it turned out to be, except the cold that I had before leaving and the stress of running around a new city rapidly deteriorated my health, cause me to end my trip early and head home saturday evening instead of sunday evening.

Luckily, I'm almost fully recovered - and just in time for my trip to Wales this weekend!

Cheers!

Belfast - A City Sundered

This weekend, my classmates and I traveled up to Northern Ireland. The first place we stopped was Belfast - the center of turmoil between the Catholics and Protestants, the location of the "Peace" Wall, and the home of the IRA.

What?!? The IRA?!?! Heather get out of there!

Before I left for Ireland, I had quite a few family members warn me to watch out for the IRA, but despite Americans strong influence in the peace negotiations in Northern Ireland - I don't think my family members understood the situation there. I know I didn't.

I can't remember every detail given by our tour guide, and I'm sure there will be slight inaccuracies in the following story, but I think it's important (especially if you're going to be traveling to Ireland) to understand its recent bloody history.

The fighting in Northern Ireland, and between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland is all based on the idea of "Home Rule". The Republic of Ireland is fighting for a united Ireland - where the British no longer hold rule over Northern Ireland and the entire island becomes one nation. Within Northern Ireland, the Catholics want a united Ireland and Home Rule as well, whereas the Protestants want to stay with England.

The fighting began with the Catholics protesting the inequality of Catholics and Protestants in the workforce - where Protestants gained all the management positions and Catholics made up the majority of the hard labor force. They began to march up and down the streets, followed closely by the media. But Britain made no attempt to make changes, and soon the media lost interest in the uprising.

This is where the IRA came in. In order to get attention back onto the plight of the Catholics, the IRA began to start small riots during the marches, which had to quickly be put down by the police force. But the entire police force in the North of Ireland were Protestants, and soon Catholics started looking out their window and seeing the Protestant police force beating down the Catholic protesters.

And that's how it started.

In the city of Belfast, the Catholics and Protestants lived on the opposite side of the same street. As a Catholic who watched one of their family members get taken down in a riot, it was a little too tempting to cross the street and get vengeance - a life of one of theirs for the life they took from you. Soon, both sides had this mentality and fatalities were occurring every day.

The Separation Wall, at 4.5 miles longer in its entirety than the Berlin Wall in its individual parts (each section that's maintained by different countries), was put up to separate the two sides of the streets in hopes of maintaining some form of peace between the Catholics of the Protestants.
From this, it became dubbed the "Peace" Wall.

In the 1960's-1970's, Ted Kennedy along with some other powerful political leaders traveled to Ireland to push for peace negotiations in Northern Ireland. After years of fighting, peace, if an uneasy one, was finally found.

During these peace negotiations, the IRA - the Irish Republican Army - agreed to turn away from terrorism and their terrorist ties to find peace through talk negotiations. Yes, they once had ties with the PLA (Palestine Liberation Army), because for the longest time they claimed that both terrorist groups were "fighting a holy war", but because of their affinity to America for the difference it has made in the negotations, the IRA has dropped these ties.

Today, they maintain and edit a wall of murals known as the International Wall, which represents descrimination and wrongdoings across the globe. The tour guides that take American tourists to see the wall actually work with the IRA to maintain murals that are not upsetting or offensive to Americans in any way because they respect the American opinion.

Houses on the Catholic side of the peace wall still have cages covering them to protect from molotov cocktails thrown over the wall when it was at its shortest height (it was added to over the years). Memorial sights litter the Catholic side of the wall from when that entire street - over 180 houses - were burned to the ground in one single night. And there are grounds on the Protestant side that are still leveled - having not been restored before the recession hit.





But now, with help from foreign influences, Northern Ireland and the Republic are on the road to recovery. Murals cover the city, cries of hope for the future, and the new generations and being taught that they can live side by side without violence.

It's inspiring to see in a world filled with so much war and violence and bloodshed.

And it's refreshing as an American whose country is steeped in a pointless, seemingly endless war. We can make a difference in the lives of others and we have to remember that at a time when it's easy to forget.
(This mural depicts Protestant children drawing pictures on the Peace Wall of what they want to be when they grow up and chatting with Catholic children who are greeting them from on top of and around the wall. On the right hand side, you'll notice two spires, which represent the Catholic church you can see if you turn your back to this mural. This mural represents the hope that wall will be breachable by the coming generation.)

The First Inside Look at Classes

"My friend says to me, 'Rotimi, why do you not let your son work? He is 16. He is of age. He can work part time around his studies.'
'He does not need to work,' I tell my friend. 'This way he can concentrate on his studies'
'Well what if he wants to buy...' our professor pauses and points to one of my classmates. 'What do you call that....cap? A baseball cap! - 'Well what if he wants to go to the store and buy a baseball cap?' my friend says to me.
'Then I will buy it for him,' I told my friend.
'But if he has a job he can buy it for himself,' my friend says.
'No, no, I am his father and it is my job to provide for him until he is out of university. He does not need to work until he has graduated'."

There was a pause as Professor Adebari finished his story.
"Can you be my parent?" one of my classamtes asked, grinning. "I don't want to have to work til after college!"

The class broke out in laughter, many of us all too familiar with working and going to high school/college at the same time, but our professor had made his point about cultural differences.

Professor Rotimi Adebari teaches the Intercultural Communications class at the Academic Center and like the rest of our teachers, is highly qualified for the position. Our professor immigrated from Nigeria back in the 1990's and has been working towards better intercultural communications both in business and communities since he arrived. He's also the first African American to hold the office of mayor in the Republic of Ireland - Seriously, I don't care who you are, that's pretty cool.

In this specific class, Prof. Adebari was discussing with us the importance of education across cultures. Here in Ireland, it's common for 15 year olds to get part time jobs and to work throughout the rest of their education. While this is similar to American students, many of whom HAVE to work during high school and college to support themselves, education is a bit different here in Ireland and the U.K. In Wales, students leave highschool at 16 and graduate college in 3 years in order to get out into the workforce as soon as possible. Where education back in the States is held in such high regard students stay in school for 18 years, here it is important for adolescents to become part of their communities more quickly. And this is different too in Nigeria. He holds education is such high regard that he asked his son not to take the "transition year" (a year off after highschool before entering college) that many students partake in because statistically, many student's don't return to college.


We've also spoken about stereotypes, misunderstandings, and the importance of non-verbal communication. In my last post, I discussed how great it is that non-verbal communications are universal.... but are they?

Fun Facts About Signs We Use Commonly in the States

• Shaking ones head side to side is considered an affirmative response in India
• The Thumbs-up symbol is considered the equivalent of the American's middle finger in Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq, and Thailand. Meanwhile, it's used to symbolize "1" in Germany. (Remember that if you try to hitch a ride in any of these countries)
  
• The Peace Sign is considered an obscenity in the U.K. when the palm faces inward, as well as in South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand (it often signifies defiance)
  
• The combination of I L and Y in American sign language that symbolizes "I Love You" in the States is the symbol used to curse someone in the Italian culture
• The "Okay" symbol in the States is the symbol/request for coins in the Japanese symbol. In Brazil, it represents vulgar expressions and in some European countries, its a negative symbol that suggests the meaning "you are a zero".

In previous entries, I have stressed the importance of remembering how similar we are to others outside of our own culture, but it's important to remember that the similarities we think we share may not actually be as universal as we thought.

If you're planning on studying abroad in another culture, especially one where you don't speak the language, make sure you research the use of gestures in that culture!

All in all, this class is pretty sweet and is definitely one of my favorite classes here on campus. I truly wish our Professor could teach more classes back on our main campus. His stories are funny and keep you interested throughout class, and it's crazy to think that even he learns new things with each semester of American students he teaches (after working with this stuff for over a decade). Need SWK425 to finish your major, or got a general elective space open? Take this class - it has the potential to be incredible (remember - the experience is only equal to the effort you put into it!).


Cheers!
~Heather~

Plugged In: To Be or Not To Be?

I growled in frustration as I tromped up the street, shoving my lifeless iPod back in its pocket. I had forgotten to charge it. Again.

When I made the decision to bring my iPod with me while I studied abroad, it was meant to be used to entertain me during long traveling times, which, when I was in a music mood, would include the 25 minute walk to the Academic Center. Really, sometimes you just need music, for whatever the reason. I get it. I'm a product of the 21st century too.
But you never know what you'll miss when you're plugged in.

" 'ahts arhllie noice cawh," commented the older gentleman who fell back to walk beside me on my way to school.
"Sorry.... what was that?" I asked, completely lost. What language was this guy speaking?
"T-at's a really nice car," he said again, this time with a thick Irish accent, pointing to a shiny black jaguar parking on the side of the road in front of us. "T-at's tha t-ird one I've seen..... different colors." I smiled and nodded, understanding only two-thirds of what he was saying. Whoever told you they speak the same language in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales as they do back home lied to you.
Thank God for body language - the universal language. I smiled and nodded.
"All the cars here are so well maintained," I replied, somehow concerned he wouldn't understand me. "Back in the States, people don't keep them this nice."
The mans eyes lit up. "You're from the States, are yah?"
It's true what they say about the Irish. They all have family members in the states - and they're happy to tell you all about them. Boy, did I open up a can of worms.
"I've got a cousin, and two sisters, and a brother over there. My brother lives... "
I smiled at the man, listening to him talk about his family, about how they were coming to visit, about how he used to live in Canada, and how he hated the snow so much that he refuses to even watch t.v. shows with them. In the corner of my mind, I was concerned about being late for class, as I had slowed my pace to match his gait, but we parted ways shortly after meeting.
"I'm stopping here Miss, to stop and look at some paintings."
"It was nice meeting you!" I called over my shoulder as I hurried on towards the Academic Center.

Was it direly important that I stopped to talk to that man? Would the world have ended if I had been listening to my iPod? Surely not. But did it make a difference in my life? Yes, I would say it did.
I am fairly certain I will never meet that man again, or that I wouldn't even recognize him if I did, but I'll remember him, for his friendliness, and his stories, and how talking to a complete stranger lit up his face. And I can only hope that I brought a moment of joy or company to his life for that brief period of time. And maybe this weekend, when his sister and cousin comes to visit him from the States and they're eating the cakes he made them, he'll tell them about this nice American girl he met on the street, who he talked to about cars, and Canada, and snow.
What would have happened, say, had I ignored him, or been really rude and stormed off? What would he have remembered then? I could tell you stories about people who used to come into the grocery store I worked in during highschool who either made or ruined my day.
I remember this one young couple who had relocated to Maine after Hurricane Katrina that came through my line a dozen times or so over the course of several months. In those few brief meetings, I learned they had relocated to Maine two years ago, that they were finally starting to feel at home, and, during their last few trips into the store, that they had to return to Lousiana for extrenuating circumstances.
But two days before they headed back to Louisiana, they came in just to see me, not only to say goodbye, but to give me the good news - they had just gotten engaged. The woman couldn't wait to tell me - I was one of the first people she told. I remember her reaching her shaking hand across the register and putting it in mine, the diamond gleaming despite the horrible flourescent lights.
I don't know why I was the first person to know. Maybe they had a hard time finding friends here in Maine. Maybe after the disaster, they had grown away from their family down in the South. And I don't know why the woman confided in me when she came through my line, telling me about how hard it was to have relocated. Maybe she just needed a stranger who wouldn't judge her to listen for a few minutes. Maybe me listening for a few minutes every few weeks made her life a little bit easier. I don't know, and I never will. I can hope so though.
Today, I can't remember their names, but I will always remember them, the kindness they always showed to me, what they looked like, and most importantly, the happy glow on her face that shown through the constant sadness in her eyes as she celebrated her life with a complete stranger.

It's amazing the effect we can have on the randomest people.
And I urge you to remember that, especially when you're traveling to a foreign country.

How do you want to be remembered?