Hello friends!
It’s been a while. I’ve been pretty busy, so – heads up – this is gonna be a long one, but lots of good stuff! So let’s jump right in!!
Part 1: Brighton
When I last left off, I had just gone to Hampstead Heath and had an incredible time. I was also coming off of a busy week and didn’t really have any plans for the weekend. Until my flatmates and I spontaneously decided to take a day trip to Brighton the next day. Because why not? We got some Super Off Peak train tickets (aka the ones that they sell for cheapest because it’s not a common travel time) and spent about 4 hours of the evening in Brighton.
Our first stop there was North Laine Road, which has a bunch of fun antique and vintage shops. Then, we took a quick look at the Royal Pavilion, which used to be a royal palace. It was around 5:30 (or 17:30 as they say here – still trying to get used to it!) at this point and we all decided that fish and chips in Brighton was a must, so we grabbed some and ate our dinner sitting on the beach.
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| Y U M !!! |
Our next order of business was to check out the famous Brighton Pier; the sun was setting too so it made the experience extra special.
Brighton was definitely a neat place to see, and I think that even though our time there was pretty short, I felt like I had seen everything – definitely a good place to go if you don’t have a whole day but still want to see some neat things!
Part 2: Oxford
Monday the 25th was our first day of classes at King’s. But lucky me, my schedule worked out that I only have class Wednesday through Friday (although it is jam-packed!), so instead of just sitting around and watching Netflix all day (I did that on Sunday) I went on another day trip! Because again, why not? A couple of my flatmates didn’t have class on Monday either, and we scored super cheap coach tickets to Oxford. (5 pounds each way – I have been advised that taking the coach/megabus is the cheapest way to travel outside of London if you don’t mind the extra travel time compared to the train.) Unfortunately, we got a pretty late start to our day, and didn’t get into Oxford until afternoon. And, as we learned, everything that’s not a restaurant in Oxford closes at 4:30pm. We really only got to tour the Bodleian Library (highly highly recommend you going there, it was so cool to be in a space of such great age and importance), and after that just kind of wandered the city – which wasn’t a bad thing because the architecture is amazing there. But I definitely want to go back and visit more of the museums and churches; and if you’re ever planning to come, try to arrive in the morning to be able to fully take advantage of all the things to see and do! Without further ado, here are some of the highlights of Oxford! *heart eyes*
Brighton was definitely a neat place to see, and I think that even though our time there was pretty short, I felt like I had seen everything – definitely a good place to go if you don’t have a whole day but still want to see some neat things!
Part 2: Oxford
Monday the 25th was our first day of classes at King’s. But lucky me, my schedule worked out that I only have class Wednesday through Friday (although it is jam-packed!), so instead of just sitting around and watching Netflix all day (I did that on Sunday) I went on another day trip! Because again, why not? A couple of my flatmates didn’t have class on Monday either, and we scored super cheap coach tickets to Oxford. (5 pounds each way – I have been advised that taking the coach/megabus is the cheapest way to travel outside of London if you don’t mind the extra travel time compared to the train.) Unfortunately, we got a pretty late start to our day, and didn’t get into Oxford until afternoon. And, as we learned, everything that’s not a restaurant in Oxford closes at 4:30pm. We really only got to tour the Bodleian Library (highly highly recommend you going there, it was so cool to be in a space of such great age and importance), and after that just kind of wandered the city – which wasn’t a bad thing because the architecture is amazing there. But I definitely want to go back and visit more of the museums and churches; and if you’re ever planning to come, try to arrive in the morning to be able to fully take advantage of all the things to see and do! Without further ado, here are some of the highlights of Oxford! *heart eyes*
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| Part of the Bodleian Library – the second largest library in Britain. The oldest section, the Duke Humfrey’s Library, dates back to the early 1400’s – and it’s was used as the library in the Harry Potter films!!!!! |
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| This used to be the old Divinity School at Oxford; if it looks familiar, it’s because it was the infirmary and the dance room in the Harry Potter films!!! (So much HP in Oxford y’all) |
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| Bridge of Sighs |
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| Inside of one of Oxford’s colleges – their students don’t move in until the first week of October! |
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| Rumor has it this hotel is a superb place for high tea |
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| Inside another one of Oxford’s colleges; it would be such a dream to go here! |
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| We took a little walk along the Thames (yes it’s not just in London) and this little kitty wanted to play tour guide! |
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| All along the river there were houseboats that people are actually living in |
Sorry about all the pictures. Except not really because it was beautiful there! Also, I was talking to a local who said that if you go to Oxford then you don’t need to go to Cambridge because they’re literally the same… but then I found out he went to Oxford so… Regardless of where his loyalties lie, I think he has a point, and I think you could probably just go to one or the other if you’re short on time and just looking for that “Oxford/Cambridge” vibe. But Oxford has some NEAT stuff so definitely make this a day trip if you get the chance!
Part 3: School (Finally)
Ok so now onto the real reason that I’m here hahaha.
Wednesday was my first class, Health and Society. There were 16 of us that were selected to take this course, and it’s unique in that it’s only U.S. pre-med students – it’s designed to give us an actual idea of what being a doctor is like because in the U.S. you don’t get that until medical school. (It’s weird because here I’ve met medical students that are younger than me; in the U.K. you go straight to medical school after graduating high school so when I tell them I’m studying “pre-med” they don’t really get it.) Our first lecture was an intro to the National Healthcare System which was really fascinating as it is sooo different from the system we have in place. I’m excited for our lecture next week!
Next week? Yeah, they do class schedules differently here. Each class only meets one day a week, instead of 2 or 3 times like back in the U.S. But to make up for that, you meet for longer: typically 2-3 hours, but my Health and Society course is two 2 1/2 hour sessions on the same day for a grand total of 5 hours in the classroom! *nervous laughter* It’s definitely going to be an adjustment and hopefully I’ll be able to keep my attention for that long!
In addition to lectures, my courses have practicals (equivalent to labs), and tutorials/workshops (equivalent to small discussion sections or drills). However, only 2 of my courses (Biochemistry and Human and Molecular Genetics) actually have practicals and instead of the usual once per week, there’s only 2 or 3 for the whole semester. *praise* The tutorials/workshops are usually right after lectures and a chance to go over things that were talked about. So pretty similar to some classes at home.
The grading system is different too. Here, a 70-100% is the equivalent of an A, 60-69% a B+, 50-59% a B-, 40-49% a C, and anything lower than 40% is failing. That sounds great until they tell you that it’s just as hard to get that <70% as it is to get the <90% in the U.S. And when at orientation they tell you that a 70 or above is “very rare.” Plus, the grades, or “marks” are pretty much all weighted on a single final exam instead of having multiple exams throughout the semester. Basically all my classes, the final is 70-80% of my entire grade, and in some courses I’ve heard it’s 100%. Annnnd the exams are much more essay based. So for a lot of my final exams, there’s a few multiple choice questions, but there’s also a lot of writing questions. So I get to write essays about the Immune System! Fun!
I’m gonna take a quick little pause here to give you a short infomercial on the British school system. Yunno, ICYWW. They go to “uni” (short for university) for 3 years instead of 4, and call it Year 4, Year 5, and Year 6. Their last two years of high school they’re whittling down the subject areas that they want to study so that by the time they get to college, excuse me, university (not college, not THE university, just university) they’ve figured out the area they want to be in and only take classes in that area. So if you want to study business, that’s all you take, no science, philosophy, English, etc. Which is why they go to uni for a shorter amount of time than we do. And which is why lucky lucky me is taking all science courses here. Normally, the courses you take are determined by what year you are too. So if you’re a Year 5, you can’t be taking Year 4 or Year 6 courses. But as a study abroad student, I can take classes across years. My biochemistry course is technically a fresher course (Year 4; they call freshmen “freshers” here) and I’m in a couple Year 5 courses (Genetics and Immunology) which would be like sophomore/junior level. Health and Society is technically a Year 6 but we’re all from the U.S. so it’s a little different.
So, as my final reflection of this blog post-turned-novel, based on these past 3 days how do I think classes are going to be? In spite of hearing about all the differences in the U.K. system and about how independent and intense it was going to be (they joke that you’re “reading for your degree” since so much of your time is supposedly spent reading the textbook or research articles outside of class) there’s actually a lot of similarities to home. The class sizes are still about the same that they would be at Arkansas in that there’s close to 200 people in them. The professors gave out module handbooks, which would be like a syllabus for the U.S. except that these things are the definition of comprehensive. There are pages and pages laying out the lecture schedule, the grading scale, the expectations, the “suggested reading” (which I was told is the polite British way of saying “you absolutely should read this”) and so on. (Another note on the readings, because this is, I think, probably the biggest difference between home and here, they still call it “suggested” because they want you to read deeper into what you find interesting, so it’s not as much assigned reading as it is extra materials for you to kind of pick and choose based on interest. But they are expecting you to do extra reading outside of class regardless; in the U.S. when professors brush over a topic in lecture it’s typically just a big picture idea or not that important for an exam, but here they do that in the interest of time and still expect you to go teach yourself more about it.)
Also included in the handbooks are all the handouts that you’ll need for the practicals, and worksheets that you complete independently and then bring to the workshops/tutorials to get answers checked. Since there’s no homework/quizzes/monthly exams to let you know how you’re doing in the course, the worksheets and going to tutorial are supposed to be the stand-in for that. In addition, all my professors have been super nice and they’re providing all sorts of resources like those tutorial worksheets, the readings you can be doing with each lecture, and even old exams, to make sure you succeed. Now obviously this is only the first week, and I may think differently when I’ve got 17 chapters to read on detailed cellular processes, but my genetics professor actually pulled the 3 of us that were study abroad students in her class aside to tell us that study abroad students have always done very well in her class and she expected us to be in the top 20% of the class based on previous performances! Yay U.S.! But also no pressure or anything!! Anyways. I guess the point of this is to say that yes there are some pretty big differences in academics here, but I don’t think it will be as big of an adjustment as I was led to believe. Both systems have produced hard workers and incredible thinkers and there are multiple different ways to learn and assess that learning. I’m a big believer in that no matter how hard a class is, if you show up, work hard, and do what you’re supposed to you’ll be just fine and I think that definitely applies here as well.
(*DISCLAIMER* I’m taking all science classes so it’s a lot harder to write this long-winded and thought-provoking essay about an objective subject like the function of T-cells since all you can use is facts and not opinions, so I can only really speak for the sciences here. Taking English or history classes here might actually be incredibly different and difficult since typically you’re just writing an essay that is supposed to culminate from all this outside research of your own choosing. But also if that’s your major you’re probably more used to that anyway. Moral of story: school is tough. but not as tough as you. you’ll be fine)
*end of blog post-turned-novel-turned-motivational-speech*
If you’ve made it to end, I applaud you. Now you’ve seen some fun pictures and learned a little more about school over here!
And if you’re like me, you’re gonna reward yourself with a warm mug of Cadbury drinking chocolate now. Or you should. It’s the real deal
Cheers, my friends!
-Katie
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Katie, a senior Biology major, is spending the Fall 2017 semester studying Health & Society at King's College in London through Arcadia University.
Read more from Katie at https://katientheuk.wordpress.com/
Don't miss your opportunity to study or intern abroad! Start your search at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/search/
