Revoking My Previous Geek Announcement...

Ok so I have resisted moaning and complaining for the last two blogs I feel that I may now vent: While there are things I’m enjoying about the classes here, there are also things that slightly get on my nerves.

In my last blog I mentioned having a nice intellectual chat with one of my professors but what I didn't mention is how I felt afterwards: I was shocked. Shocked that I didn’t feel the same way after all my classes with her. In reality, I spend most of her classes frustrated at some of the inane comments that are made and the fact that you have to put your hand up in order to make any sort of input. It’s so much like school here sitting at desks in rows and having a professor basically teaching you, and I keep having to stop myself from just interjecting and speaking out as I’m used to doing back in Warwick seminars. While not all my classes are quite as extreme as this one, all of them definitely feel more like school rather than like university.

Another thing that I mentioned in my last blog was the extreme work load. While I’m used to having lots of reading to do, I am not used to doing strange tasks such as naming as the chapters of a book. Now while the book is brilliant and I absolutely love it (All Quiet on The Western Front: if you haven’t read it: Buy it. Read it. Now.), naming the chapters isn’t quite the intellectually stimulating sort of work that we’d be given at Warwick. In fact, the only work I think I was ever set at Warwick was either reading or essay writing, simple as that. While I did mention that the increased work load has its benefits, I do on occasion feel like a 16 year old studying for my GCSEs*.

Another problem with this school like atmosphere in class is the inability to debate. Now, anyone who knows me will know that I’m rather argumentative. And you should thus know that I am always right. Always. Despite this fact I loved moments in seminars last year where debates and opposing ideas came up and people were given the opportunity to not only express their ideas but also to defend them. So when expressing one of my ideas in my Black American Writers class my professor decided to play devil’s advocate and offered the alternative view. I, of course, instantly rebutted and defended my point. My professor looked terrified and instantly quaked and backed down. What’s with that? How can he be scared of me?! He’s the one who's supposed to be stimulating argument and debate for the sake of our education. Anyways, it was frustrating.

Another thing that Emily and I have noticed in some of our classes is that many of the points that we raise are ignored. Sometimes, they are then later brought up by another American student who gets all the praise. So, we have come to the conclusions that either a) they still don’t understand our accents or b) they’re just so mesmerised by our accents that they don’t hear a word we’re saying. Either way it’s frustrating. Don’t quite know how we’re going to manage when we have to give a presentation next week...

*Sorry American readers I know that means nothing to you... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Certificate_of_Secondary_Education

My Ultimate Geek Confession

I told you that I’d give you a brief overview of my individual modules, which I have done for two of my classes, but having been here nearly 6 weeks, I thought I’d let you know how I feel about classes in general; starting with the good things...

Although I complain about the extremely excessive work load which was a massive shock to the system, I have to say that I find myself a lot more prepared for classes than I would be for lectures back in Warwick. For one thing, it’s expected, and I could not get away with the lack of work which I occasionally might have got away with last year for boring and annoying lectures such as the one on Henry Green’s ‘Living’. Most. Boring. Book. Ever. Even my seminar tutor announced that she hated it. Anyways, I find that in England the work ethic very much involves steadily cruising along during the year doing the work assigned and then revising and cramming for end of year exams. Here, you can’t do that. You’re expected to be continuously learning and taking in everything to the extent that some professors give those infamous ‘pop quizzes’ - ‘pop’, as in they pop up and surprise you! While this may shock some of you lazy English students reading this, actually I’m sort of hoping that I continue the work ethic when I’m back in Warwick next year. I’m finding myself getting a much greater depth of knowledge of the books I’m studying*.

Another thing that I love about the classes here is how amazingly brilliant the professors all are. While there were some good lectures last year (Jeremy Treglown – you are still my hero), I just didn’t get the same sense of stunning, intellectual brilliance that I get from some of my professors here. I had to have a meeting with my WW1 Literature professor yesterday and it just so happened that my chosen essay topic is something she specialises in -  convenient! We spent an entire hour brainstorming and debating and generally having geeky, intellectual chats about gender roles in WW1 literature and it was amazing. Similarly, I’m always astounded by my Latino Literature professor. She is constantly bringing up books she’s published or is in the process of having published and she always seems to be doing new research which she's more than keen to share with us all. All the texts on our course are texts which she’s written critical essays on and are authors whom she’s studied in great depth.

It may have just been that at Warwick tutors don’t really pay much attention to first year students because, well, the year doesn’t count. But, generally speaking, there is definitely a much greater sense that professors are here at UCONN in order to teach their speciality, whereas in England, lecturers only teach in order to use the university’s facilities for their own research.  Persuading people to spend £9,000 a year on that is going to be tough!

*/I can’t legally drink so I have nothing better to do with my time!

Time For A Change

So I thought I’d follow my last blog with something a little more light-hearted and share with you a little incident that I had yesterday involving money. I had popped into the convenience store to pick up some snacks (what else do you do after you’ve been to the gym!) and perused through the crisps (sorry 'chips'*) and biscuit (sorry 'cookie') section for a fare few minutes as I was waiting for the torrential rain outside to pass. You would think that in New England they'd at last have tried to improve the weather but hey ho, can't have everything. Anyways, I eventually made my decision (chips ahoy cookies and some baked pita ‘chips’ in case you were wondering) and headed to the cash point. It was here that my troubles began.

Now America is a glorious country in that it has $1 bills why haven’t we come up with that yet?! They’re SO much lighter! But, you see, I’m still not quite used to that fact so I have constantly being paying with 5s and 10s until I suddenly realised that my purse was literally overflowing with $1 bills; in fact, that was all I had.. Uh oh. The moment had arrived when I would have to actually use some change; dimes, nickels, quarters, yep, the real American deal. I could feel the guy behind the counter judging me as I slowly tried to count out 67 cents carefully trying to remember how much each coin was worth. I was determined, now I'd started using my coins, I'd have to finish - plus I could no longer close the coin compartment of my purse which always makes things slightly tricky.

Needless to say I failed. What sort of country doesn't inscribe on the coin how much it is worth AND makes a 10¢ coin smaller that a 5¢ coin? It makes no sense! Luckily the kind guy behind the counter helped me out and I found myself putting on my poshest English accent in an attempt to try and justify my utter stupidity. I think it was gym karma, trying to stop me from pigging out after my Pilates session.

So I’ve officially been here 5 weeks. Guess it’s still going to take a while to get completely used to everything and you'll all be pleased to know that I'm still as 'special' as ever -  I haven't changed a bit... no pun intended.

*translation provided for my American readers! 

RIP Troy Davis

Firstly I’d just like to say that I’m not defending Troy Davis or claiming that he is innocent. I know nothing of the case and whether or not he committed the crime. What I am saying is that in the state of Georgia, a few hours ago, a man underwent the lethal injection and was killed. Sorry, but is this or is this not the 21^st Century? How in any way can the killing of a man for a (supposed) crime be just in any sense of the word?

Putting aside all moral aspects to this argument, I would like to firstly say that this case has been going on for 20 years!!! Yep it was going on before I was even born. Can you imagine how much time, money and effort has been wasted which could have been used on more important things like, oh I don’t know, the massive famine that’s destroying half of Africa?! If he did commit the crime would it not just be so much easier to have thrown him in prison and forgotten about him? <-- lazy student argument! A recent study revealed that death row inmates cost California $184m a year (roughly £119m)! And that's just one state, there are another 34 with the death penalty. Are we not hearing daily news updates on how the world economy is flunking? There you go; Molly Fletcher has solved world poverty and the economic crisis... STOP KILLING PEOPLE!

Asides this quite obvious and widely publicised fact, there is also my purely sadistic reason for not believing in the death sentence; how many times do we hear on the news that some horrific crime has been committed but that the perpetrator has concluded by taking his own life. Surely, if someone is proved to have committed a crime and has been caught, before they’ve been able to kill themselves, they should be left in a cell to rot with the thoughts of what they’ve done and the hatred of hundreds of people bearing down on them... no..? Just me? Well you know what I mean. It’s for this reason that the argument that the death penalty works as a deterrent for crime is just completely and utterly flawed; these sorts of criminals obviously have a very blurry and muddled sense of mortality if they’re going around killing people and so the concept of their own death is hardly likely to change this perspective. The worse punishment is not being able to escape the thoughts of what they’ve done: I’m effectively advocating self-(mental)-torture over murder, if its revenge you want is that not more satisfying?

I’m sorry for my very explicit (and slightly sadistic) rant and I would love to hear your views on the subject, no matter what your opinion - but you should all know that I am always right... just kidding.. but not really! So I will leave you with the words of Mahatma Ghandi:

“An eye for an eye will leave the whole world blind”.

A Bite Out Of The Big Apple

Having had a few days to mull it over, I now feel that I can go into more details about my New York trip on Saturday. I briefly covered all the things that we got up to in the big city but, for once, I didn’t provide my usual critique and analysis... so here it is.

I had been to New York previously in Christmas 2006 with my family so it wasn’t completely new to me. We just went for a few days and did the usual tourist things, going up the Empire State building, visiting Ground Zero, which was still pretty much rubble at the time, and Ellis Island and The Statue of Liberty etc. What I do remember from my last trip is completely and utterly falling in love with NYC. I thought it was beautiful and amazing and the people were so friendly, despite all the rumours, and Manhattan just seemed the most magnificent and majestic city that I had ever seen. In fact it was probably my new found love for New York that had made me fall more in love with America and made me want to come back!

This trip... I didn’t have quite the same reaction. Now everyone’s heard about all the amazing sights, which are amazing, but this time I was much more aware of the reality of the city as opposed to the glitzy touristy exterior. For starters I didn’t enter into Manhattan from the lovely Staten Island Ferry but instead the bus drove through Harlem. An area of New York which I have been studying in my aforementioned Latino Literature class and which is known as an area inhabited largely by Latinos and African Americans. It is also known as one of the more run down areas of New York and this definitely seemed the case as we drove through it. It was dirty and grimy and none of the buildings were in good order with shaggy and ripped curtains blowing through cracked and dust ridden windows. While this did change as we came deeper into central Manhattan it still wasn’t the sparkly city that I remembered but instead it was quite dirty and tacky. Now I went there at Christmas so I saw proper Christmas ‘tacky’ with the mountains of lights covering everything but this was a different type of tacky. So many shop windows had very eccentric and gaudy displays which you would never see in London.  This however definitely did not stop me from spending a good few hours wandering up 5^th Avenue and perusing the numerous floors of Forever 21; my new favourite shop!

Another thing that I really disliked was how dirty it is compared to London. I think we take it for granted how clean London, and England really, is. For instance, having grabbed a snack from, I’m highly ashamed to say, McDonalds, I spent a good half an hour or so wandering up and down looking for a bin to put the rubbish in.  You would never have that issue in England we have an abundance of bins on every street corner! Despite this I didn’t get lost looking for a bin thanks to the wonderfully simple grid system! Although I have to say that I do quite like the higgledy-piggledyness (hey Shakespeare made up words so can I) of London’s medieval streets, it gives it more character. Now I’m not saying that New York lacks any character but I think that it comes out more through the people and the general nature of life in New York rather than through the physical place.

All in all, while I absolutely loved my day in New York, so much so that I’ve already booked my tickets and an extortionate hostel room for in a few weeks time, I still am very much an English girl with a love of London. Yes the skyscrapers and central park and the general awe inspiring nature of New York is beyond describable but I don’t think I could ever spend more than a few days there; despite all this... I’m already ridiculously excited about going back! I’ll let you know if my opinion changes.

The Big Apple

Yesterday I woke up bright and early, filled myself with some yummy French toast and bacon, and boarded a bus headed for New York, the big apple, The Empire state, the city that never sleeps...  The trip had been organised by the Student Union to see...

Cirque du Soleil! The show which I’ve almost seen on countless occasions but never quite made it. So as you can imagine, I was ever so slightly excited. We (Rachel, Emily and I) arrived just outside the Rockefeller Centre about midday and so had a few hours to kill before the show started. So what did we do? Take embarrassing touristy photos of course – It was great!

Rachel, Emily and Me outside Radio City

Emily and Me outside the Rockefeller Centre

(SPOILER ALERT- just saying...)

So we made our way to Radio City to watch the performance, found our seats (right at the back and at the top of course- we’re students) and sat waiting anxiously for the show to begin. It was... slightly disappointing. I don’t want to sound like I didn’t enjoy it because some of it was truly incredible and some of it was absolutely hilarious but I couldn’t help but think at times that Britain’s Got Talent’s Spellbound do a better job! For starters there were a few mistakes, a few falls off ladders and off tightropes, and the promise to do things blindfolded, but only managing to keep the blindfold on for about 5 seconds - not all that impressive. On the other hand the trapeze section which you can see in the trailer was truly incredible and had me on the edge of my seat and similarly the strange spinning contraption around 25 seconds into the trailer was equally awe inspiring. But I sort of expected a bit more than a few amazing moments in a two hour show. The costumes and the set were incredible but at times there was just so much going on and it didn’t flow together well enough to appreciate it all. Also, it had been made into a strange musical type show (of course with completely odd songs and people with wedding singer voices) which was completely unnecessary and strange and I just didn’t understand the point of any of it; so that was sort of lost on me.

Despite my few little issues with it I did enjoy it, though would never have paid full price (ranging from $50-250!!!!) so quite pleased I didn’t! There were two absolutely brilliant ‘clown’ characters who came on in between most of the main acts and they were absolutely hilarious. If it hadn’t been for them I would probably be struggling to find more positive things to say about the show.

But the show was only 2 hours of our day in New York and so we spent the rest of the afternoonWe wandering around Times Square and up and down Broadway and around Central Park taking even more touristy photos!. I love it. While I don’t necessarily love New York (wait for my next blog) I did have an absolutely lovely day and really enjoyed getting off campus and going exploring for a bit.

 Well I did have a lovely time up until our bus was two hours late and so we had to stand waiting in the freezing cold waiting and then some crazy driver drove into the side of us, barely even scratching it, but we still had to wait another hour for a new bus. But that’s a whole other story and I think I’ve done enough complaining for today’s blog!

Latino Spin

Another of the classes that I’m taking is a class in Latino/a Literature. I came to UCONN thinking that this would be a course on Literature of southern America, but it in fact covers literature written by Hispanics living in America. Not what I was expecting at all. In fact I very nearly dropped it in order to do Native American Literature. But, I stuck with it and it is proving to be one of the most interesting classes! Did you know that Latinos are the largest minority in America? And that there are more Puerto Ricans in America than there are in Puerto Rico? And that Hispanic is the only ethnicity recognised in the United States according to the 2010 census? Strange huh?!

This week we’ve been looking at the text A Puerto Rican in New York by Jesus Colon, which is a collection of what I assume to be newspaper columns from throughout his immigration to, and life in, you guess it, New York. So this week’s focus has been Puerto Rico. Other than making a brief spin through the airport a few years ago on my way to Antigua I know absolutely nothing about Puerto Rico and I’m pretty sure that the majority of people don’t either. So, here’s what I’ve learnt...

It’s a colony. That’s right, the same country that revolted against the British for being a colony is now an empire itself with control over Puerto Rico, Guam, Samoa and I’m sure a few others. Anyone else not find that strange? Now if I randomly go missing and no one ever sees me again it’s because the FBI have grabbed me... not supposed to be advocating their independence and all that malarkey but actually, after today’s class I’m not sure Puerto Rica is ready to be independent.

What has been basically ignored in the media, not only in England, but even in the US, the country which is supposed to be in charge, is the obscene corruption and fascist like events that have been occurring. In the same way that many nations across the world have experienced protests and demonstrations recently, so too has Puerto Rico. However, unlike our charming English rioters, the Puerto Ricans way of protesting is almost like a celebration, a carnival. However when Fox news did do a brief report on it they showed footage of the Athens uprisings and not the San Juan protests, and never even rectified it! In addition, the police responded with brute force and unnecessary use of tear gas and violence. In fact last year the FBI launched a raid on the Puerto Rican police department and over 200 officers were arrested!!! In addition the University has tried to ban public speaking and forcefully removed journalists from government buildings and denied them the right to report on certain meetings.

While I am very conscious of the fact that my Professor is from Puerto Rico and so may possibly be giving me a slightly biased view of all I still feel that it was something worth sharing.

So there you go, you learn something new every day!

 Read More Here...

The Life of Molly Fletcher

I realise I have been quite silent for the past few days and it’s not that I haven’t had the time or made the effort but that I’m genuinely having issues thinking of what I can write about. It’s very tempting to just write a diary like extract of my life and what I’ve been up to but I’d much rather draw some conclusion and meaning out of my experiences... and that’s where I’m struggling a bit.

However, I’ve finally come up with something to talk about and it should keep me going for the next 4 blogs or so and that is about my classes and the modules that I’m taking. Now don’t stop reading just yet give me a chance! As I’ve explained in a previous blog the system of learning here is phenomenally different, to the extent that I don’t have lectures or seminars but, as the Americans call them, ‘classes’. And they really are very much like classes from school: we all sit in rows and the professor stands at the front and teaches, and occasionally shows us a slideshow or a clip from a youtube video and asks questions, which we answer – or are supposed to. It sounds bad and childish but actually being much more actively involved in a class rather than sitting passively through a lecture changes the way you think so much.

Anyways, I’m rambling slightly. The first ‘class’ I will introduce to you is my ‘Black American Writers’ class. Focusing on autobiography, we study the works of Frederick Douglass, an African American slave who escaped his master and worked towards abolition, Malcolm X, Barack Obama and a few others. So far we’ve just been looking at the theory behind autobiographies which, although quite interesting can also be a tad slow and boring, but part of this study involved us having to write our own three page autobiography. Easy, I thought as I packed up my books and sauntered back over the massive campus to my room.

So that evening I sat down at my computer, opened a word document, and sat staring at it for about half an hour. It was impossible. Seriously, I dare you to try and write a three page autobiography of your life. In the multitude of amazing things that have happened in my 19 years of life I could not think of one thing worth putting down, I had no plot to my life, no mind-dazzling, life-changing experience which I thought worthy of my first American ‘paper’. I ended up talking about my life as an army brat and moving around and about for most of my life and concluded with the day my parents told me that I was moving to America in 2004. I still remember the day very, very well. In fact I may include it as part of a future blog...

Our professor of course didn’t grade our autobiographies; we just got ‘credit’ for having completed the assignment and handing it in on time. But we did briefly discuss them and the different ways that people had interpreted the task: some had simply given the facts of their life; others had discussed an important family member or a favourite memory. It’s interesting how we all perceive our own lives in such different and varying ways and how this can change depending on the time, the place, the mood. If I was to rewrite mine now for instance I probably would have chosen a completely different theme, maybe my time in boarding school or my experiences having left school and travelling etc. What’s even stranger to think of, is how will I perceive my life this time next year? Or in 10 years? I’ll let you know...

"Maolly". No, it's Molly.

Now I have changed my blog slightly so that anyone should be able to comment and also there is the option to follow my blog by email, let me know if it works or not! I don’t know whether it sends you the entire blog or just a link. Am still getting to grips with this whole blogging technology so bear with me and let me know if anything needs changing!

Now, onto today’s topic... 

I haven’t really done much this week as the weather has been pretty horrific, very English, which is just not cool, and I’ve had plenty of work to keep me in my room and stuck to various books so I thought I’d share with you some of the inevitable Americanisms that we’ve come across so far. Firstly, I thought I’d 

share this with you...

For my American readers, I’m not making fun of you it’s that English humour we’ve been trying to tell you about! Now that, I think, is a fine place to start; Americans just don’t get it! When I sarcastically (and jokingly of course) answer “no” to the question “can I come in”, they just get offended and walk away. This of course made the first few weeks a tad awkward but we’re slowly getting there, they’re beginning to understand to not take anything we say seriously.

Another thing is the various words that they don’t understand. There are the obvious things like ‘trash can’ and ‘elevator’ but the shocking thing is that when we say our English words like ‘loo’ and ‘trainers’ they genuinely don’t have a clue what we’re talking about! We’ve put together a short list of some of the words that truly baffle our American neighbours:

Jumper

Wellies

Queue

Bonnet

Boot

Tap

Referring to the time as ‘half 6’, not ‘6.30’

Bin

Post

It’s really made me think quite a lot about our language and the way in which it has evolved and changed. In particular what has struck me is how much our language (as in English from England) has been influenced by America and not so much the other way round. For example if an American said to you “go put that in the trash”, you’d instantly know what he was talking about, whereas if I say “just going to put this in the bin” I am met with strange and confused looks. Now I know you're thinking that this is obviously because of the amount of American TV and films which we get in England but here's another list for you:

Lengthy

Reliable

Talented

Influential

Tremendous

These words are an example of some vocabulary which we have gained from America in the past 150 years or so. Surprising huh?!

The BBC did an interesting article a few months ago on the way in which Americanisms are gradually slipping into our language which I really recommend - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/14130942. What I find interesting is how unaware we are of it, I certainly am. I unconsciously refer to my friends as ‘guys’ and ask if they want to watch a ‘movie’ as opposed to a ‘film’, America is gradually taking over the world! 

So, as George Bush said, “Teach a child to read and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test”... Scary isn’t it?!

Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut

Today I can hardly walk. I can’t laugh, I can barely navigate stairs; in fact the simple act of getting out of bed this morning was the kind of pain that I would probably associate with childbirth. Here’s a little flashback as to why...

Before I came to America I had everyyonee telling me that I’m going to come back fat. It is America, land of MaccyDs. But I have to say I am rather surprised at the lack of obesity I’ve seen. I mean I am stuck in the UCONN bubble but it is a bubble of 40,000 or so students. Despite this, it is still incredible how much ‘fatter’ I already feel. Now I know I’m not fat, I’m not saying I am, but after two weeks here I am definitely starting to feel slightly unhealthy. For example, I arrived on a Monday; it wasn’t until the Friday that I ate a meal with a knife and fork!!! I kid you not. To be fair, that was mainly because we arrived a week before school started and so none of the dining halls were open, but still.

Since then things have got better, in fact the dining halls are amazing. So far I’ve only been to two, the one in my own halls, McMahon and the one just around the corner, South. You walk in and there are numerous options from pasta to pizza to a massive salad bar to some international cuisine, to a grill, it really is quite difficult to choose. So what do I do? Well what anyone would do, try and eat it all... It doesn’t work. Anyone who knows me well enough knows that, with the exception of breakfast, I have the smallest appetite known to mankind and I usually have to call on someone to help finish my meal. It’s not the food, it’s me! Despite this I am managing to put away a fair amount of food, always accompanied by salad I’d like to add, but still a lot more than I usually would eat.

So you see my predicament?! I cannot return to England fat like everyone has predicted! So what did Rachel, Emily and I decide to do? We have taken a tour of the gym, started a new healthy eating regime and yesterday we took our first fitness class, ‘butts and guts’. And yes, it was as horrifically painful and torturing as the name suggests. So the mystery as to how UCONN dining halls can provide 40,000 or so students with three very large, amazing meals a day yet still maintain a fairly skinny campus has been answered: torture.

Get Me to the Greek... Or Not...

So I did warn you that my blogs would probably get more spaced out but I do feel it’s time to fill you all in on the past week or so. Classes have begun, which means that the massive mound of reading has also begun which makes writing blogs more difficult not least because I’m not doing as many exciting things worthy of posting on the internet.  But enough of the excuses...

Having met a lovely national exchange student (i.e. American, from another state) who is part of a sorority, Emily and I decided that it might be quite fun to join a sorority or at least find out a bit more about it in order to meet some new people. Next thing we know there’s an email for a ‘Greek BBQ’, how ideal. Now as you may be aware from programmes like, well, ‘Greek’, Greek refers to all the sororities and fraternities named after the Greek alphabet, such as Alpha Phi and Delta Zeta and, my personal favourite, Kappa Kappa Gamma: Just say it, go on say it again, fun isn’t it! Anyways, on Wednesday evening we headed up to North Quad towards the blaring music and the billowing smoke and the massive crowds of people where we found the equivalent of Warwick Freshers Fair; there were 10 or so tables of Sororities all glittered up and covered with smiley photos and scrapbooks filled with ‘slumber parties’ and ‘apple picking’ and describing the various charity work that each sorority takes part in.  It didn’t at all seem like it appears in the films, yes they were all beautiful and made up and perfectly tanned but they all seemed very excited and enthusiastic about all the good that the Sororities achieve and the ‘four pillars’; scholarship, leadership, service and sisterhood. One girl was telling us how they all stood up for 18 hours and raised thousands of dollars for Breast Cancer support.

Then some interesting facts came out; how you join a sorority. The process is called ‘rushing’ and in order to apply you have to have a GPA (grade point average) of about 3.2 which is about a B I think, so first of all you have to be smart enough. You then have to take part in the recruitment process; I’m not exactly sure what it entails but it results in the various sororities voting for whether or not they want you. Now I don’t mean to cause any offence to my American readers as I understand this is a long and established part of your College life and history but to me, there just seems to be so many things morally wrong with this. People vote for you? You are effectively being judged on whether or not you are pretty or cool enough to be part of their ‘club’. Surely this isn’t the way to instil a great amount of confidence into those new College Freshman?

To add insult to injury none of the sorority members I spoke to could understand me when I told them my name and I would have to repeat it with an American accent; “No my name’s Maoolly”, “Ohh Maoollyy, why didn’t you just say so?!” infuriating I know! Anyways, it was an interesting experience but needless to say we didn’t rush and we didn’t join a sorority. Sorry!