To Kindle, or Not To Kindle...?

I had an exciting moment the other day when I received an email from Amazon advertising a new Kindle for $79!!! $79!!!! That’s about £50 at the current exchange rate and on English Amazon the same kindle is being sold for £90! BARGAIN ALERT.  Now the inner shopaholic in me very nearly instantly bought it without any question due to the obvious value for money. But I refrained, suddenly unsure as to whether or not I actually want a Kindle. So I did what any confused 19 year old girl would do... I bbm-ed Mummy! Hoping to receive a simple yes or no answer I was horrified when she told me to write a classic pros and cons list. So here it is:

Pros	Cons
Cheaper e-books	I’m a cheap skate who only buys second hand books off Amazon anyways
Can bring any books I need in America back to England	Could save the money and post them back
Can make digital notes if I get a keyboard one	Not the same as scribbling in margins and folding down pages
Can take hundreds of books on holiday with me and can switch if/when I get bored	Choice always causes a problem
Small, and easy to hold when tired and lazy	I want a library! And not one on my computer!

So... although it’s looking pretty equal I think my Cons side weighs down heavier.

I love the concept of a kindle, the ease and pure brilliance of it, but you just can’t beat a proper good old fashioned book. Especially those found in cute charity shops and offline which have some other unknown person’s name scribbled in the front and have that old musty smell about them! I’m pretty sure Kindles won’t have the yummy book smell... I should add that to the cons list.

I’ve still got another 8 months in America though to make use of the exchange rate so who knows, I could still be persuaded...

Almost Fall-ing Over

While walking to class the other day I slipped slightly and, luckily, managed to regain my balance and somehow retain my composure before making an utter fool of myself. When glancing back to see what had almost caused me complete embarrassment in front of hundreds of other students, I noticed that it was just wet leaves on the path. That's right, leaves. I looked up. The trees were shedding their leaves and those remaining were beginning to turn the fiery reds and oranges so famous in New England pictures. It’s official. 'Fall' has arrived. And I discovered it by nearly falling over... well actually I may have slightly made that up for the beautiful irony of it but you’ve got to give me a bit of creative license I’m an English student! 

One thing I did find strange is how suddenly I noticed the change in my surroundings. It must have been going on for the past few weeks or so but I’ve been completely unaware of the natural changes that have been happening around me. Cheesy moment alert: it's funny how we can walk through even the most beautiful places as part of our daily routine and just become completely oblivious to them. What should have given it away was the new decorative addition to my dining hall....

WORLD’S BIGGEST PUMPKIN EVER!!! Cool huh?! Sadly it didn't turn into a beautiful carriage and I have yet to be swept away to a wonderful ball where I meet my handsome Prince; but it's still there so I have hope!

Anyways I’ll keep you posted with some more pictures... 

New Adventures

My feet hurt. My feet hurt a lot! The reason behind this is that today I spent 7 hours shopping at the mall. Yes, you did read that correctly: seven whole hours! It was amazing! My bankcard may think otherwise. I will however justify myself that while all you English readers are sunning yourselves in this strange heat wave, the temperature here is now starting to turn and so we are preparing ourselves for the oncoming winter. So I have bought jumpers*, a lovely new winter coat, long sleeve tops and plenty of cardigans to keep me snug-as-a-bug-in-a-rug. New clothes make me happy. Especially cheap new clothes!

Emily,  Rachel and Me all laden down with bags of shopping!
(note the Sale bag! What's important is how much we saved, not how much we spent!!!)

Today however was also the day that a friend from England, also on exchange flew home to England. She had come to the conclusion that UCONN was just not for her. When she told me that she’d booked her flight back to England I had to say I was jealous, not least because you’re having a heat wave! I don’t want to give anyone the impression I’m not enjoying myself here because that would be ridiculous and untrue, but I am starting to miss England a lot and my appreciation of everything British has definitely increased dramatically since being here.

What I keep thinking though is how much I've done in the few weeks that I've been here. My mall trip was just one of many exciting new things that I’ve experienced: I have been to see Cirque du Soleil; I have tried Beef Jerky; I’ve tried Jolly Ranchers, a ridiculously sweet, and sugary sweet**; I’ve handed in my first ‘paper’; I’ve been to a frat party; I’ve had a giant pretzel (so freakin’ good!!!); I’ve eaten corn fritters, don’t ask because I still don’t know what it is! Basically, I’ve done a lot and I’ve only been here six weeks!

While I’m definitely counting down the days until I’m back in England I’m still so excited by all the new things that I’m going to get to do over the next year. If that’s what I’ve done in 6 weeks then the list after a year is going to be crazyyy! Next week the boyfriend arrives (here you go Nick, you’ve got a mention!) and with him comes another trip to New York and a weekend in Boston so already I have a few new things planned to see and do. Also, due to the fact that he is basically a little puppy who needs walking every day, I will no doubt be dragged out into the cold and rain to explore the Connecticut countryside... yay... Jokes I can’t wait J

* Sweater

**Candy

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...