On the Road to Guernsey

As I write this, I am currently sitting on The Airline bus service from Oxford to Gatwick. I've still got at least an hour to go, but the scenery is super pretty, especially to a Californian who is used to seeing signs EVERYWHERE you turn. It's so nice to see actual trees everywhere.

I finished my first class of the Oxford semester last night at midnight when I finally finished writing my reflective journal entries. It was a three week lecture series called British History and Culture. Every day we'd walk a little more than 2 miles to class and then hear different lectures on topics deemed essential to British history and culture. While I enjoyed the class and getting to see everyone from GMU and APU every day, I am also looking forward to what the next set of classes brings with tutorials. I feel pretty good about this semester after ending the lecture series on a great note. We were supposed to make a 7-8 minute presentation on some element of British History and Culture. Being the econ nerd that I am, I decided to do it on the economic causation of the Industrial Revolution. No, people, it's not a loss of trees (there's still plenty of trees) or a magical increase in crops which left people with too much time so they invented more ways to do work, i argued that the IR was due to high wages, plentiful resources, and a demand for the technology. But, we don't need to get into that at the moment. :) We were encouraged to read our papers for our presentation and not ad-lib (americans are not as good at public speaking as we would like to think we are- I would agree). I got up there and started to read my paper. Quickly I realized, "No one is going to understand my paper- there's too much jargon." I believe my next thought was "screw it! I'm ad-libbing," but it worked out well. After every term, I tried to explain what it meant in a way that was easier to understand. I was definitely nervous, but I consider it a great mark of speaking success that people who have no basis of understanding for an economics topic where able to understand what I was presenting. All in all, I'm ecstatic it went so well. :)

Which leaves me free to go on to my next topic! I am currently on a bus going to Gatwick to take a plane to go to Guernsey. For those who don't know, Guernsey is one of the Channel Islands which my mom's side of the family is able to trace their lineage directly back. When I found out I was going to England, I googled Guernsey to see where it was. Ill be perfectly honest- i thought it was a county and that I was going to hop on a bus, take a picture of a cow, and come back having performed my familial duties. Come to find out it is this cute little island resort town! So, I am going for five days to meet some distant relatives, see the sites, do some Christmas shopping for that side of the family, and have time to relax and process the past three weeks. There's already so much to think about.

One of the things, that really has nothing to do with this post other than it's something that I've been thinking about lately is free time. In England, or at least the places I have been, most everything closes around 5pm. For an American, this can be torturous some times. Half of my day happens after 5. :) I've been making a point to go for walks in the park behind my house almost every day; walking after 5pm has become one of my favorite things to do. Because nothing is open and the weather is still nice, people flock to the park! There are blokes (such a fun word!) playing football (soccer), women pushing strollers chatting with their friends, kids on the playground, old women sitting on benches,people riding home from work on their bikes, kids learning to roller blade, etc. One of the favorite things I have seen though is how many fathers are out with their children at the park! I have seen at least 2 every day. They play with their kids on the playground or teach them how to ride a bike. Whatever they are doing, they are present and I LOVE seeing that. I feel like that is one of the main things we miss out on in the States. Because there is always something to do, to distract us, people are distracted from their families. Having everything close early makes it so people are concsious of the time they have their families. I think seeing the dads playing with their kids will continue to be one of my favorite daily sights.

I've also been thinking about the harm of too much free time. There is a clear converse to the increased family time. Everything closes around 5pm- except the pubs and the bars. Now, there's nothing wrong with going to the pub and hanging out with your friends- I've done it plenty of times. But it creates a cultural expectation that there is nothing to do at night besides drink. I'm coming to believe it too. I have a hard time thinking what else could be done with a group besides going out and drinking. It's a hard balance- one that I'm not sure there is an answer to. But it's definitely something that has been on my heart for the past week.

I'm off to enjoy a relaxing travel break in Guernsey. Hope you all have a great week! :)