And I'm off! I'm leaving England today to embark on my last European adventures before returning home to California. I'm headed first to Sweden, to stay with a family friend on a farm about 2 hours north of Stockholm and celebrate Midsummer this weekend in true Swedish style. Then I'm going to Berlin for a few days, then to the German university town of Gottingen to stay with a friend from high school. From Germany I'll go to Brussels for a few days before taking the train to Paris to meet up with a friend from Michigan who is currently working in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia but is taking her vacation in France. Then I'll come back to London for one last night to catch my flight from Heathrow and fly back to San Francisco! It's been a difficult few weeks trying to wrap everything up here and say goodbye to the places and people I've grown to love so much. Leaving someplace is always difficult for me, and I'm juggling the feelings of being so sad to go but excited about the next part of my life and so glad to have had this opportunity. I'll try to get in a post or two about my travels before I finish off this blog for good and hand it off to next year's Fellow. A la prochaine...
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Jubilee Weekend
Happy Jubilee! Apologies for not posting in so long. I have finally finished up exams and have been trying to pack in all the last touristy things I've wanted to do before I leave. I'll do a post shortly on all the fun little day trips and London things I've done, but first a bit about the Jubilee and finishing up at UCL.
This weekend was/is, of course, the Queen's Jubilee (Monday and Tuesday are bank holidays). London is decked out with impressive amounts of bunting, Union Jacks, and signs thanking the queen for her years of service. Pret, the take-away sandwich chain that is more ubiquitous than Starbucks, has signs in front of each shop saying "Keep It Clean for the Queen", and many buildings have displayed giant signs saying "Congratulations" or "Thank You, Your Majesty". On Sunday, I went with a friend to try to watch the flotilla on the Thames but due to the crushing amount of people we were only able to watch on the giant viewing screens. It was amazing seeing London packed with so many people, though it made me very glad that I'll no longer be here for the Olympics. We tried to get on the tube at Leicester Square and there were queues to even get into the station - I can't imagine how difficult it will be to get anywhere in July and August! Today I'm hoping to catch a glimpse of the carriage procession of all the royals as they follow a route through central London from Westminster to Buckingham Palace. I'll be sure to post pictures if I get close enough to actually see anything.
I am now officially done with my time at UCL, having finished up my last final (though technically the term doesn't end until this Friday). Exams here are very different to how we do them in the US - all the exams here take place during term 3 (May 1 - June 9th) and include exams for all the classes you take throughout the year (including the ones that ended in December). It's different for science and engineering courses, but all my exams here were 3-hour essay exams. Luckily you get a choice for every single question (the exam may consist of 4 questions, for example, but for each of those you have a choice of maybe 3-5 various questions), but 3 hours is a long time to continuously write without any breaks. I have no idea how I've done on my exams either, as every piece of work (exam or coursework essay) that you submit at UCL has to be graded by both a first marker or examiner at UCL, and then also a second marker outside of UCL who ensures the grades given by the UCL markers are fair and consistent with other schools. It's a very complicated process, as is taking the exams themselves. All students are provided with candidate number cards, which you write on your exam instead of your name (everything is graded anonymously). Exams are scheduled in a variety of locations all around London and each exam hall normally includes people taking several different exams at once. My tutor (professor) was present at only 1 of the 4 exams I took - each exam is run by "invigilators" who read the rules out and escort students to the bathroom, etc... It's very much like taking the SAT or another standardized test. Especially given the length of normal UK exams, I would imagine British students would be excellent at the SAT!
More on day trips and touristy London things later - and hopefully some photos of royal carriages!
This weekend was/is, of course, the Queen's Jubilee (Monday and Tuesday are bank holidays). London is decked out with impressive amounts of bunting, Union Jacks, and signs thanking the queen for her years of service. Pret, the take-away sandwich chain that is more ubiquitous than Starbucks, has signs in front of each shop saying "Keep It Clean for the Queen", and many buildings have displayed giant signs saying "Congratulations" or "Thank You, Your Majesty". On Sunday, I went with a friend to try to watch the flotilla on the Thames but due to the crushing amount of people we were only able to watch on the giant viewing screens. It was amazing seeing London packed with so many people, though it made me very glad that I'll no longer be here for the Olympics. We tried to get on the tube at Leicester Square and there were queues to even get into the station - I can't imagine how difficult it will be to get anywhere in July and August! Today I'm hoping to catch a glimpse of the carriage procession of all the royals as they follow a route through central London from Westminster to Buckingham Palace. I'll be sure to post pictures if I get close enough to actually see anything.
I am now officially done with my time at UCL, having finished up my last final (though technically the term doesn't end until this Friday). Exams here are very different to how we do them in the US - all the exams here take place during term 3 (May 1 - June 9th) and include exams for all the classes you take throughout the year (including the ones that ended in December). It's different for science and engineering courses, but all my exams here were 3-hour essay exams. Luckily you get a choice for every single question (the exam may consist of 4 questions, for example, but for each of those you have a choice of maybe 3-5 various questions), but 3 hours is a long time to continuously write without any breaks. I have no idea how I've done on my exams either, as every piece of work (exam or coursework essay) that you submit at UCL has to be graded by both a first marker or examiner at UCL, and then also a second marker outside of UCL who ensures the grades given by the UCL markers are fair and consistent with other schools. It's a very complicated process, as is taking the exams themselves. All students are provided with candidate number cards, which you write on your exam instead of your name (everything is graded anonymously). Exams are scheduled in a variety of locations all around London and each exam hall normally includes people taking several different exams at once. My tutor (professor) was present at only 1 of the 4 exams I took - each exam is run by "invigilators" who read the rules out and escort students to the bathroom, etc... It's very much like taking the SAT or another standardized test. Especially given the length of normal UK exams, I would imagine British students would be excellent at the SAT!
More on day trips and touristy London things later - and hopefully some photos of royal carriages!
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