U Nott

I knew that, coming to England, I had to see Nottingham at some point. I’ve loved the Robin Hood story since I was tiny and saw the Disney version with foxes. Well, I ran out of money, so a day trip was out of the question. I still managed to make it, however. This week was an optional field trip to the University of Nottingham.

For the most part this was an average campus tour, which was kind of surreal as I had hoped never to have to tour a campus again in my life. However, the interesting part was to compare the British educational system to the US.

It was little things, like their undergraduate programs are designed to take three years (I’m jealous) and they are only given the equivalent of our meal plans in their first years (not so jealous). For them, turning in term papers is a much bigger deal (there is no emailing it to a professor before class. You turn it in at least three times, fill out forms, stand in line etc.) and we got to count the students sprinting to turn it in on time. The library required a swipe just to get in and out.

 The campus was really large and pretty. Apparently its setup it very unusual in the UK, but I don’t have very much to compare it to.

They also get a lake.

 This is kind of like seeing Sherwood, right?

Afterwards we visited an exhibition on campus of the works of L.S. Lowry. I thought the show was really interesting. He was interested in a lot of different subject matter, but it was all really variations on one theme.

Obviously I could not take pictures in the gallery, but here’s some google’d ones so you know what I’m talking about.

 

Our bus was rather late getting back, so a few were rushing to get in their own term papers. My two big ones for this semester are done (Shakespeare and British Studies) and it’s a big relief.

Staying home this weekend, but I’m betting there will still be good stories to tell. Costume ball time~ See you then!