an american in manchester

[guingel]

Paris, Manchester - same thing, right? Actually, my sister was in Paris when I was in Manchester. Twin!Katie, if you recall. It was sort of sad and funny. Cos I love Manchester, and it's a great place to be a student and I had a really good time there and it's lots of fun. But. . . it's wet and ugly and Victorian and industrial. And Paris is incredibly beautiful. We said that for Katie, who stayed in a homestay and had really annoying people in her program, the study abroad experience was about the place, the city, the country, the language. Whereas for me, who was in dorms and got to befriend a lot of locals and internationals from other places, but wasn't in that much of a different cultural milieu (haha, I love saying that. I bet I say it too much), the study abroad experience was about the people - and what they taught me about the places.

So, I spent all last year at the University of Manchester. I loved it.

I'm pretty shy, and the social scene in England is just so much easier for me. It's more complicated than it sounds - there are a lot of reasons why. One of the simplest is just that it's easier for me to make conversation. People are pretty much always interested when I say I'm from New York. And I have an accent, which I love. (even here I sometimes fake a regional accent - which is silly, cos it's a Long Island accent and they are in no way attractive.) There's always some ice-breaker stuff, no need for awkward silence, I'm automatically impressive and interesting.

But I think also, like, going out, going clubbing - it felt more laid back than it does here. I don't know if it's because here, going out has been something that's been forbidden to me for a long time, so it has a more intense feel. Or because their social system and "coolness" and everything are different, so there's less social pressure. I'm not sure. Maybe it was just my friends.

Actually, the whole social system was a really interesting thing. Like, I could be good friends with people that I would not be here - people sort of "cooler" than I. And that's not to say that I could be friends with everyone, there were certainly girls and boys that made me think of the japs and jocks at my high school and stuff. But, like, my best friend was ridiculously hot and cool and popular (SO HOT. When I was friends with him eventually I got used to it and he just looked like himself but now when I look at pictures again I'm like FUCK. Of course, I'm also like "aww, I miss you!" I don't have any really great pictures of him uploaded on my website but here he is in my plaid shirt. In my room. ::sniffle:: Which is whoa not as nice as my room now which I adore but still. I guess that room was a big part of a major experience. Also everyone else had little cells and my room was like, twice as large!) Anyway, I got off-topic there but basically Greg was really cool and I often had a hard time believing that he was my best friend except that he had said so himself and he would do crafts with me and go on goofy grocery trips to Lidl (BEST STORE EVER) and stuff like that. Even though classes are less mobile there because they're actually based on birth and not wealth, which was interesting to see, social status seems to be much looser. Although I am aware that I really lucked out with the people in my building and I could have lived somewhere else - even just the building next door - and had a very different experience.

Also, back to the "socializing was easier," I felt like I could get away with being more outgoing, cos once people knew I was American, they'd expect it. Whereas here I'm like "I'm not sure how I should really be behaving in this situation, exactly. . ." but there I knew I had a get out of jail free card.

Even though there were definitely times when I felt out of place and missed my quieter friends from home. Although now that I'm here we're all really busy ::sigh:: It's ok, though. Things are coming into place and we're all working out ways to see each other. In fact, I just spent the evening with my two best friends in the house, and my best friend in the house's boyfriend. That's an awkward possessive. Anyway, we watched Singing in the Rain and it was awesome and part way through I craved cake so we went to Stop and Shop and I sneakily did all my grocery shopping (all my meals are provided so it was very minimal shopping) while we had aforementioned boyfriend's car. Ahhh, I got fruit snacks! A variety pack with Fruit Roll Ups, Gushers, and Fruit by the Foot! We never got them when I was little so now I love them. But, yeah. . . Manchester. Sometimes I wanted to be with people for whom only watching a movie and hanging out on a Friday night is not a wasted Friday night. People who could watch geeky TV with me and play geeky games and stuff.

But, it was still an incredible and really, really positive experience. I was also really, really happy to get to experience I different kind of university life. To get to be in a co-ed, urban setting with much, MUCH less work than I get here, all that. I'm really glad I got to do that. It almost feels like I got to go to college twice. I actually feel strangely smug about the whole thing, the study abroad experience. Cos it worked out so well and I had such a good time and got so much out of it. I feel lucky, and just totally smug. XD Except that now I really miss having a sink in my bedroom. That was so sweet!!

This wasn't a comprehensive review of my thoughts and experiences or whatever - among other things, Manchester seriously made me glad I'm going to school in the American system. It actually in general made me appreciate America more than I had. But, yeah - social scene = easier.

OK, I have to write a paper this weekend about Spanish conquest of the Yucatan peninsula. Not cool. In many senses.

Comments

[floria-del-guiz.livejournal.com]

Years abroad are indeed made of epic WIN. :D

It's really interesting to hear some of your thoughts about the UK social scene, though. I mean, I always found it was a lot easier to make friends and go out at university than it ever was at any other time in my life, but I wouldn't have attributed it to the social system. I always figured it was because the sorts of people who go to university are generally a lot more opened-minded.

Is it very different in America?

And I totally get the part about having an accent as an ice-breaker. Everytime I spoke to someone in Köln they were suddenly fascinated by this English person blathering away in German. XD

[guingel.livejournal.com]

I think that a different person would probably have noticed less differences between the UK and US social scene. It certainly was very different for me - and extremely different from Smith. That's a big difference between the two, we just have so many more universities. I mean, the phrase "small liberal arts college" means nothing there but here it's an entire genre of universities that includes basically all the ones I considered applying to. So here you have "party schools" and. . . "not party schools," so while you can lead a quiet social life at a party school, and can go out and have a good time at one that is not, the divide is a bit more rigid - and the divide between the preferences of the students is a bit more rigid. Like, you get both extremes in both places, people that go out all the time and people that never go out, but here I think there are more people in the two extremes than there are in the UK.

It was certainly very different for me. Like, I don't go to a party school, but if I had I wouldn't have wanted to go out. Although I don't really know what the scene is like here, I think things were generally much more relaxed there. The drinking culture is totally different, too.

But, if I had been someone who went out all the time in the US, I would have had a very different experience of the English social scene.

As to making friends, I think that there's more institutional support here for making friends, especially at Smith. First years are really encouraged to do a lot together and stuff, whereas in Manchester I only made friends in my halls, because we all sort of went into the common areas ourselves and met each other. Also, I think making friends with sort of different social backgrounds in high school goes back to the different types of university, maybe. I don't know what it's like at large universities in America, but again, with all the choices, different universities have different types of students and different intellectual levels. So here at Smith, there are so few girls who were "popular" in high school (cos those girls don't go to all-women's colleges, even if we used to be all white gloves and pearls in the old days) so those that do cling to each other a lot, I think. I don't know. XD

Hehe, I was wondering how that would be in other countries - i think I'd just be that American whose German is total crap so she sounds like a moron. But there did seem to be a certain amount of surprise from the international students when any of the native English speakers studied their language. It was like "What? You're American? But you know other languages?"

::sigh:: I miss having an accent. I was just talking with my friends about how I totally don't have a Long Island accent at all and how cool it would be if I did have it even though they're horrible and make you sound like a moron. I'd be all "Let's go to the mawl and get cawfee!" (mall, coffee)

[floria-del-guiz.livejournal.com]

Heh. I maintain I don't have an accent myself, but since coming to Woventry, people on my course keep telling me I sound really posh. This gets somewhat irritating. ¬_¬

I've noticed that Europeans are always more surprised by Americans speaking Foreign than they are by Brits. However, if you really want to freak someone out by speaking their language, go to Japan. >:D I swear, I nearly made this little old lady's eyes fall out of her head... XD